Vintage Cowboy Card

Hello Friends --

Sneak peak of today's card

There are two challenges going on right now that I've been thinking about and wanting to enter (The Kraft Journal and Gingersnap Creations).  Somehow they both became combined and these two cards are what I've created.  

Let me back up.  For any of my readers that were around back in November, you will remember a picture of a little slice of paradise.  You can see the post I'm talking about here.  This is my brother's place in Granby, Colorado. If you want some gorgeous pictures and a real look at a working ranch I recommend checking out his website.  If you go to the bottom (just keep scrolling, it is a long ways down) you can see a slide show of the ranch.  There are some great shots of one of my nieces and some other fantastic pictures.

One of the barns on the Strawberry Creek Ranch

My brother's office

So, back to the crafting, my friends over at Gingersnap Creations have an Old West theme this month.  When the first challenge was Cowboys and Cowgirls I HAD to play along (You can find the challenge here.  It doesn't close for awhile so you still have plenty of time to join in the fun).  I mean how could I not?  So, I started searching for a nice little digi with a vintage feel.  I found a couple that might work but not perfectly.

So, then I thought about all the wonderful pictures of my brother.  You see, he is the real thing.  An honest to goodness cowboy.  I thought about the tons and tons of pictures we have of him but none were quite what I wanted.  So, I ran over to his website here. 

This picture at the top of his website was perfect for what I wanted, well almost.  

photo by Emily Kitching

It doesn't have much of a vintage feel, now does it?  So, I went about turning it into this.

Now that is better, with a bit of a sepia modification with one of my favorite tools, Picnik it looks like a fantastic vintage photo.  

This is the first card I made with the photo.  I reprised some cardboard from last week's Christmas Gift Tags.  You can see that post here (in case you missed it with all the blogger issues).  The design paper is some I bought a LONG time ago.  In fact, I think I might have purchased it in Montana with my sister-in-law.  The button is a wooden button I dyed with Tim Holtz Fired Brick Distress Ink.  I used the same ink on the twine wound round the card base.  

The photo at the top shows a close up of the button and some of the twine.

Here is the second card.  This one was made specifically for the ladies over at The Kraft Journal.  They wanted to see Buttons and Bows.  While my first card has a button and a bow, I didn't know if they would find one sufficient so I worked up a second card just for them.  It doesn't have quite as much depth to it, it is a bit cleaner than the first card but still has that dramatic photo. 

What do you think of the two cards?  Do you have a favorite?  Do you get that vintage feeling?  Are there any special changes you would recommend to make either of them better?  

Finally, just a little warning for all those folks thinking they want to chuck it all and move to this bit of paradise, it comes with a price.  When I called my brother today to confirm the photographer of the photo I learned that the day had been nice but they were getting ready to drive through a snow storm.  For my readers Down Under remember we are heading into summer and here in Atlanta we were forced to turn on the air conditioning this week and have had quite a few days in the 90's already.  I love visiting the ranch but for longer periods of time, I'll stick to summer in the mountains (the months of July and August).

Is it still your favorite color if...

Ask anyone that knows me well, they would tell you my favorite color is purple.  Its been my favorite  since I was a tweener.  That being said, I wear very little purple.  I don't have a significant amount of purple in my home.  Here and there I've got some purple -- a purple water bottle, a purple dress I wear for bed, that kind of thing.   When my family recently purchased paper for my birthday I received a few sheets of purple paper.  I think it is the bulk of my patterned purple paper.

Until yesterday, I don't think I had made a purple card in at least 18 months.  And, I don't own purple ribbon -- of any shade.  I didn't have any purple buttons or embellies or anything.

However, I had two shades of purple Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  Now I have purple ribbon, buttons and paper.  I made them myself.  I must say, if you are willing to be a bit adventurous, Tim Holtz can be a HUGE help.  His Distress Inks are incredible and if you buy them in "families" you can do some fantastic things (even more than stamping).

