Goodbye Moorea...

Goodbye Moorea, and goodbye flash on the camera! After few different shots of us sitting on that coach, the gorilla pod lost its balance and grip on the opposite chair that the gorilla pod was gripping, the camera fell backward dropped onto the marble floor. The flash broke instantly. :(

I kept the page simple. I asked Tommy to participate in this layout as well. I decided to use a beige color cardstock as my background.

I decided to use 1 photo only for my layout. Because the hotel lobby was very opened, bright and green, I decided to stick with a theme in this layout with similar color to the picture. I found a pattern green & white paper. I decided to use it to cut the font from my Silhouette Digital Cutter. After cutting it out and removing the letters from the carrier sheet, I noticed that the fonts was too light if I decided to adhere them onto the cardstock. I decided to cut another set of the letters with brown cardstock to make the other pattern stand out on the page.

I decided to create use my digital cutter to cut out the photo corners. I used a different green pattern paper to cut out the corners. To keep it uniformed, I also cut out another set of photo corners to put behind the pattern paper.

I adhered the picture over the photo corner.




I asked Tommy to write about his Moorea experience. He kept his journal short, partially because he forgot most about his trip, other than how excited he was, looking forward to Bora Bora that day!






As for me, I also wrote a journal. I managed to squeeze so much in with so little space provided for myself. I retained a lot of detailed information in my mind (I called them... unnecessary information!) I usually write small, but I think I wrote even smaller in this.

I decided to cut 2 pieces of green cardstock to adhere behind the 2 journals. I had some small blue flowers and decided to use them. I added rhinestones the flowers to give a little bling to my page.

That's it for Moorea! Follow my travel blog on my travel experience!

Pool

I love the pool at the resort. If the sky is the limit, and money is not an issue, I totally love to have a similar version in my own backyard! For now, I will continue to dream about my dream house and pool.

With the underwater case, we were able to take some cool videos and pictures in the water. I used some underwater pictures for some of my scrapbook pages. Stay tune for my blog! I am also writing in my travel blog, about my travel experiences, things that caught my eyes on the trip.

For this single layout, I used a light blue cardstock as my background. I used a blue ink chalk to chalk all four sides of the cardstock. I picked 2 pattern papers to compliment the colors for my layout. I kept it simple. I also used ink chalk to chalk all sides of each strip.

I overlapped part of the 2 strips of pattern papers. I resized and arranged all the pictures. I added 2 flowers and secured with a brad.

I used my digital cutter and cut out a corner flourish and the letters. I adhered the corner flourish with the runner tape. I used the Xyron X to create the sticker for the letters.

I used a white pen and wrote out the different types of activities we did by the pool side. Instead of writing a journal, I decided to use short phrases, single word adjectives and verbs instead. I had no other place to write them, other than along the side of the flourish. From far away, it looked like I was adding an additional color to the flourish design. When you look closely, it was actually words.

I enjoyed working this page. It was something different. It was my first time writing a different style of journaling. It was a bit of a challenge for me because I like to write alot of details. With such little space, I had to be straight to the point. I usually write very small, I was able to squeeze everything I wanted to write in there.

Kayaking

The resort has kayaks for guests to kayak out. We didn't go too far though. We kayaked out, outside of the overwater bungalows. The water got pretty deep once we were out there. I enjoyed watching the sunset on the kayak. I was pretty scared kayaking as I didn't know how to swim. Thank goodness that there was no waves. Although I had the life jacket on, I wouldn't know what would happen to me.

I decided to do something different to this page. I decided to test out my new circle cutter. I decided to use blue cardstock as the background. I found a water pattern paper in my stash. I used the curvy cutter to cut out a circle.

I also use the curvy cutter to cut out some pictures in circles. I used the silhouette digital cutter to cut out the fonts. I used a light blue chalk to add a little color on the font. I added gem stones on the letters.

This is not my favorite page. I am not really used to designing my layouts with circles. I had a difficult time putting this page together.

If I could redo this page, I probably would redo this page completely. I would change the font and would put the pictures in different ways other than putting them in a corner.

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. :)

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.

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.

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! :)

Cooks Bay, Opunohu Bay

It is a single layout for each of the two bays, but it's also a double layout for me. I intended to put the two bays layouts next to each other because when I was on the tour, I learned that the bays were separated by the mountain, Mt. Rotui. With that in mind, I wanted to put both of them next each other.

For the Cook's Bay layout, I decided to use blue cardstock as a background. I used a lighter blue pattern paper to layer on top of the cardstock. I cut out letters with my digital cutter and layered it over the blue pattern paper. I adhered the pictures onto the page and added a ribbon to the layout.
The ribbon matched the color of the 2 papers near perfectly. The ribbon helped blend the 2 papers together. I absolutely loved this ribbon! :)

For this layout, I decided to stick with a green theme. It was mainly because the pictures had alot green colors. I decided to do a similar layout to match with the Cook's Bay layout. I decided to layer a pattern green paper over the green cardstock. I also cropped the bottom 2 pictures so they could fit inside the pattern paper.

I used my digital cutter to cut out the fonts. I used a different font from the layout because the name, Opunohu Bay, was much longer than Cook's Bay. I wanted to use the same font, but it turned out I couldn't fit the entire title to my layout, I had to decide on a next plan.

Mahana'i

Because of the meal plan with the hotel, we didn't get a chance to explore the local eateries in Moorea. When the sun went down, we were not able to go anywhere because it was dark out. We didn't have a car either. So, we spent our evenings at the hotel to relax. This was our first dinner at the hotel.

For this layout, I decided to do a double layout with the pictures of the food we ordered for that evening. The page was simple and I liked the way it turned out.

