LOAD222 – The Third Week

LOAD222 has officially been over for almost a week now and I’ll be honest, it’s taken me this long to “recover”. LOL

It is a lot of fun to make a layout every day, post it, Instagram it, comment on it, etc, etc, etc but boy, oh boy, it’s exhausting! So now I’m “running behind” with these recap posts. Hey, it’s my blog and it’ll do with it what I like!

Day 15 – Guest Stars

Today we were to scrapbook about someone that made an impression in our lives but since I’d already done that by being the guest designer for Day 15, I chose to get another page added to my UK 2017 trip album instead. I did manage to use the technique prompt of stars though. And if you follow me on Instagram you saw that I first spelled the name of the castle wrong. But I fixed it.

Funny story though, I realized a few days ago that these are actually two different castles. (Face palm!) The castle in the mist on the left is Kilchurn Castle, the one on the island is Stalker Castle – made famous in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie. So I will have to fix this layout yet again for my own OCD needs for accuracy in reporting.

Day 16 – Janice “Oh … My … God!”

Our prompt was to scrapbook about something annoying or a pet peeve and to use a technique we avoid. Sticking with the holiday photos, I thought it worked to tell how I actually don’t like organized tours like the bus tour we did of the Scottish Highlands (well, not REAL highlands, just the ones we could reach within a days drive of Glasgow – you know, touristy highlands, sigh). My husband Greg loves tours. Goes on and on about the Contiki Tours he did as a young adult. Figures he’s “seen Europe” because of them. I backpacked, stayed in hostels, hooked up with locals, saw the sights, got lost driving in Sienna, you know, generally wandered.

Different strokes and all that.

So I told a teeny bit of that story in my journaling today, and for technique embraced all the messy and distressy techniques (yes, that is totally a word!) I normally like clean lines and clean colours, but I immediately grabbed my Vicki Boutin Mixed Media Backgrounds and quite literally tore into it. There are tools on the market that will give you a distressed edge, but I just used a pair of scissors (open them up and scrape them hard along the edge of your paper – just be careful not to cut yourself). In the process I tore the paper in spots. Great! Time to play it up by making it look completely intentional. And once backed in a coordinating colour, those rips and tears look awesome.

I also quite liberally dropped Gold Mist on the background before I added the photos and journaling on top. It was a lot of fun to do and, I think you will agree, quite out of character for me. In my album this page will stand out from all the others which may bother some people, but it’s nice to have pages like this in a larger project. It allows the viewers eye a chance to rest. Looking at page after page with a similar style will get stale, so keep things fresh by mixing it up. Throw a pocket page into the mix, or a wildly coloured and designed page like this one, and have fun with your project.

Day 17 – The Turkey

The prompt was to scrapbook about a first; a first moment, prom, license, job, birthday, etc. And to make a layout with one featured colour. I was really feeling on a roll with my photos from Scotland and was initially going to scrapbook anything and just embrace the technique prompt, but I realized that I could expand on the stories I’d already scrapbooked about our trip down the River Clyde on the paddle wheeler The Waverly.

As I say in the journaling, this was the first time I’d ever been on the river. I’ve visited Glasgow more times than I can count – when I lived in Edinburgh in the late 90’s I’d come through to Glasgow every week or two to visit my Grandpa and Aunt Jean. Every visit to them meant a trip over the river on the train, but I’d never been on the river. So I realized I could use the story prompt after all.

Considering we were on the water, it made sense to embrace the colour blue for the technique prompt. I used all papers from My Mind’s Eye Gingham Foundry line (currently on sale at my store). The muted blues and greyed whites worked so well with my photos. And since most of my letter sticker sheets are pretty picked over, I used three different fonts to create my title. To help those glittery blue letter stickers not stand out too much, I added some of the punctuation marks into my embellishment clusters.

Day 18 – Gunther the Barista: Obsessed with Rachel

Today we were scrapbooking about our obsessions and, to honour Gunther’s bright head of hair, use something sunshine inspired. I have scrapbooked about Edinburgh Castle many times. And even in this trip album I’ve got other layouts about the castle. So yeah, I’m a teensy bit obsessed with it! But I mean, look at it!! How stunning is it sitting on the top of the hill, overlooking the city? That right there was why I spent almost 2 years living in Edinburgh. Every time I would walk out of the train station I’d be greeted with this view. It’s a bit like the view of the North Shore mountains in the Lower Mainland. You can be suffering through 40 straight days of rain and yuck, and then the sun comes out and you see those mountains and boom! You remember why you suffer through the rainy season!

