It's a Cruise Scrapbook--Products and a Page Plan

It's a Cruise Scrapbook! 

A step-by-step guide to creating a story-filled cruise scrapbook.
(A new installment published every Saturday!)

Now that we've broken that big stack of photos into smaller, manageable groups, let's take a few minutes to consider the products we want to use. As I said previously, I create a great many cruise pages and beach trip books (when we travel for pleasure there is always a beach involved) so I am always on the lookout for products that are thematically related to travel, cruise, beach, water, nautical or anything that could work in those categories. I keep these items stored together in my scrap space for easy access. 

Fortunately, most every major scrapbooking company has put out at least one collection that's relevant to cruise scrapbooking so we have plenty to choose from. All the major stamp companies offer stamps that can be used for cruise scrapbooking. Shopping for products is not a chore and there are many many options out there.

When you are shopping, don't limit yourself to just items in the cruise theme specifically, especially if you are shopping online and using search features. Here's my list of associated images you may want to search with:

anchors
waves
sailing
palm trees
life preserver
flip flops and sunglasses
pier
surf and sand
seaturtles
bubbles
Hibiscus flowers
Sandpipers
Seahorses
Starcharts
margarita glass
sand castles
beach umbrellas
nautical
rope

In truth, products you can use in your cruise scrapbook can be lurking in just about any category of scrapbook supplies.

Perhaps your design sense takes your cruise scrapbook towards all things nautical, using strings of flags, images of ships, ship's wheels, life preservers, rope, and lighthouses, and of course, featuring lots of red, white and blue.

In that case you may like a few of the following collections:

Carte Bella's Ahoy There collection (available at Hobby Lobby and Scrapbook.com) 

Carte Bella's Yacht Club Collection (available at Scrapbook.com)

Anna Griffin's Seafarer Collection (available at Scrapbook.com)

Photoplay's Nautical Bliss Collection (available at Scrapbook.com)

Stampin' Up has several related sets that have been retired but can still be acquired on ebay quite often--especially Open Sea, From Land to Sea, Schooner, Ship's Ahoy and By the Tide.

Close to my Heart offered a nautical kit in their last catalog called Regatta. (You can find it on ebay occasionally.)  In an old catalog there was a kit called Seaside that I really like too. There are two stamp sets by CTMH that are appealing: Seaside Greetings and Nautical Nantucket.

Kaisercraft's Coastal Escape Collection (available at Scrapbook.com)

Paper House's Nautical Collection (available at Scrapbook.com)

These are just the collections that are mostly red, white and blue and traditionally nautical-themed. In future posts I will round up the products that are naturalist and beachy as well as cruise-themed.

(My list are not intended to be exhaustive and I don't receive any compensation from any companies linked here in exchange for linking.)

Of course, if you aren't planning to use coordinating products throughout you cruise scrapbook, this step is less important for you. I have done the "wild and free" method in other cruise scrapbooks and have really enjoyed pulling from every company imaginable to assemble a book that features pages of varying styles and color combinations. You don't have to limit yourself if that's not appealing to your process.

 

Creating a Page Plan
Wait!
Don't close the door on the idea of a page plan just yet. I know it can be a tedious chore but it can also be very beneficial to have while you are in the throes of creating pages for your cruise scrapbook. Trust me on this!

Don't complicate your page plan. Take a few minutes and flip through your photo stacks. Casually make a list of pages that you know you are going to want to do. Don't worry...you can always add to or take away from the list as your make progress. If you have ideas for pages that maybe you don't have photos to go with yet, put that on the list too. (Sometimes I steal images from Google or Instagram to complete a page, if needed.)

Also, you will want to think about the five or six things that really made your cruise trip special--the most memorable things. Make sure those most memorable things are well-represented in you page plan.

