From There to Here

As a non-journaling scrapbooker, I find that transition pages help me tell the story of a trip.  I don’t always remember to take pictures during the travel time and sometimes the trips are short or uneventful, but when I do, I’m always happy to include them as part of my scrapbook.  It’s a seamless transition from one city to the next and serves as an introduction to the following pages.

Ryan and I traveled by train from each city to the next on our first overseas trip together.  Each leg took about 6 hours and the journeys began early in the morning (all before 7).  Like us, you may be spending quite a bit of time traveling from city to city, so why not memorialize it?  The saddness of the goodbye, the anticipation of the next city, and the excitement upon finally arriving are all priceless memories to keep in your scrapbook.

As I mentioned above, if I have the pictures, I like to use the travel between cities as a transition from one section of my scrapbook to the next.  These are some of the easiest pages for me to create; I keep them fairly simple since they are just my “in between” pages.  Below I’ve included my transportation pages from our Italy and France trip in 2009.  Please excuse my first attempt at scanning my pages (unfortunately the machine cut off a bit from the bottom) and enjoy!

1. Arrivederci Venice, Ciao Cinque Terre.  The titles on each side were the most time consuming part of the page.  I used my Cricut machine to cut out the squares (both the blue outer squares and the tan inner squares), so that saved me from doing too much manual labor.  The early morning shot of the Grand Canal is one of my favorites from Venice – I’m glad we took a few minutes to snap some pictures and say goodbye to our first stop in Italy. Venice to Vernazza, Italy, Scrapbook

2. Leaving Vernazza & Arriving Nice.  This page was the easiest of the three.  A simple border around each picture was enough because I chose detailed vellum paper as the background for each side (although it’s hard to tell in the scanned pages).  I love the juxtaposition of peaceful and slow Vernazza with the high-tech train station in Nice.  It was a whole different world, located on a different part of the Mediterranean Sea.Vernazza to Nice, Italy, France, Scrapbook

3. The high-speed train from Nice to Paris.  I like to use anything other than pictures when possible to mix up the pages.  I try to save all tickets, receipts, business cards, etc. in case they work with a scrapbooking page (or help me remember something when I’m wrapping up my journal).  I love this spread because the paper I found was perfect – the background for the Nice side is a map of France and the background of the Paris side has a repeating pattern of the Eiffel Tower and a fleur-de-lis.  However, my favorite part is the repeating “Paris” title.

Nice to Paris, France, Scrapbook

Next time you’re traveling in between stops on your trip, don’t forget to take some pictures and save tickets or other memorabilia to document the transitions.  Not only is it fun to memorialize your last and first moments of a city, but the pages serve as the perfect segue to the next destination!

2009 Europe Scrapbook: Colors and Creations

The following scrapbooking layouts are some examples where I was inspired by something – colors, an object, an idea.  Our trip to Italy and France brought us to so many different cities and sights, and as I put together my scrapbook, I wanted to incorporate as much of their unique qualities as possible.  Enjoy! 

On colors: In the first two scrapbooking layouts (Burano and Vernazza), the brightly-colored paper choices were influenced by the colorful buildings seen throughout the towns. 

The only “side trip” we took from Venice was to the nearby island of Burano, known for colorful buildings and delicate lacework.  The other option we considered was Murano (known for the glass blowing), but we opted to go to the less popular, slightly further island of Burano.  We spent our time wandering through the empty streets, admiring the colorful houses, and shopping in the many lace and souvenir shops.  I wanted to capture the fun, colorful aspect of the town in my scrapbooking page for Burano.  

SuitcaseJournal: Houses of Burano, Venice, Italy

Taken on our visit to Burano, Italy. A nice break from the crowded island of Venice!

SuitcaseJournal: Burano, Venice, Italy by Kristin

Vernazza was our home base for the three nights we stayed in Cinque Terre (the other four fishing villages in Cinque Terre are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, and Monterosso al Mare – we spent at least a little bit of time in each).  All five fishing villages are known for their colorful buildings.  I wanted to construct the Vernazza scrapbooking page by capturing the dominating salmon and yellow colors of the buildings and the beautiful aqua of the Mediterranean. 

SuitcaseJournal: Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy

A picture taken on our hike from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare.

SuitcaseJournal: Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy by Kristin

On creations: In Nice, we stayed at the Mercure hotel, which was separated from the Mediterranean only by the Promenade des Anglais.  This wide promenade was perfect for strolling throughout the day and one of our favorite routes to travel to different parts of the city.  I decided to recreate the look of the promenade by using gray paper for the aspahlt and white ribbon for the line separating the two sides.  While it isn’t a super accurate depiction, it’s a fun way to decorate this scrapbooking page!

SuitcaseJournal: Promenade des Anglais by Kristin

SuitcaseJournal: Close up of Promenade des Anglais scrapbooking page, made by Kristin

A closeup of the paper-and-ribbon Promenade des Anglais.

Finally, one of the last pages I completed for the Europe 2009 scrapbook was the Montmartre page, in Paris, France.  I wasn’t feeling terribly inspired, however I loved the Montmartre area and wanted to include the pictures and memories from that time on our trip.  I had a thought of using a chevron design for the background, but couldn’t find anything that fit what I was looking for.  So, I decided to make my own background.  I love this because it’s something anyone can do – I used a ruler, a pencil, and scissors.  No special scrapbooking tools.  Best of all, I was able to choose the colors and exactly how I wanted the design laid out on the page.

