California!

 I really love they way they have updated the California Adventures park these days--it feels much more like an actual Disney park now than it used to.  But back when they had the huge letters that spelled California, we used to have quite a bit of fun with them.

One morning as we waited for the park to open, we decided to get some fun pictures in the letters.  I believe these pictures were taken just about a year before they removed them.  I had the kids pose in or around each letter and snapped away!  The pictures turned out really cute and presented me with the problem of fitting them all on one layout (I couldn't very well have a page that stopped short of spelling the whole word...)

 
The paper, ribbon and chipboard letters I used are all from We R Memory Keepers--the Diner collection.  I love We R Memory Keepers coordinating stuff--the colors are great and this particular collection's colors really worked with the photos.

My sister used Adobe Photoshop Elements to stitch two pictures into one panoramic shot of the whole word.

 I used the big chipboard letters to spell out the word "California" and a bunch of various white rub on letters to add a word that started with each letter to the block it was in--preferably something that had something to do with our trip.  For some of the lighter colored blocks I chalked some darker color onto the paper before adding letters so it would show up a little better.

I put the letters in proximity to the picture with the same letter.  Luckily since the park wasn't open yet I didn't get any guff from the kids about taking all the pictures--they were nice and cooperative, even enjoying trying to figure out how to pose differently for each letter.

I had seen many pages with this color blocking idea and just loved it.  It allowed me to make the page colorful, use lots of different patterns of paper (although just small pieces of each, so I didn't really use that much paper when all was said and done) and I was able to fit a LOT of pictures on one layout.

I especially love this page now that all those letters have been taken down.  It's fun to see the differences in the parks over the years and my kids have been lucky enough to get to grow up and experience each new thing as it came along.  Have I mentioned that I really love Disneyland lately?