Some Love for 7 Gypsies

I admit it, I'm a 7 Gypsies paper hoarder.  I have lots of it and I love using it.  It's timeless and versatile.  I wanted to create a small album, kind of like a brag book, of places I'd traveled to and this is what I came up with.  I just pulled out my 7 Gypsies pile and went through it looking for papers that were fairly neutral and went well together.  It's a combination of chipboard pages and envelopes that serve as both a place to hide journaling of ephemera, and a canvas for more photos.

A few seasons ago, 7 Gypsies produced a series of stickers based around themes.  I think they did one for every letter of the alphabet.  I think I have them all. One of my favorites is titled Gypsy. I love both the colors and the sentiments. I turn many of them into page accents which allows me to customize the album I'm creating just a little bit more. I love this tiny treasure. Enjoy!

Travel Journal reveal

Yummy Resist Paper!

One of the pockets, I've started
journaling on it already!

Cool embossed map stamp
and a sticker.

 I get so much scrapping inspiration from Life on the (Scrap) Beach Blog and video series. Kathryn comes up with the most interesting techniques and her projects are amazing! She’s even been featured on Graphic 45’s blog, that’s where I first discovered her. You can visit her here:

http://thescrapbeach.blogspot.com/

Early in the summer, one of her projects was a make-ahead travel journal. This idea had been simmering in my head since I got back from the Rhine Cruise.  I had been journaling on the program the cruise ship gave us every day and then had to put it all together with my pictures when I got home.  I kept thinking that it would have been so much easier if I had a real journal with me that I could write in as we went and then add pictures after we got home.  Then I could have added in my ephemera as I went, labeling and commenting about it. Instead I had to try to remember where I got what. It wasn’t pretty. 

Acetate, pocket and journaling
tag.  Gotta love it!

One of T!m's stamps embossed
on the back of an envelope.

So now I’m not only prepared for the Tim Holtz Cruise coming up at the end of this month (be still my heart!), but any other traveling I do.  I made it neutral enough to fit any travel I do. 

 This project was VERY liberating.  Thanks Kathy! I usually need to work within a certain palette with a specific theme attached.  Check out the ETSY shop for how my work usually evolves. For this project, because it was just for me, I didn’t feel the need to be bound by anything.  I started by picking paper.  I wasn’t too concerned with color because on a lot of pages I misted it a different color, distressed it with ink or stamped travel icons into it.  I didn’t buy any paper for the project, just went through my stash and picked paper I liked.  There’s a combination of MME Celebration Tracker (love that stack!), Tim Holtz paper (of course, silly question!)

Thanks, Kathryn, for teaching me how to add a pen to my journal!!

I started with 12x 12 sheets.  The papers that weren’t 2 sided I stuck together with a spray glue ad then cut everything down to 8.5 x 11”.  The surplus I used for dividers.  I used my Cricut to create some pockets from some of the papers and threw in a couple of acetates, just to break things up.   I liked it so much; I created another one just to keep track of my daughter’s wedding.  Love it! Click on any of the photos for a closer view and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you.

Blogger isn't cooperating today.  Excuse the layout, she just doesn't want to work and, after three tries at formatting, I'm done!