The other day I had the brilliant idea to use scrapbooking as a way of studying here in Italy. A huge chunk of the material we're responsible for comes from site visits, so I have a ton of pictures. They're going to be scrapped anyway, so I might as well combine my relaxing with typing up the condensed version of my notes for journaling. Fun pages, too, of course, but it was a great way of getting my thoughts together.

Title page for my album, made in boredom sitting at the airport waiting for my flight (because I am paranoid about being on time for things, I had about an hour to work on this). My plan for this album in general is lots of squares and blocks of photos, with lots of journaling and minimal embellishments.  It's the only way I'll ever be able to get anything done, considering that I have about 12 pages worth of photos and it's been one week.

My cover page, with a picture of the Temple of Saturn in the Forum:

Britt-ish Designs and Sahlin Studios: A Taste of the World Combo Pack; Sahlin Studios:  Snipettes: Travel; Template: ?

Two-pager from our wandering around on the first day:

Britt-ish Designs and Sahlin Studios - Taste of the World; Britt-ish Designs - Tale as Old as Time; Weeds and Wildflowers & Cinzia Designs: Everyday Life Daily Digi Freebie; Scrap Orchard: June Mega It's a Journey

From our walking tour of the Janiculum, the hill on which I live now:

Leslie Bodoh: Mousescrappers Template; Britt-ish Designs: Taste of the World,  Basic Date Stash; Sahlin Studios: Enjoy the Moment

The day after orientation, we all went out in groups to work on an obelisk project:

Armina Designs: June 15-July 14 Template Challenge at Pickleberry Pop Designs; Sahlin Studios: Enjoy the Moment; Britt-ish Designs and  Sahlin Studios: Taste of the World; 

It was a long day, particularly since using the Tiber to navigate inner city streets will add an hour of walking to your day.  You will also be tormented looking for the Disney store after seeing all the cute bags, and realizing later you picked the wrong side of the twin church streets for that. But we saw the Spanish Steps, so bonus?

Jaclyn Bernardo Designs: Staycation Templates; Scrapmatters Design Team: Coastal; Suzy Q Scraps: {Stash Builders} Simpler Paper Alphas 2

I do not like coffee. I can tolerate it in desserts, but it's far too bitter for me. I do, however, love hot chocolate.

Scrapmatters Design Team: Coastal; Suzy Q Scraps: {Stash Builders} Simpler Paper Alphas 2; Template: ?

On Thursday, we made an epic half-day trip to the forum to go over the early monarchy sites. Here's where the studying came in, as the journaling consists of the summed up versions of my notes from the day.  Note: the pictures on the bottom are not actually of the Lupercal, since it is no longer extant. I also didn't think to take any pictures on top of the Palatine where we had the lecture on it. Other Note: I heard about Half-price Chocolate Day a while ago, which I would much prefer to celebrate than Valentine's Day (as a romantic holiday, not a feast day). It coincides with the Lupercalia. Now they must be combined for double the fun :)

Jady Day Studio: Catch Up Template 5; Stolen Moments Designs: Capture a Memory 

I still have another page of the Forum to do, and the Art History pages of San Pietro in Montorio, the Tempietto, and the Villa Farnesina. But those will come later...perhaps after lunch and Latin. I'll also go back and add in credits for my layouts later in the day.

Falling Behind...

Well, I'm safely in Italy now and have begun the grand tour (part of my ongoing goal of getting a classical education). Here are some of my January pre-trip layouts, though. Most of these are from the Mousescrappers Minnie Marathon, although a couple aren't.


First is my 2010 year in review page:

Britt-ish Designs: Year in Review Template, Sahlin Studios: Innovation

Next are my favorites from the Speed Scrap Marathon at the beginning of January. Cape May, posted at Mousescrappers:

Scrapmatters Design Team - Coastal; Kellybell - Pixie Dust Sampler

Hollywood Studios:

Britt-ish Designs: Hollywood!

