Great Western Journey Part 2--Home on the Range

The calvary barracks included the bunks, tack, and prep kitchen. They could house over a hundred soldiers at once in several different units. And look, they even have names on each set of equipment! That's doing your research!

This layout is part of a Western Kit I got from Club Scrap. Truthfully-it's 2 layouts. I mixed the pages together because I thought they fit the photos better. The left page above is the right page from layouts 7&8. The right page is the left page from layouts 1&2. So remember--it's your scrapbook. You can arrange the pages as you like!

On the grounds are numerous buildings where the fort personnel were housed. Some of the barracks are tumbling down. Even the wooden structures are reproductions as it was more likely that people came and took the wood for other houses in the area or just for firewood. But the big building on the left page below held a number of recreated rooms for officers. And of course, there is a home for wildlife.

This is a layout I made based on the October Power Hour by Meggan and Tessa. I used a combination of Mellow Meadows (the background), earthy (the strips), and a homey-type paper with a green and wood-grain look to it (I can't remember which kit). The top borders are some VERY old Close to My Heart stickers from their Dakota pack. I still have a few sheets of stickers though the papers are gone (which is a shame--I really liked that pack). The bottom strips are from a sheet I picked up that had the words of the song on it--each line with a different 1" border. I thought these 2 would be great for this layout though I am still determining how I'll finish using the words. 

Great Western Journey Part 1--Fort Laramie

Our first park stop on the trip was Fort Laramie. We had quite an adventure GETTING there (just remember to follow the directions on the park website and NOT the GPS or you too will enjoy the rutted dirt road path to the park. And possibly get stopped by cattle moving across the road.) Fort Laramie is an important historic site as it was both a trading post and a military installation. 

This layout is based on this sketch from Creative Memories October 2022 Virtual Crop. I organize my papers by theme so I pulled my "Western" folder out and found the Wide Open Places from Creative Memories this summer. The wood-grained background sets off the myriad of entry plaques and signs. The middle is the Field Fence border punch that coordinates so well. All of those items are currently available on my CM store site (see right column). The sketch calls for a halved circle to augment the photos. I chose instead to cut a journal box in half that had a diamond-shaped opening. That left some space to mount my very old CM stickers.

Fort Laramie was also one of the stops on the Pony express. Those signs matched the beginning photos of our first building (even before we got to the visitor center) which was a calvary barracks. We could see through the windows for some of the rooms and could stop at the doorways for the larger barracks rooms.

This is another Virtual Crop sketch from October. I continued using the Wide Open Places papers. I "gutted" the 2 background papers and just turned the inside square over to provide 2 contrasting colors. I love the horse paper as the accent strips! The kit contained the western themed journal box and stickers to finish off the layout.

Is it a Loop or a Journey?

 Our next few months will follow the journey Jim and I took in the summer of 2017 to the NPTC convention in the Rocky Mountain Region (the host park is Mount Rushmore). Jim tends to name the big trips (you'll remember Connie's Northern Migration? That was his brainchild). And I really thought this one was called the Great Western Loop. But my notes and photo albums call it a Journey. So we'll pick one and use that as we move through the pages. 

For the kick-off page, I based this on an idea I pinned. It says Project Recipe, but it was created by a fellow consultant so it's not an authentic Project Recipe. It does use up a calendar page and I have a few of those in my stash to use up. I used scrap papers from the Scenic Route collection (and scraps are about all I have left!). I cut the squares as directed and arranged them so the colors were mixed across the page. The directions leave a couple of blocks open and I used those to handwrite the title and date. The top and bottom are filled with laser-cut borders from the pack. The top one reflects our long drive. The bottom was for all the farms we passed in the midwest. I hardly ever put more than a title on kick-off pages, but I had no idea how else to incorporate that unigrid for the Midwest. Even though this is a Rocky Mountain Region convention, we also saw sites in the Midwest so I decided to mount it to the page with a large memorabilia pocket.

