Beach Vacation Junk Journal

Memories and more Memories

We rented a van and took Jess and Neal and the grand kids to the Gulf Coast early last fall. We had an old-fashioned family road trip with messes, crying, car games, naps, good food, bad food, hotels, fights, beach days, shopping, walks (runs in the rain), sightseeing, laughs, smiles, and lots and lots of memories. Oh, and a hurricane named Gordon that took away some beach time, but gave us a couple fire alarms and quite an adventure.

I made this junk journal before, during, and after our trip. I just finished it today (the day I wrote this, not the day I posted it). It might get some more doodling added, but it could be done, so I'm classifying it as a "done" project.  Here are a few pictures of the finished book.

Look how thick and chunky this journal is!!! I love a chunky journal. I used the small Dylusions journal and the outside is made with Tim Holtz's Distress Oxide inks, splattered with water.  

I also love, love, love when ribbons an tags, an other "stuff" sticks out from the edges of  the journal. I added lots of ribbons and tags that would go behind the confines of the book. There's a sand castle charm, and the light blue rubber thing is the bracelet from a hotel we were supposed to wear to use the hotel's amenities.

I'm only sharing a few pages, but this is truly a junk journal. I followed no rules and used so many types of papers and embellishments. I even used four different types of photos. (1) regular prints from my digital SLR printed on my home photo printer; (2) phone pics from my Pixel XL printed on my home photo printer; (3) Fuji Instamax photos from my Fuji Instamax Mini automatic camera; and (4) phone pics from my Pixel XL printed on my new HP Sprocket 2nd  Edition. I intend to do a blog post on my Sprocket soon. 

So many fun memories. It was Finn and Shae's first time at the beach, and they loved it!

I can't begin to name all of the products I used. Those palm tree stickers are OLD. I have a painted inked background here with Dylusions, some misc. B&T papers for pockets, and some newer chipboard stickers. 

Junk journals are a great way to use up miscellaneous items in your stash of products and a great way to be creative. There are no rules. We have another big vacation coming up next September, and I'm already looking forward to starting my journal!

Junk Album - Part 4 (finished!)

This is Part 4 and the final post of my Junk Album.  It always feels great to complete a project that has been in the works for a few months!  Part 1 can be found HERE.  Part 2 is HERE, and click HERE for Part 3.

 I used some of CTMH's Dotty for You papers for the Orange Beach pages.  These pages are of our hotel in Orange Beach and, of course, the beach.

Yep, more Parrothead stuff.  We went to Jimmy Buffett's sister's restaurant and bar--Lulu's.

I bought some small merchandise in the giftshop there and kept the sack, punched holes in it, and it fits perfectly in the album.  I don't think I've ever mentioned that my largest album pages and the covers are 11" x 7.5".  The odd dimensions adds too the "junky" look I think.

I stuck random stuff I couldn't/didn't want to scrapbook into the bag:  more beads, hotel notepad, a matchbook, and a lanyard.  It's a great place to stash the extras that usually end up filling a junk drawer.

I glued a postcard I bought at Lulu's on the back of the sack.  Postcards are great additions to scrapbooks, especially photos of arial views you can't get yourself.  I did a little stamping on the bag too.  The right side has more pics from Lulu's.  (How cool is it that my drink came with a silly straw?)

The last pages of the Orange Beach area are from the beach before a storm.  I loved the changing colors and shapes of the clouds.

I went back to CTMH's Cruisin' papers and stickers for the last pages, which incorporate a few miscellaneous pictures from the road trip.  Teresa celebrated her birthday on our last night out.  I'm not sure if you can read the journaling on the lower left of the picture, but this is definitely the first time I've used the word "sodomizing" on a scrapbook page!

Here's a look at just how thick and junky the finished album is:

And a last look at the cover again:

Thanks for looking at this and all my other creations!

Three-Panel Photo Canvas

I've been wanting to order a photo canvas for this photo I took in Orange Beach a few years ago for a long time.  A lot of places (Walgreen's, etc.) will make a photo canvas, but finding a three-panel set for a reasonable price was not so easy.  Finally, last week I found personalizationmall.com.  I ordered this three-panel canvas set for under $100.  I absolutely love it, and it arrived in under a week.  Each canvas is 12" wide by 24" tall.  It's going to look awesome on the wall of my "beachy" bedroom.  I'll definitely be ordering more canvasses of my photos from this site.

