Feast Your Eyes on This

Welcome back to the tour of Staatsburg from December 2021. Our next stop in the house is the formal dining room. Just before entering the dining room, there is a small room for a glass of punch before being escorted into one of the most lavish rooms I've ever seen! The table was only set for about 10 people, but it could be extended to accommodate up to 50! The floor and walls are all marble! (Not painted to look like marble but real marble!) The photos on the right are of the butler's pantry, where staging happened before serving. I loved all the mock-ups of the food that would be served.

This page was created based on a pair of pins I saved (left and right) and a YouTube video that covered various ways to use Washi tape. I had quite a lot of Washi tape on my desk and decided to try to use it up. The bottom row with mushrooms, the middle row of black-and-white diamonds, and the red-and-white stripes are paper strips from my stash. The top is a border punched from gold lava paper (a free pack from CM last year). The rest was truly washi tape. The black stripe at the top is actually 4 strips of Washi tape placed closely together to give a bit of depth. It's sort of like busy patterned paper — once you add the photos, you only see the busy patterns in small spots, so it isn't too overwhelming. What do you think about the matches I made on these strips?

Bonus Post: THIS Title Page

Time for a Bonus Post as I play along with the Lasting Memories Challenges. This week's challenge has a choice of how to make a title, and I chose THIS — letter stickers. This is the title page for an album you'll be seeing in a few weeks for a trip to the Springfield Armory.

Because I was making the journey there by rail, I chose to recreate this pin I had saved to make my title page. I had purchased the Graphic 45 tablet called "Come Away With Me" many years ago, and I was happy to use up some of that material. The bottom of the page is a Graphic 45 calendar page, which I purchased separately. I bought a dozen of them, intending to make a calendar, and they've been sitting in my stash. I liked the idea of just using the edge as shown in the pin. Instead of photos, I used one of the cut-apart sheets and found the 4 boxes that make up the title image. It references not only the train I took but the industrial age of the armory I was about to visit. There is a matching sticker sheet with the letters, so I could spell out my title and two chipboard embellishments to round out the page.

Tree-mendous!

Welcome back to the December 2021 tour of Staatsburg Mansion. As we moved through the house, we came to the front door. Yes, we had to enter from the rear, so we didn't get the full effect that someone visiting the family would have seen. But this would have been quite impressive. This area includes the large staircase to the second floor, and the Christmas tree extends up into that space! I don't know where they found such a large tree, but it was beautifully decorated. The rest of the room is also set up for receiving guests, including the decanter on the sideboard. The Titanic headline in the newspaper is a little out of place, though--that happened in April! 

When planning this page, I knew I wanted to make a tree as a large element. I turned to this layout that I saved from Creative Life Scrapbooking and then purchased the instructions through their website. I think the directions could have been clearer, but essentially, you take the CM candy cane border maker cartridge and make strips that become the tree's branches. The directions called for 4 strips, but clearly, you need at least 7 or 8 to make the tree. The tree is punched from sequoia-colored cardstock and is backed with a lighter green (scraps, so I don't know which color). 

I mounted this on 2 squares of decorative paper from the Recollections paper pack. I pulled a long photo mat in gold. I used the center and an oval custom cutting system shape to create the tree skirt, then used the small ornaments from that card as decorations on the right-hand page. I completed the pages with ornament and gift stickers from my stash. The Merry Christmas title square is also from the Recollections tablet.

THIS: The Mouse House

Welcome back to my December 2021 trip through the Hudson River Valley. One of the cuter displays at Staatsburg is this collection of tiny mouse-house vignettes in several rooms. I don't think they were items that the family displayed. I believe the historical society uses them for a scavenger hunt for kids to keep them engaged during a "boring" house tour. Each vignette was placed in the "big" room, similar to the display (e.g., library, parlor, bedroom). 

I created this layout based on the CM Virtual Crop from February 2026. This is sketch 1, which I doubled to create the 2-page spread. Luckily, Lasting Memories is having a challenge this month featuring "This or That". For week 1, "This" means to follow a sketch while "That" means to scraplift one of the designers. "This" was too easy! 

