Friday, May 25, 2012

You Got Me a Rock?


I did this layout for the Disney Scrappers Challenge #10 - Did you Know? Disney Trivia.  I decided to make a layout focused on something that has been in the park since at least 1957, but is usually overlooked.
In the summer of 1956, on a trip through Colorado, Walt stopped off at a tourist trap called Pike's Petrified Forest.  He found this petrified stump there, purchased it and had the owner dig it out, pack it up and bring it out to Disneyland.  There are a couple of versions of this story, one says Walt had it delivered to their Holmby Hills home only to have Lillian donate it to the park a year later.  But a letter from Walt to the owner indicates that he did have it delivered directly to Disneyland.  Perhaps it took a year for the actual spot to be prepared, and the tree to be delivered before they could dedicate it.
 It is rumored that Walt joked with Lillian when he got back in the car and told her that he had just bought her a petrified tree for their upcoming 31st anniversary.   Whether he really did that or not, he certainly did give her credit for donating the tree to Disneyland. I kind of took some liberties with the title, but I can imagine Lillian saying something like this to Walt.  I'm sure she had a great sense of humor! 
 I used Sketch #87 from Sketch Savvy for this layout.

 See, even in this picture from the Disney Parks blog they look like they know 
it's a big joke between them!  That's why I had to put it on my layout!
 The papers I used were Close to My Heart - Roxie Paper Pack

If you would like to see the letter from Walt and some other pictures of this tree, check out one of my favorite Disneyland sites, Daveland

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Mickey's Trick or Treat at Disneyland

I had so much fun designing this mini book!  From the minute I saw it, I fell in love with this Authentique Glowing Halloween paper and I knew I just had to make a mini book to hold the pictures from our 2011 trip to Disneyland for Mickey's Trick or Treat Party.
 On the cover I used several Tim Holtz dies and the flower is one I made by melting organza and the black leaves are melted polyester fabric.  The vines are black pipe cleaners.

 For the inside, I traced a Cosmo Cricket chipboard album that I had and made a burlap page.
 I also found a mini pumpkin die cut shape and added that in the middle.  The pictures of Chip, Dale and Donald are from the Piratepalooza - a pirate themed "disco" area where you could dance to 70's disco songs with the characters.  It was a hoot!  One of my favorite parts of the entire evening!

 This is the back of the pumpkin and a picture in front of the Haunted Mansion.  One of the elements that came with the paper was this Top 10, so I listed our 10 favorite things about a Disney Halloween.
  1. Haunted Mansion
  2. Mickey O' Lantern
  3. Jack Skellington
  4. Pumpkins!
  5. Hitchhiking Ghosts
  6. Our Anniversary
  7. Pirates
  8. Hallowishes
  9. Piratepalooza
  10. Ichabod
 I had to dig deep to get up enough courage for a picture with Jack Sparrow.  He's always a little freaky!  And we found some Stormtroopers in Tomorrowland.
 Our hosts, Mickey and Minnie were found back along Big Thunder Trail, and look who wanted to hitch a ride home with us!
 Jack Skellington was hanging out in New Orleans Square and the Castle looked dark and creepy! This page I made from black canvas instead of burlap to change things up a little.
Pirate carcasses were in great supply all night long, and we took our annual anniversary picture in front of the Mickey O'Lantern this year instead of on Splash Mountain.  We are holding up 14!
I left the back really simple.  Just a die cut of Tim Holtz's Candelabra.

This was such an incredibly fun project!  I had the glitter paint, stickles, buttons, organza, pipe cleaners, die cuts, and any and everything I could think of out on my desk as I was making this.  This Glowing line is a classic, amazing Halloween line!  I LOVE it!  Please don't retire it Authentique!  It can be used year after year.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

July 4th at Disneyland

We love to go to Disneyland on July 4th and stay until the next day.  We stay over mainly because it is absolute chaos and gridlock trying to get out of the parking structure and home after the fireworks.  So much easier just to wait until the crowd thins out and then walk back to a our hotel.  These are pictures of our first 4th of July and Disneyland back in 2008.

