In the Navy Memorial

Happy Independence Day, everyone! How appropriate that we are using patriotic-themed papers and photos in today's blog! This entry continues our exploration of Washington, DC for the NPTC 2021 convention. 

After leaving the National Archives, I walked back to Pennsylvania Avenue. One of the stamp locations is connected to the US Navy Memorial at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street. There is a large circle in the middle. It's tough to tell from the ground, but an aerial view would show an image of the globe. Around that circle is a bas-relief sculpture depicting historic moments in the US Navy from the Revolutionary War to the present day. There is also a Lone Seaman statue. There are several of these around the world, and I've now seen 2 of them (one in Normandy). If you've seen any, let me know in the comments below!

This layout was one of my 1-2-3-4 Pack Classes. I cannot show you the sketch, but the overall technique created the 2 banners at the bottom of the page and the 1" borders across their middles. After layering in the photos, I realized that I had some large chunks of blue at the top and bottom. I also had a scrap of paper with the 2 borders diagonally printed across the page. I cut them and rearranged them to be horizontal, layering the pieces where the pattern overlapped. (Another solution to that problem would be to use those 1" borders across the top for some extra interest.) Those gold and white borders were the best additions, though. Since the borders had some gold tones, I could add the gold anchor sticker (a recent addition to my stash from a goodie bag exchange on my latest cruise). The paper for the banners was from a CM pack specifically themed for Washington, DC trips. I love it when their paper matches my trip so perfectly! 

No Relation

We are continuing with my exploration of Washington, DC, during the 2021 convention for the National Park Travelers Club. On Thursday morning, I had scheduled a tour of the National Archives. I was awake far earlier than I needed to be, so I leisurely made my way down to the building. Along the way, I came to this statue of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. To the best of my knowledge, he is not related to either Winfield Scott or John Hancock. At the time, I was not sure what he was known for or why there was a statue of him. My investigation later revealed an impressive resume, including a notable distinction at the Gettysburg battlefield. If you want to read more about him, start with this page from the National Park Service.

I based this layout on a Creative Memories Blog Post. I noticed that Meggan Jacks had created a video of her version of this layout, so I decided to play along. Well,  I started a bit before turning on her video. Trust me, you want to watch her video before tackling this layout. She has some great tips on avoiding my mistakes. (If you can't see them, I'm not going to point them out.) 😀 I used papers from the Bedazzled Geometrics pack. There are no embellishments for that paper, so I pulled some mats from my stash and then opened the Rainbow Binder to look for blue-ish embellishments. I thought the laser-cut remnants of the stars worked well once I covered some of the uneven edges with the title words.

Shining Bright

You'll recall that the last post mentioned the new Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C. My visit was not only to count the new park (though that didn't hurt), but it was because three of my National Park Travelers Club friends were reaching our ultimate goal. When you have visited EVERY park in the system at the time you reach the last park, you have reached our Platinum Status. It's highly coveted and challenging to achieve. In July 2021, there were 423 units in existence (as of this blog post, it's now 433), and you have to travel to remote places like Guam or the most northern and complex parts of Alaska. Jen "Oma" Baxter, as well as Cheryl and Mike Carver, reached that goal by visiting this unit, and so we held a Meetup to celebrate with them. Jennifer even had her grandchildren with her to help commemorate the event. 

I made this layout during one of my 1-2-3-4 classes for my scrapbooking customers. Due to the way I purchased the sketch, I am unable to share it with you. However, the placement of the photos is crucial in this case. The middle block of 4 is taking up space on the page, allowing you to use the decorative paper to S-T-R-E-T-C-H across the page. Because the platinum status was so important to this page, I used silver shimmer cardstock as the base and a piece of gray patterned paper from the Silver and Gold pack. Matching embellishments were from the same kit. I used some shimmer ABC-123 numbers to highlight their park visit achievement on the title card. You probably can't tell from the photo, but I also used one of the shimmer pens to add some sparkle to the rest of the embellishments.

I Like Ike

This post continues our examination of the 2021 NPTC Convention in Washington, D.C. After arriving by train, I checked into my hotel and then took the Metro to the newest unit — the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. It sits between the Air and Space Museum and the Department of Education (he created both NASA and the Department of Education during his presidency). It's an open-air memorial and has several installations tracing his life from farm boy to soldier and then president. 

