The Wonders of Turkey

Does the title say "The Wonders of Turkey"? Why yes it does!

From April 1995 to December 1996 I lived in Turkey on Incirlik Air Force Base just outside of Adana. It was a pretty cool and eye opening experience of a world outside the comforts of my home country, the United States.

In my April Remember When design team package I was given Bo Bunny's Weekend Market paper and embellishment line. It has this really old world feel to the paper and it made me think of my many pictures of Turkey I have. So I dug into the mountain of pictures and pulled out some really cool scenery pictures to scrapbook with!

I got to play with some of the new Tim Holtz dies too, I used Word Play and the Tattered Garland dies. Along with an oldie but now goodie, Vintage Valiese die. I also played with some Lindy's Stamp Gang...LOVE the shimmer!

Check out the pictures below for some more description of how I created the mini suitcase album and  12x12 layout. Also below is a link to my babblings on the projects on my YT channel!

Until next time...be creative!

Suitcase Mini Album - A Glimpse of Turkey

Tim Holtz Vintage Valiese die. I used chipboard for all the pieces. Anitque Linen, Black Soot and Walnut Stain Distress Sains along with Walnut Stain Distress Ink was used to get the old aged look.  I also used Ranger Puffs Embossing Powder on the buckles of the suitcase with Tim Holtz brads. The letters are Tim Holtz plastic letters and the brown sticker letters are Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type.

A picture of downtown Adana, buildings typically looked like this, more in "New" Adana which was more modern.

The streets of Adana were crazier than these pictures! A three lane highway was usually turned into five during rush hour. You would see cars, horses...everything on the road. The lights were not timed and if a light was taking too long and there was a car behind you they would get impatient and start honking at you until you ran the red light. Double edged sword because you had to look out traffic and being American the cops would pull you over before they would pull over a Turkish civilian. Needless to say I did not drive in Adana, I barely drove in the little village outside of Incirlik Air Base!

Mosques were everywhere. Some little, some huge, some ran down and others very beautifully kept up. At certain times of the day was the call to prayer and you could hear from the nearest mosque the call to everyone to pray. It was odd at first and freaked me out the first night in Turkey but after a week or more you didn't hear it until someone new to the base would point it out.

In "old" Adana and many areas of Turkey, there are half built buildings as you see on the left or buildings like on the right. When I flew into Turkey and I looked out the window to half built buildings with people actually living in them...I thought to myself...where am I and what have I gotten myself into? A lot of the time the construction companies would run out of money in the middle of building the apartments or houses. I certainly felt spoiled once I was on base and just the thought of the beautiful homes we have here in the United States.

This is the inside of one of the many carpet stores. We left there with two very large carpets, a couple throw rugs and hallway runners.

The burgundy carpet on the left is one we bought. We watched the guy on the right make a carpet.

The Mediterranean Sea...very warm and salty!

12x12 Layout - The Wonders of Turkey

In this layout I used four different pictures showing the different places I visited while living in Turkey.

The alpha letters are from the new Tim Holtz Word Play die. I die cutted the letters out on the design paper then used matte accents to give it a old vintage feel to them. I also matte accented the globe at the bottom. 

The flowers are die cutted out from the new Tim Holtz Tattered Garland die. I  used the design paper and Tim Holtz Music Note tissue paper. The tissue paper was sprayed with Lindy's Stamp Gang Etheral Emerald.

Key hole embellishment is part of the Bo Bunny Weekend Market line.

The key is part of the Bo Bunny Weekend Market line.

I almost forgot about the make & take I did using the Lindy's Stamp Gang Brown Moon Shadow sprays. I used a Tattered Angels butterfly stencil, a Tim Holtz quote stamp and sprayed white mulberry flowers with the sprays.

Check out my babblings on the projects by watching the below video on my YT channel.