It's pretty easy to assemble a list of the basics:
--the facts of your trip such as the name of the ship, travel dates and intenerary
--Glimpses of the Ship from Outside
--Glimpses of the major parts of the ship inside.
--Your stateroom.
--At least one food and drink photo.
--On-board activities
--Embarkation
--A photo of the people you are traveling with
--Excursion activities
--The view from your room (assuming you have a room with a window, at least.)
--Formal night photos

Some additional pages ideas that might also be included:
--the art on board the ship
--anything special you had to do to prepare for the trip (shopping, hair/nails, travel to your departure port, packing, etc)
--your favorite places on the ship that are "out of the way"
--more in-depth about the foods and drinks you enjoyed on the cruise
--a study in the relationship you share with the people you travel with
--did you enjoy a little bit of luxurious living on the ship--go to the spa, have room service, sleep late, etc?
--how was the music? Did you dance all night?
--did you meet any neat people on the ship?
--did you post to Facebook or Instagram while cruising? Print and include these in your scrapbook too.

Here's my Page Plan as it stands right now:
 
In next Saturday's installment of It's a Cruise Scrapbook, we will begin looking at actual pages and explore some journaling ideas.

It's a Cruise Scrapbook--Before You Start

If there's one kind of scrapbooking that I know about--it's cruise scrapbooking. 

Cruise scrapbooking is perhaps my favorite kind--the pictures are good, the memories are awesome and story-rich and let's be real, I love going on a Caribbean cruise so, of course I'm also going to love scrapbooking about them as well.

I've had the pleasure of quite a few Caribbean cruises (thanks to my husband's work) and have created many pages about cruising.

With that in mind, I think it's time to share what I know about cruise scrapbooking. Welcome to It's a Cruise Scrapbook! --a step-by-step guide to creating a story-filled cruise scrapbook. 

I love a travel scrapbook that's all-inclusive! One trip, one book. I generally divide our trip memories into four sections:

1- the ship

2- the trip

3- the people

4- everything else

However, since four of our cruises have been on a single ship--Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas--I'm breaking from my tradition and putting all four cruises into one single album. (Let me tell you...this is a major departure from my usual method of organization.)

Let's start at the beginning. Before you begin creating your cruise scrapbook, you need to make a few decisions.

1. Are you going to use a certain cohesive style of page and or product throughout the album? Alternatively, would you prefer the wild and free method of scrapbooking design for this album? 

If you want to carry a cohesive design throughout your cruise scrapbook, there are many way to do so. 

One of the easiest ways is to choose a certain collection of paper to incorporate throughout the album. You may choose  a collection assembled for you by a certain paper manufacturer or assemble your own collection of papers from many manufacturers.

If you are going the route of a incorporating a cohesive design throughout your book, you may want to assemble a small kit of chosen supplies--letter stickers or alphabet dies for titles, a few colors of cardstock, brads or dot embellishments, ephemera and accents, stamps, journaling tools, ribbons or textiles, etc.

Assembling a kit for yourself to work out of will save you time (no hunting for stuff) and help you make design choices in a timely fashion. 

 

Don't forget to keep a few bits of inspiration close by...I like to keep this old jar of sand and shells right on my desk when I'm working on layouts about the sea!

2. What size album do you want to create? 

3. How many pages are you going to include? Choose your photos and get them printed. See where your photos take you. This will probably be a lengthy process, if you are anything like me. I admit it--I overprint. I like to have a lot of photos to choose from and I know that if a certain photo doesn't get used in my scrapbook, it can be used in other craft projects or on a page in another scrapbook. 

Generally, I choose about two hundred photos and work down from that number. Yes that includes the excessive food shots. 😀

When the photos arrive (or when you have gotten the printing done), my first step is usually to sort them into general groups.

My groups usually include:

-- Photos of the ship and all its details

-- Photos of people (us and the people we travel with that don't go into any other category)

-- Photos of our adventures and activities 

-- Photos of food and drinks

-- Photos of the sea

-- Everything else 

 

(These are my sorted photos.) 

I usually purchase at least a few professional photos taken on-board as well--especially the ones of our group and of the ship. Be sure to incorporate those into your scrapbook planning as well. 

And yes, there's a small stack of photos called Stolen Accent Photos. Any photos that I missed out on taking myself are collected post-trip from google or Instagram. 

I'm glad you made it to the end of part one. In part two we will begin scrapbooking!! 

If you use Instagram, please check out the hashtag #itsacruisescrapbook and use it too when you share your cruise pages!