I've brought my 2025 album up to mid-August now (except for a double page where I need photos from my husband) and I've released a few supplies by completing the pages for a 2022 holiday in Yorkshire, so I finally feel free to start work on the album for our most recent cruise. This was twelve nights to Norway on P&O's Aurora, their smallest ship, visiting six ports. We've been to Norway several times before, but this itinerary interested us as four ports were completely new to us and one we hadn't visited since 2009.
I generally build a kit for my holiday albums, and this one started from Simple Stories' Happy Travels collection; I have the collection pack, 6x8 pad and enamel dots. Simple Stories tend to keep the same colours across their collections, so I also have the 6x8 pad from Summer Snapshots for more non-travel patterns to mix with it.
Also on a travel theme, I have the Out and About 2025 collection from a new UK company called Alchemy Hearts; they print in A4 and A5 paper sizes and I have the A4 version. It's a different style from Simple Stories but the colours are close and I hope I can make the two work together. Another new purchase was three sheets from Photoplay's Anchors Aweigh collection which is cruised themed. I particularly like the hexagon print which I think will lead to me using that shape across the album, as I have a set of dies, some ancient nesting chipboard shapes, a small hexagon stamp, two stencils and various cut-files.
I returned to Simple Stories to pull in the remnants of two older collections - Safe Travels and Hello Today. Safe Travels is down to one sheet plus scraps and a few die-cuts so it will be good to use that up if I can. The 'A' sides of Hello Today are themed by month, but I am intending to use the 'B' side patterns instead. Not all the papers match perfectly but a lot of them will work, at least in small amounts.
I've also added the remains of Pink Paislee's Atlas collection which I used for my 2016 Austrian album; the original pad had 48 sheets and I still have a significant amount left along with some insta-cards, tags and enamel geotags. I don't like all of the patterns but the plainer sheets could be useful.
So far, I only have twelve 12x12 sheets from Happy Travels and a handful left in the other collections, so I turned to my stash for some more. I've pulled quite a few from various manufacturers (including more Simple Stories, My Mind's Eye, Heidi Swapp, Pinkfresh Studio, Crate Paper and Basic Grey) but I'm torn between using some of these as my backgrounds or just going for plain white cardstock with stamping and stencilling. I'll find out what I'm drawn to as I go along and I may reject some of these later on.
In terms of embellishment, the Happy Travels collection pack has a 12x12 sticker sheet as does Hello Today (though I'm not sure how much of it will be useful). I've added the remains of Pinkfresh Studio's Out and About sticker sheet and an old one from Jillibean Soup where I'm drawn to the orange pieces. I have some Project Life cards with the same camera motif in different sizes and colours which I plan to cut up and spread around as a repeating motif. The acetate filmstrips from 49 and Market are also something I can repeat. I have two packs of October Afternoon tidbits and some Pretty Little Studio confetti mix, all of which I would love to use up.
Going smaller, I have sticker stitching from Pretty Little Studio; arrows and geotags in various colours from Studio Calico, 49 and Market, and American Crafts; puffy stars from Bella Boulevard; puffy words from Rosie's Studio; a travel words sheet from Bramble Fox; the remains of some words and phrases from Pinkfresh Studio's Tourist Mode which I used for our 2023 cruise. I will add more enamel dots to these as I go along.
I haven't photographed my tools, but I have travel-themed stamps and stencils, tile letter stamps, hexagon stencils as mentioned above, plus shape punches and dies, all of which I can repeat. I can also use stamps, dies and my Silhouette for titles.
I have a few sheets of co-ordinating cardstock too (not pictured) and will pull in more as I go along for things like photo mats. One glaring omission is the lack of letter stickers in this kit. I haven't bought any new ones for this album so I will be pulling them from my stash as I go along and once I do use a set I will add it to the kit to use again. I'll also pick my washi tapes later and add them to the box once I get started.
I'll mostly be sharing the pages that I make in batches for each port as I did before for my Mediterranean album. That worked for me as it forced me to make any 'difficult' pages as I went along rather than leaving them all to the end. However it will also mean that my blog goes quiet, with longer spaces between posts.
