We have had our Olympus Stylus Tough Camera for years now – it is waterproof, freeze proof, drop and smash proof, and basically idiot proof when it comes to taking great ‘point and shoot’ pictures. Somehow the novelty of taking pictures underwater has not worn for my husband and I or our family after all these years, especially for my nephew when snorkeling in Mexico earlier this year.

I love these photos. They remind me of the many, many, many attempts he made to get the perfect shot by diving in and swimming toward me under the water. He would ask to see the picture on the screen on the back of the camera and if not perfect give me the ole, “Nope. Auntie B, I am gonna do it again – you ready?” Repeat, laugh, and swallow some pool water, dive in, laugh, look at the picture and repeat. I think all the repeated attempts paid off, these photos are amazing. Right down to the air bubbles in the water and his sun-streaked hair floating all about.

I had the perfect scrapbooking product; I have been hanging on to the Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine collection for a while. It was the monthly kit from Scrap Shotz for June 2014, and as soon as it arrived I knew it would be perfect for the entire Mexico extended family vacation we had planned for January 2015. Crazy I had the willpower to hang onto a kit for that long – torture even!

I started with my two cute-as-can-be pics on my 12×12 mat and just started adding layers of Simple Stories goodness until I had a general idea of where I was going; selected my background colour of white (odd for me but it allows the Simple Stories colours to really pop and leaves me room to doodle); and then went crazy on the embellishments, basically adding whatever made me happy with no rhyme or reason than making the page look a bit 7-year old boy crazy! Even adding some doodling for fun.

Here is my ‘general idea’ layout before gluing down anything and before embellishment fun:

Here is the final layout, ready to slide into my Mexico 2015 album:

Here are some close-ups of the embellishments and doodles that I added to the page willy nilly:

Over the coming weeks you will see some more posts from me sharing other photos from the trip, all using this same Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine kit. I generally like to mix up the product I use for each of my albums even when if it is a whole album for the same event. However, once in a while it is exciting to work with the same palette for the whole thing. The album in the end looks so coordinated!

~ Brande

Scrapbooker + Story teller + Historian. Are you a Scrapstorian?