Narrow Boats, Wide Skies

I had a clear plan for the pages I wanted to make from our canal holiday in July, and it always included a double to sum up our day-to-day life on the water. I even decided on its title ages ago, back when we were still on the boat, we passed a narrow boat that is used for retreats and meditation, and painted on the side were the words "narrow boats, wide eyes, open minds..." I liked the sentiment and snapped a quick photo so that I wouldn't forget it; I particularly liked the contrast of narrow and wide, and pondered on that until I came up with my own version.

I do like to use a sketch for double pages, and I found this one on Google images, though it was too small to read the source. A reverse image search came up trumps, taking me to a larger version and the blog of Cheryl Even who originally published it back in 2012. I had a play around with the number and sizes of the photos, but the basic design is all hers.

It's a photo-heavy spread - I have fifteen pictures on the page - so I didn't leave myself a lot of room for journalling. I've captioned the larger photos and added a list of our route at the bottom, leaving the photos to tell most of the story.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss
Paper - Basic Grey What's Up, Basic Grey Granola, Crate Paper Prudence
Letters - American Crafts, Making Memories
Washi Tape - Quirky Kits
Brads - My Mind's Eye
Gems - Scrapberry's
Ink - Docrafts

Up the Junction

This is another page from our canal holiday earlier this year, and the junction of the title is Hawkesbury Junction where the Oxford Canal meets the Coventry Canal. It's awkward to navigate, with a lock, a 90° turn under a bridge and another 90° turn before you line the boat up to go through a very narrow passage. 

I printed six photos of our progress through the junction, out and back, and scraplifted an old six-photo page, Zip It. My photos were larger this time, and I didn't leave myself any space for journalling, so I turned the photo mat on the right into a pocket and tucked a long piece of paper in there, adding the word Details to the top with tiny letter stickers.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss
Paper - Basic Grey What's Up, Basic Grey Capella, My Mind's Eye Now & Then
Letters - Trimcraft, Prima, KaiserCraft
Flair - Imagine That
Puffy Stickers - Fancy Pants
Washi Tape - Quirky Kits
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
X-Cut Circle Punch

"Presents" Birthday Card

I've had a sheet of presents stickers sitting untouched in my stash for far too long, so I've recently been keeping an eye out for card sketches where I can use a few. This one from Sketch-n-Scrap was posted earlier this month and the little owl was easily replaced with a row of presents. 

The stickers are translucent so I stuck them to a scrap of white card and fussy cut around them. This also made it easier to play around with their positioning on the circles and  I raised the green ones up on foam pads for a bit of dimension as I assembled the card.

Year 11

I have lots of holiday photographs to scrapbook from two weeks away this summer, but sometimes sorting through the number of pictures that I take on holiday and choosing which ones to scrap can be overwhelming.

I've taken an easier option by making this page instead, using a single photo because that's all I have. My daughter's school take formal photos of all the pupils in Year 7 (age 11 when they start at the school) and Year 11 (age 16 just before some of them leave) and, as the title says, this is her Year 11 photo.

I picked the 1 September sketch from Stuck?! Sketches and used the free 'Sketchy Circles' cut file from Scrapbook and Cards Today for the circles.

The 'done, done & done' die-cut fitted with the theme of finishing school, and I matted it on a darker one which used the US spelling of colour. I'd have liked something similar for the title cluster, but the pack didn't have anything suitable. It did have a days of the week piece that was too big so I copied that idea with letter stickers for weekdays.

Supplies
Paper - Dear Lizzy Serendipity, My Mind's Eye Now & Then, Tim Holtz Distressables, Glitz Design, KaiserCraft
Letters - October Afternoon, Dear Lizzy
Die Cuts - Simple Stories Carpe Diem
Puffy Stickers - Paperchase, Fancy Pants
Star Paprclip - Freckled Fawn
Flair - Imagine That
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Ink & Mist - Dovecraft

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & Sketchy Circles Cut File from SCT (available here)

Take a Seat

This is the third page from our canal holiday in July, with photos of my daughter relaxing around the boat. I think I have one page left to do now, a double with various views of the canal and our boat-handling, but that will have to wait until I have the photos printed.

I picked Sketch #112 from Sketch N Scrap for my page, and for once I didn't change the number of photos. However I did reduce the width of the paper strips across the page, and play with the layers behind the photos to try and match the feel of the previous pages I've made.

