Smashing New Orleans

 Technically this is probably not your typical smash book for various reasons... the main one being that the idea of the smash book is to take it with you and fill it with all your bits and pieces whilst you travel... well, I wanted to make one and use up all the bits that I had hoarded from my trip to New Orleans so it wasn't going to be filled during the trip but after the event.  I used chipboard for the covers and 1" o'wires and bound it with my Bind It All.

 I always buy lots of postcards when I go anywhere... sometimes it is the best way to get a good pic!

 I bound some of them as individual pages and used the backs for photos or journalling. Pockets are another good way to be able to hold all the brochures etc that you pick up while on a trip.

Maps are also quite fun and the right hand side of this is a map folded. 

I added pics and journalling to the back of the map to strengthen it. 

and you can mark the places you visited and where you stayed. 

I kept ads of the restaurants we ate in and photographed the menu of the local alligator place but didn't actually eat in there!  

 Both these pages have pockets to hold tags with photos.

 Fold outs are always handy for adding extra bits and pieces.

 This is the page opened fully.

 This page has a pocket of sorts... made from the chipboard covers you put on your hot drinks from places like Starbucks.

 I used the back of the postcard for a photo and added a thinner journalling page.

 Another pocket formed by folding and glueing which has tags and leaflets in it.

 I had to laugh because the museum had less African masks than I do...

 Normal pages with a postcard bound in the middle.

 Back is used for journalling.

 I kept some adverts and used these on the pages.

 Another pocket page for leaflets.

 Made this postcard into a pocket and added some tags.

 Photos and journalling of the cemeteries - nobody is buried under ground in New Orleans because of the risk of flooding.

 Postcard back for journalling and photos of the Mississippi.

 Rear of postcard for photos and journalling.

 Large photos of the city.

Another of the coffee holders made into a holder for tags.

What's on Your Work Desk 8th June 2011

I keep seeing how people are melting in their personal heat waves and wondering where the sun has gone... we seem to be having a very wet and rainy spring (please nobody tell me its summer because that would send me into a spiral of depression)!! LOL
On my work desk today is my first attempt at a smash book.. they appear to be the latest thing in the scrap booking world and have taken off like hot cakes... which makes me laugh, as they are exactly the sort of stuff I made before I started scrap booking and then got into making mini books!!

I'll let you know how it turns out...

Oh and I went to a garage sale at the weekend at my neighbours church... they snuck me in the afternoon before the garage sale was to start so I had a lovely time mooching about without the distraction of hoards of people looking for a bargain!!  Look what I found!

I saw this box of beads... wooden beads and asked the lady how much the beads were... she looked at me oddly and said they were hoping to sell the entire box.... eeek, that's a lot of beads!!  $3 for the box!

and these are hand made pottery beads... $2 for the entire biscuit tin!

and this tub of lovely coloured ones was $2 too!!  I think I will be using beads on my next few projects.... lots of beads....

Curiosity and the cats....  don't worry, she got her head out fine!! 

Any suggestions for using up beads??? Please?

Don't forget to go and check on Julia and her linky list of desks to be perused!!