On the other hand, not a week goes by without my using some kraft paper.  It is as common for me to use kraft as a card base as white.  I love to stamp onto kraft paper.  But can I tell people my favorite color is kraft?  I think not.  I'd be laughed right out of the blogosphere.  And my family, well they would have a fit.  You can't make a decision on which  ____________ (fill in the blank) to buy if a person's favorite color is kraft.  Isn't that like saying your favorite color is white?

So, can I still say my favorite color is purple?

On to the Card

I'm certain you would rather see my card.  I've quite rambled on and on about this favorite color issue, and probably beaten that poor dead horse to bits.

So, while making yesterday's card I had so many mis-steps I was able to make two more cards.  I'll tell you about one today and keep one for a "rainy day".

Anyone up for a kraft and purple card (It is the best of both worlds, isn't it)

I've been dieing to use these library book pockets since I bought them almost a month ago at the oh so lovely Kraft Outlet.  Every time I thought I had a place for them I couldn't make it work.  Today, I persevered and it stayed in the project with some yummy Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Milled Lavender.  The design on the top is from Tim Holtz Seasonal Stack.  Underneath the library pocket is a bit of the other side of the Tim Holtz paper.  Do you know how tough it was for me to turn that wonderful print over so I could have the matching purple paper?  Luckily, I bought two stacks of this so I have some still uncut.

A better view of the wonderful Tim Holtz paper.  Doesn't it look wonderful,
almost like a seed packet.

The tag is a stamp from Unity stamps -- It is called Becoming Butterfly although my LSS had it as a set with four other stamps.  I stamped it using the Tim Holtz Concord Grape Distress Inks.  I used a combination of Concord Grape and Milled Lavender for the ribbon and my tiny attacher keeps it in place.

This is my submission for this week's challenge at Kraft Journal.  It not only has kraft in it, it also has the library card purchased at Kraft Outlet.  The theme was spring.  Do you think it turned out spring like?

Make a plan then...

Hello Friends -

A friend of mine recently created a facebook post about a project asking women to write a sign about what they would say to themselves the day before their first child was born.  Here is the link if you are up for a look.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taDqKWWPDAY&feature=player_embedded  It has some fun music and GREAT signs.

 I said my sign would say, "Make a plan then be prepared to change it."

I've always been the type of person to plan everything. My family laughs at the fact I can make multi-tabbed spreadsheets for the vacation grocery shopping.  One tab for everything we need to buy, a second for just the liquor store, yet another for Costco and a final one for the regular grocery store.  I make multiple copies so we I can recruit additional people to take a portion and we can get the shopping done.  This spreadsheet, however, requires an agreed upon menu for the week and so on and so on.  Now, in my defense, they laugh but they all appreciate it and rely on the fact that I won't get us out to an island without enough food for everyone.

When my son was born I was one of those people with a birth plan. I had five pages of how I wanted the birth to go.  I read everything under the sun so I could think out each and every scenario. Well, the best advice in the world came from my doctor.  She said, "Thank you for this plan, I"m glad to know how you would like things to go but I need you to be prepared to make changes if things aren't working out."  And she was correct.  I could make as many plans as I wanted but the Wonderkid has always had his own ideas and they weren't always in sync with mine.  We went from Natural Childbirth to an Emergency C-Section after induced labor.  It wasn't my plan at all but it was the best way to deal with the cards I was dealt.

Today's card was a reminder of the importance of making plans and then being prepared to scrap (no pun intended - hehehe) them whenever necessary.

I stuck to the sketch.  It is a challenge with Papercraft Star and created by Liz Chidester.

But this is what I started out with.  These were both going on the left hand side of the card.

These designs are part of the Tim Holtz Seasonal stack.  Aren't they fun?  And they are completely in keeping with my style.  They would be lovely with kraft paper.

However, this is where I ended up.  It is still Tim Holtz although I stamped this design on white paper instead of cutting out a design.

