Mini-Book Pages from Lisbon

I'm returning to my fly-cruise mini-book now, and will finish it off in the next few posts. This was a seven night cruise last November with four ports of call, and I'm trialling the mini-book format instead of a 12x12 album. I've previously shared the title page and two doubles for Málaga and Gibraltar, so now it's the turn of Lisbon.

The initial view of each double page has been similar, with a 4x6 title card and three other 4x6 photos or cards, which open up to as required to share all the photos I want to include from each port.

For Lisbon, the left side opens as two separate flaps. The top one has photos of the central Praça do Comércio and also Belém (which our son visited); the bottom one has photos of the Elevador de Santa Justa and the Carmo Church (which our daughter visited):

The right side is a large flap, hinged at the top, for photos of the Alfama district, Lisbon's old town.

I made a pocket to sit behind the lower set of photos, which holds a double-sided pull-out card for the Castelo de São Jorge. 

Supplies: Cardstock - Art Studio; Papers - Simple Stories Hello Today, Echo Park Dots & Stripes, Pink Paislee Atlas, Simple Stories Simple Vintage Botanicals, Simple Stories I Am, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart; Letters - Glitz Design, Creative Devotion; Stickers - Simple Stories, Studio Calico, Tim Holtz, Pretty Little Studio; Washi Tape - Ebay, Little B; Enamel Geotag - Pink Paislee

Club Night with AI

I have another page for my 2026 album today, and it's also a DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files. My pictures come from a social night for our running club, where afterwards a member turned the group photo into a drawing using ChatGPT, and then my husband turned us all into Lego people.

I stuck with the Lego theme by using the girl from the Lego Pirate, Girl and Spaceman cut-file as a large embellishment, cutting her from dull brown cardstock and backing her with paper scraps, including making her shirt match our club colour. I didn't trust myself to draw her face, so I used some punctuation stickers instead.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania; Paper - Heidi Swapp Sun Chaser, Heidi Swapp Hello Today; Letters - Shimelle, American Crafts, Papermania; Journalling Cards - Maggie Holmes; Word Stickers - Tim Holtz; Stickers - Studio Calico, Hobbycraft, OneCanoeTwo; Washi Tape - Hobbycraft, Unknown; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

Salt Marsh Half Marathon

My husband's first race of the year was the Saltmarsh Half Marathon, and I went along as support crew, dropping him at the start, pausing twice to see him en route and picking him up at the end.

This page was built around one of the photos I took of a line of runners beside the river, which came out in soft focus and reminded me of a watercolour painting. I decided to print it on plain white cardstock which adds to the softness, and use it in place of patterned paper in the middle of this page. I then layered the before and during photos over the top and the finish photo with a journalling box over the bottom part.

Supplies: Paper - Mintay Golden Days, My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline, Basic Grey Urban Prairie, Shimelle Glitter Girl; Letters - Hip Kit Club, Echo Park?; Die-Cuts - Simple Stories, Pinkfresh Studio, October Afternoon; Enamel Stars - Latech

20 Years of Blitz Gooday

Years ago, I received some swatch books from Paige Evans' collections in a mystery box; these are 2" square books packed with patterns and sayings filling each page. I've been meaning to make a tiled layout ever since but never got round to it. April's sketch from the girls at 1 Sketch: 3 Ways (originally published by Page Maps) finally gave me the push to get it done. 

I picked a photo from our company's 20th anniversary celebrations as it matched the colours in my swatch books, an odd way for me to start but it was curiously satisfying to switch round my normal process.

Supplies: Paper - Paige Evans Truly Grateful, Amy Tangerine Brave + Bold, Shimelle Never Grow Up; Swatches - Paige Evans Wonders, Paige Evans Go the Scenic Route; Letters - Doodlebug; Washi Tape - Shimelle, Little B; Enamel Dots - American Crafts, Stampin' Up!

A Few Birthday Cards

I'm sharing a few cards today, in particular one that I made as a DT project for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files. I used the Chain Circle cut-file shrunk down to about 5.5" across and backed with four papers from a 6x6 pad. I then added another circle in the middle with my sentiment and popped it up on foam squares.

This one was a lift of a previous card, as there's no need to 'reinvent the wheel', a change of papers gives it a different look, and it went to a different recipient.

Finally, this card was based on one of the 'bits and pieces' that I keep in a drawer for making cards. I've had the plaid paper with the sentiment for ages so I tore it in two to stretch it across a wider card and filled in the gap with coordinating pieces. 

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

Mini-Book Pages from Gibraltar

I'm sharing the pages from my cruise mini-book in the order that they come in the book, not the the order that I made them. I rarely make holiday album pages in chronological order so that there is no evolution in style or sudden introduction of new supplies as you turn the pages. I've already shared the pages from Málaga but these from Gibraltar were the first that I made.

Gibraltar was our shortest stop, with the fewest photos, so it seemed like a good place to get started and feel my way with this new size. I will have a double page for each port, with as many flaps and inserts as I need to cover everything in that space. This is the initial view for the Gibraltar pages:

The left side, with my title card and a view from the ship at sea, pulls out from a pocket and unfolds to three panels with photos from our cable car trip up the Rock:

Turning that over gives two more panels, and returns to the title page.

The two photos on the right side both lift up to show more photos. The top one has the town hall and a remembrance-themed postbox topper (we visited in November)

and the bottom part has extra photos of the Alameda Botanic Gardens.

Supplies: Cardstock - Art Studio; Papers - Simple Stories Hello Today, Simple Stories Simple Vintage Botanicals; Letters - Glitz Design; Journalling Cards - Project Life; Stickers - Simple Stories, Studio Calico; Washi Tape - Ebay, Little B; Enamel Geotag - Pink Paislee

Mini-Book Pages from Málaga

We flew out to Málaga for our cruise, and then spent the next day in the town. Each port of call is getting one double page in my mini-album and I've decorated four 4x6 title cards (one per port) which will start off the left side along with a photo of the town each time. I'll then add as many flaps and inserts as I need to accommodate my photos and journalling.

This is the initial view of the Málaga pages:

The left side opens out to show photos of the amphitheatre and the Alcazaba (palace) which we had visited before.

The right side is dedicated to the 14th century Castillo de Gibralfaro which was built on a on a hill above the city in order to protect it (spoiler - it failed in 1487). I had plenty of photos that I wanted to include so this page opens out with two flaps:

Supplies: Cardstock - Art Studio; Papers - Simple Stories Hello Today, Pink Paislee Atlas, American Crafts Shimelle; Letters - Teresa Collins; Journalling Cards - Project Life; Stickers - Simple Stories, Studio Calico, Make & Create, 49 and Market, Teresa Collins; Washi Tape - Ebay, Little B; Enamel Geotag - Pink Paislee