I have an Award!

Wow! My thanks and appreciation to Jaime Benavides for selecting me as a a recipient of a Lemonade Stand Blog Award!

Now the rules for accepting this award are as follows:

*Comment on this blog

*Cut and paste this logo on your blog

*Nominate 5 - 10 blogs that show great attitude and gratitude

*link your nominee's with your blog post

*Comment on their blogs to let them know they won.

*Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.DRUM ROLL PLEASE... and the award goes to ~

Amy Leggate http://scrapbookingobsession.blogspot.com/

Kathi Carlson http://kathiscreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Jen Rubio http://www.jenrubio.blogspot.com/

Aaron B http://aaronsbooth32.blogspot.com/

Dawn http://dawnscrafts.blogspot.com/

Tresa Black http://www.fabulouslyartsy.blogspot.com/

11 photos from Playa Dorada

We had a great day with my brother and his family and friends at a nearby resort near the end of our stay in Puerto Plata. The most amazing conch man was showing us how to remove a live conch from its shell. Chloe could not get enough of it. She ended up buying a beautiful large richly hued shell from him .

This layout is an 11 photo spread of eleven people ! I had difficulty eliminating photos since there were so many of us involved and the shots my brother took were great.

I used Emporium and Crystal Blue Cardstock and kept it simple. Sizing many of the photos down to four inches helped. I think that for the next event I scrap, I will print more 3 by 5s . 4x6 seems so huge when you are doing a bunch!

There is no title as of yet... maybe 11 of US . or 11 is grand on the sand. Hmmm.

I will think further.

I have the rest of the book "laid out" loosely so it is going to go quickly.

HOT reservations... finally with Moon Doggie.

Yesterday was beautiful beach weather here in the Grove so I went down to the lake and lay on the sand for the first time this year, watching teenagers playing football in the water. So relaxing. I walked in up to my waist to a little sandbar just to cool off . The crisp smell of the lake brought memories back. Today its a muggy day here, a bit overcast, so scrapbooking won out over being outdoors!

Dining out in the Dominican was a nightly event which we all looked forward to together.

We would dress up and enjoy a wonderful meal someplace different every night!

When I started this layout I definitely had the floral paper from Moon Doggie in mind. But when I put the photos up against the surfboard paper, I liked it very much. I also used a plain wooden boards and found the reverse side was a subdued red, so I alternated two pieces from a 4 x 12 strip.
I coloured the word HOT in the title in Citrus leaf , Topiary and Tulip markers to pop it out.

I used ctmh Moon Doggie papers , ctmh Bold Colour Ready Alphabets, Basic Grey chipboard, and ctmh Journey Journalling Spots.

I am really happy with this layout. It took me about an hour from start to finish.

Facelift

The blog has received a fresh summer look. The facelift includes a new green background and a photo showing my daughter and I outside our home at her pre-prom party.
If I could afford an actual facelift, I would probably get my eyes done and also my jawline/cheek area. I would love to be able to afford Botox treatments . Maybe one day.

Under Water

The title for this layout came to me after I made up the subtitles: seascapes and rainstorm.

Thus, Underwater Seascapes and Underwater Rainstorm. (in the latter it felt like we were under a lot of water) I used colours to reflect the greens and grey blues of the ocean. The Dominican coastline was really interesting, in that many villages were built on jagged cliffs. And the houses were just a level up from shacks so seeing them appear on the rugged rocks was astounding.

Normally I love snorkelling but this day was a cool one, and I was worried about my daughter being seasick the entire time. The kids took pictures of the fish with an underwater camera but they were not as bright without sunlight in the water.

In the Rain layout, I wanted to convey with photos the amount and force of the rainfall we were subjected to. You can see the big raindrops bouncing off the flooded sidewalks in the picture that shows people jogging along with towels over their heads.

And yes , we weathered it.

I copied the shape of the dark grey chipboard label on the Rain page by tracing around it and cutting it out of regular cardstock. It is kind of a Persian shape. Or would you say Arabic. I am a great believer in tying elements together over a two page layout, and also over an entire "theme" album. Certain things can be consistent, without being repetitive (boring) : the font for titles, for example, or certain colours. This album is certainly blue and green, with a mix between so far 2 CTMH paper packs, Emporium and Caprice. Moon Doggie is yet to come