Back to Back

Welcome back to the Hudson River Valley tour of December 2021. We've reached the last house, Mount Gulian. This is one of the first houses built in the area, and parts of it date to the late 1600s. The house has burned in the past, so much of the above-ground structure is reconstruction. In this post from September 2025, I talked about the creation of the layout and the intriguing question of which side of the house is the front or back. Take a peek there for more information.

For ease of writing, let's assume that this barn is behind the house--at least it is on the opposite side from where we parked and entered the house! I thought this barn was very charming. Though not originally part of this property, it is true to the time period. They chose to move it by taking it apart, numbering the items, and reassembling it on this property. This provides a better look at what a normal farm looked like as the area was settled. The metal hardware is original, and I loved the old hinges and the "twist" the blacksmith put in the hook latch.

I used Sketch #1 from the CM March 2026 Virtual Crop. You'll notice that I turned the sketch to the right to accommodate my horizontal photos. I thought about the colors I wanted to use on this page, and though I've been doing a lot of Christmas themes, this one said fall to me. The golden sunlight hitting the barn is my inspiration for the color choices. I chose the Burlap and Lace pack (an older secret box) and found a sheet of paper with a wood tone. I mounted that on a sheet of orange cardstock. Since I don't use much orange, I didn't bother gutting the paper in the middle, but it's certainly an option if you like. The center paper is light-toned as well. You don't see much of it. I was able to use the reverse side for the brown "rusty" barbed wire. No, it's not chronologically accurate, but sometimes that isn't really important. I wanted a touch of the western feel here. Using the decorative paper provided a bit of "depth" to the punched borders--more than I could have achieved with just cardstock. That, along with some burlap borders from the kit, made the "frame" for the photos.

Bonus post: THIS is a Star Layout (LM #795)

Popping in on a rainy Saturday to post this layout on weapons of the World Wars. You'll see more of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site in a few weeks. The armory has been in place since just after the Revolutionary War and was one of the largest suppliers of arms to the military between then and the late 1950s. 

I based this layout on a pin I had saved. While the original pin had a more definitive Stars and Stripes approach, my layout picks up on the colors and the diagonal paper cuts. I made those by folding a piece of 12" paper diagonally, then aligning the long fold against the top of my trimmer with the point on the cutting line. It creates a perfect 1/2 page triangle, though you will see the fold on the page. The latest Lasting Memories challenge was to use THIS (stars) or THAT (hearts) on a layout. With a military theme, is there any doubt I was going to THIS? That's 3 of "This" in a row, I wonder if I will pick THAT next week! The thin 1/2" strips of stars also helped me hide the seam of the 2 triangles meeting. A few other star stickers from some old CM military sheets finished off the layout.

No Pictures No Comment

Welcome back to the Hudson River Valley tour from December 2021. Our next stop is called Locust Grove. I was unfamiliar with this house before visiting, but I found out that it was owned by Samuel Morse--yep, the man who invented Morse Code! This was an extensive tour that included the staff areas in the basement. There is a museum next to the visitor center that is included in your admission as well, which goes into some detail on the creation of Morse Code. This house does not allow photography during your tour, so I was limited to just a couple of postcards from the gift shop and the one photo of the Christmas decor that I found when we bought tickets online. 

I made this layout for CM's March Virtual Crop (scroll to layout #4). I flipped the sketch horizontally because I wanted the block of photos to be the beginning of the story, including the brochure and postcards. I used gold paper as the background (I gutted it to preserve the paper). and trimmed the green for the middle. Instead of a third layer of paper, I used thin red Washi tape between the 2 (see — if you leave something out, it is more likely to get used).

I used mostly the Seasonal Sightings paper for this. I chose more of the tonal elements so it doesn't SCREAM Christmas, but it still has a holiday feel. I was playing with items still on my floating table (that's where I store items while I work on a page or album) when I saw the lacy corner. It is black on one side but white on the other, and I thought it added a nice touch to the layout. The ribbon element on the right has a large portion of the white poinsettia border. I used the trimmings to create the corner element on the left page. The lacy stickers along the bottom mimicked the lacy triangle, and that was about all that I needed.

2 Cute 4 Words

Hello and welcome back to my Hudson River Valley trip of December 2021. On Sunday morning, my friend Melania and I met at the FDR Presidential Library for a visit. It's on the same grounds as the FDR Home historic site I've discussed before, but it isn't part of the NPS, so I'll skip the photos (though it is a nice tour if you get to the area). After finishing the Library, we returned to the visitor center and completed the Junior Ranger books for the Home that we saw on Saturday. The Rangers were kind enough to take our picture with our new badges after swearing us in. 

Usually, when I have only 1 photo of a subject, I print it as either 5x7 or 8x10. This takes up a bit more real estate on the page, but I don't want to overwhelm a photo with embellishments taking up the rest of the page. When I printed the photos for this trip, I didn't realize this would be the only one on a page. Instead of reprinting it, though, I added a 6x4 journal box, treated it as a second photo, and then looked for a sketch that would highlight the 2 components. The sketch is from the CM 110 Sketches book (not the one I usually use, the original book). They created the sketch based on this blog post.

I looked through my NPS stash and found this paper with the rubber stamps on it. While it's likely meant for crafting, it also fits my NPTC life nicely, where we collect stamps from our visits. From that paper, I pulled the green and blue tones. Looking through my remainder scraps from the green folder, I found 2 that would give me the triangle in the corner and a rectangular mat for under the photo. I still had that paper Washi tape on my desk, so I pulled the green star roll to create a border along the right edge.

Think Pink

Welcome back to Staatsburg mansion on my Hudson River Valley adventure. Today's layout is of Ruth Mills' bedroom (the matriarch of the family). Ruth apparently likes the color pink. And it's a HOT pink! EVERYTHING in this room is pink! The photo of her is actually from downstairs, but I thought she would enjoy being paired with scenes of her bedroom. This room includes her working desk for letters as well as a relaxing place to lie down and read. 

This layout is based on Noreen Smith's new 1-2-3 + layout from January 2026. The "plus" is that, in addition to one piece of double-sided patterned paper, you use another piece to create some added elements. For this month, it is a couple of borders and photo mats. I headed to my pink stash and found a paper that was hot pink on one side and white with a light pink pattern on the other. I know you can't see the pattern in this photo, but it's a small polka dot. I pulled this paper from the pink tonal pack CM released a couple of years ago. Mounting the pink on black cardstock helps make the layout pop!

Since I had my pink folder out, I saw that I still had pink "Shortcuts" from Old CM. I had a matching set in the pattern shown above, so I used that instead of punching my own. That left plenty of pink cardstock to create mats for everything. The tonal pack had some matching stickers that I used, but I raided my stash to find the makeup, poodle, and small tower of gifts in black. 

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.