riding a little yellow bicycle

A long time ago, my friend and fellow Coloradan, Liz Qualman, asked me if I'd like to be the guest designer at Little Yellow Bicycle, using a lovely line called Poppy. She said the colors were right up my alley, bright and cheery. 

I happily agreed, however, when the time came, I realized creating time would be tight with trips to Utah for Ethan's EFY week, and then Annie's Senior trip to Mexico right after. I got two layouts and a card done, but Liz was gracious and gave me an extra week to finish a mini album of the family vacation. 

I knew when I saw the colors of Poppy that it would probably be perfect for Mexico. I've never been to Mexico, but I'd imagined the reds/greens/yellows/oranges would be all around. I was right, the line was made for our trip. Even though it has a spring/gardening theme, Poppy can easily be adapted for a tropical vacation if the need arises :)

I'm starting with the mini album first. I made the cover look like a vase I fell in love with at the Puerto Vallarta airport. The album doesn't tell a story, I think that's why I don't like doing mini albums, I find them a tough medium for telling stories. 

I simply picked some photos from the trip that represent most of what we did and added a few words and left it at that. I know I'll be scrapping the trip for a long time to come, so I'll be able to tell stories on my layouts instead. See? Letting go. I'm trying. :)

Sorry about the different sizes of images. I've been trying, but can't quite get it...

  

And that's my mini album. Moving on...

I've been holding on to these pictures for five years! I've printed them off, but never actually scrapped them. Until Poppy showed up and I knew it was a match made in heaven. My daughter and her friend, all decked out in flowers for crazy hair day in 8th grade, five years ago. We have a red door, it's a great place to take pictures. The red is the same red that is in this line. Serendipitous, don't you think?

Again, old pictures that went so well with this line! My son's first day of fifth grade is showcased here. I wanted to show that the line that has a lot of florals could go masculine as well. I love the little pocket that is actually for a 5 Things sort of layout. I guess I'll have do do a 4 Things instead with the left overs!

And my Be Happy card, how can you not be happy when you see these colors together? This is a design I've used a few times before, but I love how it turned out here.

I had fun working with this line, you can see all my posts over at the Little Yellow Bicycle blog.