Mini-Book Pages from Málaga

We flew out to Málaga for our cruise, and then spent the next day in the town. Each port of call is getting one double page in my mini-album and I've decorated four 4x6 title cards (one per port) which will start off the left side along with a photo of the town each time. I'll then add as many flaps and inserts as I need to accommodate my photos and journalling.

This is the initial view of the Málaga pages:

The left side opens out to show photos of the amphitheatre and the Alcazaba (palace) which we had visited before.

The right side is dedicated to the 14th century Castillo de Gibralfaro which was built on a on a hill above the city in order to protect it (spoiler - it failed in 1487). I had plenty of photos that I wanted to include so this page opens out with two flaps:

Supplies: Cardstock - Art Studio; Papers - Simple Stories Hello Today, Pink Paislee Atlas, American Crafts Shimelle; Letters - Teresa Collins; Journalling Cards - Project Life; Stickers - Simple Stories, Studio Calico, Make & Create, 49 and Market, Teresa Collins; Washi Tape - Ebay, Little B; Enamel Geotag - Pink Paislee

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

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

This is the third of three pages from a fortnight in Ibiza back in 1985. Things were very different with film cameras; I can't imagine only taking five photos these days, more like five hundred.

I'm still working my way through the art-themed challenges at For the Love of Pretty Paper, and made this page for a bonus Performing Arts challenge - using a large title which is also a song lyric (two of the four options to choose from).

The photos are of my parents in a mud pool (which we children refused to go in). I had my thumb in one so cropped both down, and realised that the scenery behind them lined up if I overlapped them (which covered a bit more of that thumb).

I've made all my Ibizan pages on white cardstock with a gold doodled border. This time I covered part of the background with a stripy paper and arranged paper strips above and below my photo block to echo that stripy pattern and to hold my title.

Supplies
Cardstock - UK Crafts, American Crafts
Paper - Rosie's Studio Salt & Sunsets
Letters - Rosie's Studio
Die-Cuts - Rosie's Studio Salt & Sunsets
Enamel Dots - Studio Calico, Eyelet Outlet
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Tattered Angels
Paint - Golden

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

That Green Jeep

I'm back with the second of three pages from a 1980s holiday in Ibiza. We hired a car one day to explore the island, and this page has a photo of my parents in that car, an open top jeep.

I used an NSD sketch from Hey Little Magpie with another art-based challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper. This one was Classicism which asked for lots of paper, one of three colour palettes and a classic technique.

I'm using Rosie's Studio's Salt & Sunsets collection for my Ibiza pages, which is close to the Mystique colour palette from the challenge. I chose a white cardstock background to match the previous page but still used plenty of paper, five patterns in all, and I picked inking my paper edges as my classic technique.

Supplies
Cardstock - UK Crafts, American Crafts, Stampin' Up
Paper - Rosie's Studio Salt & Sunsets
Die-Cuts - Rosie's Studio Salt & Sunsets
Ink - Ranger, Memento
Mist - Tattered Angels
Paint - Golden

Tools
Big Shot

Make & Create Alphabet Dies

Dovecraft Label Die
Rosie's Studio Stillwater Stamp Set

Sea Days / Ibiza 1985

I have loads of seaside photos from my childhood (we just took pictures on days out and holidays back then) but the colours in them tend to be washed out and they really don't look good with modern bright beach-themed paper collections. I've been looking for something to suit them and came across Rosie's Studio and their Salt & Sunsets collection whish was just perfect. It arrived the day before NSD, so I put it to good use scrapping all FIVE photos from our holiday in Ibiza back in 1985. Film was precious.

This is the first of three pages, with photos of my siblings in the sea, and I'm ticking off the 'Suprematism' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper (all this year's NSD challenges are art-themed). I'd never come across suprematism but it's a form of abstract art characterised by the use of basic shapes on a white background. 

We were asked to use a white cardstock background, a large patterned paper shape and some doodling. I cut a large scallop shell for my shape and doodled the crucial lines that make it actually look like a scallop shell. I popped my photos on top (matted on white cardstock to match the background), added a strip of paper below them and ran a line of seashell die-cuts along the bottom edge.

