return on creativity: nyc mini album

Way back when I first launched this blog I was working on a mini album about our Christmas trip to New York City. Well, I finished it...a year after the trip...just before this past Christmas. I'm still getting the hang of photographing scrapbook pages for the blog. Here are some of my favorite pages...

Here's how the album cover started. Here's where it ended up...

My sister gave me the "New York" cut out as a gift after the trip and I wanted to use it on the cover. I used Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel over the "New York" to try and simulate the look of ice. I like how it turned out, but it took some fiddling to get everything stuck down and looking OK.
This album is a light on journaling, mostly because I didn't make any notes during the trip and by the time I sat down to scrapbook I had forgotten everything I wanted to say...lesson learned. It was a very romantic trip. Tony is not a big hand holder, but it was so cold that we had to hold hands out of necessity!

The journaling on this page is from my label maker. It was so easy I want to "label" all of my journaling now. My Times Square pictures were very busy (imagine that) so I tried to create some focus by scratching circles on to the picture with a sharpy pointy thing.

My sister addicted me to distressing photos with sandpaper. It's one of my favorite techniques. I added paint to these photos too.I stamped the "Let it snow" on to the photos below, sprinkled with embossing powder, and tried to heat set it. Photos don't like that. Photos start to melt and bubble when you apply heat. Who knew?

I used a lot of staples on this book.

For the back of the album I used adhesive felt I found at the craft store. It love it. It adds a soft tactile element to the book.

So there it is. One last thing, I bought Christmas scrapbook supplies, but I found I didn't use them much. I like the way this book turned out. I will probably place it on my coffee table each Christmas as part of my holiday decor.