I created this layout based on a pair of pins. Sometimes the only way to pin an idea is to pin the left and right sides separately. I used olive cardstock as the base (a perfect match to Army green, don't you think?) Sadly, they are my last 2 pieces. You will notice that I cut my side triangles incorrectly. It's a 3" piece of paper cut corner-to-corner. I actually did cut it right, but when I turned it over to apply the adhesive, I realized that the stars would be even better than the blue words on the other side. Luckily, the angle isn't crucial to the overall design. I added 2 borders from a cutapart page I bought at the Lancaster Convention. I was aiming for a military theme, and the stars and Jeeps fit nicely. I filled the gap on the bottom right with a few soldier stickers. Look closely, and you might catch that those are actually "Green Army Men" toy soldiers. I figured if I lined up their "bases," it would resemble a strip of ground. The remaining word and star stickers came from the CM Military Service pack.

Bonus Post--Up on the Hill

I'm adding another post based on a Lasting Moments Challenge. This is from the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site and is part of the 2021 NPTC convention, which we are now highlighting on the blog. He chose his house site so that he could look down on Washington, DC (from a literal and figurative point of view!) One of my favorite sites at his house is the little cabin behind the main house that he called the Growlery. It was a place for him to sit and ponder, and he used it quite a lot, from what I hear. 

I used the Lasting Moments Challenge #754 for this layout. Cheryl Even cleverly pointed out that the pieces (2 6x6 squares, 2 3x11 strips and 2 3x1 strips) fit together to make a 12x12 page like a jigsaw puzzle! I chose to place the 6x6 squares across the middle and the longer strips at the top and bottom to create a border-like effect. The paper is from the Our Moments line from CM. The journaling is on the new Write-On strips that are available in ivory. I love them for this heritage feel. I cut apart the leafy laser-cut borders to help decorate the page.

Training Time

This week, we start the journey to DC for the NPTC 2021 Convention. As I made my preparations for the convention, I realized that most of Washington, DC is walkable, and for the parts that were not, the club would have bus trips. So instead of frustrating myself with I-95 traffic and the cost of parking in the city, I took the train! It was a very comfortable ride down to Union Station. I splurged on an Uber to get my suitcases to the hotel, but I never really missed having a car during the few days I was in the city.

I based this layout on another pin that I saved. I was surprised to find, scrolling through my favorite layouts on Cricut Design Space, that the components for this layout were already created. I didn't cut the large rectangles on the Cricut--I can do that with my 12" trimmer. However, the suitcases, postcards, and stamp frames were all cut using a Cricut. Any items in white that would fade into the background were edged with black ink. The small bit of railroad track on the left is a leftover piece from the CM border punch. The bridge on the right page is a laser-cut border from one of the Creative Memories collections. The train sticker was the perfect size to layer on top. A few other train and ticket stickers from my stash finished the layout. I made a trial run of my itinerary, so I knew I would need two columns to list all the entries. Cutting the journal paper in half helped!

Kicking Off the Album

In this post, we begin a new journey. It's time to highlight the 2021 National Park Travelers' Club Convention, which we'll explore over the next several months. It was held in Washington, DC, and the host parks were Mary McLeod Bethune and Carter G. Woodson National Historic Sites. (Interesting fact--I have not added either of those parks to my park total list as they were not open for touring during our trip and I haven't had a chance to return when they WERE open.)

I based the title page on this pin I had saved. In the original pin, you'll see a plane in the middle circle, but I wanted to switch that up to a train. As you'll see next time, my primary mode of transport to DC was on Amtrak. For the phrase "Let The Vacation Begin", I did some letter manufacturing. I used straight letters (I, K, M, etc.) to create the "T"s and trimmed a "W" for the second A in vacation. But my favorite hack was to use the compass "N" to complete the word "vacation." I knew there was no way I was going to get "Begin" from that same sticker sheet, so I decided to change to a different sheet of stickers. Those letters are all from one sticker sheet, but it features a variety of fonts and colors, making it easy to mix and match. The NPTC lettering is traced from a CM template and colored in with a brown marker. The template has a "school days" feel to it, but the lettering was the right size to fit on the title tag.