Back to the Mall

Another trip to DC. This one is with my husband Jim. It was an extremely cold weekend and I'm surprised we got to see so many things outdoors. This is our first look at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and though you can't see it in the photos below, when we arrived it was foggy. You really felt like part of the patrol.

On the left page I made a border with what I think is a "Fast Formulas" design from Creative Memories. The red accents really work with the photos but I think I could do a better job with the title. As I noted earlier--more footprints! I had several pages of these so I know I used them on a lot of pages.

A Taste of the Big Apple

Time for my next installment which is a one-page layout of a trip my mom, sister Sue and I took to New York City in May 1998. This would have been a birthday trip as my mom and Sue share the same birthday in May. Unfortunately it rained ALL DAY and we had no other plans but to walk around the city. We started with a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty. You can tell this is pre-9/11 because there was no security and no need for tickets as I recall. We simply got in line and waited our turn to walk up the statue. As you can see, we are all pretty wet. Still, it was a fun day.

In terms of the layout, there isn't much "technique" here other than some rain stickers--ok, a LOT of rain stickers. The blue accents bring out the chill of the day, so that worked well. It sort of looks like I stole a piece of the photo mat to make the title and in hindsight the photo would probably look better with a full mat. Additionally, I think I could improve the title strip a little--but overall I'm still happy with this layout.

Next up--a return to DC!

A couple of "firsts"

I have researched my scrapbooks and my first page of a National Park visit is this 2-page layout to Gettysburg in 1988. My Uncle Larry and his family came to visit from Texas, and we took a family trip. This is not my first ever visit to a national park--I know that my family took a trip to DC in 1976, but I don't seem to have any photos of that trip.

What I like about this layout is the fence I created out of paper strips. I also like the ivy letters (and I think I still have a few to use). I do wish that I had been better at placing the letters in a straight line though. Like many layouts from this era (and I'm guessing I created this around 2000-2002) there is a lot of white on the page. I think I could have put a little more paper behind the photos. But overall the composition is pleasing.

A couple of pages later, I found this layout from a trip to DC (which I am including here in order to tie in my first visit to any national park). My brother and I went specifically to see something at the art museum though I don't remember what. We also walked over to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and I remember buying a poster of the wall. We parked outside the city and rode the Red Line from Shady Grove. I still remember the sound of the conductor reciting "This is the Red Line to Shady Grove" on the way back to the car. I wish I could record that sound here--probably the one drawback to scrapbooking.

The technique I used here is called "Between the Lines". I created a double border with design lines top and bottom and then filled the middle with small decorative stickers. The title sticker worked well for this technique and then I matched the stars and stripes along the bottom. This may be the first use of the footprint path, but definitely will not be the last.

Overall I like this page though again I think I could have used more paper under the photos.

So that's my first entry. Stay tuned to see how my scrapbooking progresses!

Changing directions

So to begin 2017 I thought I would take the blog in a new direction. I don't really have that many culinary epiphanies and I DO love to scrapbook and visit national parks. So what is going to start happening soon (within the first few weeks anyway) is this blog is going to be a place for me to post my scrapbook pages of my national park trips. I will start by going back to the archives of my scrapbooks done in the early 2000s. I hope to describe the trip and any important points about the construction of the scrapbook pages. For the early ones it may be "if I did it over I would....". So I hope you join me on my journey and let me know your thoughts!