Travel Album

I had wanted to post these before the weekend, but it was March break and the time was just FLYING by on me. So for those of you who were looking, so sorry to keep you waiting... A few summers ago, Brian, Sarah & I family made a trip with my father to Europe to visit some friends in England. We toured parts of England with them, and holidayed in Spain with them (people in England head to Spain for holidays the way people in Ontario head to Florida), and before we caught up to them, we did a car tour through Belgium into Holland. It was an unbelievable three weeks, and while it's taking me awhile to get the scrapbook done, I am enjoying every bit of it - especially reliving the memories! I am up to Spain,now, so there's not much left. So last Wednesday, Mom came into town for a craft day - she made cards the mass production way and got I think over 20 cards in about 4 designs done. She's set for awhile! I used the day to scrapbook and got two double layouts done. They both are set in a Gibraltar. The first layout shows the sights of Gibraltar a little bit. I used some leftover designer paper I had from the Summer mini called Petal Patch for this one, and the layout itself comes from one of those Becky Higgins sketches books. I stamped the Fine Lace background stamp in craft White on Bashful Blue for the left page and layered on a scrap of the striped paper. The tag came from the Just Delightful SAB kit. I punched flowers from in Bashful Blue and Close to Cocoa, inked the edges with craft White and started layering them using brads from the Soft Subtles. The non-SU fabric tag at the bottom of the page has been kicking around here a long time and the colours worked. The right hand page is also a simple layout, and both the flowery paper and the stripes come from the same collection. The barbary apes that inhabit the rocks of Gibraltar aren't native, but were introduced during the war (soldiers brought them back from Africa, which is just across the sea and can be seen on a clear day without a telecope). They are semi-tame, at least with the mini-bus guides. I knew my very good friend and customer got this Monkey Business set for Christmas, so I scooted down the road to borrow it.Thanks Christa! The left page features a photo of an ape being fed by a tour bus guide and I love the expression on Connor's face (right behind the ape)- he's just so caught up in the moment! I layered the photo onto a Certainly Celery piece stamped with the vine in Almost Artichoke and layered that onto a vanilla mat, sponged in celery. That then is layered onto a vine-printed scrap from the same collection as the previous page. I used the Big Deal set to stamp the title along with some hand-writing. For the right hand page, I used the emboss resist technique: I stamped the vine with Versamark ink onto Vanilla cardstock, sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat it. Once melted and cooled, I sponged on four shades of green: Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss and Almost Artichoke. The monkeys are stamped and clear embossed,trimmed out and raised up on Stampin' Dimensionals. So that was my play time last Wednesday - what do you think?