Disney Cruise Scrapbook: Part 1

I can't tell you how excited I am to finally share this album!  This is the only Disney themed project that I have ever done and it has been so much fun.  Even though the main book is pretty much complete, I have another book that I will be working on that goes with it, so the fun doesn't have to end quite yet.

Not to put a damper on the parade, but I thought I should give you a little background.  Zach's dad and I separated shortly after this trip.  I think that is the main reason it has taken me over 8 years to finally get this thing going.  For a long time, I really had no desire to document it but then one day I woke up, threw on my big girl panties and realized that it needed to be done...if not for me, then for my son.  I scrapped it true to life...there was no cutting my ex out of pictures or "convenient" crops.  I left it all just the way it happened.   It was a wonderful trip filled with great memories and that is the way I wanted it documented.  Zach's father and I get along very well and work together to do what is best for our son, and for that I beyond grateful. Oh yea, I was also high school skinny..so don't let that freak you out.  It really is me!

Let's get started....my first picture is just a simple one to show you the album that I used.  Before, I was a die hard fan of the post bound albums...I really like the way they lay when you are highlighting a double page spread...but they are labor intensive.  Especially when you tend to have big albums like I do.  Needless to say I have made the switch.  I thought this black album with white polka dots was the perfect compliment to my Disney themed album.  This album is Project Life by Becky Higgins and don't quote me, but I think it is for the Midnight Edition.

These are just a couple of fun things that I adhered to the inside of the cover.  A Disney sticker that I think I found at Hobby Lobby and then a post card that Zach received from Mickey himself telling him how excited he was that he was going to get to help Zach celebrate his birthday.  If you don't know about he DIS boards and you are a newbie to Disney...don't take your trip without looking into them...more on that later.

I took a picture of the page lifter, but only because I fancied it up a bit.  I was not thrilled with how the holes came out, but I did love how the rest turned out.  The page lifters are important as they keep the pages of your albums from bending during storage, but they can be pretty boring and they are just begging for a little attention.  For those of you that asked me how I got a 12x12 sheet of paper through the standard printer, with a large enough font to stand out....that is coming soon to a post....PROMISE!

Next is my cover.  In pretty much all of my album, I used the Mickey Font Cricut cartridge for my titles.  Well, I started this album about 7 years ago and never made it past the title page...oops.  I couldn't stand the thought of not using it, so just added a few embellishments from the Say Cheese line from Simple Stories and stuck with the original.

Each night when we returned to our room, there was a Navigator waiting for us for the next day.  It listed all the activities that were going on as well as information about our port city if we were stopping for the day.  I managed to get home with all of ours and used the 8x10 inserts to add them to my album.

We departed from Cape Canaveral.  To be on the safe side, we flew to FL the night before we left and spent the night close to the port.  (L side)  Disney has their own terminal.  There is a huge replica of the Magic and we also got to meet Pluto while we were waiting! (R side)

This was our first "official" (meaning we had to pay for it) Disney photo opp. (L)  I tried to document all the little touches of Disney around our stateroom. (R)

I got some fun pictures from the Sailaway Party.  It was kind of chilly, but everyone was having fun. My favorite part was the big Mickey hands.  As the ship is pulling away Disney employees stand outside the terminal waving good bye wearing big Mickey hands...that is in the bottom right on the left side layout.  The right was from our first day at sea.  The wind was crazy but it didn't put a damper on our day.  Some of the decks were closed though due to the high winds.

By the end of the first full day, out boy was pooped and barely made it through dinner (L).  The right side was the start of Halloween.  A big group of kids from the DIS Boards all did a special trick or treat route and then I had the pleasure of attending a party in the Walt  Disney Suite...what a treat!!!!

The Walt Disney Suite party continues....such sweet, sweet people...all met through, you guessed it, the DIS Boards prior to the cruise.

That about wraps it up for Part 1.  I just realized that almost all of these layouts were made using the Project Life pages.  I had originally planned to do the entire book this way, but caught the layout bug and managed to bust out some really fun double page spreads later in the book.  Thank you so much for stopping by and if any of the layouts catch your eye, I would love for you to Pin them to you favorite board - just click and pin!  Stay tuned for Part 2, coming on Wednesday.

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