 This layout is based on Sketch #15 from Sketch Savvy.

 Why yes, I did make my ears!  Thanks for asking!

 All of the papers and embellishments are from Bo Bunny.  The little white dots are iRoc from Imaginisce.


Here is a video of the Independence Day fireworks. They have the same show every year and it's an okay show, but could be so, so much better!  I'll let you watch it for yourself and see if you agree.  I have already written Disneyland and made suggestions, but I think it is easier for them not to have to change it than to improve it and make it more patriotic.

Old Glory

We love to go to Disneyland when they have all of their patriotic decorations out and especially to stay for a couple of days over the 4th of July.  This layout is about the first Independence Day that we spent at the Disneyland Resort.  They have a daily flag retiring ceremony that we often attend, but on this day, the Marine Corp Band from Camp Pendleton was there playing the music and the Dapper Dans were singing.  They play a portion of the song from all the branches of the armed forces and anyone in the crowd who has served is encouraged to come stand around the flag pole.  Then we sing the national anthem, and the flag is retired for the night.  Every one thanks the service people in the center for their service and the flag is marched out.  This particular ceremony was very moving with the Marine Corp Band playing!


The paper and embellishments are Bo Bunny.





I couldn't find a video of this day, but I did find one Patriot's Day 2011 when the Marine Corp Band again played.  A warning that it is long, and unsteady, but still worth it.  I get teary every time!



Saturday, May 12, 2012

No Joy in Muddville

For my sister's birthday we spent the weekend at Disneyland.  We wandered past the Games of the Boardwalk in Disney's California Adventure and decided to give them a try.  Casey at the Bat is your typical carnival-type game where you try and pitch the ball into the catcher's mitt.  Of course, everyone but me got at least one ball in.  I scored a big ZERO.  Thus the title.  It was fun though!

This layout is for Disney Challenge #25  Goin Coastal at Disney Scrappers.

I thought I used a sketch from Sketch Savvy for this layout, but I couldn't find which one it was to save my life, so head on over there for some inspiration anyway. There are a lot of great ideas on that site!  I did this layout over a year ago and just finished it up this week.






And if it's been awhile since you have seen this classic short, I'm attaching it here.  It was originally part of Make Mine Music and then was made into an individual short in 1954.

Maybe You Should Try Captain

       In October of 2008, we took a family trip to Disneyland to see all the Halloween Time stuff early in the month.  It was a complete zoo!  However, as we walked past the Court of Angels back in New Orlean's Square, we noticed Jack Skellington and Sally.  We followed them out to a spot along the Rivers of America and were waiting in line for pictures.  My sister didn't really want pictures with them, so she just stood up on one of the walkways between the French Market and the Haunted Mansion.
       So after we got in line, Captain Jack Sparrow was meandering his way through the crowds and suddenly stopped and stood next to my sister. He was yelling across all of the people at Jack and Sally, trying to pick up on Sally and tell her how good she looked.   The tall guy in back of my sister was trying, to no avail, to get Jack's attention by yelling, "Jack!  Hey, Jack!" JACK!"  But it was no use, "Jack" was not turning around.
        My sister, master of the dry sense of humor, turned and said, "Maybe you should try Captain."  Bhahahahahahahahahaha!  Classic!  So glad we have pictures of this!

 Okay, so this layout was for Disney Scrappers NSD Challenge #4 - Be an Imagineer.  We were to follow the sketch, include a Hidden Mickey, and get some inspiration from our photos.  I used the pirate inspiration and the color of my sister's shirt. This is Sketch #82 from Sketch Savvy.

For the paper on this layout I used Fab Scraps Timeless Travel line of papers.  I bought a lot of this paper and the black roses (by Kaiser Craft) for some project and now I have no idea what that project was going to be.  So at least I had more than enough to finish this page! The journaling is written on banners from the Tim Holtz banner die.

 
 I used a technique on this medallion from Susan.  It was a Saturday Technique she posted in the NSD forum on NSD Saturday.  The silver pin is from Karen Foster.  And I just printed that Jolly Roger from the internet onto some of the paper.