I ended up with two titles on the page (or title and sub-title I suppose). I intended it to be 'Ibiza 1985' which would also act as an introduction to the pages that follow it, but the space above my photo was crying out for something extra.

Supplies
Cardstock - UK Crafts
Paper - Rosie's Studio Salt & Sunsets
Letters - American Crafts, Rosie's Studio

Numbers - Pinkfresh Studio
Die-Cuts - Rosie's Studio Salt & Sunsets
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Tattered Angels
Paint - Golden

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

Fortress & Palace

These pages accompany the previous one of the Alcazaba in Málaga. We took loads of photos there, far too many for a single or even a double page, so I added a divided page protector to the album at this point and filled both the front and the back.

I concentrated on the outer fortifications on the front, entitled Fortress, the walls, gates and towers that protected the Lower Precinct. My journalling is a commentary of our visit, describing our route through the defences towards the palace within.

The back of my page protector starts with the old Plaza de Armas, now a garden, and the entrance to the Upper Precinct which contains the palace. A large part was closed for restoration but we could still wander round several pretty courtyards and the surrounding rooms.

One more double page to go now, and this album will be finished. I've kept the pages in a three-ring binder while it's been a work-in-progress and that's overflowing so it's definitely going to be two albums now.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - Basic Grey B-Side, KaiserCraft Full Bloom, OneCanoeTwo Creekside
Stickers - OneCanoeTwo
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Washi Tape - The Works
Enamel Shapes - Stampin' Up!

Tools
Big Shot & Provocraft Alphabet Dies
Dovecraft Label Die
Dovecraft Star Die
Woodware Star Punch

Alcazaba

Another cruise album page today, just two more to go now, though looking at the number of pages that I've made I think that they will have to become two albums. 

This page and the next are from the Alcazaba in Málaga, an 11th century fortress built by the Moors when they ruled this part of Spain. I've chosen three photos in a mix of orientations and scraplifted my own page from Bamburgh Castle. 

Despite concentrating on finishing the album rather than on challenges at the moment I've managed to fit this page to Week One of the Summer Fiesta at For the Love of Pretty Paper by including leaves, circles and stickers. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - OneCanoeTwo Twilight, KaiserCraft Full Bloom, American Crafts Shimelle
Letters - Anita's Glitterations
Mistable Stars - Studio Calico
Enamel Shapes - My Mind's Eye, Stampin' Up!
Washi Tape - Little B
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

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

La Manquita

Another page from Málaga today, and it's a double for the cathedral which is known as La Manquita, meaning the One-Armed Lady, because the north tower has never been finished.

I had loads of photos as we could easily walk all the way round the building, but we couldn't go inside as a service was taking place. The yellow building is the bishop's palace which faces the same square as the front of the cathedral.

I matted all the photos on cardstock and stuck them down in the middle of the page, then cut and pieced a single sheet of the stripey paper above and below so that it could span a greater width than 12".

I'd originally only planned one journalling card, the one on the left that 'holds up' the title above it, but I had too much to write and added the second one on the right. I quite like the end result which both adds some symmetry to the page and makes the bottom row longer that the top row.

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Stitched, Pinkfresh Studio Let Your Heart Decide, Teresa Collins Life Emporium
Letters - American Crafts
Journalling Cards - Unknown
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft?
Puffy Stickers - Pinkfresh Studio
Enamel Dot - Simple Stories
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Camera Dies

Inspired by Warhol

Following on from my last page, I'm still in Málaga's Picasso Museum, but I've moved on to a temporary exhibition with works from Andy Warhol. The main photo is one of my husband and I, taken by a photo machine in Pop Art style, then there are two of the works on display, a 'piss painting' and a set featuring Muhammed Ali. The small soup can tucked in on the left was my sticker to show that we'd paid for the extra exhibition and I kept hold of it for this page.

Supplies
Paper - DCWV Romantic Life, Simple Stories Posh, My Mind's Eye Just Splendid, MME On Trend 2
Vellum - Crate Paper Boys Rule
Letters - Freckled Fawn, Basic Grey
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Stickers - Cosmo Cricket
Rub-Ons - American Crafts Shimelle
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Museo Picasso Málaga

I'm finally at the last set of pages that I need for my cruise album; these will be for Málaga in Spain, which was our second port of call (as I haven't been scrapping chronologically). 

