From Italy, Con Amore!

Ok, technically, I (Lauren) am in New Jersey and unlikely to leave the country any time soon. But I can still *imagine* a fabulous trip to Italy by using my Eyelet Outlet Colosseum and Pisa Brads to make some fun Italian-themed cards. Oh and to make it even better, these brads are on special for just .89 cents!

For my first card I've combined an illustration from an old book with this cool Ticket Washi, and added the Leaning Tower and Colosseum to the "I" and "O" in my sentiment, which is composed of vinyl alphabet stickers in a nice chunky font. I've matted the whole panel with beautiful antique-looking Map Tape.

My second card is a bit sillier, so I needed to make a custom sentiment on the computer. The Leaning Tower is saying, "I'll Never ROME" to the Colosseum, who replies, "You've got a PISA my heart"! In addition to the Italian Brads I've got a Compass and a background paper made by neatly lining up strips of funky yellow Text Tape on plain white cardstock.

Wherever your real or imaginary travels take you this summer, I'm pretty sure there's an Eyelet Outlet Brad and Washi Tape combination to help you celebrate!

Lauren Bergold

has never been to Italy

but is a big fan of GELATO! :)

A Shell in Your Pocket!

Hello friends!  I hope you're having a great week!  Here in the U.S. we had a long three-day weekend to commemorate the 4th of July, and in Florida the Summer heat was ON!  We celebrated with friends, taking a day trip down to St. Augustine which included a boat tour from the city marina to the St. Augustine Lighthouse on Anastasia Island.  It was beautiful!

That trip inspired a simple Summer card with some colorful shell ribbon and a trio of shell brads that go perfectly with a beachy sentiment and some fun octopus and mermaid designer paper.

In my last post, I shared a two-page layout from our trip to Italy using EZ Laser designs and Eyelet Outlet products.  Today, in addition to my card, I'm sharing the remaining three pages documenting our trip.

I typically use coordinating prints of designer scrapbook papers in my scrapbooking, but with over 1000 pictures from this trip, I wanted to use every available space for photographs, which meant narrowing it down to about 40!

Since the music was the inspiration for the trip, I used strips of pearls to emphasize the notes on the Music Notes layout.  I love how elegant it looks.

These two layouts are Template #13 and Mosaic 6.  I added a Selfie brad, and an iPhone brad to accent a couple of the photos of my son and me with our chorale friends.  

   
There was one really short but wide photo from the Colosseum...a Colosseum brad there helps identify the subject in the scene since it is not the traditional facade shot taken from the outside.

One of the photos from St. Peter's Square had a cool reflection of Matthew's face on Susan's computer screen, so I added a vintage hand brad (part of the package of vintage typewriters) to point that out just for fun.  

I love these layouts so much!  I hope you've enjoyed them too!  The photos are a mixture of scenes from Venice, Lucca, Siena, Florence, and Rome, and they bring back such wonderful memories of a trip that I'll cherish for a lifetime!

Eyelet Outlet and EZ Laser Designs

Hi everyone!  It's Deb, here with a scrapbook layout combining Eyelet Outlet embellishments with EZ Laser Designs.  

I have over 1000 photos from our trip to Italy!  I was thrilled to find that EZLaser had some laser-cut layouts that would be perfect for showcasing some of my favorites.  This two-page spread is the beginning of a five page span that contains about 40 photos.  The first two photos, on the left hand side in a page design titled Rome, are photos of our chorale in St. Peter's Basilica.  The setting was very elegant and ornate, so I chose to keep my layout rather simple and embellish only with a few strands of pearls placed in the lower left corner.

The space behind the laser-cut design of the Colosseum is backed with some parchment-like scrapbook paper.  One of my souvenirs from the trip is a lovely dip calligraphy pen, so once I've gotten some practice with it I plan to go back and document, in a pale monochromatic ink, the details of our trip.  

Unfortunately, we did not get to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but I still wanted to use the Italy title and this iconic landmark in my layout.  The photos are from Venice's St. Mark's Square and our gondola ride.  More pearls frame the upper right corner, where there's more room to continue documenting our itinerary, and I'll be sure to mention how disappointed we were to be so close to Pisa (we performed in Lucca) and still not get to see it.  

The Italy title was the perfect spot to include the colors of the Italian flag.  The vertical lettering and the contrast of the colors really accentuate the leaning of the tiny Pisa brad. 

I love how fast and easy the laser-cut designs made putting these two pages together!  I'll be back to show you the remainder in my next post! 

Say Cheese!

Hello again!  Can you believe that April is almost over?!  It has been a whirlwind week here as my 22 year old son and I are preparing for a trip to Italy with the Orange Park Chorale, so I spent most of the day yesterday working on my recently purchased Midori Traveler's Notebook (oh, I think I'm in love!) and on thank-you's for our tour guide and bus driver.

Our time abroad will be action-packed as we tour Venice, Florence, and Rome, singing four concerts along the way.  One of those concerts is in Lucca, which is near Pisa, so I wanted to include a Leaning Tower brad on my card.  I'm hoping for a photo-op to take a picture with Matthew there and for a place to print it...since the little file folder is adhered only on one side with foil washi tape, it flips up and the small photo will go underneath.  That way when our hosts get thank you's from a bus-full of choristers, they'll know who this one came from!  (I stamped a sentiment there just in case things don't go as planned!)

The package of brads that includes the Leaning Tower also includes the Colosseum, so I'll be making another card to go along with this one.  I wanted them to be busy, fun, and sort of "lights, camera, action" because that's what I'm expecting this trip to be.  My Midori is prepped so that I can jot down highlights and important things to remember.  I'll share that with you when we get back.  Until then, happy stamping!