The Scavenger Hunt

[Wednesday Sept 5 cont.]

The next group of pix is of the wine tasting. I know I have several mementos to include, so I decide to do a two-page spread for these using the same background paper for each. The background paper contains the names of several grapes and regions in gold lettering.

I begin arranging some of the items. (images 1 and 2) One piece of memorabilia I know I don't want to adhere: the wine-sampling menu/card. I want to be able to pull this out later and look at it. To work this into the page, I select an empty CM sticker sleeve that is longer than the card. The sticker sleeve also happens to be longer than the page, so I trim it off a little. This, I'll adhere to the page, but I'll still be able to remove the wine-sampling menu/card. CM sticker sleeves are acid- and lignin- free, so they are 100% photo-safe. You receive one for each set of stickers you order from CM.

I'm getting super sleepy, so I decide to stop for the night.

[Wednesday Sept. 12]

When I take a long break from a scrapbooking project, it sometimes takes me a few minutes to get myself oriented and recall where I left off. Summer is asleep for the night, and Mom is here (her standard night to visit).

I do remember thinking that a maize colored journaling box and/or photo mats would be good here, in order to bring out the gold lettering of the background paper. After testing out the maize along with a lighter, airier yellow from Tuscany Storybox, I decide the lighter shade is actually better. (image 3)

For the first half of the two-page spread, I determine that I won't have enough room for journaling, but the epoxy sticker "A Day of Wine Tasting" will go well on this page. I also decide to use a few stickers of glasses of red and rose wine to surround the picture of our [word for person who serves at wine tastings]. If I do, I'll have to place them carefully so they don't obscure too much of the background paper. I ask mom if she thinks I should put a background behind the epoxy sticker. "No," she says, "I think it blends in well with the paper." Does it stand out enough? I ask. "Yes," she says. "Were you thinking of using yellows behind it?" Yes, I reply. That, and black are really my only two options. I only have one yellow mat left and I don't want to cut it up just for that. I think I'll let it go.

I crop a bit off the pic of our [word for person who serves at wine tastings], so now I have room under it for a caption. This works out well because I want to record the background story of our [word for person who serves at wine tastings].

I ask Mom if she knows what the word is for someone who serves at wine tastings. She doesn't know. I don't need to know right now, I say. I'll just leave it blank for now. Later, I'll see if I can find it online.

Now that I have the plan in place for page one of the spread, I turn my attention to page two. All I really need to finish off this page is a journaling box. One quick rifle through my stash, and I'm greeted once again by the notepad I pilfered from our Inn @ Biltmore room. This will work perfectly as the journaling box. As I'm rifling, I also come across a snippet I cut from the brochure. The image is of a bottle of Biltmore's Chardonnay Sur Lies. I think this will go well on the page near the receipt from my Winery purchase. (image 4)

Before I begin slicing and pasting, I contemplate what I might journal about on this page: the tasting and visiting the gift shop afterward. This should give me enough space.

Mom is working on a page in her scrapbook of Ethan (her grandson, my nephew). She isn't sure about the layout because there is an item she wants to include on the page that she doesn't have with her, and she doesn't remember if it is horizontal or vertical. She wants the flow of the page to work visually and in the order that the items should be seen/read. We discuss if the typical layout should flow from L to R or T to B. I think it depends on which items you want readers to focus on. The particular item that she is missing is a memento, a supporting element to the scrapbook page, but not a primary element. She has two potential spaces for it (bottom left or top right). I suggest she places it on the bottom left because the reader will tend to go from L to R and, because of that, she will want readers to focus on the picture first before the supporting memento (i.e., the memento is meaningless without seeing the photo first). Mom works that out.

Meanwhile, I remember that I purchased a placemat at the Winery gift shop that provides instruction on how to taste wine. I can't remember where I put it. I think it is either in the basement or in the office upstairs. I pause to hunt for it. I search the entire basement, near the wine rack, behind the bar, on the bookshelves, but it isn't there. I go upstairs and rummage around the office amid the scrapbooking boxes and tchotchkes, files, dust, etc. and can't make it appear. I grab my cell phone and with a one-button dial call Adam to see if he remembers. He thinks its in the basement. In fact, he's pretty sure the last time he saw it was in the basement. I say, that I remember moving it somewhere to get it out of view because we were having company, but I was thinking about a thousand other things at the moment, so the location didn't get stored in my long-term memory. He says, don't worry, we'll find it. It's somewhere. We hang up, and I decide I'll have to skip that page until the mat turns up. I had wanted to scan it to include it in the scrapbook.

Oh, well, don't want to waste any more precious scrapbooking time, so I return to my hovel in the dining room. I adhere the pictures to the photo mats with Tape Runner. Then, I journal under the picture of [word for person who serves at wine tastings]. I use journaltopia to help me write in a straight line as opposed to a half-smile or frown like on chalkboards. I pre-selected brown from the classic set of fine-tip pens as my ink of choice. I'm at a point now when I absolutely need to know what the word is for a person who serves at wine tastings. I run upstairs to my computer and do a quick search. I learn that a sommelier is a person who pairs wine with food in restaurants. Also, this seems to be a common question among wine drinkers. What is the server called? Most people liken them to bartenders, thus winetender. This works for me, so back downstairs, I complete the caption. After finishing that, I adhere everything else. (image 5)

Onto page two. I cut and adhere background paper as before. Next, I use my patterns n pens to draw lines on the Biltmore "journal box," then complete the journaling, still with brown ink from the classic set. Then, I adhere the clear sleeve with wine sampling menu using frosted splits. I use frosted splits because they will be more translucent than regular adhesive. I mat the photo using tape runner, then add the caption underneath. Next, I adhere the receipt from my purchase, followed by the journaling box. Lastly, I add the snippet from the brochure, placing foam dots underneath to give it some relief.

I wipe the photos with my polishing cloth, add page protectors and that makes this hunt over. Anyone know a scrapadermist?