We were off the ship rather early that day and had a wander round the deserted town before heading to the Picasso Museum as soon as it opened. We weren't allowed to take photos of the artworks, so all of these are pictures pulled from the internet.

I printed each picture in its original ratio, so they aren't consistent. I'd originally imagined a diagonal collage across the page, but once I started arranging them a column actually worked better. I wish I'd started my journalling further up the page, which would have left more room for embellishments in the bottom corner, but I had to content myself with half a floral sticker (and I added the other half at the top left of the page.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations
Paper - Fancy Pants Country Boutique, DCWV Romantic Life
Sticker - Paige Evans #Stickerbook
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Gems - Prima
Ink - Hobbycraft, Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Stars of the Show

by Jackie Ashton

National Scrapbooking "Day" kicked off on Friday in some groups, and the first page I made was for a scraplift challenge from Hey Little Magpie. The rays on Jackie's page reminded me of a yellow sunburst paper in my scraps box so I started from there, found a matching yellow scrap for the bottom part of the page and moved on to photos.

I didn't have my holiday photos at that point, so was choosing pictures from an old photo album; these dolphin photos were next to the parrots from my last page and suited the rays so were an easy pick. 

I combined two of the 'Prompts a Day for the Month of May' from For the Love of Pretty Paper in this page - Animals (2 May) and Stars (3 May) - and it was my wish to use stars for the page that lead to my title, carefully positioned to block out a stray head in the left photo. 

Using old photos here also worked perfectly for the first challenge from UK Scrap Addicts. All the challenges have a Star Wars theme and several options within them; for this page I used 1980s photos and a supply we no longer really use (rub-on lettering as part of my title) for the 'Return of the Jedi' challenge. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Craft Sensations
Paper - October Afternoon Summertime, Doodlebug, Basic Grey
Letters - Creative Devotion, WHSmith
Border Sticker - Fancy Pants
Journalling Card - Elle's Studio
Word Sticker - Crate Paper
Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio
Washi Tape - The Works
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer
Ink - Hobbycraft

Tools
Bracket Template
Silhouette Portrait
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Die

Pretty Polly

For the Love of Pretty Paper have kicked off the month of May with a 'Prompt a Day' Challenge leading up to a weekend frenzy of scrapbooking at the end of the month. There's no way that I can make a page a day, but the prompts are combinable so I'm starting off with Rainbow (1 May) and Animals (2 May). 

I've gone with old photos again, with photos of parrots which are certainly animals and they come in all colours of the rainbow. 

I decided on using mists for my rainbow but wasn't confident enough to use them directly on a page so I started by 'painting' a 4" strip of white cardstock with them. That strip sent me towards this month's scraplift challenge from GoGoGetaway, though my finished page didn't look that much like the original in the end, especially as I chose a black background to emphasise the other colours. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Core'dinations
Paper - Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine
Letters - American Crafts
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Embellishments - Various Unknown
Puffy Stickers - MRI, Jillibean Soup, Paperchase
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Teresa Collins
Mists - Docrafts, Mister Huey's, Maya Road

Tools
Craft Creatives Flower Punch

El Sireno

Last page from Vigo today, and it features a half-man, half-fish sculpture which has become a symbol of the town.

Unusually, I didn't follow a sketch or complete a challenge with this page and this lead to a bit of faffing and paper shuffling before I got to a layout that I was happy with. 

I've cut into a couple of new papers for this page, but I've gutted the background and the spots so I have more to spread around. I still have pages to make from both Málaga and Lisbon so the papers will be appearing throughout the album.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV
Paper - KaiserCraft Full Bloom, Teresa Collins Life Emporium, OneCanoeTwo Twilight, My Mind's Eye, Bo Bunny Early Bird
Letters - Making Memories
Stickers - Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn
Cork Geotag - Studio Calico
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Enamel Shapes - My Mind's Eye, American Crafts/Shimelle
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Studio Calico Stars Stamp

Parque do Castro

I'm in Vigo again today, and this page comes directly after the last one I shared. We spent most of our afternoon in Vigo in the Parque do Castro which covers Castro Hill. The monument on the last page was part way up the hill, and this old fort covers the summit area. Apart from the walls themselves, there's little left of the fort and the inside has been landscaped as a continuation of the park, but it was good to explore and had great views over the city.

