Very Mary

Italy Installment #5: Florence (a layout)

I can safely assure you that this is the one and only time you will ever see naked man photos on my blog. Although, I would alter that statement if a)I ever meet RPattz, b) meeting RPattz doesn't make my head spontaneously combust, and c) I somehow convince him to get naked. But, I digress...

Italy. Again.

Try not to be offended by the close-up of David's man parts. I'm not even sure what I was trying to show with this photo, but now it's seems glaringly obvious that it probably wasn't that die-cut. Hmm.

Florence was amazing, if not entirely too hot. (Like all of Italy in July.) The evening when we arrived was like something out of a movie...see the big photo on the collage? That's what we stopped off the bus into...a movie set. Seriously amazing. So picturesque and wouldn't you just feel entirely more interesting if you lived there?
 
The Duomo in the background didn't even look real. While we were traveling, there were many buildings that they were doing repairs on, and when they do that, they sometimes drape the building with a sheet that has a picture of the building, so that it looks like you are seeing the building even when aren't. Does that make sense? That's what I thought I was seeing. I was startled to realize it was the real thing...

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View, Stamps: gel-a-tins; Die-cut: Daisy D's; Other: silk ribbon

Italy Installment #4: Pisa (a layout)

I celebrated National Scrapbooking Day by - *GASP* - not scrapbooking at all! The break was nice. I scrapbook in some form or other pretty much every day, so sometimes I need to just stop and do something else. Too much of a good thing can be...well, too much, sometimes. :)

My mom recently went on a trip to the Netherlands with her sister, so I spent the weekend putting together a little photo book for her through Blurb. I was convinced that I could create it in a couple of hours, and I probably could have if I had auto-loaded the photos and simple typed up her captions. But I really can't just leave a good thing alone, so I played with her photos in Lightroom, and I researched every single place on her itinerary. Which ended up sidetracking me into some fabulous Flickr galleries. Which reminded me that I'm supposed to be working on improving my photography. Which reminded me that I'd really like a new camera. Which inspired me to research the new Nikons...but the story stops there. Sigh. Wish I could have typed, "Which convinced me to buy the D700."  They say the best equipment doesn't make the photo. But I'm sure it doesn't hurt.

Besides longing for a new camera (and adding some lenses to my wishlist), I finished this great little photobook, and I wish I could share it with you! It's the first one I've created with just photos and no scrappy-style, but it was really refreshing, and I think I'll do a few more for my own trips. Too bad I didn't come up with that idea before I started the Italy album.

Another Italy page (are you getting bored with this yet?):

We weren't in Pisa very long. Long enough to eat pizza (Pizza in Pisa! HA!) and use one very sketchy bathroom with no toilet paper, unreliable electricity, a toilet that didn't flush, and a door handle that had some propensity for locking to the wrong side. I can handle a lot of things but being locked in a dark bathroom with an overflowing toilet is not one of them. Understandably so, don't you think?

Having said that, I still thought Pisa was pretty spectacular and I was disappointed that we didn't have time to climb to the top of the Tower. There is a webcam on The Unofficial Leaning Tower of Pisa website, but I couldn't get it to work. But there are lots of nice photos, and some explanation about the construction, which is interesting if you've ever been involved with structural engineering. Or even if you haven't. I like to know about things. :)

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View, Stamps: Hero Arts, gel-a-tins; Chipboard, rub-ons: Creative Imaginations; Other: silk ribbon

Italy (Installment #3)

Vatican City is inside Rome. And while I knew that, I never actually visualized the separateness of it.  I thought of it more as an area within Rome, kind of like a distinct neighborhood or suburb. But it's very much separate. Separated actually by high city walls monitored by the Vatican Guards. Can you see them - those guys in the striped bloomers - in the upper right photo?  They don't look so menacing in their colorful outfits, but up close, they seem pretty dang serious. No smiles. I was actually scared to take a photo of them.

The Vatican Museums are really amazing, and we just didn't have enough time there.
The Sistine Chapel is everything you've heard and more. Postcard photos simply don't do it justice. I used a postcard on this page because I absolutely had to have a visual of the Sistine Chapel, and we weren't allowed to take photos. That didn't bother me so much because the chapel wasn't particularly well-lit, and I didn't (still don't) have the equipment necessary to work with the low light anyway. When you're dealing with memories, sometimes, you have to work with what you can get! :)

You're probably wishing you could see it for yourself. Most things are better that way. Well, in the arts and entertainment spectrum anyway. You're in luck. In the virtual way anyhow: did you know you can take a tour on-line? Yes, you can! Right here. Not the same as standing there in the flesh, but nevertheless, something I wish I'd known about before my trip! It never hurts to be a little more prepared, right?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View; Rub-ons: Creative Imaginations; Stamps: gel-a-tins; Metal: Stampin' Up.