I kept this layout really simple. Far more simple than I normally do and more simple than I intended. I was short on time when I made it and so got the basics down – photos, title, and journaling. I thought I’d come back and add more “bits” to the layout the next day but the more I looked at it, the less I wanted to. I love a layered look with lots of embellishments, but sometimes you’ve just got to let the photos shine. My sunshine element is the gold glitter letter stickers and the yellow patterned paper I used to mat the photos.

Day 19 – Joey “All the Clothes”

The prompt today was to scrapbook our outfit of the day. We were to answer the question of “what’s in our closet?” What are we wearing these days and how does it fit our life? And for technique we were to use colours that don’t match. All this was inspired by the episode where Joey puts on ALL of Chandler’s clothes – remember that one. Well I pretty much live in leggings and comfortable, layered tops at the moment and that really wasn’t inspiring me, so I looked elsewhere for inspiration. And I remembered that my youngest daughter Christine went through quite the fashion phase a few years ago. I had snapped this photo one morning and posted it to Facebook as her outfit was even more mismatched than normal!

I had fun with the technique prompt too. I’ve been scrapbooking for so long now and have tried many styles and manufacturers, and seen so many different patterned papers over the years, that I don’t necessarily think in terms of colours not “working together”. You can basically make anything work, it’s all in how you place them on the page, and how you accessorize. But for this layout I used the colours in my daughters outfit as my jumping off point. I knew I didn’t have anything in a leopard print to match her tights, but when I saw the teal large scale wood grain, I knew it would work instead. When it came time to embellish, I kind of went nuts! I figured if there was ever a time to use ALL THE THINGS this was it. LOL!

Day 20 – Wedding Dresses

Today we were inspired by the episode where all the girls wear wedding dresses and tasked with scrapbooking a celebration, wedding, or special event. We were to use white and/or lace. I immediately thought of all the photos I have of my eldest daughter trying on potential Grad dresses. I have an album in my phone of all the dresses she tried on, and the one she chose, so it was easy to pick a few and print them off. I kept the “rejects” small so that it was clear which dress she chose.

I didn’t have lace but thought doilies would work instead. Since Marley’s dress is yellow, I wanted to have my background paper be yellow, but as we tried on dresses of all different colours, I added some of those colours onto the layout too. The doilies add a lovely softness to the layout, and that vellum paper with the hearts brings all the colours together while adding a much needed separation from the yellow dress photos and the yellow background paper. Plus it’s been in my stash for years, so it was time to get it on a page!

Day 21 – Marcel the Monkey

The story prompt was to scrapbook something that brings us comfort or joy, and to use alliteration in the title. I took this in a bit of a tongue in cheek direction, and scrapbooked about my morning coffee. Specifically, the mugs I drink my morning coffee from. When we visited Disneyland in 2012 I bought a big mug of Grumpy Dwarf as that sort of felt funny to me. Then Christine bought me a mug for Mother’s Day with Greatest Mom on it which I admit I don’t use a lot as I don’t like how if feels in my hand. But I totally love the thought behind the gift! Then in 2019 I picked up my current favourite mug – the Marauder’s Map one from Universal Studios Los Angeles. Love me some Harry Potter magic every morning!

I tried for alliteration in the title (that’s when each word starts with the same letter or sound) but … not sure I really nailed that one. As for the rest of the design, I searched my stash for anything coffee related and once I’d found a few things, looked for patterns, colours, and designs that brought me joy. Simple as that.

Okay, that’s the third week wrapped up. I’ll be back soon for the final 7 layouts and then we’ll look at what a stack of 28+ layouts looks like. I’ve been working throughout this challenge to finish the Scotland portion of my 2017 UK trip album, and I’m close. I’ll share the completed albums soon too. And then it’ll be time to move on to the England and France portions of our trip. Yep, still got a long ways to go with this project but that’s okay, I’ve got plenty of time, and a whole scrapbook store to shop from when my own stash runs low!

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