Shimelle's Challenge #08 - Enjoy The Ride

I have been wanting to scrap these photos like forever but the idea of scrapbooking scared me and I procrastinated. Thanks to my procrastination, I actually lost the photos which were the highlights of the day. Sometimes technology just gives you a knock so hard you can't recover them but I'm also thankful for social media. I had uploaded the photos to my Facebook before they got lost but the resolution was horrible so I could only make do with smaller photo prints.

Here is my layout:

Whenever possible, I always try to add in some stamping as I feel it just helps personalize the page and I love Ali Edwards stamps in particular. The sentiments are always close to my heart. Entering this layout to Shimelle's Challenge #08: Stamp Just Once.

This is one layout that I've used papers from just one manufacturer and mostly from the same collection. That's new for me.

Supplies Used:

Paper - Be Amazing Follow Your Heart Collection by My Mind's Eye, Darling Dear 6x6 by My Mind's Eye, AC Cardstock
Stamps - Bits & Pieces by Ali Edwards
Inks - PTI Canyon Clay, Hawaiian Shores

Others - Snapshot 1 by Kerri Bradford, Silhouette SD, Ormolu Flairs, Brads by Basic Grey, Sasparilla Label Stickers by October Afternoon

LO - Snow Fall From Heaven

I've been wanting to scrapbook for the longest time. In fact, I had made up my mind to document my life in the States since I got here in 2010. Unfortunately, I have no prior scrapbooking experience and although there are so many wonderful inspirations on the blogs especially from Two Peas, I felt that it was daunting and I wasn't sure the style I wanted for my layouts and I just procrastinated.

Despite that, I was passionately storing up my 12x12 papers. I fell in love with Echo Park and bought a few of their collection kits. I also subscribed to Studio Calico's monthly kits and they all ended up collecting dust.

To cut the long story short, I decided to stop procrastinating and for 2 days, I started sorting out the papers from my Studio Calico kits and plan the papers and supplies I wanted to use for my layout.

Drawing inspiration from a sketch from my PageMaps Sketch 2 book which I bought for a year or so, I'm very happy to say that I've finally finally completed the first layout. I'm also very happy with how my first attempt turned out.

The most difficult part of the process I felt was finding the right papers to use. I felt that I was limited to the choices from my Studio Calico kits and I also realized that while the monthly kits are awesome, they aren't for me, at least not right now. I'm still a novice at scrapbooking and it's really difficult to use papers that don't speak to me. I spent half the time choosing papers that I wanted to incorporate in my layout and half of the papers I had were not the styles that I would have chosen if I were to buy them from the shelf. With that, I've also decided to terminate my subscription and just buy papers that I really like to use on my layouts.

I'm glad to have taken that first step and I'll definitely try to finish documenting my life here by the time I'm due to head back home.

Supplies Used:

Paper - Studio Calico Kits, American Crafts, My Mind's Eye Dwell & 12 Days Of Christmas
Stamps - HA Envelope

Others - MFT Let It Snowflake Die, PTI Buttons, OA Label Stickers, AC Twine