Encre, papier, ciseaux: Expedition Everest

Inspiration: May 2018 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memory Layout challenge #550 (use at least three pictures)

I knew I wanted to use the Winter Wonderland collection from Doodlebug to scrapbook my Expedition Everest pictures from Disney, because of the adorable yeti included in this collection. I had purchased the adorable yeti Doodle-Pops called Harry and kept him aside for this page. In one of the cut-aparts, I found an adorable crest with the words "Adventure Awaits!", which I fussy cut to keep only the shape, and I layered the yeti over it. I thought it could serve as my title, since I was planning to use three pictures on my page and knew it might be a tight fit.

I was looking at sketches for inspiration and ended up picking a two-page sketch, even though I knew I would only use one. I thought I could pick the elements I liked and shrink them down to a single-page layout. Two of the elements from the sketch that caught my eye were the character embellishment, which I knew would be my yeti, and the banners at the top. If you look at my bottom left picture, you can see the surrounding area of this ride is embellished with a lot of bunting, which is apparently inspired by what can be seen in this area of the world. I had initially passed on the Bunting Borders dies from Lawn Fawn when they came out because I had a few smaller versions in their interactive cards sets, but I found the set at a good clearance price last year, so it was perfect to decorate the top of my page. The dies are so well thought-out - you get the string with small banners on it, and then you have the individual banners separately. Two are individuals, with a heart and a star in the center and the other die has four banners on it, alternating sides, which allows you to die-cut four at once and to use very little cardstock to do so. Kudos to Lawn Fawn for always thinking their products through thoughtfully. This made it really fast to assemble the banners. I made sure to put adhesive sheets on the back of my cardstock before die-cutting, so I didn't even have to waste time on glue. I used my Blue Cashmere pearlescent cardstock from Tonic for the banner base, which works beautifully with the papers.

At the bottom, I used gingham paper for the band from the sketch and I was looking for a scalloped border die when I spotted the Snowflake Border die from Lawn Fawn and decided to use that instead. This is where organizing my dies by type has started to pay off, as I don't always end up going to the same options and might get inspired to use something else instead. The die is about 6 inches wide, so I repeated it twice on my cardstock. It's lucky that I purchased the texture cardstock assortment with this collection, so my colors match perfectly.

I wanted the ride picture to stand out, so I pulled out Dazzling Diamonds glitter paper and cut it to size with the deckle trimmer, which goes well with the snow and ice theme. I'm almost out of the glitter paper, so to avoid wasting everything that was hidden underneath the picture, I used a rectangle die to take the middle out and I replaced it with another scrap of cardstock in another colours using the same die, to make sure the center of the picture would not buckle in the album (to level things underneath the picture).

I thought the top left corner felt empty, so I decided to add "Expedition Everest" to the page after all. I used the silver Abigail stickers for the second word and the Newberg Navy Alphabet stickers from Jillibean Soup for the first word. I tested out adding snow to the top of the silver letters with a white gel pen and I LOVE how it turned out!

I embellished the page with Glitter and Shape Sprinkles and a rhinestone border. I happened to have a piece of purple thread on my desk that was actually fiber provided with a garment in case you needed to repair it. I don't have the garment anymore and the colour was a perfect fit for the page. The piece of fiber was unfortunately shorter than 24 inches, so I couldn't do too strands, until I realized that I could cut it and hide the ends underneath my yeti block, and that solves the problem. This adds a nice fuzzy touch and additional colour to the bottom of the page. At top, I folded a Swimming Pool paper doily in half, added a leftover patterned paper and the yeti waving from the cabin sticker. Then I found a cute acrylic piece from Florilège Design that reads "Bon courage", which sort of means Hang in there, but that seemed to go well with the roller coaster theme.

I love how the page ended up. That cute little yeti with his toothy smile really makes the page. I will admit that while I loved the elements of the Winter Collection when it came out, I was worried about the bright candy hues and the result being a little bit too much when all paired together. You'll notice I made sure to use the grey cardstock and the grey on white pattern at the bottom to try and mitigate that a little bit, and I think it worked out well. I now want to go use my leftover papers with the new background dies from Lawn Fawn to see what cute card I can create with it! They are doing a Christmas card drive at my local scrapbook store for the children's hospital and I think Doodlebug is a safe bet when crafting for kids.

Supplies
Cardstock: Winter Wonderland Solid Assortment (Doodlebug Design);
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Icons Stickers: Winter Wonderland (Doodlebug Design)
Dies: Snowflake Border, Bunting Borders (Lawn Fawn)
Alphabet Stickers: Silver Abigail (Doodlebug Design); Newberg Navy Alphabeans (Jillibean Soup)
Accessories: Harry Doodle-Pops, Winter Assortment Glitter Sprinkles,
Winter Hugs Shape Sprinkles, Swimming Pool Mini Paper Doilies (Doodlebug Design);
Décos Mots doux Céladon (Florilège Design); Adhesive Rhinestone Strips (Crafts - Dollar Store);
White Gel Pen (Gelly Roll); Purple Fiber (Upcycled); Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)