Imperial Cities Gift Album

This is a gift album for my mum, as yet unassembled, made with all the photos leftover from when I did our Summer vacation album. I also used a lot of things from my old stash like Fresh Cuts, 'Travel' stickers, rubber stamps, BG & 7 Gypsies rubs ons, and a couple of those really large metal brads that I never liked because they were so difficult to set.

Digging up Potatoes

Papers by Christine Adolph design for CI. Chipboard letter by Prima Marketing. Alpha stamps by gel.a.tins. & Stampendous. Basic Grey tool for the scalloped border. Also Basic Grey swirly rub ons.

The first layout is Ricky with his Great Aunt Albina. She turned 93 last summer. And she is still so full of energy! And has the sharpest mind ever. Nothing gets by her!

And then there is Ricky digging up potatoes in my vegetable garden. Potatoes are the only veggie that Ricky will help dig up because those are the only veggies he will eat voluntarily ... lol! he absolutely will not help picking anything else.

Ben Ten Birthday

Again, layout design copied from the March CK. Printed paper from ki memories. Alpha stamps are by MSE ( My Sentiments Exactly). Chipboard numbers are by Heidi Swapp. Ben 10 clip art downloaded from the web. And I used the Basic Grey tool to make the scalloped edge for the journaling block.

This year Ricky had a special request for his birthday. He informed me that he was not interested in a party. He wanted instead an 'all you can buy' shopping spree at the Ben 10 counter at Toys R Us. How could I refuse? And so on his birthday Ricky spent a whole afternoon at the Ben 10 counter. He studied every toy, read every word written on the boxes, peered intently at all the displays. At one point he was on the floor surrounded by Ben 10 boxes. And he finally exited the store with bag loads of yellow green boxes. I do believe he bought one of every type of Ben 10 toy!

44th Birthday

Layout design copied from the current CK magazine. Papers & other embellishments from Scrapologie. the number stamp at the bottom of the page is by Club Scrap.

This year, after a lot of thinking and debating and pondering (because it would mean a lot of work for me going up & down stairs - our garden is in 3 levels and the kitchen is on the upper floor too!) I got Joe what he had been asking for for a long time - a barbecue. Of course this means more work for me but it is worth it all to see the look of pure enjoyment on Joe's face when he is grilling that meat. What is it with men & BBQs? I cannot imagine being so thrilled about cooking - be it indoors or out! lol!

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Kenya Safari (Set 2)

Layouts done with Club Scrap Safari Kit & Down to Earth UM stamps. Also used Gel.a.tin 'Roman' alphabet letters, QK Abigail alphabets, fuzzy Rub-ons and lots of doodling.

And this concludes the 'Kenya' album. Hope Lily fills in her journaling soon ... :-)

Kenya - Safari (set 1)

Pages done with Club Scrap Safari kit. I also used 'Down to Earth' UM stamps from Club Scrap, Gelatins UM alpha stamps, stamps from an 'African' UM plate (no idea who the manufacturer is), QK alphabets and lots of doodling.

This is the first set of the 'Safari' pages from the Kenya album. One more set & I'll be done. Again, journaling has been left blank for Lily to fill out later.

Kenya - Album Cover & Tala School

Mostly done with Club Scrap Safari kit. I also used 'Out of Africa' stamp set from Stampin' Up, UM stamps from Club Scrap, Gelatins alphabets, fuzzy rub-ons, and lots of doodling.

I stripped an ugly pink 8 X 8 album and covered it with handmade paper. I used a suede animal print paper for the inside cover of the album - I have had this paper for at least ten years now! The mask on the album cover is also handmade with extra thick card stock, acrylic paints and lots of patience!

I have left the journaling blank for Lily to fill in later.

Lily's school has been helping the Tala School in Kenya. The students and teachers had been busy knitting for months. They made seventy blankets for the dormitories in Tala - students who live very far away return home only on the weekends. Donations helped pay for whitewashing the schoolrooms, other miscellaneous improvements and building ramps for wheelchair access.

In October the children who piloted this project went to Kenya to meet the students of the Tala school. There, apart from a lot of activities involving both schools, the students had a very special project that they were excited about. Lily & her schoolmates divided themselves into groups. Each group then painted a mural in each classroom. Lily's group painted the Hong Kong skyline and it turned out fantastic! I decided to award it the first prize ... lol!

Prague - a Royal Feast (and the end of our Imperial Cities tour)

First layout done with a kit from Scrapologie, a very old paper punch & QK alphabets. Second and third layouts done with Club Scrap Renaissance kit.

On our last evening we went to a Royal Banquet! The food was terrible but that was not the point at all (lol!) The restaurant was in a very old part of Prague and had a fabulously old fashioned interior. And they had done up everything like the banquet halls of old. We had musicians entertaining us, jesters jumping, knights duelling and wenches serving. And then a King (they did tell us his name but I forgot to make a note!) graced us with his Royal presence and knighted all the children. They were even given little crowns to wear and they absolutely loved it. I think the adults loved it just as much. What a great way to end a superb holiday!

And with this I am finished with my layouts for this particular trip to the Imperial cities of Vienna, Salzburg & Prague.

Coming up next: My "Kenya" album.

Prague Architecture

First layout done with Club Scrap Architecture kit, other layouts also done on Club Scrap paper but I have no idea which kits they belong to! Can't see much of them anyway.

Prague

All layouts done with Club Scrap kits. First one is Beautiful Botanicals, second one is Old South and third layout is done using the Travel kit.

On the bus ride from Cesky Krumlov to Prague we watched 'The Chronicles of Narnia' which was filmed in the Czech Republic. It was a long bus ride and my legs & back were sore. I do not why I could not sleep. I watched Mini take a nap and I was excessively jealous! :-)

Our hotel was near the heart of the city so we could walk to almost all the main attractions. We went to the main city square and took a 40 minute car ride to see all the main sights and get a feel of the place. The car was an old communist era car, a Skoda I believe, and it was fun. Dinner was at an authentic Tuscan restaurant that even had salt-less bread, something unique to Tuscany.

The next morning we drove up to Prague castle and started a 3 hour walk. We saw the St. Vitius's Cathedral, the main church in Prague, strolled down the Golden Lane and slowly made our way down to the city. We crossed the beautiful Charles Bridge (which was so crowded - I must return in winter when there are less tourists), rubbed the statue of St. John Nepomuk (to bring us back to Prague someday) and finished our walk in front of the amazing Town Hall Clock. This clock was built 500 years ago and is completely mechanical. The little figures come out every hour, on the hour, but everything is so quick, you miss it if you blink!

We went into the Jewish Quarter and had lunch in a really nice Jewish restaurant. Then we went to see the Pinkas Synagogue and the Jewish Cemetery. I love visiting cemeteries, looking at all those old graves, wondering who these people were, searching for the graves of famous people I know are buried there. We then walked towards the Old-New Synagogue which is the oldest synagogue in Europe. It is extremely beautiful on the inside.

Finally we walked to Wenceslas Square - named after St. Wenceslas, a pious and good prince who was murdered by his brother in 935. St. Wenceslas is also the patron saint of Bohemia. The road leading up to Wenceslas Square is lined with beautiful buildings with Art Nouveau paintings. The Hotel Europa is a fine example of Art Nouveau architecture.