Islands of the Mediterranean

I've finished all the port pages (and a couple of others) from our Mediterranean cruise now so it's time to turn those pages into an album. 

I like to start each port with my sub-title page on the right-hand side of the album so I knew that I would need to 'even up' the pages for any port where I made an odd number of pages, either by making an extra page for the port or by slotting in a page from an onboard event. As it turned out, I made even numbers of pages for seven of the ports and I have a page from the Battle of the Bartenders that can fill the odd space after the eighth. 

Now I can turn my attention to the start of the book. I need an even number of pages before the first port, and I have already made a page from one of our formal nights which can now become page two of the album.

I had three ideas for elements on my title page: using a map print paper and highlighting the area we cruised; using a postcard with a map of our route; using a geotag cut-file to create frames for small photos of some of the places we visited. Ultimately I couldn't combine all three and the postcard got bumped to another page (see below) while I used two different cut-files from Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files here, making this page my DT post today.

Europe is in one corner of my background paper so I framed that using one frame from Polaroids x6. I then covered up the Americas with a simpler paper to split my page into two parts and give me a neutral background for five geotags from Geocache Icons which I backed with photos from our trip. I made a column behind my polaroid for our itinerary and filled in the space below with the year and a ticket cluster.

I often close my cruise albums with a page for our return to the UK port, and that page generally has a pocket to hold our Cruise Log. However, this time we sailed from Newcastle upon Tyne, the port isn't particularly photogenic and I have no photos from our arrival, so my last page is from our last port. I still want to include the Cruise Log so I've made an extra page which also includes my postcard, but I've gone for 8" by 11" and only used one side. The background was a fresh sheet but the pieces I used for the pocket were among my larger scraps.

And finally, I need a title piece for the window on the front of the album. That's around 3.5" square so obviously I used more scraps and leftover stickers. Neither the letters nor the numbers appear in the album, but I was really focusing on their size here. I needed letters small enough to fit the whole word 'Mediterranean' in the width available and then numbers that would fill the remaining space neatly. 

So that's it! Another album finished that can take its place on the shelf.

What's next? I haven't finished the album for our cruise to the Canary Islands in 2021 so I'm going to return to that one. I've enjoyed the process this year of alternating between the Mediterranean album and other pages so I'm going to continue that approach for now. We have another holiday coming up this summer but I'm hoping I might finish the Canary Islands album before that comes round.

Supplies: Cardstock - Carta Bella Gather; Paper - Heidi Swapp Sail Away, Photoplay Travelogue, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home; Letters - Creative Devotion; Numbers - Doodlebug, Fancy Pants; Stickers - Photoplay, Heidi Swapp; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin, Little B; Enamel Hearts - Cocoa Vanilla Studio

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

(Pages 57 & 58 for the year.)

Pages from Palma

I'm on my final port now for our Mediterranean cruise last year. That's Palma in Majorca; it was the seventh of the eight that we visited, but I haven't been scrapbooking them in order. 

Since I am approaching the end now, some of my page designs have been driven by the shapes and sizes of the scraps I have left (and I've had to pull in a couple of extra background sheets).

(The numbers are my page count for the year. I count doubles as two pages.)

51. Palma

Every port has a sub-title page, which divides my album into sections. I used lots of leftover paper strips here, layered in a row behind a single 4x6 photo of the view from our ship.

52 & 53. Caves of Drach

We did our only organised tour of the cruise in Majorca, a coach trip to the Caves of Drach on the other side of the island. We took loads of photos which I cut down to just five as I didn't want to go any smaller than 4x6, and I scraplifted an older page from Lisbon.

54. La Seu

Page design here was driven by that large yellow scrap, the perfect size to mat my two photos and leave a space for my title. The Cathedral is known as Le Seu, but I also have it's full name on a label. I think it's the first black title in this album but that felt like the right colour to use here. The camera print might also be new; it's been in the kit since the beginning but I don't remember using it before. I will have to see if I can add a few pieces elsewhere when I review the album.

55. Palau Reial de l'Almudaina

I scraplifted Shimelle for this page, following a YouTube live from last month and using up some 12" strips from my album kit. Her page used portrait photos and mine are landscape so I moved my title to run up the side of the photo block so that I still had the space beneath it for journalling.

56. Just Wander

My final page from Palma, with an assortment of photos which give a taste of the old town, but none of them merit a whole page. The WANDER word comes from an older set of travel-themed Thickers that I am trying to use up.