Little Girls At Heart:

Britt-ish Designs - Let Down Your Hair

Galactic Defenders, made to coordinate with my other LGM page:

Britt-ish Designs - Monstrosity, Wire Flowers: Metal Edition, Space Ranger, Galactic Alliance Add On, Polka Dots for Boys; Sahlin Studio - Enjoy the Moment Add On; Scrapping with Liz - Advent Day 3 Template

When we went to Cinderella's Castle, Belle's makeup ended at her neck and left the dense covering of freckles on her neck and arms visible, Freckled:

Britt-ish Designs - Queen of the Castle; Britt-ish Designs and Suzy Q Scraps - Tale As Old As Time; Sahlin Studios - Innovation; Kellybell - Pixie Dust Sampler; Erica Zane - If You Give A Girl A Castle; Disneyclips.com - clip art; Traci Reed - Template Angie (from a freebie pack)

And the last of the Mousescrappers pages, Meep. This was the page I made for the weekly challenge I hosted a couple weeks ago.

Britt-ish Designs - Monstrosity, Mousterpiece Alpha, Jellies: Frames
Font: Traveling Typewriter

One last Disney page, which I did in the Atlanta airport while waiting for my flight.  I got a Rapunzel doll for Christmas, and Diana got Lotso. Combined with the Buzz costume she got my monkey, this was too cute to a scene to pass up:

Britt-ish Designs: Let Down Your Hair; Stolen Moments Designs: Scraps By Number, Just Call Me Alli Newsletter Freebie

Some More Layouts

So much for having time to scrap and post over Thanksgiving. I was too busy cooking!  I'll have to share some of the links to the recipes later, since everything turned out so good (and I'd kind of like to have a record of it somewhere that I cooked somewhat successfully).  I did get some scrapping done on Black Friday, though - Britt's grab bag was too good to pass up.  And she had a Black Friday challenge - which I won! Random draw, but I'm really pleased with how my entry came out.  Getting the next four new releases as a prize was certainly a day maker :)

Credits: 

Britt-ish Designs: Riverbend, Stash Staple: Solids Pack 2, Alpha-bitty, Happiest Season of All, Basic Date Stash (black element), Kiss That Frog, Fireside Chat Templates; Jennifer Barrette: Winter Woolies; Graham Like the Cracker: One More Sleep

Also had a layout that I've been meaning to finish off for a while, and finally got around to doing so. I'm still not 100% pleases with the pictures, and might  switch them out with a couple others before printing:

Credits: Britt-ish Designs: Fish Are Friends

Last one is for the Mousescrappers Weekly Challenge hosted by Denise (agrievingmommy).  The challenge was to use masks, which she kindly provided. It's posted at Mousescrappers here.

Credits: Britt-ish Designs: Riverbend, Stacked Templates 4, Disney Doodles; Agrievingmommy: Disney Masks Volume 2 Magical Masks

That's all so far. I've been rather busy with school these past two weeks.  Last Monday I had 15 pages due on portrayals of the imperial family during the time of Augustus, with emphasis on Livia as the first wife of the emperor.  This Thursday I have another 5-8 pages due on Tom Jones, so I'll have to get that done. I did get a chance to see Tangled over break, and it was completely fabulous. I completely identified with Rapunzel - I swear, I've totally done the bug eyes, bouncing around and guilt. Plus, Zachary Levi = awesome. 

I am pretty much all shopped out from DSD this weekend.  I found some great stuff, some of which has been on my list for ages.  And I got some major scrapping done.

First was the Chicago Botanic Garden (from way back in May), which I managed to do while Roomie 1 did dance prep a few feet away:

Credits: Listgirl Designs - Template Set: Whimsicality; Sahlin Studios - Enjoy the Magic, Around the World; Britt-ish Designs - Tack It Down

Next is another one from May, although the occasion was the bake sale for Sister's class bunny:

Scrapmuss Designs - Project 365 template No 11

Sahlin Studios - Enjoy the Moment

 Here's a Disney one for this week's Mousescrapper's Challenge:

Credits: Sahlin Studios - So This Is Love; Britt-ish Designs - Button Ears; Sahlin Studios and Britt-ish Designs - Mansion Masquerade; Carrin (Trixie Scraps Star) - Thursday Challenge 8/12/10 Template

And here is my entry for Template Challenge 36, hosted by Natalie at Mousescrappers.  This template was so fun.  I'm going to be changing out the Minnie picture at Christmas time or thereabouts because all my photos from the early years are back at the parent's house.

