At a sweet shop in St Augustine, I picked up a bag of Key Lime Pie hard candies. I can’t belive I still have this many left, they are so good and they remind me of the beach every time I pop one into my mouth!
I miss the beach!
So while my mind is still lingering in vacation mode, I made some scrapbooks to send to Bobbie, Sissy, Randy and Kevin as a momento of our trip.
By the way, the bikini babe is my Sissy who is in her SIXTIES. She’s always been a teeny tiny thing.
One day while sitting on our balcony and watching a storm roll in across the ocean, we saw a rabbit hop across the sand.
That is why I turned these pages into "beach bunnies". I didn’t know there were rabbits on the beach. I thought that all those long eared hopping rodents lived in my yard and were busy at home eating my plants while I was on vacation.
I filled the books with lots of memories of the trip.
This cute, scallopey edged card stock comes in a package at Michaels. One $9.95 package made 4 scrap books, with some left to make at least one more.
I used my binding machine to put the pages together into a book after they were decorated.
Here is how I turned us into fairies:
I made 5×7 copies of a picture of Randy’s garden and wallet sized copies of a photo of the three of us, then cut us out.
Hosta leaves in the garden photo were cut away with an exacto knife. I cut around the plant, so that I could lift the foliage and slide our picture underneath.
Before gluing the photo down, I spritzed Glimmer Mist on watercolor paper, glued the cut out picture of us to it, then drew on wings and cut it all out.
Once the wings were done, I slid the sister picture under the hosta leaves in the garden picture and glued it all in place, then glittered and dood dadded it up.
On Bobbie Sue’s album, she is holding a magic wand, on Sissy’s she has one to hold. I used vintage stick pins for wands and just poked them through the photo at an angle and added a drop of glue.
I tried to add a lot of hand drawn elements, like lady bugs and vines on the pages that show us setting a bag of lady bugs free in the garden to control pests. 
Randy raises butterflies, so can’t use any chemicals out there.
I used a lot of Glimmer Mist some pages before adding photos, and did all the writing and drawing with metallic or sparkling pens, so the books have some shimmer to them.
While in St. Augustine, I put my Hat Whispering skills to work.
Most vintage hats I saw in this touristy area were EXPENSIVE. $38-$200!!! My goodness. Lots of hats were in these antique shops, but few were in my price range.
While in one fancy antique mall, the hat search looked hopeless, but I told my sisses that I felt one upstairs, and walked up the stairs, around the corner and into a back room right to it. Loaded with pink and red velvet roses, it wasn’t cheap, but it was affordable and beautiful and some how it had called out to me.
I bought only 3 hats all week, for $4, $9, and $15. But, it does go to show that even in a high dollar shopping area, with the right hat hunting skills, millinery flowers can be affordable!
I kept my souvenir shopping to a minimum. 3 hats, lots of candy, these two shells, and a handful of old charms. Oh, and a pink St. Augustine hoody. I love trashy tee shirts and sweat shirts from tourist trap shops.
The shell necklace pictured IS NOT from a tacky shell shop!!
It is hand made over 80 years ago by my great aunt, Caroline. The lovely box was hers too. She gave me those years ago, along with the turquoise pendant that was her mother’s and the wonderful green glass bead necklace that her grandfather made. Yep, lucky, lucky me!!
Speaking of lucky- I got all the classes I signed up for at Sliver Bella! I was at the keyboard the minute sign ups began. Here is what I signed up for:
Secret Santa Diary/Pam Garrison, Saturday 1:00pm
Home for the Holidays/Pam Garrison, Friday 11:30 am
Christmas Pageant/Teresa McFayden, Saturday 8:30
am
Soldering For Virgins/Sally Jean, Friday 8:00am
Winter Faerie Shrine/Kim Kwan, Saturday 1:00 pm
Total 510.00
Yes, the price went up this year, but it is worth it!! If you haven’t booked your trip yet, do it now before it is full, I can promise you it will be FUN.
Your scrapbooks are great, love all of the pictures and the personal embellishments! What fun to travel with your sisters! I couldn’t talk my crafty friend into spending the money on Silver Bella, so I will have to enjoy it vicariously through your blog!
Your scrapbooks are great!! I still have to begin mine from Florida 🙁 you and your sister are cute bunnies!! I was making some labels but everything goes wrong, I forgot that I hadn’t screwed the cap of the bottle of ink tight. So I was comparing prices (why am I always so easily distracted? and all ink dripped out of the bottle on the ground. Of course I have wet tissues in my craftroom and I managed to wipe everything away, but now my hands are blue. I cannot get it off… A friend of my daughters’ stays over for diner. Are you sure? I have asked her showing my hands, but for these 14 year old petites it will be probably a good excuse to eat even less, so that I can eat too much again.
Happy fourth of July!
Your energy amazes me. I can’t believe you’ve made memory books of your sister trip already! I’m still thinking about scrapping my vacation from last year! Hmmm, maybe I need to spend less time blog hopping…
You certainly are lucky to have those handmade pieces from your great aunt and her grandfather! All that and Silver Bella too 🙂
Wow! You’re fast! These are amazing and such wonderful keepsakes for your family! Beautiful!
