Alaska Scrapbook: Officially Completed

As you can deduce from the title of this entry, I finally finished my Alaskan scrapbook.  I added in a last collage page using my leftover materials and did a little trim along the edge of the front and back covered.

The last photo page of the book is our white water rafting trip in Denali. I feel that was really the completion of the trip. It was the last adventurous thing we did and even though we did the oar boat, it still felt pretty hard core going through category 4 rapids.  These photos were taken by a photographer, so they are the best photos I have of the entire trip.  

The last page, I did a final collage using my leftover scraps.  I threw this collage together in 15 minutes. I did not think too much about placement, I just started gluing. I actually really like it. 

The back cover has a little envelope that says "good finds". This holds the business cards I took from various businesses in Alaska. 

Overall, I'm very happy with this scrapbook. When I look through it all as a whole, it is very different from any other book I've done and I feel like the collages added a different touch.  

DEBATING more scrapbooking, see what I did there?

Nothing sparks creativity like watching the presidential debates.  It's like having white noise or static in the background while I work on finishing my Alaska scrapbook by the end of the week. 

Tonight was a quick page again at our campsite in Denali.  We bought marshmallows to roast but the marshmallows were so large.  My travel buddy Risa and I each tried to stuff a whole one into our mouth and eat it.  

Alaska life savers

Tonight I learned how hard it is to glue pictures with a bandaid on your finger.  My finger probably didn't need to be bandaged, but I had a hangnail that was bleeding a bit. Then I had a vision of glue and other scrapbook related chemicals getting into the cut and giving me some sort of rare glue poisoning and on my tombstone it would read  DIed of Hangnail. Better to be safe than sorry. 

I actually really love the page I did tonight. This page is about when we made it to the visitor center in Denali.  There was a bear nearby and everyone stopped to take pictures of it since it was so close. I took the time to sneak off to the bathroom. When I came out, I couldn't find anyone and momentarily panicked that the bus left without me. Then I heard my friends calling, apparently the bear started coming towards them and they all ran into the bus.  We were then told to go to the roof of the visitor center and we watched the forest ranger clear the trails as the bear headed in that direction.   As the ranger was leading people off the trail, we saw a man walking on the trail above the bear, and the bear was slowly headed in that direction. We tried getting the ranger's attention, but suddenly a woman ran forward screaming BRENT! BRENT! Turns out that guy was her fiance.  We all screamed at him until he finally looked over and saw us pointing. It took a while but he finally understood and turned around.  The ranger also realized what was going on.  Life: saved. 

This is the page about the event. I don't generally do journaling because I find it a bit corny and forced, but this story needed to be told.  So I took a design I actually used earlier in this album and made it better. The captions and title of the page are all typed using "felt marker" font.  I also had this "wild bear: danger" sticker that worked perfectly with the page.  I really like it. 

Not Meeting Deadlines and other things

I didn't make my Alaska scrapbook deadline because I pretend I'm still 21 and go out 5 nights in a row.  I did do two pages in it today though and I only have a few more left so I think DEFINITELY by this weekend. Then I can finally get around to learning to slow.  So much to do, so little time.  Damn having a job. 

These scrapbook pages are  a little plain but I think they work.  It is a double spread with all the bears we saw while on our trip.  The rangers told us ahead of time that it was really rare to see bears, especially up close...but we ended up seeing a ton of bears, one of which we had to run away from. 

I also did a smashbook page tonight but I'll save that for later in the week. 

Alaska Scrapbook: Denali bus trip part 2

I took the day off from work today.  I like to say its because I'm Italian and today is Columbus Day so I should celebrate my Italian heritage. Really, it's because I had so many errands I needed to do and I've been too busy to do them.  I thought I'd get more crafting done today but I only did one scrapbook page. I need to clear my head and get the ideas flowing. There's only a few more pages left in this scrapbook, so new goal: I will finish this scrapbook by Sunday. 