SuitcaseJournal: Montmartre, Paris, France by Kristin

I don’t always have a great idea or use the colors of the photos to influence my pages, but when I do, I generally love the results! My favorite of the above layouts is probably the Vernazza page – the layout is clean and those colors look fabulous together.

Wine Tasting in Santa Ynez – A (Digital) Scrapbook View

Since I began scrapbooking, I have been spent almost 100% of my time and energy on creating physical scrapbooks.  However, I know that not everyone has the time to put together a scrapbook with printed photos, paper, and embellishments (apparently I don’t either, considering I just now finished the scrapbook for a trip from over two and a half years ago).  I am finally stumbling into the world of digital scrapbooking and can’t wait to share what I’ve come up with! It’s a lot quicker and a lot cheaper.  I love how I can choose the size of the pictures without ordering several options.  I can also swap pictures very easily.  I’m looking forward to spending more time on the digital side of scrapbooking, but I am sure I will never give up the physical scrapbooks.

Anyway, during our visit to Solvang, Ryan and I wine tasted in several areas in the Santa Ynez Valley – Solvang (wineries that were not downtown tasting rooms), Los Olivos (downtown), Foxen Canyon (Los Olivos), and Lompoc (the wine ghetto).  On past trips, we have also tasted in downtown Solvang and Santa Maria.  Here are a few pages that I made (my first digital pages!) with pictures from our trip.  I started out with some background “paper” that I created – two using pictures we took and one using Adobe Illustrator.

SuitcaseJournal: Solvang, Santa Ynez Valley Wine Tasting Digital Scrapbooking Paper

Left: Created from a picture taken at a vineyard in Solvang, CACenter: I took a picture of a bar at one of the wineries we visited.  I used a few copies of the picture to fill the page; Right: Created in Adobe Illustrator based on the Danish-style buildings throughout Solvang.

And now for the three pages I completed using the “paper” above:

1.  These pictures were taken while wine tasting, and I wanted to stick with the traditional mix of green and purple to accompany them.  Nothing too fancy (expect for the gorgeous font – Some Weatz Swatches).  I love rounded corners, so I incorporated that easy technique to this page.

SuitcaseJournal: Solvang, Santa Ynez Valley Wine Tasting Digital Scrapbook Layout Idea by Kristin

 2.  This next page is so completely different than any wine tasting page I’ve ever envisioned.  The Lompoc Wine Ghetto consists of 17 wine tasting rooms in warehouses, so the metal background and warehouse flooring seemed very appropriate. For your warehouse flooring needs, your local warehouse flooring installers can be of great help.
SuitcaseJournal: Lompoc Wine Ghetto, Santa Ynez Valley Wine Tasting Digital Scrapbook Layout Idea by Kristin

3. And finally, a few pictures from downtown Solvang!  I used the Danish-style building background for this and found red push pins at this site.  I’ve used brads, eyelets, and other embellishments on pages I’ve created in the past, but real push pins would obviously pose a problem.  I love the cork board look.

SuitcaseJournal: Downtown Solvang Digital Scrapbook Layout Idea by Kristin

And that’s it for the recap of our Solvang trip over the long 4th of July holiday.  We are very much looking forward to all of the other fun trips we have planned this year!

 

First Complete Scrapbook

I have finally finished a project that I’ve been working on for the past two and a half years (though not continuously – moving, buying a house, finding a new job, planning a wedding and honeymoon, and living life got in the way): a scrapbook of Ryan and my trip to Venice, Cinque Terre, Nice, and Paris.  Also known as my first trip out of the U.S. Also known as the trip when Ryan proposed.  Also known as the trip that confirmed a future full of travel for the two of us.

We obviously have great memories from this trip, so I wanted to make sure to capture the special moments, beautiful places, and the fun activities we experienced througout the week and a half we spent in Europe.  Scrapbooking seemed like the perfect solution.  It’s been a hobby of mine for almost 10 years.  I’m definitely not an expert, but I’ve found that it’s a relaxing activity and it produces some amazing results!  I love playing around with different layout ideas and finding creative ways to make each page different.  Plus, it’s a way to give more meaning to the pictures from our travels.  Many scrapbookers journal on the pages and, while I haven’t done much of that in this scrapbook, it’s something that I will likely incorporate in the future.

Without getting too much into the details, I want to share a few of my layouts from this scrapbook. 

1. Exploring Venezia.  Much of our time spent in Venice was exploring the fish-shaped island.  

scrapbook layout exploring venezia venice italy europe scrapbooking travel ideas

2. Castello Doria.  A castle on a high point in Vernazza that was used as a lookout for pirates.  The views were spectacular!

scrapbook layout castello doria vernazza cinque terre italy europe scrapbooking travel ideas

3. Colline du Chateau.  Castle Hill is the best place to go for breathtaking views of Nice. 

scrapbook layout colline du chateau nice france europe scrapbooking travel ideas

4. Arc de Triomphe.  From the top and the bottom, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was one of our favorite sights to visit. 

scrapbook layout arc de triomph paris france europe scrapbooking travel ideas

This is only a small subset of the pages I’ve created for this scrapbook of our 2009 trip to Europe.  I can’t wait to share more!