China: Marathon, Hard Rock, & Tiananment Square

Mornin', y'all!  I've got some muffins in the oven right now and some China layouts to share!  As it happens, all four of today's layouts have been shared here before, but we're truckin' right through my China albums and it won't be long before we're at the end.  I hope you've enjoyed China Sundays as much as I have!

First up is the Great Wall Marathon...

See my original post on these pages here.  "Marfon" and "Chompuns" are how our idiot tour guide said "marathon" and "champions".  (For the record, I don't say he's an idiot because of how he pronounced these words, he did a lot better in English than I would in Chinese.  I say he was an idiot because he never had a clue what was going on or where we were supposed to be going, and he was the tour guide.  Duh!)

Next up, when you're like 11 days into a two-week trip to China and you really want American food...

You find the Hard Rock Cafe in Beijing.  We actually went twice.  See my original post on these pages here; this was one of the very first layouts I did for my China books.

And finally, a visit to Tiananmen Square:

Original post here.   I never used Bravo Burgundy much even when it was a current color, but every once in a while it's just perfect on a scrapbook layout.

So there's my four China layouts for today.  Looking forward to getting back in the normal posting routine this week, so I'll be seeing ya, peeps!

Supply lists for each layout are on the links above.  Cheers!

Scrappy Showcase, Part 1

ETA:  this was supposed to show up on Saturday morning but it looks like it's already published.  So happy early new year?

Last day of the year, y'all!  And thus begins my 2016 scrappy showcase.  Since I usually only post one scrapbook layout per week, sometimes it takes quite a while between when I make one and when I post it so I didn't necessarily make all of these this year.  BUT I did complete 142 pages, so hooray for me!  My goal was 100, so I passed it by a bit :)  Anyway, let's get going!

First up is this layout from the last castle we visited in Wales; I love the dark orange colors contrasted with the green and blues.

Next is my scrappy ode to Disney's greatest villain, all pics taken at Disneyland Paris.  Again I love the colors with the photos plus it's Maleficent, can't go wrong there.

Next up is this snowy layout from England; I got the color combination of Island Indigo, Baja Breeze, and Rich Razzleberry from the old Color Coach.  I never would have put those three colors together on my own but I love the combination so much that I've used it several times on baby books too.

And the final layout for today is this New Years layout, appropriate no?  No Rock Band parties for us this year though, we'll be staying in tonight.

More scrappy goodness coming up in the next few days.  Hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve and stay safe, y'all!

Rocking the New Year

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Actually, this week is going to be Spring Break Scrap Week, because hubs and I are in sunny California to spend the week at Disneyland.  : D  So let's get this week off to a rocking good start!

These pictures are from New Year's Eve 2013, see them here. The page base kinda looks black in that picture, but trust me, it's Elegant Eggplant.  I picked out the long-retired Holiday Lounge DSP for these pictures and I loooooooove it!

Closeup of my title, the Retro Alphabet.  For some reason my Taken with Teal ink pad is some kind of dusty not-really-teal color, so I used a marker to ink up the stamps instead to match the paper.  And I interspersed a few Hello Honey letters in there just for funsies.

And there's my guitar--you can just barely see some gray splatter dots on the Sahara Sand harlequin, probably should have done those a little bit darker.

Today's rockin' color combo is Elegant Eggplant (not black!), Taken with Teal, Hello Honey, Sahara Sand, Strawberry Slush, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.  But when I finished the layout, I had one photo left over, so I used it for another project:

D'awww.  As it happens I finished up the layout (and made the card) on hubs' birthday, so that's when I gave it to him.  Is it weird to give someone a card with a picture of themselves on it?

Supplies, scrapbook layout:
Stamps:  Retro Alphabet Upper & Lower, Grunge Rock, Extreme Elements, Awesomely Artistic
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Hello Honey, Sahara Sand, Strawberry Slush, Basic Gray

Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Hello Honey, Thick Whisper White, Holiday Lounge DSP

Accessories:  3/4" and 7/8" circle punches, Circles Framelits

Supplies, silly card:
Stamps:  Alphabet Rotary
Ink:  Island Indigo
Paper:  Island Indigo, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Hexagon punch, photo

Friday Flashback: Rough Type

Happy Friday, peeps!  Do I say that every week?  Well, regardless, Fridays should be happy because it's Friday Flashback day :)  This week's retired stamp set is Rough Type, which is an alphabet I've used a LOT on my scrapbooks so today is a longer Flashback and I didn't even include absolutely everything I've ever used it on.  So let's go!

My Captain America layout from my brother's return home from deployment, probably one of my mom's all-time fave layouts I've ever shared here :)

Also features Grunge Rock & Extreme Elements

You saw this one recently, from the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe.

Also features Bronc Buster

Oh hey, a card!  And I made it in my dad and brother's college colors (orange and black for Oklahoma State).