The next 2 pages are, as usual, the itinerary of the trip. I had two other random photos of our flight out (doesn't Jim look cute?) that I wanted to include. I also mapped our route on Google Maps and took a screenshot that I printed on photo paper. 

The background pages are a fold-over technique. I taught a class one weekend where we made an entire pack of decorative papers into layouts by folding them in various ways and mounting them on cardstock. I wanted to use these 2 as they had the clouds and I thought it perfect for the flight photos. I added the borders across the top. Both are border-maker cartridges and given how much I travel, they are well-used. I thought the Journey of a Thousand Miles quote worked perfectly for this page. When mounting vellum, I use the CM Vellum adhesive. When you rub over the vellum to adhere it to the page, the adhesive disappears. A few more random travel stickers from my stash completed the layout.

End of the Line

Our tour stepped into an alley next to the courthouse--one I never realized existed! We heard stories of the free blacks who were entrepreneurs in the area. I took some time to marvel at the architecture of the courthouse but that wasn't a part of the tour's discussion.

This page is based on a CM Sketch from the August 2021 virtual crop. I did not include the circle in the upper right corner but did combine 2 sheets of paper and a border sticker to decorate the page. If you open the CM page you'll see that you can also take this sketch in a "fancier" direction if you want to. I used a very subdued palette as well as a touch on the page due to the theme.

We stopped at another cemetery. There were monuments to people extending over several hundred years. I enjoy cemetery art so photographed some of the monuments that really have nothing to do with the UGRR experience. 

This layout is from a sketch from another blogger that I follow--Cheryl Even. She makes sketches for her albums and posts them for others to use, so she's one of my inspirations. She also posts on the Scrapbook.com forums and I've followed her on there for a time. I turned the sketch so that the paper remnants (and this page is REALLY scrap booking) were across the top. I used a remnant of a sticker across the bottom and a few random sticker embellishments as well.

The last stop on our tour was most unusual--it was in the parking garage entryway. This building was originally a train depot and was a transition place for those moving on toward Canada on the UGRR.

This page is one half of a layout I made in a Paper Loft class. The kit had many mats included and we arranged them across the middle of the page. I thought the "Unexpected Directions" title was perfect given the odd location for the talk. The 2 blue squares on the right were to be for photos, but I chose to use them as journal boxes. Again, not much other decoration on the page given the theme.

Above Ground on the UGRR

Our tour group assembled and we started walking down the hill away from the square. Our first stop is the Thaddeus Stevens house (he helped ensure the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation). This is preserved in the middle of the Lancaster Convention center. The original door and markers are on the outside. We didn't get to go in. Around the corner, you can see the excavated cisterns. They believe they were used not for water, but to hide enslaved people on the UGRR.

This layout is based on a layout that CM posted using Countryside Comfort (the first layout on the page). I did not have the exact paper pack but found that the Croptoberfest papers from that year worked just as well. I did not originally save this design to my Pinterest board though. I saved the borders on the layout below. But as that didn't work with this configuration of photos, I scrolled up the page and realized that the fence would be a perfect addition to this home story. 

Another stop on our tour was a church that I had passed every day going from work to home. This church allowed enslaved people to worship with the rest of the congregation and for the times, that was quite progressive. Numerous historical markers adorn the church walls.

This page lent itself to the original borders that I saved (second on the page from the link above). The tones of the Croptoberfest paper match the brick quite well and the rest of the colors accent the deep red tones. While there is a third layout on the CM site, I'm not sure I have enough materials left to complete it. However, it's saved on Pinterest so there's always a possibility!

Bonus post--Lasting Memories Challenge 626

 Hi all! I thought I would do something different today. I'm working on an album and the challenge from Lasting Memories worked out perfectly for the photos. So hot off the presses is this page from the Minuteman Missle National Historic Site. You'll see more about this visit when I post the rest of the trip (Starting December 16th). Until then, enjoy this page of the first photos of the bunker where servicemen sat waiting to launch nuclear missiles.