The card topper is Core'dinations Whitewash with a purple core.  I then used a Cuttlebug 5 x 7 Damask folder to emboss it and I sanded the paper to bring out the design a tad more.  The ribbon is a bit of rayon I died with my Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Milled Lavender and Concord Grape).  The button is a white button I inked with the Concord Grape Distressed Ink and the heart was cut out using the Beyond Birthdays cart.  The sentiment is also a Tim Holtz acrylic stamp.

So, the plan was fine but being flexible and willing to change as the situation dictates makes for a better life ... and a better card.  Wouldn't you agree?

Bluemoon Scrapbook Layout Sketch

This is my take on the Bluemoon Scrapbooking monthly challenge.  Here is a link to the challenge in case you want to join in.  They have a really incredible prize package, you get $40 to spend at Bluemoon Scrapbooking.  Do you know how much damage I could do with $40?  They have some stamps from Australia that I have been coveting.  They also have a little bit of Jillibean Soup paper and canvas stars.  Don't buy all of it though, I want to stock up on what they have. 

Here is a copy of the sketch.

I must admit, sketches often times help a layout come together very quickly. I hadn't used them until very recently but I'm starting to love them. 

I've had this Jillibean Soup paper on my mind for the last few weeks and I must admit I adore it.  I thought it looked fantastic with the Wonderkid's sweater.  If you click on the picture you can get a close-up of the entire layout.

Here is one portion of it.

Does he look like trouble or what?

The outer layer is Jillibean Soup Kosher Salt from the Lentil Soup collection.  I was on their website looking at papers and I couldn't find it.  I may be a very unhappy person.  I NEED my papers and I think I used the last piece of this one.  I'll show you a little trick later in this post, though.

The upper textured layer is from the coordinating Core'dinations Jillibean Soup stack.  I didn't sand it this time, although I thought about it for quite some time.  I loved the way it looked without the sanding.  It is crisp and clean this way.  The button comes from my stash but the bakers twine is a Jillibean Soup beanstalk.  They have a package of red and brown bakers twine.  It is so soft, I was amazed at how wonderful it feels.  

I used a Tim Holtz stamp from Stamper's Anonymous for the circle in the middle of the layout.  It is part of the Visual Artistry sets.  I don't know where they hide the names of each set so I can't help you find it any more than that.  I used Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks.  All of the cream paper has the edges inked with Chestnut Color Box inks.  It matchs the dark brown of the Jillibean Soup papers very nicely.

I promised you a little trick.  It was killing me to cover 10.5 inches of this paper and not do a single thing with it. So, I cut out the center (No one will ever notice except for you and me, and you won't tell, will you?)  Here is a picture of the back of the layout.

I know the photo isn't great but I took it after I turned off all the lights in my light box.  The Jillibean paper is around the Core'dinations.  I couldn't stand the thought of wasting all that paper.  Some might call my cheap, I consider myself frugal and maybe just a little bit of a hoarder.  If I had known I might have trouble finding more of this paper, I would have cut even more of the paper.  Isn't it yummy?  I haven't decided what to do with the piece I cut but I can easily get a couple of cards out of it or even use it as part of a layout.  That piece was big enough, it could be an 8 x 8 layout base.  So, do you blame me?  Am I crazy?  Do you do the same thing?

I think I'm going to go work out a better way of photographing 12 x 12 layouts.  I can't stand the angle that I have on this one.  I haven't photographed a layout in so long I hadn't worked out all the issues.  I'm also thinking I want some new Bristol board for my light box.  It never seems to end.

On a side note, if you are ever in Colorado and looking for a good photographer.  Andrea Flanagan is fantastic.  She took this picture of the Wonderkid.

I think I'll be back tomorrow with a t-shirt for the Wonderkid to wear on St. Patrick's Day.  

Tiddly Inks Kraft Card

This is going to be a quick post with only one picture but I'm very pleased with this card.

The challenge over at Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog was to use Kraft Cardstock on a card with a Tiddly Ink image.  That wasn't much of a challenge for me.  I think I have more Kraft Cardstock than anything else.  It is interesting inking on Kraft as opposed to white or other lighter colors because you can't do a lot of shading.  It seems to make my work look better since I don't think shading is my strongest suit.