I decided to use a pattern cardstock paper as the background. I chose a blue metallic cardstock as a photo mat. I cut the flourish with my silhouette cutter and used silver metallic cardstock to give it a slight pop & color to the layout.

I cropped the six food pictures into the same size and arranged it according to appetizer, main course, dessert, and separated what I ordered from Tommy's. With all the cropping of the pictures, I ended up with a big gap of space down in the middle. I decided to use the silver metallic cardstock and cut out the name of the restaurant, Mahana'i to fill the gap in the middle. Again, I used the silhouette cutter.

I debated if I should round the corners at the time when I was putting this layout together, but I decided not to and kept the straight corners instead. If I could work on this page again, I would add flowers and gems to the left side of the page.

Hope you are all enjoying your week!

LAX - PPT

I gave some thought on how to blog about my first album. I decided that I would blog according to the date I completed each layout.

I started this layout when Tommy left on a 3 day Mexico cruise with his friend's bachelor's party. Since I had free time to myself, I decided that it was the best time for me to start working my first album.

In this album, I really wanted to document as much as possible on everything we did. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to Tahiti! I definitely needed to make sure I could preserve all my memories so when I am 90 years old, I could relive my vacation through my scrapbook!

I decided to do a double layout for the departure of LAX (LA International airport) to the arrival at PPT (Tahiti International Airport).

I kept the layout quite simple. I used 2 different shades of blue, that resembled the color of chairs on the Air Tahiti Nui's plane. I cut out all letters with the silhouette cutter. The difficult part of putting the letters on the layout was trying to center them!

We took alot of food pictures in Tahiti, even airline foods! Since I never get to enjoy my food on the plane, it was kind of nice to remember what kind of food they were offering. It was a red-eye flight to Tahiti, I also made a small note on the layout to indicate what time we flew out from LAX. I could only remember falling asleep while the plane was in line to take off the runway. It felt as if I slept for over an hour!

When we got to Tahiti, it was 4AM! I definately had to document that because when we got off the plane, there were 3 guys playing Tahitian music and airport staffs passing out tiare flowers at the crack of dawn to welcome us right when we entered the airport to go through customs & immgrations! That was pretty cool.

I didn't do much to this page. I kept the page really simple for my first layout as I was still trying to figure things out.

San Francisco

Last time I went to San Francisco, I was probably 10 years old. Time surely flew by quickly! Nevertheless, it brought back some good memories, and created some new memories with Tommy. There were places in San Francisco that I had never been to, and was able to visit the second time.

The double layout didn't take too long to put together, but I surely had a difficult time putting it together because I didn't know what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to put the page together. There were quite a bit of pictures that I wanted to use, but didn't know how to incorporate it in a double layout. I believe this was my first time to use many different pictures for a layout and my first time to create a pocket.

I bought the Jolee's Boutique Title Wave of San Francisco and decided to use it as a title for my page. I used a blue pattern as background. During the time I was putting this page together, I still had not really figured out how to mix and match different papers. I used 5 different pictures for this layout. I should cut all the pictures to the same size to keep it uniformed.

Besides the title wave sticker, I also used Jolee's Boutique Themed Destination Stickers of San Francisco to add embellishments to my page.

A pocket for the collection of brochures & memorabilia picked up in San Francisco!

The hardest part of this page was creating the pocket. I thought the pocket was simple to put together. I thought I only needed to tape down 3 sides, and leave a little space, and I created a pocket! I didn't take into account of putting a bunch of brochures which the sides kept detaching on its own.

I really liked the title wave and the pocket. Of the two pages, I enjoyed the left side. If I could redo my layout, I would definitely fix the pocket so it would not detach on its own. I would completely redo the entire layout on the right side! It felt too empty to me.

Next time, a post for the single layout that I used my Silhouette digital cutter for the first time.

Happy Birthday Tommy!

This was my first layout created as a gift. It took many hours to complete this page. I had to cut everything out by hand. Every year, when I present the wrapped gift to Tommy, before he even unwrap his present, he knew exactly what I got for him. Well, he couldn't figure out what I had gotten for him that year. I caught him by surprise.

The title was very generic, "Happy Birthday Tommy!" I just didn't know exactly what to put as a title. The layout would look kind of empty if I didn't add a title to it. I took most of the time cutting out all the letters by hand. I had to do them twice. I had to print the letters in black and I also printed the letters on a blue cardstock paper. I probably took more than 6 hours cutting out the letters. I also added glitters to the blue letters as well to add a bit of sparkle.

Oops, how did I turn my page sideway to take this picture?

The second hardest part of this layout was the cutting of the swirl. I printed different swirl sizes to see which one would look the best before cutting it out. I printed the swirl on a white cardstock and used scribble paint to trace over the swirl. I added white glitters to the wet paint. When the paint dried up, the design would add a little bit of dimension, as well as some sparkle to the page. After the paint was fully dry, I used a knife to cut the swirl out. I had to be extra careful when I was cutting the swirl out. The most difficult part was cutting out the inside of the leaves.

I decided to do something different and created a double frame to the layout. Since it was my first time doing it, I had to create the frames several times to perfect what I wanted to look like. Because the frame was the focus of the page, I spent some time to do the measurement.

I added a small personal note to the page. It was like a birthday card/ scrapbook page/ birthday gift mixed into one.

Finished product, along with the frame

If I could fix the layout, I would move the letters lower because the letters were too close to the top of the frame. I didn't take the frame into account when I was putting this page together. The letters seemed to be positioned well without the frame. Once the frame was added, the top had been cut off.

With such hardwork, it surely paid off for my Christmas gift that year. Tommy had gotten me one of the most thoughtful gift I could ever imagine, the Silhouette Digital Cutter! :) Yay to no more cutting letters and delicate things with a pair of scissor! Yay to time saving! Yay to create more pages!