Perfect Moment

This is one of my favorite pages in this Tahiti scrapbook! This was totally out of my comfort zone and the outcome was amazing! It was a privileged that I was able to go to Tahiti. I was able to enjoy sunsets in Moorea every night. Tommy was able to capture such beautiful sunsets. I couldn't help but must create a layout for it to treasure the memory.

The page was quite simple. I used a cardstock that has a pre-printed pattern on the layout. The design on the cardstock has glitter on them too! I used the Citrus stack from DCWV.

When I buy paper stacks, if there's matching cardstocks, I would buy them too! I do that because they can easily compliment each other to lessen the headache from time to time, trying to find the right color to match.

For the frame around the picture, I used the Citrus cardstock stack from DCWV. The yellow cardstock was perfect when I put this layout together! I used my silhouette digital cutter to cut the title out.

I picked up a Xyron "X" sticker machine. I was able to cut the font much smaller! I put all the letters in the machine and it created stickers for me. I love the Xyron! It took my creativity to a whole new level.

I also added flowers as embellishments. I used 2 different sizes flowers and put them on top of each other and put a rhinestone on top of it.


I decided to do something different on my journaling. Instead of writing a small journal on how I felt or my experience, I decided to write create a poem for this layout.

4x4 Safari Tour - Page 2

The thing about this scrapbook, I knew exactly what layouts I wanted to do. I would use a post it note and stick it on the album to remind myself of the events/ activities that I wanted to scrap about. I decided to create a collage of Tommy and me on the Safari Tour.



I decided to go with the green cardstock as background. It is the same background used for the layout next to it - 4x4 Safari Tour. I also used the same 2 pattern papers to create this page. I decided to tear the papers. In the center of the layout, I wrote down all the stops we had during the tour. I used 4 brads for each corner to make the center look like a "board."

Next week, if time permits, I will post another page. I am going on a vacation, and I need to start planning my trip and start thinking what to pack. :)

A Good Day...

A Good Day starts with a Good Breakfast! At the Moorea Pearl Resort & Spa, our breakfast was complimentary. There's a good variety of food at the buffet every morning. However, they serve the same thing daily. What I loved the most there was the pineapple juice! That was the only juice I drank every morning. It was sweet and it was really yummy! I hope to see Moorea pineapple juice distributes here soon!

I decided to create a layout for our daily breakfast. I picked a dark brown cardstock as background and used tiki pattern cardstock to layer it over the brown cardstock. I kept the page simple. I used one picture and wrote a long journal.

I decided to give a catchy title. I remembered one of the waitresses told us that it is a good day when we start with a good breakfast. I decided to quote her statement and used it as a title for my layout.

I cut the fonts with my digital cutter with white cardstock. I used a brown ink chalk to chalk the letter to resemble the sands on the beach.

I also purchased corner edges from Silhouette. I used the Silhouette digital cutter to cut the 4 photo corners. Again, I chose to use ink chalk to chalk the edges of the photo corners. Afterwards, I used the runner tapes to tape the photo corners directly onto the four corners of the picture.

I decided to write a journal about my breakfast experience while we were in Moorea. I wrote about the food we had at breakfast, what I liked and what I didn't like (omelets!) I am not a big fan of omelets, but after this trip, I can not eat omelets. I can only have 2 bites of it, and I am done. I am not allergic to any of the ingredients in the omelets. I have no problem eating them separately. Once they are put together, I have a problem with the aroma of the omelets. My mind and body just shuts down.

As for the journal, I also used the ink chalk to chalk around all the edges. I accidentally inked a spot in the middle of the journal! To cover up the mistake, I decided to use the ink chalk creatively by lightly pressing the ink chalk randomly on the paper to hide the mistake. That became a different look and I thought it was kinda nice.

Beach Day

The color of the page had to be adjusted as it came out too dark! :(

Our beautiful resort has a beach on its property! We didn't even have to walk out of the property to see the beach. After breakfast on Sunday, May 24, 2009, we took a stroll and walk down to the beach. The day was beautiful, the sun was warm and the water was at room temperature! We decided that we would spend the day at the resort to hang out, relax and do absolutely nothing. Well, not exactly did nothing, we kayaked, snorkeled, ate, all the fun activities that the resort had offered for us.

