NYC: A Simple Story

We went to New York in November for American Thanksgiving and it was- in a word- awesome. I crossed a few very cool things off my bucket list and I had too many pictures that needed to be scrapbooked.

Enter a Simple Stories binder. It was the perfect solution so at my weekend retreat for my LSS The Paperie, I banged out this album. 12 hours later and it was completed.

Today I'm sharing the first batch of photoswith more to come tomorrow and Thursday.



I covered the plain chipboard that was the cover with some pattern paper, fussy cut trees and some little flags and arrows. I added the stamp' let your heart be light' by Studio Calico to the green arrow piece and embossed it in teal. A little twine, some wood veneer and a combination of letters completed it.



I needed an opening page. I didn't want to use a photo so I stole a quote form one of my fav movies 'Elf' and used the last phrase of how he got to NY. I laid my letters down and misted with Mr. Huey clay to create the masked effect.



I havne't completed my journaling here but added a little digital text on the photos to have a little something done already when I printed the photos. Also those red thickers might be one of my fav fonts of all time by AC. I LOVE them.





A little stamping on pictures, some labels and a star paperclip for the Macy's Day Parade (a Bucket List Item).



I wanted something cute to finish off the balloons so I ended on Virginia from 'Miracle on 34th St.' with 'Yes, Virginia'...



And started the next page with pics of the big guy and the rest of that quote- '...there is a Santa'. The badge is an old one form Ormulu.




The other thing I did here was use the big sign on the Macy's building for my title and added 'in the magic' with a combo of stamps and stickers.



I loved all the confetti left over from the parade in front of Macy's where they broadcast on t.v and needed a foot shot. I added some sequins here and the year as well.

And was the parade. It was an absolutely beautiful day for it too! 15 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We took advantage of the lovely day and headed to Central Park after a quick bite to eat to wander and enjoy the sunshine.



Excuse the colors in the photo above-the color below is more true to the album. I used Kelly Purkey's stamp 'it's a wonderful life' which I just love. The font combo is perfect!



And I had the perfect sticker for that shot taken into the sunshine! It was indeed a 'merry & bright' day. And then below there's the obligatory shadow shot and on the other side, a few shots of us.



I'll be back to share more tomorrow.

xoxo
K

Dear Mini Albums...

I. Love. You.

Seriously?! What's not to love about a great mini-album? They are usually quick to make and packed full of photos. I've been wanting to try my hand at one of the Simple Stories albums that include 4 by 6 and 3 by 4 photos in their divided page protectors.

I got my chance recently when I realized that I had an obscene number of photos from our trip to NYC for American Thanksgiving.



We crammed a ton of activity into 5 days in Manhatten and her neighbouring Brooklyn and I wanted to capture all of that.

Enter: a Simple Stories binder and some divided page protectors.

I'm still finishing typing some journaling to include in the book to tell a few stories, but for the most part it's all done.

Today I wanted to give you a peek at it and share a little review as well.



So I loved:

-the size. Plenty big to create a little layout if need be but not so overwheleming you spent ages finishing a 'page'.
-the aspect of cramming tons of photos into it via the dividied page protectors. I used mostly the ones with two 4 by 6 photos and four 3 by 4 photos for my book.
-the album is sturdy and the fabric on the edge didn't fray at all-even with all the handling that I did shuffling it around while working on it.

I didn't particularly enjoy:

-the fact that the pockets weren't true to size. I had to tape my photos/paper back to back so that you couldn't see any of the 'white edge' from the photo sharing the pocket.
-the pages- both chipboard and paper- that came with my album were warped and as a result I chose not to use very many of them.
-two of the pockets that came with the album were weird shapes-two 4 by 4 photos and a long narrow strip as well. I wansn't so much into that.

The things I didn't enjoy were pretty trivial really. I would def use this album again. In fact, I have my next one planned I think.

Stay tuned for pictures of the inside of the album coming soon!

xoxo
K