Back to the Magic

I picked up this cute 8x8 Mickey Mouse album while we were on honeymoon in Orlando in 2007. Once home and scrapping, I found 8x8 scrapping wasn't my thing. I just don't work well with this size, I don't know why as I love 4x6, 6x12 and 12x12 so what's up with 8x8? Who knows, but after a few pages I was sold on the idea of giving up gracefully. Recently, I sold the 8x8 album but was left with a stack of lonely pages sitting on my craft desk.

Continuing in the stash busting spirit (and generally clearing my craft desk) I decided to repurpose my pages for some 12x12 living.

I stuck each layout onto a sheet of 12x12 cardstock and added some embellishments. For some reason my original 8x8 pages didn't have many bulky embellies. I have no idea why. I wish I could ask my former scrappy self - why so flat? Did I have an aversion to foam pads perhaps?! I also added some long awaited journalling to each page. Hey younger me - why no journalling?! Now I have some new(ish) layouts for our honeymoon album and more space on my desk.

The Magic is in the Detail

I'm not sure if you know, I guess I have kept it a bit of a secret around here but I think it's time I came clean...

I love Walt Disney World. Yup, I know, I kept that one well hidden didn't I? :p Now that you know the truth I guess I can just jump right in with a Disney page, right?

One of the things I love most about WDW is the attention to detail. I love a theme. Be it, a fancy dress party, a fundraiser, a children's party. If I can 'theme' it I will. It is no surprise that Disney World is my idea of heaven. From the tables to the chairs, from the street signs to the bins EVERYTHING is themed. The attention to detail is so great, you won't find a Frontierland cast member (don't you just love that) wandering around in Tomorrowland. Oh no. No space cowboys round these here parts. The Magic Kingdom was built over a series of tunnels called utilidors to allow cast members to move about freely from one land to anotehr without being seen in the 'wrong' place. How cool is that. I love this, I love that Disney is putting on 'a show' for their guests and the show never seems to end. There is so much to see, so much to take in. You couldn't possibly see everything is just one trip. In fact, I'm not convinced you could see everything in 100 trips to the mouse.

When I took this photo I had a scrapbook page in mind. I knew I wanted to document the little details, the little touches that make WDW the most magical place in the world. This is a lamp, yes, a lamp on a little desk in our room at the Grand Floridian. Isn't it cute? The lack of colour in the photo and that I wanted to journal about what makes WDW 'Disney' for me meant that I could really go to town with my 'Disney' supplies. I have papers, and stickers in red, black, yellow and white coming out of my {Mickey} ears and every now and then I like to pull all those supplies out a create what I think of as a totally 'Disney' page. It's so simple and so much fun. And I love the results.

Supplies include; Bazzill, Creative Imaginations, Reminisce, Echo Park and Doodlebug. Thanks for stopping by Kxx

10 Things

This month I'm dedicating my 10 Things post to 10 things I love about Orlando, where I have been twice, once in 2005 and once on honeymoon in 2007.

1. Gasparilla's hotdog and fries. Especially after an 8 hour flight, having just checked into the Grand Floridian!!



2. Wild Cherry Pepsi bought in bulk at Wal*Mart



3. Lays Chips (crisps). First discovered at the kiosk in the American pavillion at EPCOT having forgotten the chips means crisps.



4. Carrot Cake from Disney's Port Orleans Riverside Resort. Must be eaten every night like ritual.



5. Mickey's Philharmagic show at the Magic Kingdom



6. Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table in Cinderella Castle. Epecially on one week wedding anniversaries



7. Being upgraded to Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa on our honeymoon trip. Yup t'is true.



8. Joanns, Michaels, Wal*Mart and Target. Need I say more?



9. Sipping virgin cocktails in Bahama Breeze



10. Disney's Days of Christmas shop in Downtown Disney. Christmas all year round!

There are other people blogging 10 Things today today. Why don't you join us? Pop on over to shimelle.com and add your link once your done :)

The Day we Conquered Everest

Once upon a time we went on a journey to a forbidden moutain... Mount Everest!! As in Disney's Animal Kingdom Mount Everest, clearly. Following on from last weeks 'Wild at Heart' layout this is another page I did for Disney Scrappers. You must visit if you {heart} Disney and Scrapping.

Now, I am not a rollercoaster person but I like to think I am. And I love that you can kind of kid yourself into going on a big ride at Disney. Sometimes you can't even SEE the rides!! Rock n' Roller at Disney Hollywood Studios is a great example of this. I would have never rode this in a million years had I actually SEEN the coaster! You can't see the coaster accelerate from 0-60 in 2,8 seconds, nor can you see the two roll-overs nor the corkskrew inversions from the outside (good job!). I thought I was in for a relaxing drive in a limo with the lovely Areosmith... 'Walk this Way' I said!! I love Disney because even though I am unlikely (let's be honest here) to ever ride Rock n' Roller coaster again I can still say I have done it! And I have and Everest too!