The boards are two copies of the one in Carpenter Joe's hand (click on his name to go to the store and buy him).  I made them much bigger and cut them out of his hand.  The interesting thing, the spot where it looks like I was drawing the continuation of that knot in the Tim Holtz Wood embossing folder is actually the edge of Carpenter Joe's hand.  It lined up when I wasn't looking.  I didn't even notice until I was taking the pictures to post here.

Christy over at Tiddly Inks released some very cool new digis, she calls them Gothic Pin-ups.  They are a ton of fun and well worth a look.  You can find them here.  She has 6 girls and 3 papers to go along with them.

So, what do you think of my card?  Is my inking getting any better?  Don't you just love Carpenter Joe?  I think I'm going to put this in the Wonderkid's lunch bag tomorrow.  I went to his "Narrative Review" (his school's version of conferences) and they said he was amazing.  The entire time they were talking I kept thinking, "Whose child are they talking about and can I take him home tonight?"

Pop-Up Cards at The Cuttlebug Spot

I'm enjoying trying a number of new types of cards.  If you are ever looking for designs and tutorials, Splitcoast Stampers is the place to go. Oh my goodness, some of the things they have designed.  They are incredible and the tutorials are FANTASTIC. 

This week Cuttlebug Spot is continuing the different card folds challenges.  The challenge was a pop-up card.  Well, that sounds specific but let me tell you, there are lots of types of pop-up cards.  There is the traditional type where you open it up and something stands up, there is the type that you pull something and the card either turns into an easel card or the tag comes out and reveals another design, oh why am I telling you about all the different types.  If you don't know what they are go to this post at the Cuttlebug Spot and look at what the design team cooked up. 

I made the card inspired by Agnes.  The directions come from Splitcoast Stamper and can be found here (printed and video what could be better)?

Here is the card opened up.  It stands by itself.

Doesn't that make a fun thank you card?  Now, if you look at the papers, you might be wondering what has gotten into me.  That is a lot of pink and look, I put flowers on it also.  I stamped lovely images from Tim Holtz on the tag.  Well, here is the deal with the paper and ribbon.  A couple of months ago (maybe 6 now but who is counting?) I bought a box of stuff from Stampin' Up.  I liked the concept of inks and ribbons and paper all coordinating.  This would make it a little quicker when I wanted to make something.  Well, I bought a bunch of stuff and much of it was on sale.  I don't know what I was thinking because I ended up buying bright pink (they call it Rose) paper and ribbon.  It coordinates in a lovely way but reality, this just isn't my color.  So, I tried to force myself outside of my box and not only do a unique card fold but also use papers I wouldn't normally use. 

This shows you the dry embossing on the pattern paper.  That paper came from My Mind's Eye.  It is called Celebration Tracker.  It has a wonderful rose color so in person, it actually matches.  I'm not certain the colors look so good in the pictures.  The flowers were in my stash. 

I'm loving this card style.  What do you think?

Kraft Christmas Card Using a Stencil

This week's challenge at Bah Humbug was to use a stencil on a Christmas project.  Now, I love the idea of stencils (and masks).  In fact, I've bought 3 or 4 of Tim Holtz's masks but I've never used a single one.  Each and every one is still in its packaging waiting for me to use them.  Shh, don't tell anyone, I like to pretend that ALL of my craft supplies were NECESSARY. 

When I looked at the stencils I own, none of them really said "Christmas" to me.  So, they are still in their packaging.  However, I REALLY wanted to play along with the Bah Humbug Challenge. 

So, I thought about it and decided that I couldn't justify buying more stencils or masks.  I decided the best idea was to make my own stencil.  I pulled out a piece of acetate (mine came from a package of overhead projector pages) and placed it in my Cricut.  I cut out three snow flakes of varying size and style from the Winter Lace cart.  On a side note, I kept trying to tell myself I didn't really need this cart but when it went to $12 recently I just couldn't pass it up and I'm so glad I have it.  I've used it at least a half dozen times in just a couple of weeks.