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Photoplay Travelogue, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Cocoa Vanilla Studio These Days, Craft Sensations Dreamy Pastels, Make & Create, Heidi Swapp Sun Chaser; Letters - American Crafts, Heidi Swapp, Cocoa Vanilla Studio; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Photoplay, Studio Calico; Die-Cuts - Heidi Swapp;Washi Tape - Little B, Vicki Boutin; Enamel Dots - Carta Bella, My Mind's Eye, Simple Stories, Twilight Crafts, Doodlebug, Hey Little Magpie, Violet Studio; Puffy Shapes - Rosie's Studio, Jen Hadfield, Cocoa Vanilla Studio

Pages from Cartagena

Cartagena was the second place we visited on our Mediterranean cruise last year, but I'm not working in order and it's the last but one to be scrapped. I'm running low on full 12x12 papers now and have pulled in a few new ones but the fact that I  do scrap out of order means they won't suddenly appear towards the end of the album. Having used them here for port two, I can repeat them for Palma (Majorca) which was port seven and I may also be able to tuck a few scraps into other pages when I review the whole album.

(The numbers are my page count for the year.)

41. Cartagena

My normal sub-title page, which divides the album into 'chapters' for each port. Just one 4x6 photo for this one, which gave me the space to show plenty of this background paper. I've tried to use it a few times but you can't 'read' the three rays if you cover up too much of the page.

42 &43. Teatro Romano de Cartagena

Our main aim in Cartagena was to visit the Roman amphitheatre which, like the one in Cádiz, was buried for centuries and recently rediscovered. This one was originally smaller than Cádiz but much more has been excavated and it's far more impressive. I chose to go large with the photo here, printing it at A4, but then cropping rather than reprinting when one side didn't print properly. 

I used four smaller photos on the facing page, which I didn't intend to be a double, and it doesn't quite flow as one, but I didn't give this half a separate title and it has all the journalling for both.

I added a couple of strips of the blue paper to the sides of the first page after I took these photos so that now runs across the full 24" width.

44. Villa Garden / Augustus

A page of two halves, with two sub-titles. The top is for a small garden near the amphitheatre which is intended to resemble those of Roman villas, with typical planting and trompe l'oeil painted scenery. The bottom has a trio of statues of Augustus: the original from the museum, a copy from a plaza and a painted version from the garden above.

45. Parque Arqueológico del Molinete

The Cerro del Molinete was once the boundary of the city with fortifications that have been excavated in what is now an archeological park. We also saw two old windmills (molinete), bits of ruined city walls  and the bases of a Roman temple and a Punic shrine, all perched on a hill surrounded by the modern city.

46. Parque Torres

This is an area of gardens that surround the Castillo de la Concepción, a 13th century castle on a hill. I put a 4x6 photo of the castle taken from Cerro del Molinete in the top half of the page and a row of garden photos below it. I took these on my phone which was on full screen mode so they are all tall and thin, and I decided to leave them that way rather than cropping them down. I also printed a smaller peacock photo which I cut to a circle and layered over some of the empty space.

 

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Photoplay Travelogue, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, OneCanoeTwo Creekside, Heidi Swapp Sun Chaser, Cocoa Vanilla Studio These Days, Craft Sensations Dreamy Pastels, Cocoa Vanilla Studio These Days, Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm; Letters - American Crafts, Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Doodlebug, Tim Holtz, Martha Stewart, Creative Memories; Die-Cuts - Heidi Swapp; Washi Tape - Little B; Enamel Shapes - Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Altenew, Simple Stories, Hey Little Magpie, My Mind's Eye, 49 & Market, Carta Bella

Pages from Ibiza

Continuing with my Mediterranean cruise album, I'm moving on to Ibiza today, the capital of the island of the same name. This was our third port of call, and is the sixth to be scrapped as I'm not working in order. Just Cartagena and Palma (Majorca) left now.

(The numbers are my page count for the year.)

28. Ibiza

My usual 'sub-title' page which divides the album into chapters for each port of call. This one has two photos of the old town, one from our ship across the bay, and one with the town sign from part of the fortifications.

29. Dalt Vila

Literally the 'Upper Town', Dalt Vila is Ibiza's walled old town and I have photos of two of the gates where you can enter through the walls. My page design is inspired by Shimelle Laine's YouTube Live from 3rd February. 

30. Bastions of the City

There are seven bastions around the walls of Dalt Vila and this page has photos of a few of the better ones, arranged on two blocks on the page.

31. Quiet Streets

A few photos of the streets of Dalt Vila, which became a grid on a grid. I've used squares a few times in this album in various sizes, and it seemed like a good time to repeat them.

32. Ibiza Cathedral

My 'go to' choice of photos for churches seems to be one of the outside, one of the inside and one of the alter. I'm trying to make them all different, and scraplifted an older church page for this layout.