Although, Expedition Everest at Disney's Aminal Kingdom is not so elusive, I mean I could see the 80 foot drop before I declared 'Let's do Everest' but you know what's it's like, it's Disney, 'how bad can it be', 'it'll be similar to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad I'm sure' and the queuing area is 'so cool', 'a must see' I had set myself a goal to ride EE and afterall, we were dressed for the occiasion :p I. Was. So. Scared. But I didn't let on until we were off the ride and through the shop. I wanted the ride photo and my 'I Conquered Everest' licence plate (shopping overrides my fear factor, isn't that the case for everyone?!). Safely, out of earshot of the Yeti I uttered 'how scary was that!'. I really hope I can muster up the courage to ride EE again. Or perhaps I'll do a 'Mummy'... huh? Ah well, that's a story for another day... :p

Supplies include Bo Bunny U Bug Me and Zoology. Thanks for stopping my and as they say at Disney's Animal Kingdom 'have a wild time!' :)

When Life Gives you Lemons...

... scrapbook until you learn how to make lemonade.

Life has thrown me a curve ball recently and I admit, I am not quite dealing with all that entails in the graceful, calm manner that I would have wished for. But I am working on it. Meditiation CDs at the ready! But, I am somewhat scrapping my way through it (or should that be scraping my way... ;p).

Last week Disney Scrappers (re)launched their Disney scrapbooking challenges. You must sign up if you are a Disney scrapper as there are bucket loads of talented Disney scrappers over there with oodles of inspiration. It couldn't have happened at a better time for me and gave a nudge in the right direction to return to my honeymoon album. Only 4 years in the making, not bad eh?

I really wanted to have a bash at the first two chellenges: Under the Sea and Caution! You May Get Wet! but I didn't feel I had the right papers or embellies and nothing really took my fancy online (who knew!?!). I am still on the look out for a cute water themed collection? Although Bo Bunny Barefoot and Bliss has caught my eye. How cute is the title? Never mind the collection!

However, having just bought some Bo Bunny Zoology, challenge 3: On the Wild Side was perfect for me!

I dragged out some old animal themed papers and embellies, mainly Bo Bunny's U Bug Me and some Making Memories animal prints and set about selecting some photos from our day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

We had planned to go to Universal Studios the day we went to Animal Kingdom but when we looked at each other as we went to leave our hotel we realised that there was no where else for us to go but Disney's Animal Kingdom. We looked like we were going on safari!! As a scrapper our colour co-ordinated khaki attire has made for some really handy photos to scrap :) It wasn't planned, honest! But next time it will be! Here we are in all out green and brown glory...


Part of the challenge was to include animal print and the Zoology tiles were perfect for this. I wanted to make this page really busy. I got a huge kick out of using two (old and new) Bo Bunny lines together. And felt quite smug when some very old metal embellishments and an old wooden dragon fly worked well with the page. The metal Mickey clip fitted with another part of the Disney Scrappers challenege to include a Mickey head. Yay. I added some yellow netting and some stickers from both ranges, along with the leaf pin to add some detail.

I topped it off with some Thickers for the title. I'm so pleased to have restarted my honeymoon album and even more pleased to have rehomed some supplies from gathering dust in my craftroom to centre stage in one of my albums. I'm even more pleased to have lost myself for an hour or two in the magic of Disney and scrapbooking :)

I have another Animal Kingdom layout to share with you soon...

Happily Ever After...

I feel like I have been waffling on about my DCWV Once Upon a Time mini album for so long and I'm only now getting around to uploading the photos of the finished album. Thank you for sticking around for so long and without further ado...

Thanks for stopping by, Kxx

Once upon a time... it rained and rained and rained

and rained. So much so we abandoned our trip to the safari park this weekend. Fingers crossed for some better weather next weekend as I was really looking forward to meeting the meerkats - simples. All was not lost though, I completed another page for my honeymoon mini book and the front cover too!

Ever since taking part in Shimelle's Something from Almost Nothing class I have adopted a more is more approach to my scrapping (as opposed to my usual 'I couldnt possibly use more than one 'good' embellishment on one page!' approach). I am really enjoying the results and seeing my supply pile shrink while my albums expand full of gorgeous supplies is really quite rewarding.

With this in mind I went to town with the front cover for my honeymoon album. Supplies include; DCWV Once Upon a Time, Prima Marketing blooms (3 of them, count them not 1, not 2 but 3!), Maya Road chipboard Mr & Mrs, gems, ribbon and a sparkly heart ribbon slider.

For this page I had intended to include lots of sayings from the Haunted Mansion ride in the Magic Kingdom but the page just didn't work out that way but I have lots of ideas for other Haunted Mansion pages including; Your ghost host, 999 Happy Haunts, Grinning Ghosts, hurry back ... don't forget to bring your death certificate!, We're dying to meet you! thanks to the girls on UKScrappers.

Supplies for Foolish Mortals (thanks to Sarah for the title) include DCWV, Prima Marketing, and Adornit. I've inked the edges of the papers, alphas and the flower to age it a little. Look out for hidden Mickey's too.