I'm also linking with Rochelle Spears' This or That Challenge where she has asked us to use enamel shapes OR puffy stickers (but not both). I have both in my kit for these holiday pages, but used only enamel shapes here.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss
Paper - Basic Grey What's Up, Basic Grey Capella, Crate Paper Prudence
Letters - Trimcraft
Label Sticker - Crate Paper
Washi Tape - Teresa Collins, Quirky Kits
Brads - My Mind's Eye
Enamel Shapes - Marianne Design, Doodlebug, Echo Park
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer
Ink - Ranger

A Week With Wild Sorrel

Wild Sorrel was the narrowboat that we hired for a week's holiday back in July. The scrapbook pages that I make for that holiday will be part of my annual 2016 album so I am using a kit of papers for all the pages so that they make a distinctive sub-section of the album.

I used the very first Turtle Crafts sketch for my page, but flipped it horizontally to suit the orientation of my main photo. I also squeezed in three smaller photos by extending the paper pieces on the right of the sketch/left of my page and moving my main photo across the page a bit. 

I'm also linking up with Shimelle's current weekly challenge where she has asked us to use floral motifs; I used a floral paper for the vertical strip, and fussy cut a flower from the same paper to go in the embellishment cluster on the right.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss
Paper - Basic Grey What's Up, Basic Grey Granola, Basic Grey Capella, Crate Paper Prudence
Letters - Making Memories, Authentique
Flair - Imagine That
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Washi Tape - Quirky Kits
Label Sticker - My Mind's Eye
Puffy Stickers - Paperchase
Enamel Shapes - Shimelle True Stories
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools
X-Cut Circle Punch

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt - In Austria

Every year I try to do as much of Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt as possible while we are on holiday, especially when we are in another country.

We spent last week in Austria, in an area east of Salzburg called the Salzkammergut, or Austria's Lake District. It's stunningly beautiful and this was our second visit to the area, having been there two years ago.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to find all 21 items in just a week, but I gave it my best shot (and interpreted one or two of the items rather loosely):

2. A footprint or pawprint
Footprints after the antics in number 9 

3. A skeleton, bone or x-ray
A skull in a shop selling antiques and curiosities.

5. A porch or deck
Or maybe a balcony?

7. A family gathering
The family gathered at the top of Schafberg.

8. A drawing, art project, artistic photograph, scrapbook page, greeting card, or art journal page created by you
My travel notebook, which I decorated a few months back and where I jotted down notes and information before this trip.

9. Someone playing with, in or around water
My daughter and me, tubing on Wolfgangsee

10. A bicycle
Advertising in St Wolfgang

11. Fresh produce
A market stall in Salzburg

12. A window
Framing the view from our hotel room

14. A buffet of food
Breakfast

16. A map showing a trip taken during the time period
Our walking route from the top of Schafberg (see number 7) back to our hotel in St Gilgen (tracked via Map My Walk).

19. A seasonal cocktail or beverage
Raspberry lemonade on the balcony.

So that's 12 of 21 found in Austria, though many of them are repeats of earlier finds and some of these won't make the final cut at the end of the hunt. All in all, I've found 17 of 21 and one of the alternatives. I know where to find the twins (friends of my daughter) and I'm saving the self-portrait for the end, along with a scrapbook page (instead of the notebook). I can probably hunt down a camper/caravan, but someone laughing is proving elusive; they tend to stop laughing when I point a camera at them!

The hunt ends with the autumn equinox on 22 September, so just a couple of weeks left to go. Happy hunting!

Taking Turns

Back in July we hired a narrowboat for a week's holiday on the Warwickshire canals. I took more than 200 photos but a lot of them are quite similar so I put off scrapping them until I had a clear idea for how I wanted to approach it. I'm now planning a double page overview plus three singles for more specific groups of photos. 

I want these pages to have a cohesive look so it will be clear to anyone looking through my album that they belong together and cover the same holiday, so I've put a kit together which I will use for all the pages. It's based on Basic Grey's What's Up collection, which is from 2011 but I've just bought some on clearance and I think the pinks, reds and aqua will work with my outdoor photos. I've pulled in papers from several other Basic Grey collections, plus a few papers from My Mind's Eye and I'll use the same dotted Swiss cardstock for all my backgrounds. 

The first page that I've made is a single, from the 1st August sketch at Stuck?! Sketches, with photos of my husband, my daughter and me driving the boat. I've stuck fairly closely to the sketch (apart from changing the number of photos) and even copied the stripey paper running across the page. 

I've used blue and green chalks on my background to add a little colour at the top left and bottom right, but it doesn't show up very well in the photo.

I'd originally pulled out white Thickers, but they don't work against the white background so I've added a few cork and kraft alphas to my kit.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss 

Paper - Basic Grey What's Up, Basic Grey Granola

Letters - Making Memories

Numbers - Kaisercraft

Label Stickers - October Afternoon

Washi Tape - Quirky Kits

Brad - My Mind's Eye

Enamel Dots/Hearts - Shimelle True Stories, Marianne Design

Chalk - Readicut Crafts

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools

X-Cut Circle Punch