Vacation Happiness

Vacation Happiness - created for Scraps Of Darkness

This is a photo I took on our recent vacation to Florida, August 2011.  Boy do we just love Florida. We take our annual vacation there and let the stress and worries melt away in the hot summer sun, then wash away in the waves of the ocean.  

I pack my tripod and my remote control shutter release.  This way I am not at the mercy of asking strangers to snap our photos, sadly ending up with pictures of our feet  or miles of blue sky and the tops of our heads. Boy do I hate that.  Can they not tell that they are looking at my feet? 

There is a WARNING I must tell you about in stashing a tripod in your suitcase.  They are massively heavy buggers. They take up the valuable space usually reserved for shoes.  Gotta pick your poison.  Mine is forgoing the shoes for the photos. 

In my opinion shoes are only really good for those photos taken by strangers that we discussed above.  The ones with the shoe/feet shots. LOL

I carry the tripod to the beach, my husband sits and reads a book and I play with my camera.  I am so easily amused.  I may hunt for shells, or knock a few sand fleas off me, but I am happy and content. 

If anyone knows a great way to stop the sand fleas from biting, please contact me.  I beg you!

So how did I create this?  

I wanted to create my own resist paper and keep things soft and romantic.  

1.  Started with a white piece of cardstock.

2.  Picked a cool flourish stamp - Inkadinkaclings by EK Success - Flower Flourishes.  I envied my friend Maggi's so I had to get one too.  Thanks Maggi43 of Scrap Travel Bark. 

3.  Applied Tim Holtz embossing ink heavily on the stamps and then topped the stamp with clear embossing powder.

4.  Some blasts with my Ranger Heat-It gun..... I am having a love affair with my heat gun.  There is NO windstorm of product when you use this heat gun.    Nothing moves on the paper.  You are not left wiping embossing powders off every surface within 3 feet.    What I am trying to say is you REALLY need this heat gun if you do not own it.    

.........little product commercial from Jen-Abler.

  

-----------and now back to our program -----------

5. I used Tim Holtz Pumice Stone and my Ranger blending tool over the embossed areas that I stamped. BAM - done.  Now I move on to layers, florals and what not. 

The papers from the Sept. Scraps Of Darkness kit were absolutely perfect for the photo.  I used the Teresa Collins World Traveler line and also a piece of the packaging from a Prima flower package.  It matched so darn well.    I absolutely loved this month's kit.  It was versatile, gorgeous and packed to the brim with great embellies. 

I finished my floral cluster by adding my favorite scrappy products, my beloved Dusty Attic.  Ohhhhhh you've got to know I love Dusty Attic - my postman certainly knows it.  So does my banker and my credit card company.  I think my husband knows too, but frankly all my scrappy stuff gets heaped together in his mind AND that's a real good thing.

But back to Dusty Attic.... I used the Sweet Pea Border.  I just panted it white and bent it to form a right angle.  Covered it with some Stickles in icicle. I provided you with a link to the Dusty Attic Sweet Pea border because YOU just may need this product also.  hahahahahaha I just ordered two more pieces of it.  Jen-Abler even enables herself.

That big button holding the netting was a close out from Joanns.  Can you say 50cents????  Well I can!

Done - a layout of my darling and me in our favorite place in all the world.