My page design is loosely based on an old sketch from Stick It Down which I have used before. I've few new sheets or large scraps of paper left in my album kit now so this was a good design for stretching lots of strips across the two pages. I just wish I'd swapped them round so the the black and white paper was behind the photos with the coral ones at the top and bottom as the page is rather plain as they are. I'm pondering adding washi to the top and bottom to add some more colour.

Supplies
Cardstock - The Range
Paper - OneCanoeTwo Twilight, Pebbles Floral Lane, October Afternoon Reset Girl
Letters - Basic Grey
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Washi Tape - Pretty My Page
Puffy Stickers - Pinkfresh Studio, American Crafts
Word Stickers - OneCanoeTwo
Gems - Papermania
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Studio Calico Stars Stamp
American Crafts/Shimelle Word Stamp
Stampendous Arrow Stamp

Las Anclas

I'm finally back to sharing holiday pages and plan to stick with Vigo in Spain for the next few posts. I actually made this page a while back but I saved it to keep the rest of my Vigo pages together on the blog. 

You may have already seen this page if you are in Hey Little Magpie's Facebook group as it's the page I made for their February challenge. That was a recipe challenge where we were asked to use precisely five items from a list of: 5 patterned papers; no cardstock background; stamping; wood veneer pieces; a die cut pack; coloured cardstock; hand/machine stitching; Thickers; journalling card; tags.

I based my page on a sketch from The Scrap Room which I rotated to suit my landscape photos of Las Anclas in Vigo. This is a monument to the sailors lost in the Battle of the Rande in 1702 with the anchors and guns being recovered from the sunken ships. 

The five recipe items that I chose were five patterned papers, a no cardstock background, wood veneer pieces, Thickers and tags.

Supplies
Paper - One CanoeTwo Twilight, Bo Bunny Early Bird, Pinkfresh Studios 
Letters - American Crafts
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico, Creative Embellishments
Washi Tape - Unknown
Gems - Papermania
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template
Big Shot & X-Cut Tag Die

Casco Vello

I'm jumping back to Vigo (Spain) in my cruise album now, as our visit there was shorter and we took fewer photos there than in Lisbon so the scrapbooking is going to be easier.

This page has three photos from Casco Vello, the oldest part of Vigo, which I split to put the street photos together, slightly apart from one of the main church. My page design came from one of Shimelle Laine's page in her Layer on Layer on Layer class last summer.

Supplies Cardstock - The Range
Paper - Prima Zella Teal, My Mind's Eye On Trend 2, Pebbles Floral Lane, Crate Paper Snow and Cocoa
Letters - Simple Stories
Stickers - OneCanoeTwo, Pinkfresh Studio
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, My Mind's Eye, Pretty My Page
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Hobbycraft Star Punch
X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch

Vigo

Back to my cruise album and the title page for our visit to Vigo in Spain, just north of the border with Portugal. I have one large photo of the town, taken as our ship was leaving as the light was better then than when we arrived, and I used this month's sketch from Let's Get Sketchy.

I moved the papers on the left in from the edge to mirror the space on the right, and used fewer layers there as the paper I chose was one that I didn't want to cover up. Careful gutting has meant that I have been able to spread this one over several pages already which helps with continuity in my album.

Supplies
Paper - Pink Paislee Memorandum, OneCanoeTwo TwilightCrate Paper/Maggie Holmes Open Book, American Crafts/Shimelle, Simple Stories The Reset Girl, Simple Stories I AM
Letters - American Crafts
Stickers - Studio Calico, Pebbles/Jen Hadfield
Glitter/Washi Tape - Hobbycraft, Unknown
Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Stampin' Up!
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
X-Cut Circle Punch