Travel Tales Suitcase Album

A dear friend of mine took a trip of a life time to Spain and France (Italy too, but I messed up! LOL).  Thinking of all my trips I have taken and that my pictures are either in my computer or still on the memory card, I decided that I wanted to make her something that she could use to display her photos. So once again I found myself at Kathy's blog - Paper Phenomenon.  This is her Travel Tales project that I just LOVE LOVE LOVE! Kathy has the most amazing projects and is truly a crafting genius!  Her blog is always my go to site for inspiration or just to pick up one of her projects and craft away! If you have never done one of her projects, please do, you won't be disappointed.  Thanks for looking and I welcome your comments.

I think my design skills need some help...

Ok, so I worked again on another page layout for my daughter's college graduation and have decided that I really need more practice.  I search and search the web and see all these beautiful layouts but then I can never seem to get it right.  So I ask myself........... is my problem too many pictures? the wrong color choice? or do I just need help? LOL  So I have started on my quest to find tutorials and books to help me create better layouts.  I did find the Get It Scrapped website very helpful. Debbie Hodge's techniques and tips are wonderful.  Additionally I opted to purchase a couple of books off of Ebay for inspiration (or to copy the layouts - LOL).  I will let you know what I think of these books once I receive them.  So here is my layout.  Hopefully my future layouts will possess some WOW!  Looking forward to comparing them!