Also features Ocean Commotion

More scrapbook pages, this time from the aquarium in Okinawa.  I love Ocean Commotion...but I digress, today's Flashback is for Rough Type!  So this was actually I think the first time I punched out the letters with the 1/2" circle punch, but I did it again on the Hard Rock layout above.

Also features Ancient Asia

You'll notice I use this alphabet on my China pages a lot; to make the pages feel like they all "go" together, I'm using that calligraphy letter template and the Rough Type alphabet on each layout.

Also features Out West & Wanted

It's just a coincidence that the only two cards on today's Friday Flashback feature cowboys and the word "howdy".

More Okinawa pages, and again with the circle-punched letters.

Also features Circle Circus

This was the very first layout I did for my China scrapbooks :)  Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Wow, lots of Okinawa pictures here too.  Actually this layout has been modified since I took this picture, I added some of the dragons from Ancient Asia on the left-hand page.

Also features Letterpress Alphabet, Carry On, Toxic Treats, Elementary Elegance

Finally a layout from England!  And also one of my faves, I love the crowns and the ravens on here.

Another China layout you saw pretty recently, and that's the end of the Flashback part.  So here's today's brand new scrapbook layout, this time from Wales:

And here's a closeup of the Rough Type bit:

The top part is a Sizzlits alphabet, which is a total pain to use because it's always got little cling-on bits on the edges that you have to clean up and it's so tiny that it's hard to glue down without having extra glue everywhere but I just needed to use it for today's layout.  I kinda wish they'd made an uppercase version of Rough Type, though as you can see it bothers me not at all to use just the lowercase letters.

And there's my springy color palette:  Crisp Cantaloupe, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, and Night of Navy.  I kinda wondered about using Crisp Cantaloupe for the page base, and no idea why I thought of it, but I did like how it looked with the other colors once I finished the layout, nice and springy.  And now I'm almost out of So Saffron cardstock :)

So I hope you enjoyed this scrappin' queen-sized Friday Flashback.  Have a great weekend and cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last layout only:
Stamps:  Rough Type Alphabet
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Crisp Cantaloupe, So Saffron, Afternoon Tea DSP
Accessories:  Sizzlits Alphabet

Hard Rock Cafe Beijing

Scrappy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a good weekend.  On Saturday I was working in my craft room to meet my scrappin' goal for February, I'm now officially at 40 pages for the year so far.  Woowoo!  So today's layout is from China, take a look:

You can see the original pictures here (scroll down to the bottom).  And here's my color palette:

I think it was overcast when I took the picture of the layout; the Lost Lagoon page base makes it a *little* dark but it looks even darker in the photo.  Anyway, the colors are Lost Lagoon, Concord Crush (I so wish I had an ink refill for my ink pad), Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, and Smoky Slate.

I'm using this combination of the letter template and Rough Type alphabet to do all the titles on my China layouts, to kinda make them feel like they all go together.  I thought this title needed a little something so I sponged a circle behind the words to kind of mimic the Hard Rock logo.

Here's my stampy collage on the journaling block.  I bought both Extreme Elements and Grunge Rock right before they retired on a whim, but I'm glad I did.  I've used them both a few times and I have other layouts where I know they'll come in handy.

A trio of guitars as accents...I didn't even think about it until the layout was done, how many circles/polka dots I used on here.  Variations on a theme!

And finally there's my stamp of authenticity, which I thought was a nice touch since when we went to the Hard Rock, all four of us were kinda tired of Chinese food and dying for a good ol' fashioned American hamburger.  Or chicken caesar salad.  And French fries.

Have a great Monday, peeps!  I'm off to get my run on, which is gonna suck because my legs are sore from my workout on Saturday.  Oh well, gotta do it anyway.

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Grunge Rock, Extreme Elements, Rough Type Alphabet
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Crushed Curry, Concord Crush, Cajun Craze, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Whisper White, Concord Crush DSP
Accessories:  Circle punches & Framelits, Crushed Curry EP, lettering template

The Bangles

Ok, today's scrapbook layout makes me ridiculously happy.

I was a kid when the Bangles broke up, but they'd been my favorite band since I was six.  So when they reunited and happened to play in the Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas in December 2003, I was *all over* going to that concert :)  These pics are from before we even got a digital camera!

This was actually the very first thing I made with the new In Colors; I waited specifically to get the new In Color 12x12 cardstock so I could use Blackberry Bliss for the page base.

I paired the new colors with some old favorite stamp sets, like Grunge Rock, Wing It, and Priceless.  Glad I finally got these pictures scrapped :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Grunge Rock, Extreme Elements, Priceless, Wing It
Ink:  Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, Strawberry Slush DSP
Accessories:  Curly Label punch, non-SU Sizzlits alphabet