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.  

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. 

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. 

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: 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. 

Alaska Album: Started (finally)

Have you been wondering what happened in Alaska? Well, you are in luck. Tonight, after sitting on my couch with the olympics on mute, watching "breaking bad" episodes on my computer, I sat up and thought...I'm going to start my Alaska album.  I don't know where the sudden motivation came from but I'm grateful for it.

I want the Alaska album to be different from scrapbooks I've done in the past.  I want my scrapbooks to start having a real scrapbook feel - vintage elements, collages and incorporating more memorabilia.  I've been studying collage and mixed media artists and it's been inspiring. 

I did the opening page of the album tonight. I used fabric that I bought at a quilt shop in Alaska for the background (i lost my pinking shears, so the ends of the fabric are a little frayed).  I brought a folder with me to Alaska and saved every scrap of paper in it.  I used some of the cut outs from those papers - a map and the sunrise/sunset times.  I also found this children's book in my parent's house, a children's dictionary and I cut out the bear picture from it.   I'm satisfied with this page. I think the album will get increasingly better as I get better at the collage elements. 

My scanner is working again! The background elements get a little blurry because the Alaska Vacation sticker is raised:

Olympic Collage

It's no secret - I love the Olympics. Like LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.  I took 2 days off from work this week just so I can sit on my couch and watch it ALL.DAY.LONG. True story.  I love the idea of the Olympics - the idea that all countries - rich, poor - war-torn - come together to play sports.  Sports is what brings us all together.  It's amazing, it really is. 


So knowing my extreme love of the Olympics, it shouldn't be surprising that I dedicated a smash book page to the event.  I used my skills learned from the collage class I recently took (gotta get my money's worth).  I want to incorporate more collages into the smash book.  That's why I need to start updating more frequently during the week so I collage with how I feel that day. 


Anyway, here is the page.  My scanner kept giving me an error message so I had to take a picture of it instead. I don't think the picture came out too bad. The images are all from last month's magazines, with just some letter stickers added in to say London 2012.

I can collage too!

Last night I took the Mixed Media and Collage class. It was so much fun!  Good timing too because the teacher is moving to Montreal so it was the last time they were going to run the class.   


I've always loved mixed media art but I never understood how people did it. My collages always turn out wrinkly and peeling.  This class taught us about photo transfers - super cool. Matte Media transfers - also super cool.  Dry media, wet media and basic collage. They taught us how to glue elements down without too many wrinkles and what type of paper won't curl too much.  Now I just need to figure out where to get all the supplies -although most of them are highly flammable so maybe my apartment is not the best area for it. 


I scanned in some of the images we made in class.  I didn't expect to bring home a fantastic collage after a 3 hour class, but I am satisfied with how silly and neat these are.  I hung them on my fridge because i wasn't sure what else to do with them. 


Collage 1: Matte Media Transfer

Collage 2: Paint, Collage, Photo Transfer, Pastels, Stamps

Collage 3: Paint, Collage, Photo Transfer, Stamps

I'm going to read some of my collage books I've been saving now that i know how to do some of the techniques...and maybe look up even more classes I can take.