Baltic scrapping #11

I’ve been really getting a crack on with the Baltic album and have several more layouts completed. The next three are from our adventure on the St. Petersburg metro. It was a brilliant experience and fun to scrap.

I have quite a lot of travel-themed scrapbooking collections and a couple of them had metro embellishments, which I’ve been carefully hoarding ready for these layouts. I love it when a plan comes together 🙂

First then is the metro station we started at. Next is the platform and the long, long escalator, and journalling about the experience in general. Last is the station we ended up at. From the Metro, we made our way to The Hermitage State Museum. I had hundreds of photos from here and it was so hard to narrow it down. In the end, I did three fairly general layouts and used divided page protectors for more photos and journalling.

I started with a layout describing our journey to and into The Hermitage and first sight of the entrance hall. Next I journalled about some of the paintings that we saw, with photos of my favourites. Shame I had to take an angled photo of the Da Vinci, but it was behind glass so I was trying to avoid reflections.

Next are the divided page protectors. And finally, one talking about the other artwork we saw there, especially the sculptures, and how awestruck I was by how close I was standing to the Michelangelo. I’m still trying to keep these layouts fairly plain and as flat as possible so that they will all fit into their albums. If I start layering up too much, or using chipboard stickers on too many of them, I’ll end up having to get another album. Once I’ve finished, I might do a few ‘highlights’ layouts for my 2018 album, where I can play with them a bit more.

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Baltic scrapping #10

I’ve started on album two of our Baltic Cruise adventure and this one will be all Russia. We did so much over the two days there that it’s going to fill a whole album!

First off is the intro page. The photo is of me standing by the River Neva. It was such a glorious day and I loved our tour so much. I’m getting all nostalgic just looking at it.

I had a couple of banknotes left so as they were only worth a couple of pounds, I included them on the layout. I had a lot to say on the next layout. I wanted to describe the immigration process and why we were so early. I used a photo of our tour bus with it. I really want to get as many details of not just what we saw and did, but how we felt. I want to be able to look back on these albums in future years and be transported back to our brilliant holiday. The next two layouts are about our first stop in St. Petersburg. We had ten minutes to see the Sphinx by the Neva River. The first layout has journalling about travelling to the river and what we did there. The second one has details of the Sphinx. I lifted the text straight from the official St. Petersburg website and used a shaped journalling box to signify that it’s factual rather than descriptive. I’ll probably use the same format through the whole album. Can you believe those things are three and a half thousand years old?!

The next three layouts are at our second stop of the day. It’s the Neva River again, and this time it’s to see the Rostral columns.

First the obligatory tourist photo with Stephen posing with a column. Next is one with a bit of info about the columns. And finally one showing the view from that area. We could see a couple of the places on our itinerary, which was quite exciting.

Baltic scrapping #09

This is the final batch from our fantastic day exploring in Tallin, Estonia.

City walls, where we saw towers, walls and pretty gardens. The incredibly beautiful Alexander Nevsky cathedral. Toompea Castle, where we saw a pink castle, a tall tower and more lovely gardens. The Dome church, which was another beautiful building. The Patkuli viewing platform. Another viewing point – Kohtuotsa. And finally, for Tallin, Viru Gate. There’s lots of journalling on this one as it describes the last bit of our Estonian adventure plus what we got up to once back on board our ship. That’s day five scrapped and the first of four albums finished. There are almost fifty layouts in there and it’s very full! Album two was supposed to have thirty-five page protectors in there but I’ve condensed a couple of sections down to get it to thirty. I’m hoping that as some are divided page protectors with just photos in, which will be less bulky than layouts, that they’ll fit.

I’m going to take a wee break from Baltic scrapping before starting album two as I’ve got a couple of Shimelle classes to do and lots of photos of cats etc that are waiting to be scrapped.

Baltic scrapping #08

Six more layouts, all from our day in Tallin, Estonia. We had a brilliant time there and really loved exploring the old city.

The intro page, which follows the same format as the others. The photo was taken in one of the lovely gardens that we came across.

This one is about docking and how we sat in Islands, eating our breakfast, as Tallin came into view during the sail in. We had an amazing view of the Old City from the ship. Like the paper? I bought a couple more collections of travel-themed papers. This one is lush and is Simple Vintage Traveller by Simple Stories. I love everything about it and am loving using it.