I opened up a scrapbooking idea book today and on the first page was a layout that immediately inspired me to do this page. I loved the layout of the photos.  For the background, I used the back of the map that had a great page title on it, then a piece of the map at the bottom.  

I wasn't sure if I'd ever get around to using this moose embellishment. We saw moose only 1 time on the trip and I didn't have my camera with me since we were riding back from white water rafting.  The embellishment ended up working perfectly in the corner of this page. 

A Scrapbook and Smashbook

I felt a little more inspired this afternoon so I made both a scrapbook page and a smashbook page.  I love the smash book page that I made, I'm eh on the Alaska page.  It looked different in my head.  Oh well. I took the day off tomorrow and along with a bit of shopping, I'm also planning on doing a lot of crafting. Maybe I'll even start exploring my sewing machine.

The scrapbook page is the beginning of our bus trip through Denali National Park.  I used the map as the background but I think I needed a bit more embellishment. 

The smash book page is my night out Friday. When I went to Michael's the other day I bought a few kits that have complimentary papers. Makes it a lot easier to scrap quickly.  

Alaska: Sleeping in a tent

Another page that feels slightly empty but I'm leaving for fear of overdoing.  I've been extremely tired the last 2 nights but I'm forcing myself to work on this album.  Tonight I'm going to bed early..although I'm going out tomorrow so I won't even be using the extra sleep for a good creativity moment. 

Anyway, I don't feel like typing much. Here is the page:

Alaska Camping (so close to finishing...)

My goal for the Alaska scrapbook was to finish it before October. Well, it's October 1st and there's still quite a few more pages left.  Unfortunately the last week or so I've been lazy and down on myself and just a big old grouch face.  Scrapbooking doesn't happen when I'm a big grouch face.  

Back on track this week though, pushing myself to do at least one Alaska page - even though I'm exhausted.  Staying up late for football is a killer (but I love it - except when the Giants lose, then I get sad). 

I'm stretching out the Denali pages out as much as possible. It was the biggest part of our trip and I still have lots of album to fill.  This page is us roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.  It's pretty simple. I feel like there's something missing to it but at the same time I didn't want to overdo it. 

Alaska: Camping First Night

If football was on every night, I would get so much scrapbooking done. There's something about watching the game that just gets me crafting. I think it's because crafting eases my nerves, and I get really anxious watching the Giants--even more anxious now that I started Fantasy Football.  

Tonight I did two pages. I seriously could've done more pages but I'm getting a bit tired and I feel like the pages just would've gotten progressively worse.  I like both of these pages though. They incorporate some scrapbooking techniques with the simplicity of this album.

The first page shows our camp set up in Denali as well as the Alaskan beer we drank. I patterned paper has leaves on it, to enhance the campy feel.  I used the ripping technique at the top of the page.  It's so simple to rip the edges of the page but it definitely gives it a different feel.  

The second page is about starting our fire.  The map cut out is from a leaflet I picked up about Denali at the visitor's center.  The map shows where our camp is and on top of it I pasted the information about our campgrounds (flush toilets yeaaaaa).  The pictures detail the building of the fire. I made little notes on the edges of the photos, describing the steps we took to get the fire going. 

Alaska: Bars and Denali Part 1

It took a long time for me to get off the couch tonight and start working. It actually took a long time for me to get out of bed this morning and go to work. I wanted to call in sick so bad but it's not really my style.  Guilty conscience and all that.  

Anyway, once I finally rallied, I ended up making two pages - and surprisingly I like them both. ::gasps:: Actually no gasps, there's only 3 people reading this blog, so probably not enough gasps for me to actually hear it over here.  

Fun Fact about me: I usually buy things and not use them until almost a year later (this does NOT include food, which I always eat right away like ravenous dog).  This happens very often with clothes and even more often with crafting materials. In this particular case, I bought these sponge paints almost two years ago now and just decided to use them tonight.  They are actually really cool. I made the rainbow design behind my first page with them.  Then I used a rub on over them to get the wording. 