I decided to do a single layout for this page. I used a light brown cardstock as a background. I used brown ink chalk to chalk the sides of the paper. It made the paper stood out. I kept the layout simple. I used only one picture for this layout.

I cut the letters out with my digital cutter. I cut out 2 sets of the same letters with 2 different sheets of paper. I picked blue and a sand patterned paper. I kept the blue letters as the base and cut the sand patterned letters in half with a wave effect. I kept the top half of the letters and overlaid it over the blue.

I used the brown ink chalk to chalk around the top part of the letters.



I cut out a square of from a blue cardstock and used it for a journal. Again, I used the same brown ink chalk to chalk all the edges. I wrote my journal and punched a small hole on the top of the journal and secured it with a small bronze brad as decoration.





I purchased a wave design from Silhouette. I decided to cut the waves in 2 colors - white and blue.

I added the seashells onto my page as embellishments. I used Jolee's Boutique.



If I were to fix this layout, I would add a frame around the picture.

Around Town

There were some small shopping centers close to the resort. It was walking distance. However, with such heat under the sun, it got pretty difficult to walk. We went to the nearby market a couple times to pick up snacks, food, juice, and water to enjoy back in our hotel room. Every morning, at around 4 or 5 in the morning, we would be woken up by rooster with his wake up call. I guess the locals are early riser! While we were walking, we would see roosters around.

I decided to do a single layout. I used a green cardstock and used a lighter green pattern paper to overlay the cardstock. I used the digital cutter to cut out the title. There weren't many pictures taken around town by us.

I used a corner punch and rounded one corner for each picture. I also resized the pictures to fit all the pictures inside the pattern paper.

Moorea Pearl Resort & Spa

We stayed at the Moorea Pearl & Resort while we were in Moorea. I knew how the hotel was going to look like prior to trip. I was curious and did my research on YouTube. When I got there, it looked so surreal to me. I still couldn't believe that we were actually in Tahiti! When we entered the hotel, we were being greeted with the friendly staffs, a glass of delicious pineapple juice and a tiare flower.

We spent 4 nights in Moorea in the Garden View Room. Our room was on the 2nd floor. When we stepped out of our balcony, we could see the view of the garden. It was quite peaceful. However, I recommend that you bring bug spray. Those little mosquitoes loved to eat! Just by walking through the path at night back to our room after dinner, I ended up getting a couple bug bites here and there! They were very itchy too! We had to go to a pharmacy to pick up anti-itch gel to soothe the itching! The anti-itch gel really helped. I think we even picked up tamanu oil while shopping at the juice factory (yes, the juice factory not only sold tourists fruit juices, they sold them souvenir).

I decided to do a double layout for this. There were a lot of pictures taken around the resort. I chose the best pictures from my camera that represented the resort to create this page. With that many pictures, I decided to pick white as the page background. I used my digital cutter to cut out the letters from my computer.

I kept the page quite simple. I kept our room key as a souvenir to use for my scrapbook. I decided to divide my pictures in 2 sections. The layout on the left, I chose to use pictures inside the hotel, compared to the layout on the right, I used pictures of the outdoor - the beach, the pool, etc.

I loved the hallway/lobby of the hotel. It was an open hallway with no front door. It gave a very "opened" feeling while hanging around the lobby.

I love the infinity pool! If you look closely at the layout, you can see the picture in the middle. Because the day was so beautiful, the infinity pool reflected the overwater bungalows in the water. It actually gave an illusion. Several friends of ours got tricked by the camera as well.

We did a panoramic view of the resort's backdrop. However, I didn't get the it printed in panoramic view because I wasn't able to find the place to do it. When I found it, it was totally out of my budget! I decided to print the 2 pictures separately and attached them together. It fitted well and happy with the result.

If I could do something different to this page, I would like to put a journal tag on the layout. I would like to write about my overall feelings and experiences of the hotel.