Once off the ship, we did a guided walk from a book that I’d bought before our departure. It took us to loads of interesting places, with information about everywhere we went. We started off at Fat Margaret Tower, which is this layout. The next layout is about Pikk Street. On Pikk Street we went into the KGB cells. I’m not sure the phrase embellishments are entirely suitable for there but I didn’t have much else that’d fit. Finally for this post is a layout about the Town Hall Square and the bit of shopping that we did there. I’ve got a few more layouts from Tallin, but I’ll save them for another day.

Baltic scrapping #07

I did four layouts from our fourth day, which was a day at sea.

First the intro layout, which follows the same format as the others. Next are a couple with photos of where we ate that day with journalling about the things that we did in between eating. Finally a layout to document the evening’s activities.

Baltic scrapping #06

Final layouts from our Swedish adventure.

Two from Fotö Three from Hönö And one from on board the ship with journalling detailing the rest of our day.

Baltic scrapping #05

More layouts from our day in Sweden. This is the first of several from Öckerö. We started off our visit there with a coffee and cake, which was laid on as part of our tour. Then we explored the museum and took lots of photos. There were more photos than I wanted to, or had time to scrap so I’m using divided page protectors to get more photos in the albums. Some will be padded out with other things such as journalling blocks but some may have just photos. I used one for Sweden. Finally for Öckerö is a layout of the white church.

Baltic scrapping #04

I’ve finally got to the first port of call, which was Sweden. We had the best day out there and took loads of photos. I’m scrapping all of my favourites, while still trying to tell the story of our day.

I started with the intro page, with the same format as the earlier ones. Next was the sail in with journalling about getting up early to watch from our balcony. This layout has a photo from when we were docking with journalling about that and about getting breakfast and heading off the ship to join our excursion. I wanted to do a layout about our tour guide as she was so lovely so the journalling on this is about Eleanor. Our tour was to the Northern Archipelago so I took a photo of the ferry from one of the islands and used that for a layout about the ferry crossing. Finally, for this post, are two layouts about our stop at Burö on the island of Halsö. 

Baltic scrapping #03

I’ve finished scrapping the second day of our cruise, which was the first full day and was spent at sea. There are six layouts starting with the intro for the day.Once again, it has a square photo with a ‘just the facts’ journaling block.

Next is a layout about our lovely cabin. It won’t be the only cabin layout, but it’s a start 😉

Next is about the restaurant where we had breakfast, plus what we had. Then I did a layout about the maps by the central lifts and how useful we found them while we were finding our way around the ship. Some of the layouts are going to be very plain and simple, as otherwise I’ll still be scrapping this holiday in ten years time. I will embellish some a bit more, but I’m comfortable with a simple style and the main thing is to get the journalling on there.

The next one is about me getting dressed for dinner again, and waffles about how I even got a mani-pedi before travelling. (my first ever!)Finally, there’s a layout about our evening. The journalling is about where we had dinner, and what we had, and about the evening show in the Broadway Lounge. I recently added to my stash of travel-themed papers and embellishments with a pack of Basic Grey Second City. The theme and colours were perfect for this layout. Next up is one of our port days – Sweden!

Baltic scrapping #02

The first day of our cruise is finished. I’ve only done four pages for it though. This and the sea days are quite light on photos, but once I get to the port days, there are loads. Great fun!

I’m starting each day with an intro page and they’ll look similar. They’ll all have a square photo and a ‘just the facts’ journaling block. This is the intro page for day one. I did a layout with details of how our morning went and the embarkation process plus what we did once we got aboard. There’s more journaling on this than in whole albums that I’ve done before! Photos are of the sail away.

Next is a layout of me, all dressed up. The journaling is about how I never get dressed up these days and that this is very dressy for me.Finally is a layout of our first dinner on board – what we had and what we thought of it.  As you can see, the layouts are quite heavy on the journaling so far. Some won’t have much, as they’ll just be to showcase some photos that I love, and others will have lots. I want to tell the story of our adventure so in future years I can look back and easily remember all the details. I guess that’s the main reason that I scrap.