The second page is my collage for Denali. Denali was the big event during the trip so it will probably stretch out quite a few pages (there might even be two full pages devoted to bear pictures, seriously...so many bear pictures). 

Alaska Album: Always visit the Zoo

Whenever I go anywhere, I always end up at the zoo.  I don't know why, zoos are kind of the same everywhere, but I love them.  The Alaska zoo was a little different though. Not only was it vastly smaller than say, the Bronx zoo, I also liked it's goal.  The zoo was more of a conservation center than a zoo.  Most of the animals were rescues (some were hit by cars or hunters, lost wings, injured legs).  The zoo helps nurse them back to health and sometimes lets them back into the wild. Of course it also had non-Alaskan animals like..tigers.  

I took so many pictures of the animals, I didn't want to squish them all into one page.  I made this layout a two page spread. I still had the map of the zoo (of course), and then the front of the map had a blurb about the work they do.  It's a pretty simple layout.  The polar bear sticker is raised, and those types of stickers have been difficult with this type of album.  The top plastic doesn't lie flat and gets very bunchy. It's not too bad though.  I'm actually enjoying this different type of album. Expanding my horizons as they say. 

I took lots of pictures this time from all different angles. Really trying to figure out the best way to showcase the work. 

Sunday Scrapbooking: Alaska Girdwood Part 2

Ah Sundays. If I didn't have to go to work the next day, Fall Sundays would be my favorite day of the week.  No obligations, football all day, got the slow cooker running...it's awesome. Unfortunately, a long week of work awaits me so Sundays always end in disappointment. 

I did a bit of scrapbooking today. I sort of forced myself to scrap, I wasn't in the mood.  I really want to finish this album by the end of September though.  One of my Fall goals is to learn to sew, and I'm not so good at doing two things at once.  Right now my brain can only focus on this scrapbook until it's finished. 

So I did a simple page about our view from the top of the tram in Girdwood. I really need to get better at taking pictures of my scrapbook pages.  I just can't get good lighting anywhere in my apartment.  I tried taking pictures in the bedroom tonight but it didn't come very good. 

Alaska Collage: Girdwood

It's actually cold in my apartment tonight, so exciting!! It may be just about time to start putting the fans away and soon it will be sweater and boots time (although I wore boots today, I just couldn't wait). Fall is in the air, and next week it will officially be fall.  I want to find a nice place to take pictures of the changing leaves, especially with my new camera lens.  

Anyway, tonight is another collage. I'm loving the collage format. It's easy and simple but it still looks great.  It is also a great way to use all the random guidebooks, pamphlets, ticket stubs, stickers, etc. that I picked up along the way.  In the past, I've always struggled with including these items into the layouts. The layouts focus so heavily on pictures, the maps, stubs, information all gets lost.  

Tonight's layout is from our day trip to Girdwood.  We took the tram up to the top of a mountain and I ate reindeer sausage (I'll show that in my next layout).  The views were amazing. I saved the tram ticket stub and a free sticker from the Alyeska resort.  The background is the map of Girdwood from my free guidebook, with two descriptions describing the town and the tram. 

We also stopped at this candle store on the way out of Girdwood. I bought a candle in a Campbell soup can and I wanted to showcase it in the picture of the page.  Because of the white paper + my white wall the page sort of blends together, but I think you can see the page. 

Alaska on the Diagonal

Let me just say, it took me 10 tries to spell the word "diagonal" right in the title.  No matter how I spelled it, it just wasn't looking right. 

I saw this technique today on Ali Edward's blog today - turning the pictures diagonal and running them off the page. I really loved it and decided to use it in my Alaska scrapbook page tonight. I have to admit I'm not 100% satisfied, although that's no surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly. I like the page but I do think the technique would be much better on a traditional scrapbook page. It was really difficult to execute with the plastic covering, so I actually needed to cut the cover off and then relay it on top of the finished page.  