Here are the snowflakes after I used them as a stencil.

I have cleaned them off since and I plan to put them next to the stencils I've purchased.  I used my Tombow Repositionable tape to adhere the stencils to the card.  Then I spread white A La Mode pigment ink over the stencils.  On the card above, I used Versamark and A La Mode Sparkle Embossing Powder before I started the inking.  The card below I applied the pigment ink with the stencils and then the embossing powder. 

I think I like the first card better.  What do you think?

Christmas Card Embossed with a Holly Leaf

I have watched all of the wonderful cards created for some of the challenge blog sites and have been wanting to submit some items.  In fact, the reason I initially created this blog was so I would have a place to post my cards for the different challenges.  That was 6 months ago and while I've created a number of things, I haven't done a challenge since last July/August.  I'm hoping that will change. 

Without further ado, here is my Christmas card for today.

I wanted to try a new technique.  I embossed a piece of white cardstock using the Tim Holtz Sizzix embossing folder, Merry Christmas.  The embossed cardstock is 4 inches by 5.25 inches.  I covered my brayer with green ink, then rolled it over the embossing folder.  I must tell you, I was a bit nervous as I did this to one of my brand new embossing folders but it came off with just a baby wipe.  My embossing folder looks just fine.  I would have liked to have the ink a little darker and I'm not certain why the center section never quite inked the paper but I still like the effect.  Then, I added a bit of holly (I used the cricut cut from Joy of the Season) and I put all of it on a card topper of red with gold glitter florishes.  The card base is white card stock.  The red paper comes from Little Yellow Bicycle. 

Here is a close-up of the holly and the embossing.

I hope you like this and that it will inspire you to try something new, whether that is doing a challenge or a new technique.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  If you like what you see, please consider becoming a follower.

Christmas Cards

 I didn't get a chance to make many Christmas cards this year.  I ended up working on a number of large project instead.  Then, there were lots and lots of baked goodies.  Anyway, it just didn't happen this year.  I'm thinking about doing a ton of them early in the new year so I'm ready for next year. 

This card was made fairly quickly but I love it.  I used some acetate (I have a ton of it from all of the packaging around my house and I never seem to work it out to use it.) to attach the snowy house to the card.  This next picture shows the card straight through.  I used rock candy stickles on the snow covered roof and the ground.  The oval frame was a freebie from SVGCuts.  Isn't it lovely.

I placed the acetate between the top of the card and the next layer.

When I designed this card in my head, I embossed the card topper and then put the oval frame around it.  However, when I put the frame around the oval with the embossing, it was just too much.

So, I made two cards.  Each is very different but uses the same basic cuts.

I love this Tim Holtz embossing folder.  I ran the card topper through twice, once for each end of the card.  The card topper is 1/2 inch smaller than the card base.  Again, I cut an oval in the base and the card topper and put a piece of acetate between the two in order to afix the snowy house onto the card.

Here is the card opened up so you can see through the card.

I tried to get a closer view of the embossing but I couldn't get a crisp clear picture of it. 

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas cards and had yourself a wonderful holiday. I'm trying to finish one big project which I hope to be able to share in the next day or so.  Stay warm and safe and happy crafting.

One More Advent Calendar

I purchased this Advent Calendar file from SVGCuts.com.  It can be purchased here.  I need to start this post off with a couple of observations.  I did a LOT of Advent Calendars this year, five in total.  Three of them I designed myself and two of them I "bought".  The first was the Christmas Village Cartridge from Provo Craft.  I normally find that purchasing something from Provo Craft (the maker of all the Cricut "stuff") is the easier way to do things.  The cuts all fit together easily and they tend to be very straight forward. 

