As soon as I saw “Island Time” I fell in love with the collection … but I knew I didn’t have alot of stories that would accent it as well as I wanted to! I live in the UK and the weather here when this collection dropped was anything but sunshine-y! My scrapbooking style meant I was up to date with most of the stories I wanted to tell.

So, I decided to prep for a trip to the beach we have coming up at the end of the month when I will be able to showcase those fab beachy motifs with complimentary photos!

I first decided on my format. I wanted to shake things up a little bit. I am working in a 12x12 album for Project Life this year and opting to add in some additional pages here and there when I have a trip or event I want to document.

I have noticed that I am not taking as many landscape orientation photos as I’d like so I opted for a 6 pocket 6x4 page protector knowing that thi will inspire me to take more landscape photos when we go away.

This meant that I had 12 pocket to work with BUT as I wanted to include some 6x4 photos I decided to go for five 6x4 “Island Time” cards and two additional ones that could hold 3x4 photos.

My process was to go through the die-cuts and pile up the ones that I really wanted to use for this trip into 7 piles. Next I went through the journal spots to add at least one into each of those piles.

I tend to print the entire collection of papers at Traveller’s Notebook size when the collection launches, so I went through those to put a pair of papers with each pile and then I started to play!

I first decided which of the two papers I had set aside I wanted to trim to my 6x4 canvas. Some of them would not work rotated as I didn’t want to re-print my papers. I actually found this a help rather than hindrance as I meant my choices were limited and as all of the papers from the collection coordinate so well, Traci had done most of the work for me!!! I just had to trim and stick!!!

Once I had my 6x4 canvases laid out I simply worked on each card in order, seeing them as a mini scrapbook page and using the same techniques I would use on my larger format pages.

I opted to use copier paper cut to size as space holders for my photos. It really helped with those two cards that I want to add 3x4 photos to.

Once I had all of my 6x4 card created I went through with my stash of enamel dots and puffy stickers to add a few additional touches and then called this one good.

If you are thinking of prepping for a trip you are taking soon, I can recommend that when you do, you keep the scraps that you have left after assembling your cards. This way you will be able to add some additional embellishments and interest on to the top of your photos that will add even more interest and prettiness to your pockets!

If you like this idea but don’t work at 12x12 size you can easily re-create this by creating cards to match the size of page protector pockets that you work with. If you like this idea but don’t work in page protectors, why not follow along but punch holes into the 6x4 cards to create a little mini book.

There are lots of options for preparing for the summer and “Island Time” is definitely a collection to work with when you want to capture those summer vibes!