Credits: Britt-ish Designs - Jellies: Blooms, Hollywood!, Sweet, NDN Goodies; Natalie from PA - Mousescrappers Template Challenge #36

I'll hopefully have a few more layouts by the end of the week. At the same time, I really should be writing a fifteen page paper for the 22nd. And the Italian presentation corrections.  And watching Mad Men for an English project (which is far more appealing, but still. Homework). By Thanksgiving, at least, I hope to finally start tackling the backlog of pictures from the summer, and maybe doing some of the Weekly Challenges from the Logbook I got back in January.

A New Blog and Recent Layouts

Hello! I plan on mostly using this blog for posting my recent layouts, Disney and otherwise - I'm too scattered to pick just one gallery that I regularly use.  Putting everything in one place here seemed easiest - personal quirks ftw!


Anyways, last night was a speed scrap on Mousescrappers, and here's what I came up with: 

Credits: Credits: Sahlin Studios - Stitched Ears, Around the World; Britt-ish Designs - Jellies: Frames, Alice, Stash Staple - Solids Pack 1, Leave the World Behind, Tack It Down; Bella Gypsy - Red White and You; GG Digital Designs - Berry Merry

I'm also really pleased with how my Tower of Terror layout turned out.  The challenge a few weeks ago involved a big picture background, so I was inspired to do a second one.  This is the result. It's posted at Mousescrappers here:

Credits: Britt-ish Designs, Sahlin Studio, Studio Tangie, Decrow Designs - Mansion Masquerade, Mansion Masquerade Clusters; Britt-ish Designs - Mouseterpiece Alpha, Arabian Nights

Here's a layout from Weekly Challenge 58; the prompt was to have someone in costume.  Thus the hunting Donald (still not sure what the story behind that is). Posted here.

Credits: Dede Smith - Blessings, and probably the brown background paper; Scrapmatters Design Team - Wizarding Magic; Britt-ish Designs - Alpha-Bitty; Sahlin Studio - Stitched Ears

And one last one I'm really proud of - especially because of the journaling. Posted here.

Credits: Bella Gyspy - Just Because Template; Jennifer Barrette - My Heart Soars; Britt-ish Designs - Button-ears, Sweet As Can Be, Tale As Old As Time, Arabian Nights, Happiest Season of All; Sahlin Studios - Land of Fantasy; Jenn Wolff Designs - Hot Hot Hot (clipping mask)

Journaling reads: Beauty and the Beast came out when I was just a baby, but growing up it was my absolute favorite movie. I was watching it even before I could talk very well - I used to run around calling it “Blooty and the Beast!” Belle was always both the princess I most wanted to be, and the princess I thought I was most like. She was a brunette and she loved books. I’m pretty sure that somehow, the library scene subconsciously influenced my decision to pursue a career as a librarian - having a huge room of books to take care of just looked so much fun! Because of my love for all things Belle, for a short period of time I started collecting Belle stuff. Unfortunately for me at the time, my budget was limited enough that the collection never really grew. At Disney World, though, it was always very easy to get into the princess mood with Belle. We’d run into her in Epcot and Toontown Fair, and we’d go see the stage show in Hollywood Studios. I’ve seen that show probably thirty times or more by now. Aside from the Hunchback of Notre Dame show, it was one of the few attractions at DHS that appealed to Diana and I as little girls. When Diana went on Tower of Terror for the first time and I was too chicken to go, I went with Ama and Grandpa to see this show instead, and thought I had the better deal. I honestly cannot remember a time when we’ve gone to Florida and haven’t seen the show. I love that they condensed the whole movie to some of the best bits. The singing is always superb, and the costumes for Lumiere, Cogsworth, et al. are a riot (although I wish they would do meet and greets with them - they clearly already have the costumes). But my favorite part of the show is the costumes. Not so much of the main cast, but of the ensemble. When I was little, I didn’t want to be an astronaut or president - should the whole be a mommy thing not work out, I was going to go to Orlando and be a princess. Baring that, since I didn’t care for people interaction, I was going to go be one of the triplets, because they had the most gorgeous pastel gowns. They would also get to dress up in the end in the hot pink ball gowns - to this day, I still want one. The sherbet dress was also incredibly appealing to me - how fun would it be to go out and get to prance around as a giant dessert! Real intervened, and my lack of singing voice had made joining the Beauty and the Beast cast an impossibility. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t go back and see the show again and again so long as it’s still running.