Christmas Village was not that way.  You can see my Bethlehem Village here.  There were virtually no "directions" on how to make it fit together.  You had two villages on one cart (the Middle Eastern/Bethlehem Village and the Victorian Village) and you had a bunch of boxes but no real idea about where they fit, what size they should be or how many you needed.  It is a nice cartridge but it isn't intuitive like most of their carts and thus not easy to use.  I think Robotz was similar but at least with that one you had everything you needed on one key and could work it out fairly quickly.  That wasn't the case on Christmas Village.  My other complaint about the cart is all of the figures have been made to stand up.  If you want to put them on a scrapbook page, they will have a slit along the bottom.  If Provo Craft would change the slit just a little, it could be hidden in Design Studio or with the Gypsy and then the uses multiply. Please, don't take this a slam against Provo Craft.  I love my carts and I love using SCAL.  Sometimes one is a better fit for what I want to do, sometimes another. 

As tough as Christmas Village was, SVGCuts Advent Calendar was a breeze. They have a 15 minute tutorial online so you can watch one being put together.  I think that made it more likely I would buy the file but it wasn't actually necessary once you started cutting the pieces out.

The bottom of the calendar is a plain square.  If you don't change any of the dimensions (which you don't need to when importing it into SCAL) it will be 11.5 inches square.  I made mine black.

Here are all of the pieces.  The top 4 are the ones for the outer edge.  The remainder of the pieces are the edges of each box. 

As you can see, each box wall has the number on it so you can put it in the correct place on the calendar face. I had three sheets of 12 x 12 cardstock for the inner boxes alone.  I must say these were very easy to fold, barely needed my bone folder and certainly didn't need my score board. 

Here is a close-up of the bottom left corner.  I love all the details.  The directions describe the doors as 3 shades of green, two shades of red and white for most of the numbers.  After doing this once, I would probably do more of them in solid shades and then emboss some, stamp some and decorate them in other ways. 

Some of the boxes are fairly wide.  It is easy to put a lip gloss in at least 4 of them.  You could also fit things the size of 3 or 4 tea bags (as you can see in #19 here).  I made gift tags to put inside #21 since that should be early enough that they can still be used this year. 

These are some of the doors before I inked the edges and attached them to the appropriate doors.

This is the white glitter cardstock I used for the numbers.  I was able to put one set of numbers on half a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock.

These are the two stacks I used for this project.  The black was Recollections cardstock from Micheals.  All of the other papers were from DCWV.

 

I inked all of the edges with ColorBox.   I hope you like my final Advent Calendar of the year.  I must say, I had a couple of ideas for additional calendars which I hope to make for next year.  One would be using some of the Tim Holtz ideas to do tags on a big ring with a very grunge feel to it.  I'm thinking it would be great for one of my 20 something brothers.  

Thank you for looking at my latest creation.  I hope you have enjoyed it or at least learned something. 

Suitcase Mini Paperbag Album

Today I have a paperbag mini album to show you.  I initially had the idea of making this album after seeing Kathy Files of Paper Phenomenon make mini paperbag albums as a back pack. If you get a chance, take a look at some of Kathy's great projects.  She makes a lot of three dimensional things and is doing lots of cool Halloween crafts.   I loved the back pack idea but I wanted to give this as a gift to an adult.  In looking at the cricut carts I knew there were a number of travel related cuts.  I wanted the album to be vacation/travel themed, thus the suitcase and all of the pages in the mini album.   I used 16 paper bags for the pages and 34 tags or mats to go in the different pockets.

Here is a picture of the entire album looking down from the top after it has been assembled.

I found the suitcase that fit my needs on the Heritage cart.  I liked the details, especially on the top of the suitcase.  I must admit, it would have been easier to cover with the patterned paper if it had been a little more rounded.  Using Design Studio I sized the suitcase as large as would fit on 12 x 12 mat.  I then flipped the image on the other half of a 12 x 24 mat.  I also added a 1.5 x 11 rectangle for the bottom of the cover.  All of these were cut out (without welding) in chip board.

I bought my chipboard from Bug Junkie a few months ago.  I love the way this chip board cuts.  You can buy the chipboard from her on the left hand column of her website.  It is just below her followers.  While you are there, you should check out her lovely shape albums.  She is a very talented creator. 

