Another Disney Day Complete!

I am so excited that I'm getting so much done this week on my Disney album. I put off this project for so long, so it's nice to see it finally taking shape. I am getting these pages done quickly and, unfortunately, they look it. I feel like they are looking the same, but my goal is preserving memories, not winning design contests.

A big help in letting me move along so fast is Amy Alvis's  4x6 Photo Sketch Blog. I've probably mentioned it before, but her sketches have been invaluable to me. If you are a traditional scrapper, I highly recommend checking out her blog. I turn to it almost every time I scrapbook, and if I don't use her sketches exactly, I usually base my pages on something I've seen there. When I know I've followed a sketch closely, I include the link in my page descriptions.

Today I finished the second full day of the trip. Something ironic I noticed when I was working on these pages is, for not actually doing much in World Showcase, we sure took a lot of pictures! I've got three more days to go, and I have no idea how all these pages are going to fit in the album I got at the parks. I'm not even halfway through, and I have 45 pages!

Here's the latest batch:

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Jasmine
Sticker: Disney

Sketch: I used the same one as above, but flipped it, knowing that this page would be next to the China one in the album
Papers: More old stuff! Scrap Book Wizard
Cricut Cartridge: George and Basic Shapes
Sticker: Disney (actually a freebie in some junk mail)

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Calligraphy Collection
Sticker: Disney
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Sticker: Disney
Punch: EK Success

Papers; DCWV, Provo Craft
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Tag: Disney
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV, Recollections
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Frame: Disney
Stamps: Hero Arts

Sketch: Amy Alvis (I made some minor changes for my layout, but I essentially stuck to this sketch)
Papers: DCWV
Sticker: Disney
Rub-ons: Making Memories

Papers: Paper Studio, Provo Craft
Stickers: Disney
Punch: Fiskars

Finally Some Disney Pages!

With no other photos printed, I finally had no choice but to start on my Disney album. I feel like I am easing into, though, and starting with pages that are not overtly Disney, i.e. no character photos. I will admit that, now that I've finally started, I am slightly less intimidated by this project. With our next Disney vacation now less than eight weeks away, the chances of my completing this album before we leave are pretty slim, but I am glad I at least got it started. I actually found an old empty photo album that I put the prints in. I'm telling myself this will make it easier for me to decide on what layout to do next. I think it will be easier to flip through the photo album, rather than shuffling through stacks of prints, to see what I want. It has me feeling a little nostalgic for my early days as a scrapbooker, when I got a roll of film back from the developer and got to flip through the photos to decide which ones would go on a scrapbook page. Sometimes I think that was easier than my current process, where I need to click through hundreds of photos and then only order prints of the ones that I know are going to go on the page. Yeah, I think I am slowly talking myself into transitioning to digi scrapping.

Even though I am only four layouts into this album, I'm already procrastinating again. I realized when I ordered the prints for the album, I neglected to get prints of our Photopass photos. For those of you unfamiliar, Photopass is all the photos that the Disney photographers take of you in the parks. Their prints are outrageously expensive, but you can order a CD and get all the photos and then print them however you choose. It's still not cheap, but if you get a lot of pictures taken it's definitely more worth it. Since the photographers will often take the same picture with your own camera, I already had many similar photos. There are some, though, that I only had on the Photopass CD that I really want to include in the album (like us in front of Spaceship Earth at Epcot (the giant golf ball, for you non-Disney experts) or in front of Cinderella's castle with fireworks in the background). Since I am missing some of these integral photos, I somehow have it in my head now that I can't really get to work on this album until I get them printed. I am trying to overcome this obstacle and find pages to do that I know none of these photos will be needed for.

Okay, enough of my babbling. Here is what I have so far:

Papers: DCWV (and some really old ones, at that!)
Cricut Cartridges: Micky Font, Opposites Attract
Punch: Fiskars
Snaps: Making Memories

Papers: DCWV
Punch: Martha Stewart

Sketch: Amy AlvisPapers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Opposites Attract
Punch: EK Success

Sketch: Amy AlvisPapers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

New Obession

I have really gotten out of scrapping mode, since I have acquired a new obsession--Fantasy Disney Vacation Planning! We just took our first family trip to Disney World in April of this year, but somehow I'm already pining for another. We would all love to go back, but don't know when it will be in the cards again, financially-speaking. However, this hasn't stopped me from trolling the planning sites and message boards, looking for deals and pricing out trips. The new-found obsession started barely a week ago, and I've already been pricing out trips for four different time periods. My initial thought was for spring break next April, having had such a great time at that time of year (and getting extremely lucky from a crowd standpoint). Next, I was thinking Christmas 2011. I know the time between Christmas and New Year's is insane, but I was thinking the week before Christmas and telling myself it wouldn't quite as crazy. My next fantasy was a sans-kids trip for hubby and me to celebrate my 40th birthday in February (no kids because I refuse to take them out of school for vacation). Finally, my latest hare-brained scheme was to go the week before Christmas THIS year, as in eight weeks from now. I got lured in by the possibility of a free dining plan. Having not looked at any message boards (yet!) today, I am coming to my senses, and realizing that another Disney trip this year is simply not feasible. So, I think I will try and hold out for Christmas next year, since we would love to see the parks decorated for the holidays.

Now that I got that out of my system, here is one of my latest pages for my oldest son's album.

I love using sketches from this blog I was so excited to find there are actually still people out there who scrap 4x6 photos consistently. There are some other wonderful sketch sites out there, but I would always have trouble making them work for my photos. So, thank you Amy, for providing such a great resource!

In other scrap-related news, I went to JoAnn's today to check for the new DCWV Christmas Stacks. I told myself I would refrain from buying the fall one this year and hold out for a new Christmas one. Yes, I know, there is no such thing as too much paper, but my budget, unfortunately, says otherwise. I held them in my hands, and they were even on sale, but somehow left the store empty-handed. I noticed that the sale was on until the 30th of the month, so I still have a little time to change my mind.

I got the house cleaned today and my baking done for the kids' school festival. Plus, I ordered almost 300 prints from Winkflash (before the 99-cent shipping deal went away), so as long as I can keep myself away from the Disney sites tomorrow morning, I think I will actually attempt another layout.