Loving This

Have Bags Will Travel

~ dddesignz ~ Leave a comment

One of my favourite post-Covid activities is travelling! We are truly blessed to have family living in Austria that allow us to visit and use their home as a base to travel from. We made several trips overseas during the last twelve months, and have additional adventures planned ahead. I keep pinching myself that I should be so lucky! The picture in this layout is from Venice, Italy, where we met our family for more exploration and to make unforgettable memories together!

I chose the Tourist Mode paper collection and ephemera pack from PinkFresh Studio to document this romantic picture of Venice. I love how the colours in this collection complemented the beautiful colours of the canal.

The title cut file, Have Bags Will Travel, comes from Peartree Cutfiles. It perfectly encompassed my feelings for these great adventures we’ve been taking.

I was also attracted to this cut file because it let me personalize the suitcase. Many friends know I travel with a pink and red rosed suitcase with gold fixtures. This beautiful cut file allowed me the ability to mimic this look. I used an older sheet of patterned paper in my stash from Creative Imaginations called Prom Paper to recreate this look. I turned to gold foil cardstock to create the gold accents. 

To achieve the blue ombre effect in the title, I offset the letters slightly and cut them from white textured cardstock. Using Altenew inks in Blueberry and Winter Lake, each letter was inked to create the overall effect. Once I was happy with the overall tone and gradation of each letter, they were adhered to the back of the title. The entire title was secured to the layout using black dimensional fun foam for added texture and visual impact.

The bottom three phrase strips came from the Tourist Mode ephemera pack. The wording perfectly captured my thoughts and feelings on this trip. The origin of the “Are we there yet?” chipboard accent is unknown, as I have had it in my collection for many years.

The foam “Fav Photo” phrase and all the coordinated foam dots on the layout belong to Vicki Boutin’s “Loving This” thicker collection. The two additional pieces of ephemera belong to the Tourist Mode collection. Each piece of ephemera was inked along the edge with a colour-coordinated Altenew ink (Orange Sherbert, Orange Cream, Caribbean Sky, and Limestone). Doodlebug Designs teensy-type stickers were used to note the date and location.

I hope everyone finds an opportunity in their life to travel. For me, it is not only educational and enlightening, it is truly life-changing. Thanks for taking this trip with me today, and until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Life is a Beautiful Ride

~ dddesignz ~ Leave a comment

When Canadian cousins get the opportunity to meet up in Austria, a good time is guaranteed! As the Nana to Ben, and the Aunt to Raquel, I have to tell you this picture gives me all the feels! It is so difficult being so far away from your family, but when you see them get together on another continent, and see the love and joy on their faces, it makes one’s heart burst! It certainly makes me count my blessings to be part of such a loving family.

If you are familiar with Peartree Cutfiles, you’ll know their tagline is “There’s a Cut File for That”. I can’t think of a better cut file for this photo than Life is a Beautiful Ride. This picture of Ben and Raquel was taken at the historic Prater Amusement Park in Vienna, Austria. (Photo credit to my talented daughter, Lindsay!) I cut the file in black using American Crafts Precision Cardstock. It was backed with gorgeous papers from Craft Consortium’s Ink Drops – Ocean collection. I loved how the hues and tones of this paper blended with the blue watercoloured background foundation page from Vicki Boutin’s Color Study Ready-to-Use Mixed Media Paper collection.

The rest of this layout came together quite easily. After adding a bit of journalling to describe the photo, I used Thickers from 3 of Vicki’s collections to embellish the layout. I pulled hearts, words, phrases, stars and an arrow from the Loving This, Stories of US, and Perfect Day Thicker collections.

Every time I look at this layout my heart, and maybe even my eyes, fill up! So much love, so much fun, so much to experience and share together. I am so thankful these two had the opportunity to make such great memories together!

Thanks for stopping in today. Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!