Le Matiehani

With a little extra money to pay on top of the meal plan, Tommy and I decided to make a reservation at Le Matiehani, resort's fancy restaurant. We both enjoyed the dinner. The restaurant had about 4-5 tables in the main dining area, and a couple tables outside. We were actually the only couple sitting inside the dining area. It felt like we were in Chinese Soap Opera, where the rich guy reserved the entire restaurant to take his date out for nice dinner, and perhaps even had a rock in his pocket. It was a picture perfect scenario! That didn't happen to us! We just happened to be the only one in the main dining room dining. Either Tommy nor I are rich enough to reserve the entire restaurant just to cater to us. Lastly, hunnie got no rock in his pocket to seal the picture perfect moment! :(

I decided to do a double layout. I made a fancier looking page on one side, and on the other side, I decided make a page of the food we ordered. I used 2 black cardstock papers as the background and used a glitter orange cardstock to layer on top of the black background.

While I was shopping at one of my local scrapbook stores, I noticed they hung a layout on the wall that I couldn't keep my eyes off it. I was inspired by it, and decided to shop in the store for the necessary materials to make my page.

I scroll through my pictures on my iPhone and found the picture that I wanted to use for my layout. From the picture, I chose a color and work along with it to incorporate it with my layout.

The layout above is not 100% exactly the same as the layout I saw at the scrapbook store. It was almost the same concept, but slightly different.

I used a pencil to draw a curve line over the orange cardstock and used a pair of scissor to cut along the line. I kept the top part, and kept the rest of the unused paper in my scrap box for future use. I adhere the picture onto the page and added flowers along the edge where the 2 papers met. I randomly picked different colors and sizes flowers and randomly placed them along the edge. I used runner tapes to adhere the flowers onto the page and added pearls in the center of each flower.

I cut the fonts out from my digital cutter. I decided to size the letters in bigger font to put the title across the page.

On the right side of the layout, I arranged the photos according to appetizer - main course - dessert. I separated our orders. Can you guess which one side was mine?

This page had a lot of pictures and overloaded with information. I kept this page simple. I resized all 6 pictures. I rounded the top right corner of the appetizer picture on the left, the top left corner of the appetizer picture on the right. I also rounded the bottom right corner of the dessert picture on the left as well as the bottom left corner of the dessert picture on the right. I only rounded 4 corners to give a softer edgy look on this layout.




Because I resized the pictures, there was extra space on the bottom of the layout. I found an orange with yellow dots ribbon. The color of the ribbon complimented the layout on the left. I decided to put the ribbon on the bottom of the page on the right.



I purchased a jar of flowers for the layout on the left. Because there were quite a bit of the flowers, I didn't use them all up for the layout. Since there were extra flowers in different color and sizes, I decided to layer the flowers in 3 different sizes to create a giant flower embellishment. I also added a pearl in the middle. I used runner tape to adhere all the flowers together.


We probably spent over 2 hours dining at the restaurant that evening. People in French Polynesia was very relaxed and easy going. We tried to be like them, take things slow and enjoy life. Our dining experience was great, and the food was delicious. With just an additional amount of money to pay for the dinner, it felt like that our meal was a steal! We surely enjoyed our dining experience at Le Matiehani.

Lycee Agricole d' Opunohu

In Moorea, there is a agriculture school. The surrounding was beautiful, so green. We saw a lot of pineapples growing on the ground (Moorea is known to be the "Pineapple Island" after all), papaya trees, passion fruit trees, lime trees, and many more!

There, we were able to sample some of the jams that were made there. They tasted so good that we decided to buy some jams to take them home to enjoy. The day was pretty hot, so we decided to order a fruit juice to quench our thirst. After they made it, it looked really pretty in the glass. It was a two toned color- from orange to yellow. I regretted not buying a bag of vanilla beans. The vanilla beans had a very strong aroma. Our tour guide told us that if we put a strand of vanilla bean in a bottle of vodka and leave it there for a while, when you open the bottle of vodka, you will only be able to smell and taste vanilla, and not the alcohol. (Note: please don't take my advice for it. I only wrote what my tour guide told us. I didn't purchase any vanilla beans to experiment if it was true.)

