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. 

Art of the Brick

Just one page today, but it's a mammoth one - a double with an insert - for our visit to Art of the Brick in March. This was a touring exhibition of artworks created from Lego bricks, and there were plenty of them. I had trouble whittling the photos down to just these twenty. I'd originally thought that I would use lots of primary colours to match the bricks, but it turned out that yellow was the best match for the photos and I just added a bit of green. Embellishment is sparse because I really wanted to focus on the photos for this one.

I'm down to three gaps in my 2024 album now: a page from the recording of a QI episode (and I'm waiting for it to be broadcast so I can perhaps take some screenshots); a double for my husband's TGO Challenge walk across Scotland in May; and a few pages from a weekend camping in the Peak District in August.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon; Stickers - Tim Holtz, Studio Calico

(These are pages 91-93 of my page count for the year.)

Pages from Starting Points

I sometimes make 'starting point' pages, a term I have taken from Shimelle, pages that I start without photos and finish at a later date. I do this either in order slim down my scraps box or to kill off a collection pack. And, eventually, they do generally get used even if that's years later, like these two pages.

89. Girls' Night Out
I started this one back in 2016, one of two pages that I started with the remnants of Basic Grey's What's Up collection.  I planned it for a single 4x6 vertical photo and it's taken eight years to get one that suits the colour scheme. I finished it using the Girls Night Out cut-file from Twilight Crafts which I backed with some of the scraps that I had kept, before fussy-cutting some leaves and a flower as embellishment.

Supplies: Paper - Basic Grey What's Up, My Mind's Eye Cut and Paste; Letters - My Mind's Eye; Stars - Rosie's Studio; Nuvo Drops

90. #Boyznite

My second page is only five years old, and was started with an assortment of blue and green pieces from my scraps box. I cut down the blue paper with the writing on as it wasn't completely right for the page once I had decided to use it with this photo, and tucked in a journalling card to the side. I based the embellishment clusters around three punched circles that I had kept and finished off two packs of puffy stars.

Supplies: Paper - Cherry Arte, Jillibean Soup, Sandylion, My Mind's Eye; Letters - American Crafts; Stars - Pinkfresh Studio, MRI; Enamel Dots - Altenew, 49 & Market, Ebay

This just leaves one starting point page in the folder, waiting a bit longer for its finishing touches. Though my scraps box is getting rather full again ...

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 with Jenny Wren Cut-Files

I've been trying to keep on top of my 2024 album as we go along. There are a few gaps, but I'm not doing too badly. These are a couple of pages where I have used Jenny Wren Cut-Files from Twilight Crafts.

87. Celebrate 70

A page for my husband's aunt's 70th birthday in August where we had afternoon tea at a local hotel. I used a smaller version of Flower Lace 1 for this page and paired it with a soft pastel blue background and fussy-cut flowers.

Supplies: Paper - Carta Bella, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Daydream; Letters - Heidi Swapp; Numbers - American Crafts; Stickers - Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Jen Hadfield

88. Trick or Treat

I used a Hallowe'en cut-file for the title on this page, cutting the whole thing from black cardstock and then separating out the pumpkins for embellishment in two sizes.  

Supplies: Cardstock - Papermania, Bazzill, American Crafts, DCWV; Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage October 31st, Pink Paislee Memorandum, 7gypsies Avignon; Puffy Stars & Gems - Paperchase

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

Parkrun Pages with Scrap Squad - Part 2

Last post I shared four parkrun pages made with scraplifts from the 12 Days of Autumn event over in the Scrap Squad Facebook group and now I have another four to share. These bring my parkrun album up to date, which was one of the tasks I set myself to complete before I can start my cruise album.

84.5 250 Runs

I completed my 250th parkrun back in July and used the scraplift from Day 8 for this page. Ours is a two lap course so we often get two photos and I generally use the better one, but we had heavy showers that day. It was dry at the start so I risked running without a raincoat. Big mistake and having got soaked through I swapped my sodden shirt for my waterproof for the second lap. Hence I used both photos and printed them small as neither is very good but they contribute to the story.