Italy (Installment #2)

And so begins the deluge of Italy pages...

Well. Heh heh.

Not really.

Just a few shares here and there while I try to stay motivated and remember what the heck we were doing on our trip those many years ago. Should most definitely have kept a travel journal. However, I say that every single time I go on a trip, and have yet only managed it one time. And that one time? I lost the journal somewhere between Disneyland and the Canadian border. (Some little old man probably laughed himself silly when he opened my travel journal and read the tale of how I nearly peed in my pants on the Tower of Terror.)

I'm getting sidetracked, aren't I?

Here we are....back to Rome. Beautiful, bustling, and swarming with tourists:For me, the Pantheon (shown in the photo above) was the highlight of Rome. Rounding the corner from a neighborhood and into the piazza, we were almost startled to see it standing there amidst the shops and cafes. So otherworldly right in the middle of ordinary. It took my breath away. The adjacent page is a simple collage of some of the various highlights of Rome. There were too many to see in one day, and I know there are probably many wonderful things that we missed. One more reason to go back, no?Mom was a little scared of the ol' Nikon. I tried to explain the concept of holding the shutter halfway to focus and then recomposing for a nicer composition, but she misunderstood and thought that the camera would do it all by itself. She really didn't appreciate when I laughed at her, and very simply said, she refused to take any more photos. It took me the better part of the day and a gelato to get back on her good side. I love this photo she took of me - holding two gelatos and wearing the skirt I practically lived in for the next ten days - in front of the Pantheon.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View; Stamps: gel-a-tins; Rub-ons: Creative Imaginations; Photo Turn: Stampin' Up

Recycling with a Flourish

Yesterday, as I was lugging the blue bins out to the curb for our weekly recycle pick-up, my trained eye noticed a flash of something "flourishy." And then as I was picking through the cans and plastic bottles, I found another something "flourishy." Not one, but two of my most well-used flourish stamps magically made their way into the recycle bins. And these flourish stamps just so happen to be in active use on  my Italy album which just so happens to be 1/4 completed (after almost three years, but honestly, that really is a whole other storybook of excuses, so let's not digress). With stamps rescued from impending recycling and tragedy averted, I pondered the next question... how ever did they get there?

As I later found out, someone with very small fingers and superb problem solving skills has found that she can reach everything on my work table by simply stepping onto a step block. (At least someone is using the step block. When I saw it pulled out of its usual dusty hiding place, I thought there for a second that maybe Derrick was doing some aerobics or something.)

So after taking one look at my work table, she apparently decided that clean up was indeed necessary, and she grabbed the nearest items and made for the recycle bin. After all, why toss when you can recycle?

All of that just to inform you that I am now working on my Italy album. Again. But this time and with any luck, I intend to finish it up and hand one copy over to my Mom. I'll be creating an Italy album in the sidebar, so if you care to look, you'll be able to see all the pages in once place. When I get them done, that is. These will be sporadic installments, but in any case, wish me luck.

Here's the first page of the Italy album (I always save the title page for last, so that won't be showing for a while):

If you read Simple Scrapbooks, you might have noticed this page in the March/April issue! It looked a tiny bit different because I had to edit my journaling so it was shorter and more readable in the magazine. What can I say? I get wordy sometimes. Maybe you've noticed?

It's all about our welcome dinner on the very first night in Rome. I was incredibly jet-lagged and a little awestruck at the copious amount of red wine I managed to consume, so I got shutter-happy and took about thirty photos of food. And then I kissed an Italian. Ooooh, no wait, he kissed ME. Make sure Derrick's got that straight, ok?

The whole album is going to follow a similar format. Collage of photos on patterned paper, journaling on cream cardstock backed with kraft. I kept it pretty simple because I wanted this album to be do-able (hahahaha!), and I want the focus to be on the photos and journaling.

That large flourish is a digital brush that I stamped onto a canvas in Photoshop, printed to a transparency and trimmed to add to my page with a few well-placed glue-dots.

Italians have an enviable lust for life. Learning about their history and culture, if just from a tourist's perspective, made for an amazing trip and one I would do again in a heartbeat. So the way I see it, it's actually been a blessing that I've neglected all these photos for years. I get to live my trip over again. (I tried to convince Mom of this simple logic as well, but she doesn't buy into it quite as easily.)

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View (The Old World Stack); Ribbon: Close to My Heart; Metal: Stampin' Up; Rub-ons: Creative Imaginations; Stamps: gel-a-tins