I like to also point out that the time we were in Moorea, this place was giving us a better exchange rate compared to the bank. During the time we went, the bank gave us $1USD to about 80 CPF. However, at the school, they were giving us $1USD to 100 CPF. It had been about couple years since we were there. The exchange rate might had already changed. For those that are planning to travel to Moorea, I suggest not to exchange all your cash all at once in the bank at the airport. Save some cash, you may find better exchange rates from local stores.

I decided to do a double layout for this page. I used green and brown cardstock as background. I cut two 2-inch white strips to put across the top of the two pages. I cut out fonts from my digital cutter. I also added a dark green with white polka dots ribbon.



I kept this double layout really simple. I decided to choose the school name as the title for the pages. We took many different pictures.

I decided to keep the sizes of each picture uniformed. I had to cut down each picture to fit all 8 pictures on the layout.

This is the last layout for the 4x4 Safari Tour. I only took the highlights of the tour to put into my scrapbook. Our tour included a stop at the Pineapple Factory and Fruit Juice Distillery. We were able to sample some liquors and juice there. At the end of the trip, our tour guide took us to the pearl shop to shop for pearls.

It was a 4-5 hours trip. By the time when we finished the tour, most of the people in my group decided to stop by to nearby market, no more than 5 minutes walk from our hotel, to pick up some food or snacks. I forgot what we had, but I believed we bought ourselves a jambon baguette, and picked up a carton of pineapple juice to bring back to our room to enjoy lunch on our balcony.

Next time, a fancy dinner in the hotel. I was inspired by a scrapbook layout that I saw at a local scrapbook store, and decided to scrap-lift the page.

Magic Mountain

The locals called this place as "Magic Mountain." Our tour guide told us that it was private property. The road up to the top of the mountain was windy, and bumpy as the road wasn't paved! It was a one car road up and down the mountain. The driver had to be really careful of the opposite cars coming toward our direction. It was about a 15 minutes ride up to the mountain. It was worth the bumpiness! Tommy recorded on the camera the whole time of the journey up to the top. The view was gorgeous.

I decided to do a single layout for this page. I decided to use blue cardstock as the background and used a lighter blue color pattern paper to layer over the cardstock. I decided to use blue color for this layout because of the picture that was used for this page. I accented the page with white color. Blue and white colors can never go wrong in any layout! :)

I cut out the fonts from my digital cutter and used tape to tape down the letters onto the page.











I wrote a small journal on a white paper, then taped the white journal onto a lighter blue cardstock. I cut out a piece of ribbon long enough to cover the top of the tag and to make a bow. I randomly picked somewhere on the ribbon to create the bow. As you can see, the bow was more to the left side of the journal. That was because one side wasn't long enough if I were to put the ribbon down the middle.



I cut the corner flourish from my digital cutter. I used blue gems and randomly placed them on the flourish. I could probably could use a couple more gems to put on there.

I love this layout. I like the ribbon on the journal. I think having the bow on the side looked better than putting the bow in the middle.

Belvedere Lookout

Oh, the mountain that sits in between the 2 bays! They called it as "Belvedere Lookout." The view was amazing! I love this picture.

This was a single layout page. I decided to use a green cardstock as background and use a blue, green pattern paper as a foreground of this layout. I kept the layering very simple. I cut the pattern paper into 11x11. I made mats for the photo and the journal.

I decided to type up my journal instead of writing it by hand. I don't have the best handwriting in the world. I know it gives a personal touch if I were to write it by hand. However, I just wanted to give a clean and neat look on my layout, so I typed it up instead.

The only embellishment that I added to the page was the flower brad. It was a green flower with purple accent in the middle. It drew the attention to the journal when I looked at the layout.

I love this page alot. It was a very simple looking layout. I wouldn't do anything to change the layout of this page. I believed I had trouble lining things up in the middle. If you look closely at the layout, you will see that it panned to the left.

Next time, another single layout, almost similar to this one.

Have a great day! :)