Supplies: Paper - Kay Miller Designs Simple Pleasures; Letters - American Crafts; Phrase Stickers - Pretty Little Studio

85. Monsal Trail

Moving on to Day 9, and Monsal Trail parkrun which we ran in August while camping in the Peak District. The original had a circular cut-file, lots of stitching and some fussy-cut leaves, but mine is much simpler as I deliberately keep these 8x8 pages quite flat.

Supplies: Cardstock - DCWV; Paper - Docrafts Spring Chic; Making Memories Fresh Anthology; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories

85.5 150 Runs

My husband completed his 150th run this summer, and I've recorded that with Day 10's scraplift and lots of diamond shapes. The original page had a small landscape photo but I chose to crop mine to match the papers.

Supplies: Paper - Dovecraft, Pinkfresh Studio Let Your Heart Decide; Letters - Simple Stories; Washi Tape - Unknown; Enamel Dots - Hey Little Magpie

86. Y Promenad

You might have seen this photo before as I scrapped it recently for my 2024 album on a 12x12 double page as part of a weekend away in Wales. However, it also needs to go into my parkrun album so I went back to the scraplift from Day 4 as that was the only one left that I could make work with a 4x6 photo though I tweaked it so that it wouldn't look too much like South Woodham Ferrers/Day 7.

Supplies: Paper, Die-Cuts & Puffy Stickers - Vicki Boutin Fernwood; Washi Tape - Little B

Parkrun Pages with Scrap Squad - Part 1

I started bringing my parkrun album up to date when I came back from my holiday, and this coincided with the 12 Days of Autumn event in the Scrap Squad Facebook group, so I aimed to do as many of their scraplifts as possible with my parkrun photos. 

These are the first four and they are all 8"x8" so I count them as half-pages in my count for the year as they are roughly half the area of a 12"x12" page.

82.5 Blaise Castle

I started with Day 5, using two small photos offset diagonally with papers from a 6x6 pad. I ran here on the weekend of the Twilight crop back in May.

Supplies: Paper - Dovecraft, Pinkfresh Studio Life Right Now; Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye

83. South Woodham Ferrers

Next was Day 7, a page with layers of paper across the the top and a single landscape photo. We did this one in August to tick off 'South' in the compass point challenge.

Supplies: Paper - Dovecraft, Vicki Boutin Storyteller; Sticker - Vicki Boutin

83.5 Jubilee

I then went back to Day 1, with three big tags and a single portrait photo from Jubilee parkrun in Spennymoor which we ran en route to our recent cruise.

Supplies: Paper - Dovecraft, Heidi Swapp Wanderlust; Stickers - My Mind's Eye, OneCanoeTwo; Nuvo Drops

84. Hoblingwell 

Then Day 6 with another portrait photo on a large banner. Hoblingwell gave us an H for the Alphabet Challenge.

Supplies: Paper - Fancy Pants Little Sprout, Bo Bunny Little Wonders, Maggie Holmes Chasing Dreams; Glitter Tape - The Works; Stickers - Jen Hadfield; Enamel Dots - Altenew, My Mind's Eye

Nomads on Tour

Things have been quiet around here as we've been away on a cruise round the Mediterranean, and then I had to create something to share with you. I'm itching to make a start on my cruise scrapbook but it will have to wait as I have a few things I want to do first, such as finishing my 2023 album and bringing both my parkrun album and my 2024 album up to date.

I'm starting with 2024 and a double page for a weekend in Wales last month. This was organised by a member of Thurrock Nomads, our local running group, with the aim of doing a parkrun on Saturday morning followed by a walk up Pen y Fan in the afternoon. I made both halves of the page using Jenny Wren cut-files from Twilight Crafts as my DT projects this month, with Picture Wheel on the left and Road Sign 2 on the right.

(These are pages 81 & 82 for my page count this year.)

Supplies

Paper - Make & Create Moments, My Mind's Eye Vintage Charm, Make & Create Grunge Dreams, My Mind's Eye Necessities

Letters - American Crafts, Paige Evans

Stickers - OneCanoeTwo, Paige Evans, Pretty Little Studio, 49 & Market

Die-Cuts - OneCanoeTwo

Enamel Dots - Altenew, Maggie Holmes

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