Whistler Blackcomb

My most beautiful view of the Rockies came when I saw the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains together. From my vantage point they looked incredible, their majesty silhouetted by a brilliant blue sky. Truly an awe inspiring sight.

 

I so enjoyed working with this August 7th sketch from Scrapmuch? designed by Laura Whitaker. There's a great double page layout at Scrapmuch? as well. Complete and link up any of their August sketches by the end of the month to be entered into a draw for a prize. It's always fun to win a treat.

 

I really liked this sketch.

I'm a little bit of a circleaholic so the circular element really appealed to me. The circles also mirrored the rounded peaks of the mountains.

 

 

 

I flipped the sketch on it's side and it worked perfectly for my panoramic sized photo.

 

 

This was the suggested layout. It looks so different than it did when I rotated it. I think I'll do the sketch again, this time in the suggested orientation. It's just struck me that maybe any number of sketches could be rotated to give a totally different look. Maybe each sketch is really a '2 for 1' deal.

 

Homeward Bound

The piles of photos from my Vancouver 2012 vacation are getting shorter by the day. There may be light at the end of the tunnel after all. :)

I decided to jump to what would be the last page in the album. This last page was to mirror the first in the album so it would also feature the outline of the province I was travelling to, its provincial coat of arms, and my airport and aeroplane souvenirs.  I changed the outline and button to Ontario, sent the plane flying west and the departure airport photo to Vancouver. It just all came together for me.

 

I played along with two challenges with this layout.

The sketch was the August 3rd sketch from The Memory Nest. It fit the horizontal stretch of my items to a 'T'. The Memory Nest has several challenges a month. They are released on Mondays. I only recently discovered this site but will definitely be back to play again.

 

 

The other challenge was #253,  "Sky High", the week one August challenge from Lasting Memories. Each week they will have a challenge based on the "Sky High" theme so check back. This week it was to be something that signified "Sky High". I thought my aeroplane flight would be just the ticket (pun intended).

When I put the first and last pages together I was very happy with the 'start' and 'end' of my albums.


Off to Vancouver

Back to Ontario

 

 

Gastown

I love going to places that have an interesting history and are just that little bit different. Gastown is that kind of place.

Gastown was Vancouver's first downtown core and is named after "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a Yorkshire seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon.

Gastown's most famous (though nowhere near oldest) landmark is the steam-powered clock on the corner of Cambie and Water Street. It was built in 1977 to cover a steam grate, part of Vancouver's distributed steam-heating system, as a way to harness the steam and to prevent street people from sleeping on the spot in cold weather.

I found a seat on patio of the Lamplighter Pub across the street. I thought it idyllic to be sitting in the sun enjoying great food and a beverage, and listening to the steam clock play the Westminster Chimes every quarter hour.

 

The inspiration for this layout came from the August 1st Stuck?! sketch designed by Laura Whitaker. I wanted to feature the steam clock picture and, as I am prone to do, tell a little about the subject I'm scrapping. This sketch did all that for me so all I pretty much did was follow right along with it.

  

 

I decided to use a solid circle. I knew the idea of the stitching would add to the layout so used gold jean thread, which is a thick thread that shows up well on paper, and outlined the circle. Unfortunately this thick thread only comes in gold and denim blue. It's great to work with and not only is more prominent but adds texture to the layout.

The journaling and title was fun to do. It took a few drafts before I found the right line breaks to accomplish the slanted look. I loved the suggestion of breaking up the journaling with use of the title.

Steveston Village...cont'd

I still can't narrow down my pictures so Steveston Village had to have another page in addition to the double layout I shared yesterday.

There was such a variety of boats at the docks. I was most fascinated by the pilot boat Pacific Navigator and the myriad of sail boats with masts that seemed so incredibly tall. As it turns out, boat watching can be a lot of fun.

 

The sketch is the August  Stick It Down single page sketch and was designed by fellow Stick It Down design team member Purvi. I flipped the sketch on it's side to accommodate 2 horizontal 4 x 6 photos.

 

 There are also double page and card layouts posted on the site this month. Whatever your fancy there's a sketch for it. Be sure to link up your design. The link is active until the end of August.

 

Well I think it's time to move onto another facet of my vacation. The vacation only lasted a week but the creation of the albums will end up taking almost a year :) 

 

Steveston Village

I'm still plugging away at my Vancouver 2012 album. Actually, I stand corrected. That should be albums as it looks like by the time I'm done there will be three. I think I need to really work on narrowing down the pictures I want to scrap.

Steveston Village was such a lovely place. It's Fisherman's Wharf came complete with the requisite fish mongers, traditional and exotic sea foods and seals anxious for the leavings. Something I'd never seen before was a vendor selling sushi right from the ocean.

The Village is also the place from which two major whale watching businesses operate so you can imagine the hustle and bustle. It was really great to sit on the pier on a sunny afternoon with an ice cream cone and people watch.

I had the perfect paper for my Steveston Village layout and was just waiting for the right sketch. That sketch landed in my lap yesterday morning from Scrapmuch? Its first sketch of the month is always a double layout and this one was just what I was looking for. Designed by Laura Whitaker it featured my horizontal pictures perfectly.

I just love the Bo Bunny Boardwalk series of papers. I've never before used so many papers of a collection in one layout. I just couldn't resist any of them.

For embellishments I stayed with the nautical theme using twine to mimic rope and, of course, the traditional anchor and ships wheel.

My favourite paper of the Boardwalk collection is the one you see here used for the corners of the layout. It has so many tones in it and yet one doesn't overpower another.