The background papers are beige cardstock, while the punched stockings are Cranberry cardstock. The small green squares are from my stash of Plaid papers (not entirely sure which collection, since when I'm left with one or two sheets, they are "recycled" into other parts of my stash). The white triangles are also plaid (though you may need to zoom in to see the detail). My favorite part of the layout, though, is the use of the cut circles to create little mouse faces. The original sketch meant them to be hearts, and if you look through the CM Virtual Crop Facebook pages, you will see a million variations on those details. I added some small grey and pink circles for the ears and used a marker to create the eyes and nose. 

I found the Vellum quote from "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and since it mentioned mice, I thought it was the perfect addition to the layout. You can see that I moved the squares and mouse heads to the bottom of the page, rather than the middle, as in the original layout. That left a little space at the top, and to continue the poem's theme, the shadowy laser-cut border of Santa and his reindeer was a great addition. The final touch, and the final nod to the poem, are the stockings. Not just the border, but the stickers spread across the layout. 

Deck the Halls

 Welcome back to the Staatsburg Estate. We took a self-guided tour of the house. There were docents in nearly every room, so if you had questions, they could answer them. The left page shows their library — dark wood and furniture. A cozy room for reading. The right page is the parlor. Much brighter and "feminine" with lots of floral sprigs around the room. 

This layout is based on a sketch that CM posted only on the Virtual Crop Facebook page. Noreen Smith (my idol) retired from her position as Creative Manager in December 2025. To thank her for all she has done, they sponsored this mini challenge. The overall sketch is one of the Simple Page Kits Noreen designed. This demonstrates that if you like a kit, you can replicate it with paper from your stash! I chose Seasonal Sightings, a Christmas pack from a few years ago (2022). There was a bonus pack called "Write On" that included cardinals and other papers. 

Since there was a birdcage as one of the room elements on the right, I felt justified in spreading cardinals around the layout. For the banner element at the top right, I trimmed one of the decorative mats and kept only the ornaments — nearly the same thing! The title is from that card, too, but trimming it meant I didn't have to reserve 4 1/2 x 6 1/2" of space in the corner. 

It's All Greek to Me

Welcome back to my 2021 Hudson River Valley trip. Today, we look at the next house we visited, called Staatsburg. This house is a Greek Revival house--I mean, just look at that portico! It screams Greek Temple. This front entrance is not used by the public to enter the home, so my friends and I walked around the outside to see the details. They decorated it with simple wreaths, and the windows were filled with massive nutcrackers about 5 feet tall.

This layout was created using the CM Virtual Crop sketches from February 2026. Scroll to Sketch #4. I continued using the old CM Reminisce Christmas papers. I had 2 of the green papers left. One of them had to be the base of the right page. The sketch shows an 11 1/2 x 11 1/2" square. Because you cover the right edge, you can get away with a smaller piece of paper — just use the border to seal the 2 pieces together. On the left, I cut the inner circle from the other green page and used the remnant to create the 2 "triangular" pieces at the top and bottom. I trimmed those at 45 degrees and then slipped the tan papers underneath — there's no reason to cut those papers, and you end up with a perfect seam that way! The entire left page is mounted on white cardstock for stability.

Fit for a Queen

Welcome back to the December 2021 Hudson Valley trip. Today, we finish the Home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by looking at the guest quarters. The 2 rooms shown below look fairly standard for the period and much like rooms in traditional homes. So would it surprise you to know that the royalty of Europe, including King George VI, Queen Elizabeth of England, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, stayed here? So did Winston Churchill! I'm sure it was very different from their palaces at home. I wonder what they thought of the accommodations.

This layout is based on one of the sketches in the CM 101 Sketches book (page 61). I returned to the Homestead collection, which was down to just scraps. I used a piece of charcoal cardstock as the base and one strip of paper to create the peekaboo strip on the right. Under that strip is layered several border stickers and a couple of laser-cut borders. A final laser-cut border was cut in half and placed under the edges of the paper to extend the element. Both photos were double-mounted on the mat cards from the collection. A few final stickers complete the layout.