My London Scrapbook - The beginning

Hey there!

There are so many crafts that a person can do at a time. I typically make sentiment cards and flipbooks or mini albums to show you. But, I have over 400 pictures from my trip to London and they desperately need a home. So there will be several posts where I tackle that project.

When I got back from London I picked up a bright red scrapbook album so that I could have a starting point for all of those pictures. I also picked out a few stickers and some paper that I thought went well with the brightly colored red, blue, purple, yellow and green vibe that I got from the lights of London. I created a box to put all of my London goodies in so that I’d be ready.

This past weekend I got a wild hair and decided to break out my tools and create a scrapbook layout. It only seems right that I begin with pictures that I took when I was on the London Eye. It was later in the day and wasn’t the best weather but I still enjoyed seeing the sights that I could.

I picked up so many packs of the Sticko brand watercolor alphas. I picked up packs of small alphas and large alphas. I like their ombre effect and it almost doesn’t matter which color scheme I choose, they should match.

Because I wanted my pictures to be the standout, I muted my pages by washing them over with white paint mixed with water. Then I added some blue and purple paint strokes here and there. I don’t do mixed media backgrounds too often but I do enjoy making them when I do. I also don’t worry about paper curling from the water usage because they are going in protective sheets and will be pressed down flat anyway.

The cut outs came from two paper pads that I got from Joann Craft store. I purchased City Maps and World Maps during a 50% off sale. They have beautiful maps that are fantastic backgrounds for travel layouts. They also have great cut apart pages that I used on my layout.

I used tiny word stickers from my stash. I remember at one point in my crafty life I didn’t have any word stickers. All it took was a year or so and now I have a container full of them.

The world and travel stickers are ones that I’ve collected specifically for my London scrapbook. I have known about my trip for a while so I been picking up London scenery stickers as well as general travel stickers. I didn’t follow a theme with the colors because I knew I’d be able to use them all.

My double page layout didn’t take me long. I decided on six photos that I double matted. Most of my London scrapbook pages will be double page spreads - 400 pictures, remember. I liked creating this first one for my book.

Keep your eyes peeled for lots more soon!

Note: Are you interested in more of my London travels? Run over to my other blog, For The Love Of London!