Layout in response to Roni Sue Scrapper's 550+ You Tube subbies challenge

Good morning and happy Thursday!!  I have Thursdays off, as well as my weekends - yup down to 4 days a week and I hope that by the end of the year, I will be able to go down to working 3 days a week LOL.  Thursdays, I try and get all the errands and chores out of the way so that I can take full advantage of my weekends.  Sometimes, it actually works.  Sometimes, like this morning, I play before I get to the chores :)

I am here this morning to share my layout in response to Roni Sue Scrapper's 550+ You Tube subbies challenge (as of this morning, she is actually at 601 subbies - yay Roni !!).  Now I am sure you already know Roni but if by any chance you are new to scrapbooking, or to the You Tube community and don't know her, then run on over to her channel right now (Roni Sue Scrapper).  She is such a nice lady.  I really wanted to participate in this challenge because Roni is definitely a champion supporter.  She participates in every challenge, comments on layouts, promotes everyone's channels, follows us all on our blogs and makes fantastic layouts, and process videos, to boot.

Roni also made her challenge super easy but fun :

• Be a subbie
• Make a layout - the layout can be anything really but you have to tell the story behind it. That is it really.  But you can get extra entries ...
• Make a 4 X 6 card, decorate the front anyway you want and, on the back put your You Tube name, birthdate and a list of the things you love (they don't all have to be scrappy related).  Mail the card to her.

Isn't that fun!

If you recall, on NSD, I made three layouts and mentioned that I would be choosing one for Tuesdae Hubbard's challenge (see previous post) and one for Roni's challege.  In the comments Roni left me on my layouts, she mentioned that she liked seeing travel layouts as she had not had the opportunity to travel as much as she would like.  So, a travel layout it is  Roni!!!

The story :  There are actually a couple of stories that go with this layout, or rather my travels in Romania.  Firstly, how I managed to go to Romania is interesting.  Romania was not on the itinerary of my year-long European backpacking trip.  But at certain times of the year, destinations can be difficult to get to because of tourists, vacation etc...  Little did I suspect that In May, after a second visit to Vienna, Austria, I could not book a train or bus to any of the destinations I wanted to go to next.  I had checked out of my pensione, was at the bus terminal with my pack on my back and traveling with a friend.  We were at the ticket counter, and every place we tried to buy a ticket for, we could not get one.  Full, full, and full ... so eventually I just said:  OK where can we go?  The answer was Brasov, Romania.  So there you go ... off to Brasov we went!!!  The bus trip was quite the experience (but I will keep that for another time LOL).  Twenty four hours later we were in Brasov, sort of stranded as we knew nothing of the town (other than the fact Dracula's Castle is a mere 20 or so km away), didn't speak the language, had no guidebook and the tourism office was closed.  LOL.  I eventually found an internet cafe, went online and found a  little pensione walking distance from downtown Brasov.  It was lovely, only about 2-3 km from town, but it really felt like being in the country.  The hosts were such a nice couple.  We would mime and draw to communicate LOL (I picked up a few strategic words in Romanian as they did in English).  We spent a wonderful week in Brasov.  I loved every minute of it.  It was quite the culture shock but such a great experience at the same time.  The people from the pensione took us to Dracula's castle for a full day.  On the day we went, even the weather cooperated to make it an "eerie" atmosphere LOL.  

Oh my, I do go on!!!  You are still here ... boy oh boy, thanks so much.  

The supplies: 

• The background cardstock is from the Citrus Twist September 2013 kit 
• The patterned paper is from the Authentique Strong Collection
• I used Studio Calico wood veneer, My Mind's Eye enamel dots, strong twine from Stampin' Up (coastal cabana I think) and Simple Stories Urban Traveller stickers.
• The alphas are from the October Afternoon Daily Flash collection - Nightfall and Mason Jar
• I also used two different size scalloped circle punches and Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink.

So there you have it.  Thanks again for being here and a big thank-you to Roni for hosting such a fun challenge, and for being such a big support to all of us !!!  Roni, I will be working on my card later today :)

Cheers and I will be back on the weekend