Karla,
Your sweet, little scrapbooks are just adorable. I, too, have just come back from the beach, but my beach was in Maine. I really looked for millinery flowers while on my trip, but came up totally empty handed. Sounds like you found some really beautiful hats with the prized colors of pink! Very nice. Your key lime candies sound so good. Isn’t it amazing what little treats we can bring back from vaca that remind of of being there? Mine right now is a jar of wild blueberry jam. Yummmm… Amy 🙂
yeah karla! We have a couple of classes together at Silver Bella! Fun to get to meet you….maybe I can tune into some of your hat whispering skills!
Your scrapbooks are such fun!
xoxoxo, Tiffany
I love the classes you got – great instructors. I can’t wait to see what you make.
Your gift books are wonderful. They are going to love them.
Have to keep those memories alive with photos! Years from now you won’t recall much of the little things about your trip. But the photos will quickly remind you!
Brenda
Those scrapbooks are ADORABLE!! All the work you put in to them is sure to be appreciated! Looks like you had FUN!!
Jan
You’re almost as funny as I am, sweet traveling chick!! Hah. I’d love to do “Silver Bella” but I ain’t a flying chick any more and hubs would definitely NOT take me! But trust me, when he’s in Orlando in august he’s coming home to new “WHITE” bedroom furniture AND the oak table will be white. He’ll never notice of course!! *Smile*………..
Smoochies,
Connie
Can’t wait to see you again at Silver Bella. Looks like we have some of the same classes!!
Hugs, Kim
Man, girl, you don’t mess around! Those scrapbooks are a lovely keepsake! Can’t wait to see you at Silver Bella this year…..I was at the computer at exactly 5:00 (ca time) and I assume I got all the classes I wanted too…..I haven’t received a confo yet, but the computer didn’t say any of them were sold out! I think we may have Teresa’s class together!!!
Karla, I’m new to your blog and am enjoying it. Thank you so much for explaining how to make the fairies. I’m new to all of that and would love to try some, but didn’t have a clue of what to do. I wish I could complete a 1/4 of what you do in a week. Thanks for all the tips.
Key Lime candy, be still my heart! That sounds too wonderful! I love those treasures too. I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend.
Your beach bunny photos are so cute. My sisters and I live in Alaska and in May we go to a beach town; Homer, Alaska a become tourists for a weekend. We beachcomb and hunt the little shops. I designed hats for us to wear showing gals in skimpy bathing suits standing next to igloos. Happy July 4th, and keep on posting – I’m new to reading blogs, and yours really caught my eye.
Karla, pretty family’s photos!
The scrapbooks are marvelous. You do a fantastic job. Love the fairies especially.
Have a great 4th.
karla, your family will love the little scrapbooks you made for them. i have only bought one vintage hat and i am ashamed at what i paid for it after your cheap prices, so i won’t tell you. well i can’t believe i did it, but i signed up for silver bella myself. i feel like alice, pretty lost, but hopefully that will go away. i look forward to seeing you there. have you joined the yahoo group yet?
jenny
Beautiful memory books of your FL trip! Sounds like everything went wonderfully well, party, cards, and sisters’ gathering. Bunnies and dancing at night on the beach – that I’ve never seen!!Thanks for showing us how you made the fairy-garden page — you are so creative and talented!
Jane – Jacksonville
Love the scrapbooks! Such personal touches! Your sisters will be thrilled to get them I’m sure! The necklaces from Aunt Caroline are wonderful too! Happy and Safe Holiday weekend to you!
Do you have any idea where your aunt got the shells to make the necklace?
I saw some necklaces made out of those shells in Hawaii for several hundred dollars each. Those shells considered rare. It took a long time to find enough shells to make one necklace and they are only found on one small island. The native women would sift the sand and handpick them. Those shells are no longer plentiful.
I love the picture of you girls on the lounge with the two kings. It’s a wonderful keepsake.
Your creativity certainly flows. Your ability to work so fast really indicates your creative talent.
~elaine~
Hi Karla, your albums are beautiful what a special way to remember and be remembered, I really need to make a point of journalling(?) the fun things in life!! Silver Bella looks so exciting, I shall have to wait and see what beautiful things you create because unlike the talented Natasha I can’t fly there this year!! Thanks for sharing, kiss noises Linda Lilly Cottage.
I love the fact that you put a scapbook together so fast after your trip – my pics sit in boxes. I am ashamed! 😉
Joy
Oh, the sister vacation scrap book you are making for me will be cherished. The stay with Randy and Kevin and spending time in their magical garden and house was the “icing on the cake”. Thanks for all the fun, love and laughter.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that you were attending Silver Bella too and it looks like we have a few classes together! Can’t wait to meet you there!
so so cute.
im so glad you are going to SB!!!
happy 4th doll.
oxoxo,
jessi
Happy Independence Day!
kari & kijsa
Karla, Great capture of the key-lime candies. they look great in the green glass dish. (isn’t it sad where my priorities are)
Fun scrapbooks, I really love how you do them right away. And, a wonderful tutorial, I always enjoy and appreciate them.
Karen
You and your sisters look like some fun girls to hang out with. I love fun and crazy gals.
Hello, looks like so much fun!
Enjoy your weekend!~
Karla, I’m soo glad you’re going to SB again! Looks like we are in the 8:30 class on Sat. together. We may be regretting that early morning class after prom/vendor night! Are you bringing the toaster?
Stacy
I absolutely LOVE your scrapbook…just couldn’t be better! Those are my favorite mints too…I see them at restuarants, but never really knew the flavor name! 🙂
Mere