two-page tuesday: a smash-ing success

With this secret project looming on the horizon, I am feeling this urgent need to finish up my Smash book - or at least, to finish what I have and then come back to it once I have the rest of the pictures printed.  So tonight, my goal was to get all of the pages that I have photos for assembled.

 (This was my starting point tonight - midway through the Friday of the trip.)

 (Normally, I would use the online Spanish dictionary...but since I was at home and trying not to be on the computer, I opted for my well-worn printed dictionary.)

(Why the dictionary?  To make sure I used the right phrases for titles such as "sunrise."  Because even if most of the people who ever see this album won't know if the translations are accurate or not, I will know.  And that's enough reason for me.)

 

(Another technique that I very rarely use is drawing on the patterned papers - either freestyle or tracing.)

 (But on this particular pair of pages, outlining a specific word on each page made the patterned paper an even better fit for the pictures and will make a great lead-in for the journaling I'll do for each of the pictures on this spread.  It was a small satisfaction to step outside my "typical" and like the results.)

(I'm getting to use up lots of leftover alphabet stickers in this album!  I'm also realizing how much more space I'll have for journaling on the pages for the last few days.  Once we left Havana, the "stuff" - the ticket stubs, the brochures, etc. - I was able to collect decreased to almost nothing.)

 

(Yes, I cut up another page.)

 

(But really, what was I going to use two pages with a pattern of stacked, painted logs for?  So I trimmed the one page in width, glued them together, and created a kind-of random border on the left.  Then I took the strip I cut off and used it to create a patterned border on the right. Genius, huh?)

(I also got to use another "leftover" on this, by adding an epoxy circle - the sheets of which I've had sitting around forever - on top of the lamp for a fun accent.)

 

(Lots more space to journal...eek!)

 

(On the left is the post-it note for my "duh!" moment of, "Why didn't you print a picture from your Sunday afternoon at the hotel?!"  That will be one of those, "come back to it later" pages.)

 

(Initially, I wasn't sure about this phone paper.  But then I was able to use my Starbucks cup wrapper - which is awesome because it's printed in Spanish - to highlight the 8 at the bottom of the phone dial...which the eventual journaling will explain was the time of our flight from Cancun.)

 

(And even after cutting some pages out, there are plenty of leftovers!  A few of them, I have journaling ideas for - such as these ledger pages, which I think would provide a great spot to talk about currency, what I bought, etc...but there are also a few pages that I think I'll just put some great photos on.  We'll see.)

Overall, I was thrilled to accomplish my goal tonight.  Now I have Saturday set aside for the journaling; and then the secret project can commence!

Where I am: home
What I'm reading (well, skimming through): the August issue of W magazine