Supplies: Cardstock - My Mind's Eye Necessities; Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Photoplay Travelogue, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Heidi Swapp Sun Chaser; Letters - American Crafts, Tim Holtz, Doodlebug; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Photoplay, 49 & Market; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin; Enamel Shapes - Altenew, Simple Stories, 49 & Market, Hey Little Magpie, Twilight Crafts, Pink Paislee, American Crafts, My Mind's Eye

Pages from Cádiz

Back to the cruise album now, and I'm quite pleased with the progress I've made. We visited eight different ports and this is the fifth to be scrapped. I'm not doing them in order though, so it was the last one we visited. 

(The numbers are my page count for the year.)

22. Cádiz
Starting with my normal subtitle page, which split the album into sections for each port. I used two photos, one of the city gates and one of a view over the rooftops from Torre Tavira, putting them in opposite corners on L-shapes of patterned paper. 

23. Revisiting

Cádiz was the only port on this trip that we'd visited before. I didn't want to duplicate lots of pages from last time, so I made this one as a summary instead, and it refers back to our previous visit in 2018.

24. Castillo de San Sebastian

This is an old fortress, reached via a causeway, which has recently been opened to the public. I had four 4x6 photos for the page, but they all had quite a lot of sky or sea in them so I cropped them all to 3x6 and stacked them up next to a column of scraps.

25 & 26. Torre Tavira/Views

These were two separate pages in my planning, but they became more like a double once I was working on them. The left side is for a watchtower and the right side has the views from the top. Cádiz is full of these towers which merchants built on their houses so they could see their ships arriving in port. I used a ledger paper which perfectly matches that theme, being headed "Manifest of the Cargo on board the ______ whereof ______ is Master, bound from ______ to ______".

  

27. Teatro Romano  

Cádiz had a Roman amphitheatre which was lost and buried for centuries until it was rediscovered in 1980 when the site was being redeveloped. I have a couple of 4x6s of the seating area and a 3x4 of the passageway which runs behind it.

Supplies: Cardstock - My Mind's Eye Necessities; Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Photoplay Travelogue, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Heidi Swapp Sun Chaser; Letters - American Crafts; Numbers - Heidi Swapp, Studio Calico; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Photoplay, 49 & Market; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin; Enamel Shapes - Altenew, Simple Stories, American Crafts, 49 & Market, Hey Little Magpie, Twilight Crafts, Pink Paislee

Pages from Mahón

I'm going back to my cruise album now, tackling one place at a time and moving to our sixth port of call which was Mahón, the capital of Menorca.

14. Mahón

The first page is, as always, a sub-title page that divides the album into sections. I printed two 4x6 photos and separated them with my title. The strip on the left was driven by the numbering on the paper, which looked like it needed something more on that side.

15. Trepucó

The first thing we did was walk out of town to see the remains of a Talaiotic settlement from the period 1200BC to 200BC, which was characterised by stone buildings known as talaiots and T-shaped stone megaliths called taulas. 

16. Església el Carme

At this point, I had to decide whether to put my titles in English, Spanish or Catalan for the next few pages. I decided on Catalan, because that's the version on a sign on my next page, even though it meant more pesky accents. I printed three 4x6 photos of the church (built for an order of Carmelite nuns) and arranged them with a journalling card on uneven quadrants of paper, making use of offcuts from other pages.

17. Mercat Claustre del Carme

The cloisters of the last church now house a market and I printed three photos, one large and two small. The scale of the building in each one meant that I didn't want to put them in a block so I found an older page and scraplifted myself.

18. Església Santa Maria

Another church, and I had a trio of photos which were very similar to the set from Església el Carme, and very close to them in the album, so I had to find a different layout for them. I ended up with another scraplift which does use four quadrants of paper again but the photos overlap them and the page looks different enough for me.

19. Parc des Freginal

Finally, a few photos from a park that's hidden away and took some finding, with  with the entrance being a passageway through a building. This was where I saw my first hoopoe. I printed six photos, but dropped down to four for the page, arranging them in a square block with my title down the side and washi tape at the top and bottom of the page.

Supplies: Cardstock - My Mind's Eye Necessities; Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Photoplay Travelogue, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Craft Sensations Dreamy Pastels, Pinkfresh Studio Simply the Best, My Mind's Eye Now and Then; Letters - American Crafts, Creative Memories, Basic Grey; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Photoplay, Studio Calico; Filmstrips - 49 and Market; Washi Tape - Little B, Vicki Boutin, Stampin' Up!; Glitter Tape - The Works; Enamel Shapes - Simple Stories, Hey Little Magpie, Twilight Crafts, Maggie Holmes, Altenew, Cocoa Vanilla Studio

Pages from Gibraltar

Back to the cruise album now and our first port of call, which was Gibraltar. 