Because of the raised middle embellishment, the plastic doesn't lay flat and doesn't sit well. In person it's not noticeable, but it doesn't photograph well. 

Crafting Goes Better with Football

From disappointments to successes. The Giants are playing tonight, my first fantasy season started tonight and I am actually very satisfied with the Alaska page I made. I'm really loving what I call the "piling on" method. It's basically where I cut out/gather a whole bunch of things that are relevant to the page, plus a photo and pile them on top of each other until it's a visually appealing collage.  I've been using it a lot in this album but it still doesn't feel overused. 

Tonight's page is about our trip to Portage. We took a cruise through the ice to see Portage glacier.  It was fun but I think after this cruise we were all glaciered out. 

Still working on getting a better picture with my new lens. I think I found a great way to prop up the page for the picture, now I just need to get the camera settings right. Learning experience. 

Alaska Album: Hiking, Disappointing Pages and Slightly Yellowed Pictures

You win some, you lose some. Last week my creative juices were flowing like crazy but this week they've died down. This is not stopping me from creating (although maybe it should). I really want to finish my Alaska album, so I have to keep going. 

This entry is about hiking flattop mountain or what I call the scariest experience of my life.  The normally "easy" (to Alaskan) trail was still partly covered in snow. Needless to say the hike wasn't as easy as they said.  Parts of the trail were so narrow and slippery, I really thought I was about to fall to my death (in fact I almost saw a dog do just that). 

I printed out the pictures in the morning but once I started working on the pages, it just wasn't satisfying.  I'm keeping them but I hope this is the only disappointment in the album.  My new lens also didn't take such great pictures, I'll need to redo my picture set up to get used to it. 

Sorry for a dismal entry, the good news is - summer is unofficially over and that means the unofficial fall season has begun. yay. 

Alaska Bike Riding Page and Musings

I've been reading a book about unlocking your creative spirit. It gives you ideas and prompts for getting started with creative projects. One of the prompts was "if you were born to produce just one type of work, what would it be?".  Probably some people would say "scrapbooking" as an answer for me, afterall most of this blog is scrapbooking, but I find this question exceptionally difficult.  I know it is hypothetical but I can't imagine sticking to one medium, and why should I?  I love the idea of learning everything.  How can you know whether a medium is right for you until you try it?  Maybe I am a great painter and I don't know it. Maybe I'm born to sew or make shoes or sculpt weird things out of clay.   

This Fall some of my goals include focusing more on collage/mixed media (taking another class in September), learning to sew and improving my photography. I also want to use my slow cooker more as the weather gets colder and learn to make soup. Yes, soup.  So I don't think I was born to produce just one type of work and I don't think anyone should limit themselves to only one type of work.  Explore more!  As my slightly creepy theology teacher in high school used to say "there's more, there's so much more."

Anyway, for now I guess I will continue on with my scrapbooking.  Another Alaska page, this one about us bike riding along the Coastal Trail.  Another guidebook map, this time I highlighted the trail with embroidery thread. My hands are covered in glue now that won't come off. 

Alaska Album: A satisfying collage

The plans i had for tonight got cancelled, so I ended up scrapbooking...and finishing up the 3rd season of Breaking Bad (Not at the same time).  

Originally I was going to design a collage without photos, just showcasing the day we spent exploring Anchorage.  Instead I added in a photo I had printed out a while ago for something else, and I actually really like the collage. The only nitpicky thing is the bottom right corner is a little empty.  I'm still getting used to scrapping in a photo album and I'm never sure how close I can get to the edge. I really feel like the book is improving as I go along though.  

A lot of times I hate a page when I first do it, and then I put it away in the album, come back to it a few days later, and I'm surprised at how good it looks.  If I could give anyone advice when scrapbooking its that if you are frustrated or the page isn't looking correct, put it away, walk away for a few hours or better yet a few days and come back to it. You'd be surprised at how your perspective changes.