This page features multiple Creative Memories packs as well as a few other scraps. The base page is from the Stars and Spirit designer pack from this summer. It's still available as well as the stickers (a few of which are in the circle clusters). The title was made from the Paper House Let Freedom Ring sticker page. 

Hometown Tourist

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I want to say how thankful I am that you read my blog. If you have any comments or suggestions, please drop me a line!

I know a couple of ladies from the Park Travelers Club that live close to me so we decided to have an outing together and chose a walking tour of Lancaster focusing on the Underground Railroad. Before we got started I took the opportunity to photograph some places I've been to frequently such as the Penn Square statue of soldiers and the Central Market. 

This page was a kit from Scrapbook Concierge. It's another example of pages that I am glad to have completed, and that I will NEVER do again. It took a while to figure out which photos would easily (not sure that's the right adjective but we'll stick with it for now) morph into the letters in "Lancaster". It took quite a while to fussy cut and apply the photos to the letters. I did get lucky in that one photo could spread across up to 2 letters if positioned correctly.

A Very Special Trip to Washington DC

 In May 2017, Jim and I heard that Ken Burns was going to be the speaker at an event held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We enjoyed many of his documentaries so we made a memorable trip to see him and were able to get tickets to the public section of the audience. The trip started with the Metro ride to the US  Navy Memorial. We walked along the mall to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and passed a few sites. I enjoyed seeing the Navy practice for their part in the parade that afternoon.

This layout is a Project Recipe from Creative Memories made specifically for this paper pack--Festive Fourth. I taught a class to my customers. There is a recipe available for just about every new pack of paper. If you would like a copy of the recipe, let me know through email!

I never knew that the Memorial Wall could be edited. This occasion (which I believe happens every year on Memorial Day) honors any newly identified remains (adding names to the wall) and changing some of the icons from "Missing" to "Killed in Action". 

The left page is wallpaper using one of several pages I have for "Memorial Day". While I don't have a lot of events specific to that day, the reverse side is more "generically patriotic" and I will likely use it for similar events. The right page is an 8 1/2x11 pocket page. You'll see in the next photo that I included the program from the day. For this side, I added our tickets (one showing each side) as well as the journaling. The background paper here is an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet from my stash. Nice to be able to use those up.

The ceremony was beautiful. Not only did we hear from Ken Burns and his partner Lynn Novick, but there were moving presentations by family members, and the honor guards. When the ceremony was over we walked back to the Metro station. That route was along the parade route for the DC Memorial Day parade and we dawdled enough to enjoy many of the performances, marching bands and the veterans celebrated through floats and honor cars. Those pages are available in the full album if you want to see them!

The left page is the other side of the pocket and the other side of the 8 1/2 x 11 paper. I couldn't have asked for better wallpaper there! The right side page I made at a crop. The lesson was to make the "crazy circles" along the bottom. This paper is from a Fresh Fusion pack. I cut 3 circles from different papers and stacked them, then made some "crazy cuts". You rearrange the segments to get the mish-mash effect. Those also could have been places to highlight other photos, memorabilia, or embellishments. 

I'm King of the World!

The photos below are from the Titanic Memorial in Washington DC. (Does anyone else think James Cameron visited here before having Jack perch on the rail?) The memorial was created by women's groups shortly after the sinking to commemorate the men who lost their lives by giving up space in the lifeboats to women and children. I visited on the anniversary of the disaster. This is one of those times belonging to the National Park Travelers  Club helped me with a visit. I not only never knew this monument existed until someone posted about it, but found out that the stamp was hanging from the wayside board! It was only hanging there for the weekend. You can still get that stamp at the Eisenhower Memorial in DC now.

