Scrapbook Layout: Iya Kazurabashi

This is another layout that I completed this past weekend while scrapbooking some of my Japan photos on National Scrapbooking Day.

Iya (祖谷) Valley is a remote, magical place in Shikoku, one of the four major islands of Japan. I particularly love the old vine bridges there and made this layout about them.

I really liked these two photos so I enlarged them to 8"x10" and placed one on each side of the layout matted with a thin white mat. I kept a green and brown color scheme to match my photos using a tan patterned paper for the background. For my journaling block I layered vellum over my photos and then added small scraps of brown and green paper for accents and to back my title. I hid the adhesive for the vellum underneath the other papers so it wouldn't show through.

The journaling reads, "My favorite part about visiting Iya Valley was seeing all of the beautiful vine bridges known as kazurabashi. Iya Valley, with its steep mountainsides, was notoriously difficult to traverse. Dating to about a thousand years ago locals developed a method for building bridges across the valley. Wisteria vines were grown on either side of the river until they could span the valley. The vines were then woven with planking to form bridges. Nowadays three bridges remain in Iya Valley and are reinforced with metal cables. Walking across the bridges is not only lovely but has a wonderful sense of history as well. What an amazing experience! 8/10"

If you are interested, check out some of my other layouts: Scrapbooking 

Picture of the Day: Hernando de Soto Bridge Over the Mississippi River

Memphis, Tennessee
12.2011

Picture of the Day: Overlooking the Dock at San Juan La Laguna

San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala
07.05.2010 

My Front Garden Bed

On Sunday afternoon I headed to a seasonal local nursery, Block's Stand & Greenhouse, to scout around for some plants for my gardens. They have wonderful plants, a huge variety and great prices so it is a fun place to shop.

An hour and a half later I walked away having spent a little over a hundred dollars. It was definitely a lot to spend but I got a ton of things including 3 flats of large vanilla marigolds, a flat of impatiens, 3 hanging baskets of snapdragons, 10 2-1/2" pots of dahlias, 10 2-1/2" pots of superbells, 4 calla lilies, a large mandevilla, a large rhubarb, 2 large yellow pepper plants and then a couple of pea, bean and zucchini plants. I think that is all but honestly I easily could have forgotten something.

It is going to take me a little while to get everything in the ground but at least I planted the front bed that wraps around my porch before it got dark on Sunday.

With the front of the bed in shade and the side getting full sun it can be a little tricky to find a way to make the plantings look cohesive and still thrive. Last year I made a little bamboo trellis for the corner and trained a pink mandevilla up it. It looked pretty and grew like crazy so I planted it again this year.

Along the front of the bed I already had three boxwoods that I planted last year. I planted some pink calla lilies in between them with a border of starsister dahlias in front. I'm not sure how the dahlias will do in this location but they looked so pretty that I wanted to try them.

On the side of the bed I thought that I had killed the shrubs last summer when they didn't get watered while I was in Southeast Asia for almost three weeks. They totally surprised me by coming back to life this spring. I pruned the dead branches and decided to see if I can do better with them this year. In front of them I planted a border of pink superbells which I think will do well in the sun.

After getting all of my annuals planted I finished everything off with two bags of black mulch to hopefully cut down on weeds. I like how everything looks and hopefully the flowers fill in a bit over the summer. 

What have you been planting in your garden? Did you go overboard shopping at a nursery or are you capable of exercising more restraint than me?

Linked To: Centsational Girl's Garden Link Party

Picture of the Day: Taxis in Times Square

New York, New York
12.20.2011 

Scrapbook Layout: Itsukushima

This past weekend I went to a crop for National Scrapbook Day and got a few layouts completed. I brought a bunch of Japan photos with me and this layout about Itsukushima (厳島神社) was the first one I finished.

I love the red, white and blue colors in the photos that I took at the shrine so I decided to play that up with my layout's color scheme. I matted the enlarged photo with red barnwood patterned paper that reminded me of the shrine beams. On the right side I thought that the teal chevron paper looked striking as a background. I then added a strip of teal cardstock to back my white sticker title and some teal lined notebook patterned paper for journaling. As a small finishing detail I added a number strip, circled the "3" and wrote "views" in script underneath it.

The journaling reads, "Itsukushima, located off of the coast near Hiroshima, is seen as one of the three great views of Japan. Founded in 593 at the base of Mount Misen the shrine is famous for the enormous torii gate built out in the bay. At low tide it is even possible to walk out to it and walk around the base. All of the buildings at the shrine are white with vibrant vermilion beams that make a lovely contrast with the blue skies and water that surrounds the island. I love the majesty of the shrine so much that I have visited it twice while in Japan. It is a truly amazing and spectacular place. 8/2010"

If you are interested, check out some of my other layouts: Scrapbooking

Picture of the Day: Psar Chaa (Old Market) in Siem Reap

Siem Reap, Cambodia
08.19.2011 

Treasures From My Travels: Costa Rican Butterfly Wings

When I was visiting Costa Rica I was enchanted by the amazing butterflies that seemed appear everywhere.

I wanted to bring a butterfly souvenir home with me but I knew that many of the mounted butterflies for sale were captured in the wild and could be endangered. When I found this little collage of butterfly wings at a local artisan market I knew it was perfect.

The butterfly wings in the collage are all from non-endangered farmed butterflies and were collected after the butterflies had already died. I love the colors in the wings and the beautiful patterns they make. It is a lovely reminder of the amazing time I spent in Costa Rica.

If you are interested, check out other items I've gathered along my journeys here: Treasures From My Travels

Picture of the Day: Buildings Along Borgo Pio

Vatican City
03.18.2012 

National Scrapbook Day Cupcakes

Happy National Scrapbook Day! Today I am excited to be heading off to scrapbook with some friends at a little overnight getaway. I haven't been to a crop in several years so I am really looking forward to this.

I thought for fun I would bring some cupcakes to share at the crop. I made some yellow cupcakes and then while they were baking and cooling I made Happy NSD cupcake picks to decorate them.

Using powerpoint I made little pink circles that said "Happy NSD" on them. For fun I also added a pair of grey scissors (from the webdings font). After printing out the circles I used my large circle punch to punch them out. I glued them to some cranberry cardstock with a glue stick and  then cut them out leaving a thin border. 

To make them into picks I attached small skewers to the back of them with double sided tape and then layered another pink circle on top of the back to finish them off. 

By this time the cupcakes had cooled so I iced them with some pink icing. To get the right color to match the picks I used some burgundy color paste and a tiny, tiny amount of blue. After inserting the Happy NSD picks into the cupcakes they were all finished and ready to take to the crop.

What are you doing to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day? Are you going to a crop with some friends or scrapbooking at home?