Ultimate Scrapbook Cruise Day 6...

Today would be our final day of the cruise... sort of bittersweet, of course. I missed my family but I loved the food, fun, friends and relaxation. We had a day at sea, which meant we had a day full of classes and a reception to cap it all off. I had Margie Romney-Aslett's "Passport to Fun!" in the morning and Karen Russell's "A Year in the Making" in the afternoon.

Margie's class was relaxed and low-key compared with some of the others. Since I am not a morning person, easing in to the day sounded good to me. She shared with us some of her ideas for travel journals. Something I hadn't thought of was taking a 6 x 12 sheet of paper or cardstock and folding it in half to form a 6 x 6 square. Have the open end be bound into a mini book and seal the bottom with adhesive to form a pocket. Use a bunch of these as pages in the album and you have a place to tuck all of those tickets, menus and brochures you collect along the way. Margie had some great samples that were fast and unique ways to organize, store and recollect your trip memorabilia. Since my "Passport to Fun!" album was for this cruise, it's not complete, but I think this will give you a basic idea of the project. It's a lot cuter with more photos, journaling and embellishments.


After lunch was Karen's class. Karen is known for her work creating interactive scrapbook layouts with altered page protectors and that is what "A Year in the Making" focused on. We created two one-page 12 x 12 layouts, one with a pocket (not pictures) and the other with a slide protector sheet. We needed to bring a couple dozen 2 x 2 square photogroaphs, which had caused some people grief with they were trying to complete the homework before the cruise, but getting all those little photos sure paid off in the end. How often do you get 30 photos on one 12 x 12 page?


You also may know Karen from her Narratives line with Creative Imaginations. Bittersweet news from her... she is going to take a break from designing so she can get back to scrapping for herself. Bummer for us, but good for her. I think we could all use more scrapping time for ourselves.

After class, but before supper was the ScrapMap Farewell Cocktail Party, where ScrapMap, the sponsors and the instructors gave away about $10,000 worth of prizes through raffles and the postcard contest.

Lots of people won some great prizes, including $250 gift certificates to QuicKutz and ScrapMap cruises. I got one of Donna Downey's "be inspired" totes that I just love - it's a great size and in my favorite color - green!

And last, but not least, the postacrd contest winner was announced. Apparently it was a pretty close win, with just 6 votes separating first place from second... and then my name was called! I think I screamed. How exciting!

Rumor has it that the 2nd Annual Scrapbook Cruise in 2010 will be leabing from Florida and cruising the lower half of the Caribbean, so it will again be fun to go to places I haven't seen before. If you are interested in going, check out the ScrapMap web site for details!

The teachers and Scrapmap staff had also given us an autographed photo of themselves. Gee, how perfect for a ... scrapbook!

And, of course, no cruise evening is complete without a towel animal. We got our final one, a seal.


Tomorrow, Day 7, back to reality...