 Here is the entire thing opened up with the paper covering it.  Here are the layers as you would see in this picture:
1.  Layer of brown cardstock cut with the rectangle welded to both of the suitcase cuts (layer against the table)
2. Layer of chip board -- no welds
3. Layer of chip board identical to layer two
4. Layer of brown cardstock identical to Layer 1
5. Pattern paper for the front and back of the suitcase

I also cut the handle an additional 4 times so that I could use some textured paper for the feel of alligator skin.  I covered the seam between the handle and the suitcase with a VERY large brad which I affixed with hot glue.

The lock for the opener is on the front but it is purely decorative.  The back is where mine opens.  I put a circle of velcro on the back to close the album.  I used Tim Holtz locks, keys and chains.  I couldn't believe how easy the chain was to cut using my Bind-It-All metal snips.

Now for the inside.  The reason they call these paperbag albums is because the pockets or pages are made with... Paper bags.  I actually used craft bags from HL.  Below is a picture of the bag as it comes out of the package.  I scored all of the edges.

 Then I folded the bottom over and scored the new seam.  This next picture shows what the bag looks like when you start inking.  I must tell you, I scored and inked every edge.  I inked so many edges that I ran out of ink in my Cats Eye Color Box chalk.  I spent many an hour watching TV and inking edges.  Not only are all of the bags inked, but all of the paper covering the bags is inked.

 Here is a mat and a half before it has been covered in paper but after it was inked.

 And here are a few of the tags I used for photo mats.  Notice, they have been inked and are awaiting the pattern paper.

The paper I used to cover all of the paper bags and many of the tags and mats came from three packs.  I love these paper pads made by paper House Productions. (I even bought a second pad of the European Travel pad).  I first bought them at M's but then also found them at HL.  The European pad has a lot of sepia tones, tans, a little bit of glitter and some grays.

 The US travel has more golden tones, some tans and some greens.  It has some black and red pages for Las Vegas that I probably won't use but they are fun.  My favorite is the back of the South Dakota pages.  It is a wonderful Native American design with a beautiful golden background. 

 To add a little color I also used this Global Treks tablet from Deja Views.  It has beautiful rust colors, wonderful rich greens and some yummy purples.

Here is the inside of the album's front cover.  I love the paper with Big Ben.  The lower set of pages says, "We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment."  I thought that was a wonderful way to start off the book.  If you notice, the book isn't especially "frilly".  I used many embellishments from Tim Holtz.  The tags have simple ribbons holding them together or twine or chains.

A close-up of the Yellowstone cut from Destinations.  The glue hadn't completely dried when I took this picture.

A picture from the Spanish Steps in Rome with the Rome cut from Destinations.

I love the way the cuts from Destinations cart look on the different pages.  I wouldn't recommend cutting the Destinations cuts any smaller than 2 inches.  They can get a little tricky and tough on my poor E.

I love this mat and a half with the train.  The picture underneath is from Ghent and the paper clips spell out Ghent.  It actually opens up for another set of pictures.  I tried to add as many hidden little areas as possible.

What do you think of the Moab charm?  I haven't found the pictures for that page, yet.

 Remember that card you saw earlier that had been inked but didn't have paper yet?  Here is another version of that car, this one had the parts cut out of it so you can see the pictures below.  The one above shows the car in the pocket.  The one below has been pulled out of the pocket.

Here are a few pictures of the book before I did any stamping and without the tags, mats or pictures.

These are a number of the tags that have been stamped on the back.  I don't have a lot of stamps and I don't always feel comfortable stamping things.  I purchased a few more travel related stamps and used them liberally through out this project.  Luckily I had some of the Forest Moss Distress Inks for the green tags.  I think they looked pretty good.  I used Walnut Stain and Antique Linen for the brown shades.

I hope you have enjoyed my project and been inspired to create your own mini album. This one was a ton of fun, even if it was a lot of work.