This layout is a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. As part of the rules of the group I cannot show the original sketch or directions but you can see my finished project. This was made during one of my weekend classes with my customers so please let me know if you wish to join a future class. The paper is, appropriately enough, called Deep Blue. I've used it before but had these 3 pages remaining (the 2 background pages are also from that pack). I think the gray stripe contrasts with the rest of the blue nicely and there is a great nautical feel from the borders added on top of the striped strips. I broke out some navy sticker letters for a title. It must have been a new pack as I didn't have to fudge any of the vowels. Just a couple of other stickers in the corners of the page and the layout was complete. We did 4 layouts in less than 2 hours that morning!

Believe it or not: I visited without stamping!

 In April 2017, I traveled to Iowa for one of my HPN conferences. I arrived early enough to do a park visit before the conference. Unfortunately, I got to Effigy Mounds too late to enter the visitor center. It was still light out, and the trails are open until dusk so I did a self-guided tour of the park. I think I will have to go back, not just because I need a stamp but because all I saw were some bumps in the ground. I get that these are burial mounds and are supposed to have the appearance of certain animals, but I just wasn't seeing it.

This layout had been in my stash for a while. I made this at one of the Lancaster scrapbook conventions. The class was focused on painting thin wooden pieces with gelato crayons and then heating them. The fawn and the bear prints were made using that technique. I made the pages as I paid for the class but I didn't really care for the product. I also don't typically put metal on my pages. This one included the compass spinner. Again, I paid for the class so I included it. I was able to mount the unigrid between the pawprints and compass but just barely!

My hike took me along a well-marked path and had an overlook of the Mississippi River. I took photographs of the signs to help explain what it is I was looking at. They tell a better story than my photos do of the mound orientations. The weather was a bit chilly so I spent an hour or so here and then headed back to my car to go to the conference.

This layout is based on a Meggan and Tessa Power Hour class (July 2021). They offer a free monthly class where you make 2 layouts in an hour. This particular layout was perfect for all my horizontal photos. I essentially had 12 blocks to fit a 4x6 item. Seven of those are photos, one is journaling and the rest are strips of paper cut to particular widths and rearranged to create the filler. Using several sheets of double-sided paper allowed me to get a variety of designs that could be mixed and matched across the pages. A few clusters of stickers finished off the page. The papers are from the CM Woodland Whimsy collection. (I have 3 packs of paper--boy, girl, and a re-released mixed pack; the papers are a combination of all 3). Stickers were mostly random leftovers from my stash

Just Outside of the New Park

 After our meetup concluded, I chose to explore a few other nearby areas. This is the Bucktown General Store. When Harriet was a small child she was in this store when another enslaved person was trying to run away. That enslaved man's overseer grabbed a weight off the counter and threw it at the escaping man but hit Harriet instead. This is what people attribute to her subsequent "visions" that would propel (and possibly save her) through her life. The store and its shelves are filled with the goods you would have seen in the mid-1800s around the time Harriet was here. And there is a Passport stamp here. 

This is a layout I made at a weekend class for my scrapbook customers. If you haven't been to my CM Facebook page, this is the link: https://www.facebook.com/CorriganCM. Typically I have a class on a Saturday afternoon where I share up to 4 of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 layouts. (One piece of double-sided paper, 2 sheets of cardstock or base pages, 3 cuts). Anyone is welcome to join but you must email me for the Zoom link and instructions. I cannot record the sessions. 

The papers used here are from a free paper pack I earned called "Timeless". With the yellows and creams of the photos, I think the yellow paper with trees created a nice base. The 2 background pages are also from the pack. That's a new trend for me. I tend to work directly on the strap-hinge pages Creative Memories makes. The sticker clusters are from some older packs I had with a "farm" feel to them. I think the elements would be those found inside the store. I had one non-CM product--the mason jar element. I trimmed a piece of journal paper to create a nice spot to write my notes of the experience.

A Brand New Park!

 In March 2017 I was privileged to attend the Grand Opening of a brand new National Park Unit. Harriet Tubman was born in Maryland and this area has now become a National Historical Park filled with details of her life. One of the club members held a meetup for the event. There were MANY people in attendance besides our group, but because we arrived so early we could park at the NPS site and not be shuttled in from a nearby town. It was so crowded I didn't get a chance to see the visitor center other than the lobby and the bookstore. However, there were 2 excellent presentations that we all attended. First, a Harriet Tubman reenactor gave a talk on her life and answered questions from the audience. She was marvelous.

