New Zealand Mini (Part 2)

Today I am sharing the second half of my New Zealand mini album. (to see the first half and read initial thoughts, go here).

At the end of this post, I am sharing the items I took with me in order to complete this album on the road!

I had so much fun creating this album. In some way, i think it helped me savor the trip even more. I was more aware of my surroundings and was in the mindset of documentation.

It was interesting returning to New Zealand after visiting only five years ago. In some ways it was a time warp because there were so many things that we remembered (things that were previously forgotton). Things like restaurants we ate at, shops we visited, side streets, etc.

I had made an album of our last trip (a digital, hardback album). I love that album, but it didn't document the little things. Things like restaurant names, ticket stubs, funny stories weren't really in that album-- just the basics and my pretty, edited pictures. (And not to mention the journaling was written months after we returned.) I love the "raw-ness" of my album from this trip-- how it was made THERE throughout the entire trip- that's a memory in itself.

A familiar sight in each hotel room in New Zealand- my scrap supplies all over the hotel room!

As I shared in my last post, taking limited (yet sufficient) supplies was an important part of completing my album. It really is amazing how quickly projects are completed when you are limited with your supplies- it was quite nice for a change!

Here is a photo of supplies I took with me to New Zealand:

Just like my suitcase of clothes, I overpacked :) But not too much. Important items I used quite a bit were:

1. Instax. This was HUGE in completing this album. (ETA: I took 8 "rolls of film" for the instax and ended up using 4 or 5 (10 photos to a roll)
   
2. Cropadile,sissors, small paper trimmer. I orginally ment to put the sharp sissors and cropadile in my suitcase for the flight but i forgot! I was worried it would be taken away as i went through security, but i got lucky and it made it through (kinda scary huh?)
3. Pre-cut pages for my album. This is the only "prepping" i did for this book and it helped a ton.
   
4. Selection of alphabet stickers. I took five sets of alphas- plus a stamp set.
5. Embellishments. This is where i was tempted to go overboard! I took mostly Elle's Studio Handmade Layers tags (so perfect for this project-- i used almost ever piece i brought) and Pink Paislee's Daily Junque Ephemera. Other items include: washi tapes and rose ribbon by Dear Lizzy.
6. Stamps. I took the Jett Alpha stamp by Studio Calico and it was perfect for this album. I also took a bunch of other fun, small stamps by Studio Calico. The hard part was choosing ink. I stuck with two-- a standard black ink and my new favorite, Chicken Feed by Jenni Bowlin. I was happy with those two choices. All of my stamp materials fit perfectly in a 4x6 photo container.

Storage: I took two plastic, memory keeper bags to store all of my supplies. My original thought was to have all the "non-carry on items" (like scissors, etc) travel in my suitcase in one bag, and have a bag of items I could use while on the flight. However, I never ended up scrapping on either flights. Having two bags ended up being nice because i did accumulate many brochures and other items that I had room to store. I also kept the album itself in a ziplock bag to prevent any damage since we traveled quite a bit during our vacation.

I think that about sums it up!!! :) If you have any more questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I will get back with you!