 Here is my Hidden Mickey.


No video for this one folks, but I hope you enjoyed the story behind the page!

Hallo Rabbit!

 One sunny July 4th in 2009, as DH and I wandered around Disneyland, we made our way back to Critter Country and happened upon RABBIT!  We never, ever see Rabbit back in Critter Country, or Piget for that matter.  Lots of Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger though.  We were so excited that we were the third ones in line!

This layout is for NSD Challenge #3 - Feel Like a Kid Again! - from Disney Scrappers. 


 We were to use Sketch #83 from Sketch Savvy and part of the challenge was to  include a Hidden Mickey and the picture had to be about an adult, no kids allowed.  ;-D

I fell in love with this paper at my LSS it is called Summer Fresh from Simple Stories (and Made in the USA!)  It reminded me of summer when I was a little girl growing up in the 70's and Mom would sew our clothes for us.  I thought it went perfectly with this photo.

Just had to include a little Rabbit video on this page.  This video doesn't have Pooh give Rabbit his usual "Hallo Rabbit!" greeting, but it is one of my all-time favorite Pooh and Rabbit scenes. 

An Actor's Life 4 Me!

 This layout about the actor's life portion of the Pinocchio ride was for the NSD Sketch Challenge #1 - 4 Parks 1 World Challenge.  We were to do a layout based on Sketch #85 from Sketch Savvy.


Since I have never been to Walt Disney WORLD, I don't have pictures of all four parks to put on my page, but we also had to option of doing 4 pictures from one attraction, so of course, I chose that.  This layout just seemed so Pinocchio to me and since it is one of DH's favorite rides, how could I pass it up?
The paper I used was On the Bright Side by MME.  Perfect for Disney pages!!  I don't know if you can see in this picture, but the top of the journaling tag that looks like it was torn out of a binder is little tiny Mickey heads.  I stole this idea from my friend Nancy.  She did it on a page awhile back and I thought it would work well on this page since we were supposed to include a Hidden Mickey and the Mickey's on this page are pretty prominent.

If you have never ridden Pinocchio, this is the best video I could find.  It is really dark and most were difficult to see.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

We Love Happy Endings!

 First, I didn't realize until I took this picture that the Endings is meandering, so I will straighten it out later -- no time now. :-D  That's the beauty of green Tombow glue, I can ease the letters off and replace them and not tear the letters or the paper.  Woot!  And there is a funny reflection on the photo.  Looks like a re-shoot is in order tomorrow.

This layout is of me, my mom and sis at the end of a lovely girl's day at Disneyland.  The title is taken from the end of Sleeping Beauty when Fauna sighs and says, "I love happy endings!"

I used Sketch #84 from Sketch Savvy for the Disney Scrappers NSD Challenge #2

 Flowers and leaves and Say it in Pearls swirl are all from Prima.  I colored them with Distress inks and made the little roses blue and pink since Flora, Fauna and Merriweather are always fighting over pink or blue for Aurora.

To get the flowers both blue and pink, I put a drop of blue distress ink on my craft mat and sprtized it with water, then used a tiny paint brush to paint it on the flowers in the center. Once it was dry I spritzed the entire flower with pink distress stain that I mixed using 2 drops of Antique Linen and Worn Lipstick, and 4 drops of Victorian Velvet distress inks from the reinkers and mixed with water in a mini mister.  Then I dried them again.  

I must say the hardest part for me was using what I had of this very old Basic Grey Phresh and Phunky.  I so love this paper, but I think it was meant to be used on this layout.  And I had to use it at somepoint right?   I can't just keep hoarding paper and never using it just because I can't get it any more.

Here is my Hidden mickey since part of the challenge was to have a Hidden Mickey on the page.  I know, not so hidden, but they have a similar one on a painting in the Carnation Plaza, so I just used that idea.

Here is the picture I'm talking about:

And if it has been awhile since you have seen Sleeping Beauty, here is my title inspiration: