Inner City

This is the last of my pages from Casablanca in both senses of the word, the last one to be made and the last page in this section of the album before we moved on to Cádiz the next day. 

It's a double from the old medina, the original walled city, based on this month's double sketch from Stick It Down. I had more landscape photos than portrait so I cropped some to squares and rearranged them compared to the sketch, but my paper layers are almost the same.

The photos on the left of the page are the quiet residential streets of the medina, while those on the right show the colours and bustle of the market streets.

This was one of those pages where I tried multiple selections of papers with the photographs but nothing looked quite right. The colours in the market really didn't suit the palette that I'd chosen for the album, so eventually I pulled in a couple of ancient papers from my stash for the background, though the rest of them did come from my album kit. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Bo Bunny Day Dream, Bo Bunny Early Bird, Prima Zella Teal, Kaisercraft Finders Keepers, Studio Calico, 
      My Mind's Eye Just Splendid, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Better Together
Letters - October Afternoon
Stickers - OneCanoeTwo
Washi Tape - Tesco, Pretty My Page
Gems - Simply Creative
Ink - Memento
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
X-Cut Hexagon Die
Spellbinders Circle Die
X-Cut Travel Dies

Local Colour

When we were exploring Casablanca, I was struck by the street art on some of the apartment buildings. These artworks were so detailed and totally unexpected. I have four photos to scrap, and printed them at 4x6 even though that meant that they would take up the majority of my page. I could have gone smaller, but these were huge paintings and I didn't want to lose the impact of their size.

I trimmed each photo slightly so that I could mat them, used a border punch on one side of that mat, and ran a washi strip down the other side. I wanted a subtle background paper that wouldn't compete with the photos and was happy to find this soft grey with spots in colours that match the washi people.

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Dear Lizzy Serendipity, Pink Paislee Atlas, Crate Paper Snow and Cocoa
Letters - Pebbles
Washi Strip - Crate Paper/Paige Evans Turn the Page
Die Cut - Crate Paper/Paige Evans Turn the Page
Sticker - American Crafts/Dear Lizzy Lovely Day
Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, Pretty My Page
Ink - Memento

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Breathtaking

This is the last of four pages from the King Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca; I think four is enough though there are still some photos that I would have liked to include. This page has three general photos of the interior of the mosque, two of the nave and one of the qibla wall (which indicates the direction of Mecca) and it'll sit opposite a divided page with close-ups of the decorative work. 

I used mostly 6x6 papers on my other mosque pages so I needed to incorporate them again here, which I did via a row of 2x2 squares which almost span the width of the page. Initially I placed that row at the foot of the page below the photos, but then I realised that the placement would push my journalling up to the empty space at the top of the page so I swapped them over. I kept a small border around the edges and rounded the corners to repeat these things from the first mosque page that I made (Be Proud).

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - Dovecraft Fairytale Princess 6x6, Simple Stories Sunshine & Happiness
Letters - American Crafts
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz
Washi Tape - Unknown
Enamel Dots - Stampin' Up!
Gems - Simply Creative
Ink - Memento

Tools
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Craft Creative Flower Punch
X-Cut Corner Punch

Come Inside

The last page that I shared with you was a divided one, with photos of the outside of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. Turning over, I'm filling the other side with pictures from the inside of the mosque. This page focuses on the individual features (doors, ceiling etc) and the very detailed craftsmanship and it will sit opposite a 12x12 with wider views of the prayer hall.

I've repeated the same 6x6 papers in the 4x6 pockets as I used previously, and also repeated the spotty paper and silver letters in the 2x12 title section. There's only a little embellishment, but that too repeats the shapes and motifs used previously.

Supplies
Paper - Dovecraft Fairytale Princess 6x6, OneCanoeTwo Twilight, Crate Paper Snow and Cocoa
Letters - Echo Park This & That 
Stickers - Freckled Fawn
Enamel Shapes - Freckled Fawn
Star Gems - Simply Creative
Pearls - ScrapBerry's
Ink - Memento

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
X-Cut Circle Punch

Big Shot, Spellbinders Circle Die & Dovecraft Label Die

Hassan II Mosque

When I was planning this cruise album,  I wasn't sure whether it would be all 12x12 pages, or if I'd be including divided pages too. Having come home and looked through all the photos, there are definitely places that we visited that would benefit from the use of divided pages for the details alongside 12x12 pages for the overview. The first of these places is the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca; I scrapped a couple of photos of the whole mosque on my last page and this one will sit opposite it.

Rather than completely fill the pockets with 4x6 photos, I've decided to print them slightly smaller and mat them on patterned paper. I used the same three 6x6 papers as on the opposite page plus two more from the same pack.

Filling the back of a divided page is often an issue, and is one reason why I was undecided about using them, but next up in this album will be the interior of the mosque and I have plenty more photos for that. 

Supplies
Paper - Dovecraft Fairytale Princess 6x6, OneCanoeTwo Twilight, Simple Stories Sunshine & Happiness
Letters - Echo Park This & That
Stickers - Freckled Fawn
Star Gems - Simply Creative
Pearls - ScrapBerry's
Ink - Memento

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Big Shot, Dovecraft Label Die & X-Cut Bunting Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Card Factory Roller Stamp

Be Proud

Back to my holiday album now, and I was scrapping photos from Casablanca. The main sight of the city is the Hassan II Mosque, and we headed there first. It'll take more than one page of the album to do it justice so this is just the first with a couple of photos of the whole mosque from the outside. 

I was pondering page design when one of the members of For the Love of Pretty Paper shared a couple of personal challenges recently. One of these was to use four patterned papers on a page and several of us joined in with her. Four papers hinted at quadrants and although I repeated one paper on the diagonal I do have six different papers on the page.

My title may seem a bit strange, but it comes from King Hassan II who said that he wanted Casablanca to be endowed with a large, fine building of which it can be proud until the end of time. The mosque that was named for him is certainly that.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset, DCWV
Paper - Dovecraft Princess Fairytale, Simple Stories Sunshine & Happiness
Letters - American Crafts
Stickers - OneCanoeTwo, Freckled Fawn, Tim Holtz
Star Gems - Simply Creative
Pearls - ScrapBerry's
Ink - Memento
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Corner Punch
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die
Card Factory Roller Stamp
American Crafts/Shimelle Word Stamp

Casablanca

I'll be making divider/title pages for each city we visited on this cruise just as I did for the last two. I had intended to use a single 6x8 picture on each one, but none of my Casablancan photos were good enough for that. I picked two in the end and printed them at 4x6 so they take up the same space as a 6x8.

I want the photo(s) on these title pages to be general views of the cities but that was tricky for Casablanca. We sailed directly into a commercial (i.e. ugly) port and couldn't see much of the low-rise city beyond it. The top photo on my page was taken across the port entrance as we arrived, and the bottom one was taken across a bay that we walked round.

I used this month's "Jump Start" sketch challenge from The ScrapRoom blog for my page. It was a good one for two 4x6 photos and the circles are a little more interesting than lots of boxes. I kept quite close to the original sketch, even to using stars and arrows in my embellishment. The biggest change was moving the title to curve it round the large circle rather than having such a long word overlap my photo.

Last week I made a 'K is for Kits' page for the Alpha Relay challenge at For the Love of Pretty Paper, and this week I've been picked (by random number generator) to set the the next one. I chose 'V is for Vacation' and this is my sample page for the challenge.

Supplies

Cardstock - Colorset, Stampin' Up!

Paper - OneCanoeTwo Twilight, Crate Paper Snow & Cocoa, Bo Bunny Early Bird

Letters - Jillibean Soup

Stickers - Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn, Jo-Ann's, OneCanoeTwo

Gems - Papermania, Love to Craft
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft
Ink - Memento
Mist - Mister Huey's, Heidi Swapp

Tools
Big Shot
Little B Arrows Die
X-Cut Travel Die
Craft Creative Flower Punch

In Need of Some TLC

I won't be scrapping our cruise chronologically and I'm starting with our third port of call, Casablanca, because its photos fell into specific groups more easily than those from some of the other cities we visited.

One of my sets of photos is from the Parc de la Ligue Arabe and the neighbouring church, the Église du Sacré-Coeur. Both the church and part of the park were behind barriers and appeared to be being renovated, but they have a fair way to go and the impression they left on me was that the area was in need of some tender loving care.

My page design came from Shimelle's class A Most Magical Scrapbook and I used it previously for a page from Reykjavik on our last cruise, but this time I squeezed an extra photo on to the page.

Supplies
Paper - OneCanoeTwo Twilight, Bo Bunny Early Bird, KaiserCraft Full Bloom, My Mind's Eye, Pinkfresh Studio
Letters - American Crafts, Basic Grey
Vellum Stickers - Studio Calico
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs, Echo Park
Gems - Papermania, Love to Craft
Ink - Memento
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
X-Cut Circle Punch
Craft Creatives Flower Punch