I used sketch #5 from the November 2021 CM Virtual Crop for this layout. I substituted 2 rows of paper pieces for the punched railroad tracks. Everyone thought that was a great addition to the page. The rest of the paper is scrap from a very old CM paper pack (that I believe is called Discover). Having a few pieces left over, I cut them into ribbons and added them to the blank parts of the page. 

The second speaker is an author who wrote about the life of enslaved people. He had some helpers from the audience but also provided samples. He didn't expect so many people to be in attendance so I'm glad we saw his first presentation as I don't think there was much left for the second one. Though the things he provided to us were rather distasteful--some of the beverages and salted fish common to enslaved people's diet. 

This layout is based on a sketch I saved--though I don't know why I saved it. Typically I save the virtual crop sketches if I don't get them done on the crop weekend. It's possible I saved this as I didn't have a clue what to do with Sorbet (check out the paper in the links on the blog site). I didn't use Sorbet here, but remnants from a "Painted" paper pack that was a bonus pack. By cutting everything into 2-3/4” x 3-3/4” and 5-3/4” x 3-3/4” mats, a background was created that would hold all the photos I wanted. On some of the smaller rectangles, I added decorative cut-outs from a Heritage pack.

He also demonstrated the torture devices used on returned runaways. I applaud the lady from the audience who was the "model". That massive iron frame must have been heavy even for the few minutes she wore it on stage.

This is a bonus sketch provided by CM when they had a promotional paper pack. This is the 2nd sketch on the page. I used some very old Earthy papers and stickers to create the layout. I think those papers captured the somber tone of the images. 

Washington Really Slept Here

 I had an afternoon tour of the mansion and took a little time to see the area around the house as well as photograph the exterior architecture. It's a Georgian-style building from the 1770s. The owner had died but his widow allowed Washington to stay during the winter of 1779-1780. He was here for about 6 months. Martha would stay here as well and of course several other pieces of his entourage,  visiting dignitaries and servants. Mrs. Ford and her children lived in just 2 of the rooms.

For this layout, I dug into my saved sketches and found one from December 2021. I used one of the border maker cartridges to punch a border (as it's double-sided paper, I could use both colors and the border wouldn't disappear into the background.) The paper is the old Cottage line from Old CM. I'm just about done using that pack!

Inside, the rooms have been returned to how they would have looked in that winter (which by all accounts was one of the worst on record for heavy snowfall). Though Washington's bedroom attracted attention, I was interested in the camp beds used by his aides. It gave it almost a circus feel! The kitchen had to feed a lot of people but at least it would have been warm there.

This layout is a kit I purchased from Paper Loft. I thought that since there was a bit of food the teapot theme would work well. I had to fussy-cut the medallion papers but I do like the effect it gave to the borders. 

MorrisTOWN

I live in MorrisVILLE and sometimes I get it wrong and say I live in MorrisTOWN. I don't, but I did visit there. This was the winter encampment for Washington's troops in the winter of 1779-1780. It was one of the worst winters on record. While the park includes some reproduction huts from the encampment, this trip was specifically to Washington's Headquarters in the Ford Mansion. I started in the Visitor Center where there is a video and several rooms of artifacts. I traveled there as it was a special weekend and they had an author doing a reading and discussion of his book based on the life of a slave that was Washington's valet. It was geared to middle-school students so I bought an autographed copy for my nephew Thomas.

This layout is loosely based on a CM Virtual Crop sketch from February 2022. I did the long strips at the top and bottom but did NOT include the large square on the right side. I had more photos to include and did not feel a need to include any more paper. The decorative paper along the top is the rest of my Reminisce paper. It's bordered by some plain brown strips. I debated adding my Cricut cut of Washington. I thought he was too "cartoonish" but as I was completing this at a crop with my Mom and Sister, they assured me it worked fine. And well--there he is.