Thanks for stopping by. Kxx

Look out Ariel!

This is my attempt for the monthly challenge over at The Mill Pond. The challange is to include your journalling in your title and to do something different with your title, something that you would normally do. I included my journalling about not wishing to meet Ursula with my title Under the Sea and I mixed Doodlebug alphas with small Adornit alphas. I wouldn't normally mix a small font with a large one but I like the result.

We saw this scray lady at the Disney Dreams Come True Parade at the Magic Kingdom in 2007. I love that parade! Above is the original photo it all its scary glory.

Mojo! wherefore art thou mojo...

My scrapping mojo seems to have gone on it's holiday so I've been revisiting some of my favourites sources of inspiration. I logged on to scrapbook.com to have a peek at all the lovelies over there and imagine my surprise when I saw my 'Chicken, who me?!' page on the homepage :)

If you have a scrapbook.com account please pop over and say hi @ http://www.scrapbook.com/places/Kirsteen

Thanks for dropping by. If you come accross my mojo on your travels please send it my way ;) Kxx

Home Sweet {Disney} Home

The first time we went to Orlando we were a little wet behind the ears. We booked a package with our local travel agent and didn't put much more thought into it. Shocking - considering what a 'Disney planner' I turned out to be! If only I'd known about ADRs and Dollar Express then... This is the first villa we stayed in. It was a little off the beaten track in Kissimmee but lovely all the same. There were no bells and whistles (I've since found villas with pool tables and games rooms and jacuzzi's!) but if you said I could go back to Disney tomorrow and stay there I so would! We had out own pool and it was lovely just to chill out after a hot day at the parks.


By the time we made our second trip I'd let the Disney planner within me loose and I booked a split stay at Disney's Port Orleans Resort and Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. Riverside is a beautiful resort and we'd stay there again in a flash. This is the view of a quiet pool from our room at Riverside.

Now, you may be thinking that the photo below doesn't look much like the Animal Kingdom Lodge and you would be right. A few months before our honeymoon the Animal Kingdom Lodge started building work on their new DVC (Disney Vacation Club) villas and we were bumped to Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa!! Talk about pixie dust! :) I love, love, love this hotel and would love to stay there again, one day...
I hope you've enjoyed my little stroll around 'The World' ;p xx

I know I'm in Disney when...

...we take the obligatory 'the one with all the feet' photo of our paving stone that lives at the entrance of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Orlando.

... when I see 'The Castle'. Each trip has to start and end with a trip to the Magic Kingdom. That first sight of 'The Castle' tells me 'I'm home'. I think I could look at it all day. Swoon.

Thanks for dropping by. xx

Luck be a Lady

Colour me lucky - I won a class pass for http://www.shimelle.com/. I can't tell you how chuffed I am - woop woop. I signed up for Journal your Christmas, I know it's only April but I scrap slow and I love Christmas!!! Roll on December 1st! Tinsel anyone? ;)

And with all this talk of Christmas... here is a page from my honeymoon album, it is about the band at Disney's Grand Floridian resort in Walt Disney World, Orlando - my favourite place in the world.

Supplies are Bazzill, Heidi Grace stickers and rub-ons, gems, wooden star embellie and a Making Memories bell charm. Thanks for stopping by. Kx

Scraps On

I have been dipping in and out of Shimelle's Crop Party and this is what I have done today:

I've always wanted to do a large photo page so I am happy to have given this a bash even thought it is only a 8x8 but shh don't tell anyone ;p I've used Bazzill and a scrap of some very old TLC patterned paper - I love this colour teamed with the traditional red, white and black Disney colours. Other supplies are Doodlebug Uncle Sam, TLC (alphas) and Creative Imaginations stickers, Papermania gems and a couple of red brads.

I am loving all the bunting that is out at the moment so I was delighted to give this a go on a page:

Supplies include Bazzill, scraps of patterned paper (some TLC) ribbon, Papermania gems and some TLC (alphas), Doodlebug and Creative Imaginations stickers. Thanks for stopping by - happy Saturday!

I Heart Alligator Bayou

I've been working on this page as part of a challenge for Shimelle's Something from Almost Nothing class. The challenge was to pick a shape and use it over and over on a page. I picked a house as I thought I'd get some use out of my little house Sizzix die although it didn't quite work out like that but here is the result...

I only managed two houses - the photo mat and the little Sizzix die but I am happy to have finally used up a teeny tiny bit of the 18" little white picket fence I bought in Joanns/Michaels over two years ago and two wooden embellies that I bought it the same time. Some super stash busting I think ;)

I also used two sheets of cardstock that I received in one of my Sarah's Cards Grab Bags so I'm happy to have put that to good use. I added some Thickers (the brown vinyl ones were also in one of Sarah's Grab bags) for the title and added a Doodlebug Home Sweet Home charm aswell.

The photos were taken at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside Resort in 2007.

Thank Crunchie it's Friday!