Crafting, Fellow Deckhands, Markets, Airports, Whales, Walking… Yowzer what a week! Just when I thought I could stick to a double-page spread a week, this fantastic week came along….

I just know you are going to love the “Durban Whaling History Tour” page – I couldn’t resist including history taken from Facts About Durban and using CHAT GPT to summarize it into dated paragraphs. Then I used one of Canva’s infographic templates and added old sepia photos to make the story visual. When I look at this page I feel like I am back in that old Bluff cinema owned by Norwegian Durbanite David Neilson, who transported us back to a bygone era that is thankfully over – the area is now known as the “Bluff Whale Heritage Site” and celebrates the arrival of the humpback whales as they migrate along the east coast of South Africa.

LET’S GET STARTED

Take a look at me designing my pages using Canva…

WEEK 5 – PAGE 14

I started by duplicating Page 5 (Project Life Design A) and removing the images. Next, I copied Ali Edward’s Week 2 text from page 6, so that the sizing remained consistent and updated it. I searched Elements|Photos for a watercolour whale illustration and adored the dreamy colours of the photo I found.

In the middle row – I love Ali’s “give thanks” card – I added a text box and pasted my journalling from Apple Notes. The font is Lato 8.5 in size. I added the iHeart Market logo to the photo of Kwangjeon and I – Edit Photo|BG Remover took away the pink and I resized it into the bottom right corner. It looks small in the design, but remember this is a 30x30cm photobook, so it will be big enough. I loved combining the Yem-B’s Craft Poster and my photo in the last space – this ensures that in the future I’ll remember what the event was about. Simple descriptions were added to two photos – a busy week.

WEEK 5 – PAGE 15

I love this page! I started a new document searched Design|Whale Logo scrolled and found this gorgeous one. I edited the title and subtitle but kept all the colours the same. I adjusted the spacing between the lines as it felt a little cramped. Once complete, I Grouped the design and copied it to page 15.

I had found 17 old historic photos, so I knew that I needed a Grid with many photos. I resized a 6-image Grid duplicated it twice and repositioned it. You will see I had one portrait photo that I chose to put on top of the grid and resize, making sure the empty boxes below were covered.

As I mentioned above, I love to include information in my photobooks, so I googled “Durban Whaling History” – copied the text from Facts About Durban, and used CHAT GPT to “summarise and use dates to head paragraphs”. In Canva I searched Design|Infographics and modified the table so the information was presented in an easy-to-read manner. I faded the whale-illustrated background using Transparency and changed the font colour to match the customised logo I had created. I LOVE THIS!

WEEK 5 – PAGE 16

This page was pretty quick and simple. I love full-page photos and chose this one because of the grogeous sea in the background and because it had the four of us in it. I love Ali Edward’s “Explore” PNG – I used Edit Image|Shadows|Outline to add a white stroke around the edge. I love the quote “blessed are the curious for they shall have adventure” – used CK Ali’s Hand font. The triangular flag used here and in the next page worked perfectly – I used colours from the Explore title. I added Elements|Graphics|Footprints and applied Transparency.

WEEK 5 – PAGE 17

I used an 8 photo GRID at the top of this page. After pulling in the awesome panoramic Whale photo with my Dad dwarfed at the bottom, I resized the grid to fit in the gap. After adding photos I popped in Ali Edward’s blue flag just to tie the design elements of the two pages together.

Lastly, I added my journalling from Apple Notes to Elements|Graphics|Travel Quote box I found. I then customised the colours Edit Image and changed font to white. Yeah, all done – awesome end to the weekend.