Last post for my cruise album, and it's finally time for the title page. Sometimes I make these first if I have a clear idea, but often I leave them until last which gives me time to think them over, and an opportunity to include pieces that I want to be in the album but haven't used elsewhere.
I started with the cut-file, making it the width of the page, and cutting an offset to back and frame it. I then printed photos of our six ports of call and cut them into hexagons as that has been a repeating shape in the album. However, getting the large title and the hexagons to fit nicely together was tricky. I arranged and rearranged them on the page until I hit on the positions below, filling the gaps in the middle with larger paper hexagons rather than trying to stick with one size. I then tucked a few smaller ones in around the edges to break up the uniformity.
There's been one page that's been bugging me since I made it, one that I'm not happy with, and that was the page I made for Badness, a Madness tribute band which was one of our guest acts on board. I liked the background ink and the central design, but not the line of hexagons so I removed them. They came off cleanly on the right but left some sticky marks on the left of the page which I covered up, and then added some extra pieces at the bottom right to try to balance them. It's not how I would have made it otherwise but I'm happier now.
As I've previously mentioned, I've ended up with an odd number of pages in my album, so I've been through my photos and decided to make an extra one for the silent disco that was held onboard one evening. My page design was driven by the papers I have left, which included two papers from my 6x8 pad and a few tags. I didn't think I would use the cassette sticker from this collection, but it found a home here.
One final task was the title card for the window in front cover. I don't have the album yet (it's in the post) so I've based the title on a 4x6 card which I will trim down to a square when I receive it.
I've also been through the album to see if any of the pages felt like they were unfinished, a bit bare or had something missing. This included adding the dates to each port's subtitle page as I didn't manage to include a full itinerary on either my title page or my ship page. I've also squeezed in a few of my leftover stickers where I could.
So, it's all done, and time for a moment's reflection. I've only used a subset of the supplies that I originally gathered. My decision to use white cardstock backgrounds for all my paged rendered most of the 12x12 sheets surplus to requirements and I've only used three of them I think. Never mind, they came from my stash and will go back to my stash. I barely touched the remnants of Simple Stories Hello Today and Pink Paislee Atlas, which I have already repurposed for another project. I've also used far fewer of the embellishments than I intended, though I used almost all the enamel dots (and pulled out some more). My biggest 'mistake' was to buy the Alchemy Hearts Out and About 2025 collection, as I found the style and colours just didn't work with Simple Stories Happy Travels. However, I like the patterns and it is good, sturdy cardstock so I am sure I will put them to good use elsewhere.
Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels; Letters - Simple Stories, Tim Holtz; Numbers - Doodlebug; Stickers - Simple Stories, Pretty Little Studio, 7Gypsies; Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, 49 and Market, My Mind's Eye
Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.