Orange Beach Layout

Another layout from my February vacation.  This is Orange Beach, Alabama.  We've been there before, and I have dozens of pictures of it in another scrapbook, so I just wanted to highlight my favorite photos from this trip.  I used paper from CTMH's Fanfare paper pack for the background with white cs for matting the pics and a stripe of outdoor denim cs for the stripe on the right page.

I love this picture, and it's obviously the highlight of the layout.  The worn look of the Fanfare B&T paper looks beachy to me.  I sewed (by hand) around the pic and added various buttons in blues and whites.  It's all very simple, except the sewing is tedious.  I got the layout idea from the book Playing with Paper by Angelia Wigginton.

I drug out the CTMH white daisy ink for the title.  It's pigment based, so it's a little messy to use, but it always looks great.  I think it adds to the weathered, beachy look of the layout.  I used CTMH's Delightful Alphabet stamp set.  The outdoor denim cs strip is water distressed on its vertical edges.

More Vacation!

Looks like snow, but actually it's the white sand beaches of Gulf Island National Seashore (Gulf of Mexico on the left and Pensacola Bay on the right).

 
 
 
 
   

 
 
 
 

Some driftwood I liked the look of:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lulu's!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving the beaches of Alabama and Florida, we headed to Biloxi for a night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.  This is our room.  We had a great view!

Vacation!

A few pics from the first couple days of our vacation:

The Mississippi Bridge at Memphis

 

A cool bridge in Mobile.



And finally, Orange Beach.

One Week 'til Vacation!

One more week, 'til we go back to Orange Beach:

Another Beach Layout

One last layout from Orange Beach:  I used Daydream B&T papers and the stamp sets A Tweet and Key to My Heart.  The white shells were cut with the Cricut.  The layout is Leading Lady from the Imagine book.

Sunsets Layout

I used the striped B&T paper from the CTMH You Rock paper pack, with the green end trimmed off.  Colors are Outdoor Denim, Goldrush, and Pansy Purple.

Outdoor Denim and Goldrush

Goldrush isn't usually my favorite of CTMH's colors, but I think it worked great hear with the Outdoor Denim color in the You Rock CTMH paper pack.  I used the stamp set "Rustic Alphabet" for the title.

 

Caboodle Layout with Extreme Happiness

This layout shows the hotel where we stayed in Orange Beach, AL.  I used B&T papers from the CTMH Caboodle paper pack.  I wasn't a big fan of this pack at first, but I think it works great for this, and I'm planning to do another beach layout with it.  The hibiscus are all from the CTMH stamp set Extreme Happiness, and I stamped them in crystal blue, sorbet, and sweet leaf.

Do You Like My Hat Layout

Jess bought this cute beach hat on vacation, so I had to do a layout about it.

There is a CTMH "Pretty Pin" in the organdy ribbon.  I used my Cricut for the title, then covered the letters in Glitter Glitz Glue - Stardust.  I've had my Cricut for months, but this is the FIRST time I've used it.

This page was really simple, but I love the way it turned out.  I cut the tag shapes for the picture mats, threaded organdy ribbon through holes I punched, then added a "Pretty Pin" through each ribbon.

I used one flip flap page on the first layout so I could hide another picture underneath.  The flip flap page attaches to the outside of the page protector so you can see what's underneath without removing the page from the page protector.

This flip flap page hides a picture of Neal wearing Jess's hat.  On the back side of the flip flap I added words from the Dr. Seuss classic, Go, Dog, Go, to go along with the title.

Back to Scrapbooking

A layout from Orange Beach.  I used CTMH Moon Doggie B&T papers and lots of embellishments.

My favorite part of this layout is the word "beach."  I took one of my favorite stamp sets, "Posterboard Alphabet" an stamped right on some beach, sand, and shell photos that I took, and cut the letters out to make a great title.

This page tells the story of Jess and the kite she bought.  It looked pretty for about two minutes, and then the wind snapped the string, and it flew away.

Moon Doggie Layout

This Orange Beach layout was made with CTMH's Moon Doggie B&T paper and Star Spangled Blue background CS.  The stamp set for "Orange Beach is Woodcut Alphabet.

Orange Beach

Lots of scrapbooking to do when I get back...

The beach outside our hotel.

Neal & Jess collecting shells.

Jess's sandcastle.

Lunch at Lambert's Cafe.

Neal and Jess just before being consumed by a huge land shark.