Scrapbooking our Disney trip (& a 24 hour offer on online classes)
Of all the years I’ve been attending the winter trade show in Anaheim, I’ve basically ignored Disneyland until last year. This is somewhat ridiculous, as it is literally across the street from the trade show, but for whatever reason it just never crossed my mind to book extra time in California to take in some Disney fun. Until last year, when some local friends convinced me to wobble around the park pregnant before I caught my plane, and then this year, now known as ‘let’s take the baby to Disneyland’ day.
For the months ahead, I kept having this conversation with people that I’m sure he would be too young to truly appreciate the park and would get just as much joy from the Downtown Disney shopping area (which requires no ticket, of course!) and truthfully, he loved Downtown Disney and Downtown Disney loved him. He flirted with strangers and they talked to him and staff at the biggest Disney Store I’ve ever walked through gave him tiny souvenirs to keep. There were no real life characters but there were many fountains, a giant fish tank, and an animated chalkboard in Starbucks of all places. He loved it.
He loved it so much we decided to go ahead and go to the park after all. Aside from one significant error on my part, he loved Disneyland and I take back everything I ever said about how he wouldn’t be able to appreciate it. I’m now convinced that those creative people behind Disneyland have really thought about the experience for all ages.
Now I have a stack of heart-warming photos from our day and a mind of memories I want written down before he gets much older and they grow fuzzy around the edges. I honestly didn’t take enough photos for an entire album, so plan on splitting these between a good number of 12×12 pages in my chronological album for 2015 and some further photos (including some duplicates) in his Project Life baby book documenting his first year. That was an easy decision. What was not an easy decision was supplies, and I think that is because there have been so many gorgeous product collections and beautiful pages made with that traditional red, black, white, and gold colour scheme that is now synonymous with Mickey and Disney. When I look at the actual photos we have taken, I just don’t see those colours. I see the blue of the sky, the warmth in skin tones, quite a bit of greenery – really it is only our photo with Mickey Mouse that alludes to those traditional Disney colours. So decision made: I’m not going with one set colour scheme. I am simply happier crafting when I choose the colours based on the photos and story I’m telling on any particular page and I think if I tried to stick to that colour scheme here I would find myself blocked and then not get the pages done.
If I can imagine it would make me stop scrapping those photos before I even get started, that is a big sign of which direction not to go!
I’m also finding as I start working on these photos in particular that I have a new appreciation for that conundrum of what to write on each page. I’ve not really struggled there for years, but I find now some photos really do evoke something that is just such a simple and wholesome feeling that it is difficult to find words that feel right! I think maybe that is why the ‘we had fun at the park’ became the big journaling example years ago – because when you look at the photo and remember a smiling child on the swings, you can be filled with enough emotion that in the end, you don’t know what to say other than something obvious and simple. Plus most of us get a little self-conscious with anything that seems too gushing. But really, what else can you say about something so random as how a baby gets the never-ending giggles at a fountain to the point you’re nearly in tears other than calling it a whole new level of happiness?
(I’m going to come back to this topic soon. It’s been something on my mind as I work through these pages and I did eventually start to turn a corner and get to something that is not just gushing but is also not ‘we had fun at the park’.)
Instead of using licensed Disney embellishments or creating Mickey shapes on my own or anything, I’m just going with the type of supplies I tend to collect, which includes plenty of travel themed items and I haven’t done so much traveling in the past two years! No reason not to pile it on to the travel pages I do assemble then. Much of this comes from the Crate Paper Open Road collection but there are also some Heidi Swapp enamel words and stars, BasicGrey and October Afternoon labels, Studio Calico map stars, BasicGrey map paper, and vellum strips by Ormolu. The woodgrain paper is an old favourite from American Crafts Campy Trails. The title letters are a small sticker set by Pebbles, blue Amy Tangerine Thickers, and map print chipboard letters by October Afternoon. Definitely a mix of new and old supplies.
I’ve filmed a few Disney pages too, so look for more non-red-and-black Disneyland scrapbooking here this week!
This offer has now closed and registrations are being processed. Thanks so much!
Getting back to work has meant lots of different things starting at once: making pages, filming and editing videos, and composing blog posts like you see here, but also some things you don’t see here, like boring accounting jobs, tedious software updating, and exciting creative work on new classes! Let’s skip to that last point and I have three things to share with you on the class front:
1. New classes are in the works and will be available here very soon.
2. Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking and Glitter Girl’s Scrapbooking Survival Guide (workshops I taught at Two Peas in a Bucket) will be up and running here even sooner. I think this will be next week, to give an estimate. I am also working on transferring content from my older Two Peas workshops, but those newer titles are my first priority. I will be emailing students through the list I was given, but I will also post here so if you miss the email you’ll be able to get in touch. (And those classes will then be available here to anyone who still wants to purchase them.)
3. Right now for just 24 hours, you can take your pick of the existing class line up for just $10. Choose from The Perfect Collection, Return to the Collection, Scrapbook Remix, Pretty Paper Party, Blogging for Scrapbookers, Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers, Cover to Cover, Learn Something New Every Day, Journal your Christmas, Something from Almost Nothing, True Stories, and Love your Pictures, Love your Pages. Each of those links will take you to the class info page, but do not use the sign up buttons on those pages if you want to take the $10 offer! To take up the discounted price, click the button above on this page, which will take you through for a $10 payment, and includes a box to name the class you want to take. Presto! By default, your class registration will be emailed to the address on your payment. If you want materials sent to a different email address, please add it in the comment box with the name of the class.
Other details on this offer:
*Valid 10am GMT Monday 23 March 2015 to 10am GMT Tuesday 24 March 2015 only.
*There is no limit on how many classes you can purchase with this offer, but you will need to click and pay separately for each class.
*There is no refund for purchases made at the full class price today. Please use the button above on this page to get the offer!
*Purchases for this 24 hour period do not include the standard £1 donation to Plan UK that is normally included in the class price. (Happy to be working on some Plan projects very soon though!)
*You can purchase from anywhere in the world, and the US dollars will be converted to your own currency. For current market rates to any currency, please see xe.com.
*I aim to process class registrations within 24 hours. If you have not received your welcome email by that time, please check that it hasn’t gone to your spam folder, then email me so we can find out what’s gone wrong. You can also email me on that link for any questions that I haven’t answered here.
Thanks so much for your support and I hope you have a wonderful and creative week ahead!
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