5. Gibraltar
This is my subtitle page for this section, using a 6x8 photo of The Rock from Grand Casemates Square, and lots of torn papers for the 'Torn' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper.

6 & 7. Europa Point
I had originally planned to avoid double pages in this album, and squeeze every subject onto a single but this proved impossible for Europa Point, the most southerly part of Gibraltar, which has a series of landmark buildings and memorials.

8. Botanic Gardens

I used three large photos in a row again on this page, but made them a bit smaller than 4x6 and angled them rather than a straight row. I also cut the smaller photos into circles along with the title and journalling, to do something a bit different.

9. Trafalgar Cemetery

I scraplifted myself for this page, with four 3x4 photos. The orientations differed this time though, which led to me moving the title, journalling and embellishment compared with the original.

10. The Rock

Last page, with two 4x6 photos of the Rock as we sailed away from Gibraltar, for which I used an old sketch from Shimelle Laines's Sketch to Scrapbook Page series.

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Photoplay Travelogue, Craft Sensations Dreamy Pastels, My Mind's Eye Now and Then, 49 and Market; Letters - American Crafts, Pretty Little Studio, Cocoa Vanilla Studio; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Photoplay, Studio Calico; Filmstrips - 49 and Market; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin, Little B; Puffy Hearts - Cocoa Vanilla Studio; Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Simple Stories, Twilight Crafts, Hey Little Magpie

Other Cruise Pages

A couple of pages now that are from events on board the ship rather than any of the ports we visited.

104. Battle of the Bartenders

This was one of my December DT pages for Twilight Crafts using the Cocktail Glass cut-file, with photos from a cocktail-making competition. I cut the whole shape in white cardstock, then cut the straw in black and the lemon in yellow at a slightly smaller size to layer over the top. I backed the lemon with a lighter yellow and the drink and the glass with layers of vellum.

105. You & Me

I used a Scrap Squad scraplift for this photo of us on Formal Night. The title and people stickers come from Jillibean Soup, an ancient sheet that I am aiming to use up; I have 'smile' and 'today' left.

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Photoplay Travelogue, Pinkfresh Studio Simply the Best; Stickers - Maggie Holmes, Jillibean Soup, Heidi Swapp; Glitter Tape - The Works; Puffy Hearts - Rosie's Studio; Enamel Dots - Twilight Crafts

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

Pages from Ajaccio

I'm moving on from Olbia now to the next day of our cruise and the port of Ajaccio in Corsica. There was a bit more to see here and it runs to six pages:

(The numbers are my page count for last year.)

98. Ajaccio

This is my sub-title page which divides the album into sections for each place we visit. I used a panoramic shot of the port, which I printed as two 4x6 photos then cropped and overlapped them.

99. Au Marché

I went with a French title for a page from a French island, and used the December sketch from the 1 Sketch : 3 Ways Facebook group for my page with a column of smaller photos from the market. The fish print paper is one I didn't think would use from the Set Sail pad, but is just about on theme here.

100. Maison Bonaparte

Ajaccio is the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, and his family home is now a museum. I chose six photos in a mix of sizes and orientations, then laid them out on a grid in the centre of the page.

101. Citadelle d'Ajaccio

This old fortress was recently opened up as a public space, and I printed five photos for my page, but only four made the final cut - a view across the inner courtyard and three of the ramparts. 

102. Catedrale Santa Maria Assunta

Three photos of the cathedral on this page, and my initial thought was to put them in a column overlapping a vertical panel of paper. However that would have been getting repetitive and I wanted some variety; I pushed a few papers around until I hit on a grid of eight patterned papers, something I haven't done before but it will be easy to repeat in different sizes and patterns.

103. Place d'Austerlitz

Last page from Ajaccio, with photos of Napoleon's statue in the Place d'Austerlitz. My page is a version of the March 2011 4x6 Photo Love prompt from Shimelle Laine.

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Photoplay Travelogue, Craft Sensations Dreamy Pastels, Maggie Holmes Sweet Story; Letters - American Crafts, Doodlebug; Die-Cuts - Heidi Swapp; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Studio Calico, 49 & Market; Filmstrips - 49 & Market; Tickets - 49 & Market; Washi Tape - October Afternoon, Vicki Boutin, Little B, Stampin' Up!; Enamel Shapes - Shimelle, Heidi Swapp, Simple Stories, Cocoa Vanilla Studio, 49 & Market, American Crafts, Pink Paislee, Twilight Crafts, Hey Little Magpie

Pages from Olbia

I'm starting my cruise album in the middle, with the pages from Olbia on the Italian island of Sardinia. It's just a small town which only needed four pages, and less daunting than starting with the title page for the whole album with so many choices in front of me.

