Hawaii Book, Post 1

After successfully finishing the general book pages of 2009, DH has directed my attention to the January 2011 trip we took to Maui as my next project. I usually do vacations/trips that have a lot of photos in separate mini scrapbooks in order to use a bit more of these photos than what could possibly be done in a few 12x12 layouts included in the general books I do. I also like that these mini books offer a great opportunity to use techniques, embellishments, and papers that I don't normally use.

For this 2011 Hawaii book though, I am moving away from my usual SEI green 8x8 books. Instead, while in Maui I found these great 4x6 photo holder albums that I thought would make a great, unique scrapbook instead. It diverts from the usual size of typical scrapbook pages (these are 9.5x6) and there aren't page protectors, but even with only one page done so far, I'm enjoying this different process already.

I found that the 9.5x6 requirement comes from the spacing available when considering using the entire space allotted for two 4x6's on the page. The book will limit me to only 20 pages for the entire book, but that just means only the best will be able to be included!

And here's my first page. It's centered around the trip we took to see the Iao Needle in the Iao Valley nestled in the Maui Mountains. The "hike" to see the needle wasn't that difficult but luckily there were some off-the-beaten-path trails around for a little more adventure (seen at the start with the picture of our one friend by the "stay on the trail" signs and also the middle picture). Unfortunately, we didn't know how far this trail continued because it started getting pretty steep after awhile. A good place to go for a nice view in Maui. The valley is quite impressive.

On the more crafty technical side, I decided such a book required distressed edges for the pages. And DH even pointed out that my pictures could go to the edge because there was the border of the page itself to consider too (see, isn't he so helpful?). And faintly, you'll notice I took another stab at making my own patterned paper. The green has been stamped with a Hawaiian border stamp (exclusive to Island Paperie in Hawaii...they make their own stamps!) in green itself. I alternated the orientation of the stamp for some difference. A ribbon from Target and trusty Thickers finish the layout.