.: River Fun and Scrapbook Challenge

We spent the fourth of July weekend at the river enjoying the water. The weather was perfect, 118 degrees. The kids had a ton of fun and we even got to enjoy a cruise down the river. We spent Friday cruising through the Topock Gorge. It is such a beautiful area. We made our way to Havasu Lake and the London Bridge.

We enjoyed relaxing while Stevie drove. The kids tubed and played in the water. So much fun was had by all. My family has been going to the river for many, many years. As well,so has Stevie's family, yet we never spent the time together. This weekend was a rarity.

Back home after a week at the river gave me time to recoup, which means time to scrap. I knew I wanted to scrapbook my river pictures but I wasn't sure what i wanted to do quite yet. Then Jim solved my dilemma. While at the river, my niece Samantha turned 14 years old. She had a birthday brunch upon her return home from the river. With short notice of the party, I got a crazy idea to a make her a scrapbook of our river trip. I needed a bit of inspiration so I perused several of my favorite blogs and found a challenge on My Pink Stamper. This helped me coordinate my color scheme.

Hahaha! I had less than 48 hours and besides working on the scrapbook, I had a test to study for. I know, call me crazy. As I quickly planned I realized I didn't have an album so I opted for a paper bag album. Yeah, still not a great idea because I didn't have brown paper bags. Thank goodness for 24 hour supermarkets. I headed to the market and asked for paper bags. They were a bit bigger than lunch bag size, but perfect for what I wanted to do.

Unfortunately, I didn't get it done on time because I ran out of adhesive. I did get the album done and Jim delivered it to his brother. My niece called me later that evening and was so excited about her scrapbook. She loved it. And, I loved that she loved it.

I used a total of 9 paper bags. This gave me over 54 places for pictures and journalling. Each page has multiple pockets and interactive pages. A lot of work, but so fun. I tried to keep the embellishments simple since I was using bold colors.

Recipe:

Cardstock from Stampin' Up! - pink passion, tempting torquiose, pumpkin pie, old olive, basic black, white, creamy caramel, and chocolate chip.

Pattern paper from Stamapin' Up! - summer days scrapbook kit

Bind It All

Cricut cartridges - Everyday Paper Dolls, H2O, Summer Vacation, and Plantin

Cricut Design studio to weld letters.

Inks, brad, glitter, crystal lacquer, and chalk from Stampin' Up!

Sticker letters and die cuts from my scrap drawer.

Rub on words from Making Memories

Punches - flower (su!), sun and paint splat from Nankok Industries