(The numbers are my page count for the year.)

94. Olbia

This is my sub-title page; I always make one of these for each port we visit to break the album into distinct sections for each place. We were in Olbia for 12 hours so I have two photos of the town taken from the ship, one in the morning and one close to sunset.

95. San Simplicio Basilica

This is one of two significant churches in Olbia, built in the 11th century in honour of the town's patron saint. I have large photos of the inside and outside, plus two smaller ones of St Simplicio and the Virgin Mary. My page is loosely based on one in a November YouTube video from Shimelle.

96. Chiesa di San Paolo

The second church is St Paul's; again I have photos of the inside and the outside, but this time close-ups of the multi-coloured dome and one of the frescoes. I arranged the photos on a wide band across the page, wanting to get away from stacking the larger ones on top of each other as I did on the last two pages.

97. Parco Fausto Noce

The 'Park of Auspicious Walnuts' (according to Google translate) was a lovely green space in the city. I have two 4x6 photos again which I deliberately split up on the page with the title across a central band. I used natural embellishments with my outdoor photos for the December challenge from Hey Little Magpie.

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Photoplay Travelogue, Craft Sensations Dreamy Pastels; Letters - American Crafts, Cocoa Vanilla Studio, October Afternoon, Jillibean Soup; Die-Cuts - Heidi Swapp; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Studio Calico, 49 & Market, Jen Hadfield; Tickets - 49 & Market; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin; Enamel Shapes - Maggie Holmes, Simple Stories, My Mind's Eye, Altenew, Studio Calico

A New Project - Mediterranean Cruise 2024

I generally make two types of scrapbooks - annual albums and travel albums - and it's time to start a new one for our Mediterranean cruise earlier this year. Since 2015 I have assembled a kit for each holiday album in advance and this is no exception.

Our cruise was 'Islands of the Mediterranean' from Newcastle-on-Tyne, and saw us visit five islands (Corsica, Sardinia, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza), plus Gibraltar Cartagena and Cádiz.

I first saw and liked Heidi Swapp's Sail Away collection when it was released in 2022, but I had no need for it then. However, when I saw it half-price at the beginning of the year I decided to make it the basis of this new album. I have the 12x12 pad, a few individual sheets with different patterns, the 6x8 pad, an ephemera pack, the Thickers and three packs of stickers (motifs, words and labels). Both paper pads are single-sided so I've cut up all the cut-apart pages already to give me a pile of tags, journalling cards and layering pieces, some of which are in both sizes.

However, much as I like this collection, most of the papers are monochrome; I felt that it was really a set of backgrounds and I wanted to add in a some multi-coloured patterns. I ordered Cocoa Vanilla Studio's Heart & Home collection kit (also half-price) at the same time with no thought of using the two together, but once they arrived I was struck by the close match in the colours, although the Set Sail papers are more distressed than those from CVS. I also ordered the matching mini puffy alphabet stickers and the puffy hearts and dots.

Later on in the year, I added in a third collection, Travelogue from Photoplay, which shares the same colour palette as the first two and is more travel-themed. I'm a bit uncertain about using three collections with different styles together, but we'll see how it goes.

On to embellishments now, and I have a few packs from 49 & Market; I've rolled the washi tape stickers from Everywhere that I used for the last holiday album on to this album, I bought the filmstrips and wishing bubbles from Moonlit Garden for this album and I received the tickets from Mariner in a mystery box. I bought the puffy alphabet stickers and enamel dots from American Crafts' Cedar House collection, and I've pulled in some stickers and enamel dots from two Maggie Holmes collections plus a sheet of travel-themed paper snips from Bramble Fox. Lastly, I'll date my pages using stickers from Studio Calico; I used some of them previously for my 2018 Iberian album but luckily the remaining dates cover our port days this time.

For titles, I have a mixture of old and new alphabet stickers, I have alphabet stamps and dies which are endlessly repeatable, and I have my trusty Silhouette Portrait for either cut-files or individual letters.

The kit will form the foundations of the album, but I won't be limited by what I've chosen so far. I will be adding washi tape, more enamel dots, Nuvo drops and anything else I wish to this selection as I go along, and once I've used something I will add it to the kit to be repeated on future pages.