One area of the museum held paper artifacts such as manuscripts, booklets, and even money. Alexander Hamilton's writings are on display here. In another area, they extend the museum to include a bit of everything else from the revolutionary war. The large oval is a single link from a chain that was used to protect the Hudson River from British vessels. The size and weight were astonishing.

This page is also a layout from the CM virtual crop. This was Sketch #6. I thought for quite a while about what base paper to use. Eventually, I decided on a page from the wedding pack that had a journal appearance. I added a Cricut cut of the quill and ink and that gave it the heritage feel i was looking for. The border at the bottom is again the Reminisce line. I fussy cut the title box from another piece of paper but it layers well with the dark strip.

Who is David Wills?

After lunch, I decided to add a visit to the David Wills House. I knew it was part of the park but never the significance. This is the house that Lincoln stayed at the night before giving his Gettysburg Address. David Wills was instrumental in getting the National Cemetery established and then played host when Lincoln came to do the dedication. His house is on the square in Gettysburg.

I based this page on a CM Virtual Crop sketch. When I looked at the sketch I realized that one of the Fast-to-Fabulous pages that matched the one I used for the Eisenhower page was quite similar to the sketch. Instead of banners, it was white pine branches! I added a piece of white snow paper to the middle of the page so that the bricks wouldn't get lost in the red of the page. (Making it just wide enough to hold the unigrid). Since the ticket was too close in color to the white paper I mounted it on one of the tags from the embellishment pack. The left border is a laser-cut border from the Seasons Greetings line.

The downstairs rooms describe the Wills family and their daily life. Also included are period pieces salvaged from the battlefield such as the medical kit. In some ways, the rooms were stark as a lot of the details were on glass panels around the edges of the room. The NPS site has an excellent virtual tour on the website. If you've not been there in person, it's a great way to explore the site.

I decided to keep going with the F2F pages. The corner stripes were pre-printed. I added 2 laser cut borders to finish framing the page. I added a couple of embellishments from my Paper House pack of vintage die cuts. The top hat, the carriage, and the family walking (near the journal box) are all from that pad. Since the pages were a little light I used the decorative mats behind many of the photos to add some more depth.

The main attraction is of course the Lincoln Bedroom (the one in Gettysburg, not the one in the White House). They claim this is the original bed though most of the other items are just similar to how they would have looked during his stay. This is the room where he finished the speech that I would memorize in elementary school.

This layout is the end of the album and it worked out that there were just a few photos of the house left. I merged the 2 together so that there was a panorama view of the bed. It's a fairly simple layout with just a wallpaper background (some old Reminisce paper that rather matches the carpet) and white mats under the photos to keep them from getting lost. I added 2 corners to the journal box. These are die cuts from a very old CM Heritage kit. 

Some Retro Pages

As the tour moved upstairs we saw fewer Christmas touches. Mamie and Dwight kept separate bedrooms. Hers all in pink! I guess the general needed his own side to escape the pink. 😁

This layout is based on another CLS PJ party idea. Using the CM Custom Cutting system I cut progressive sizes of shapes and used the positive (shape) and negative (hole) to layer into different pages. I used some retro paper from older CM (I think this is the Vintage pack but it could be something else). The paper matched the decor but to me it all sort of blends together and I don't see the different papers as much as I thought I would. Well, done is better than perfect!

Back downstairs we visited the kitchen (where they are making Christmas Cookies!) and the den (where they are wrapping Christmas Presents). I remember seeing the kitchen on my previous tour but had not known it was state-of-the-art when installed! I always enjoy the den. There's such a warm, homey quality to the space.

The left page is a continuation of the negative/positive papers from the last layout. They were leftover from my cuts so I thought I could stack them in a similar fashion. Again, not my favorite but it does match the kitchen decor. I got to use up some non-CM stash with the stickers of the kitchen goods. The right page is wallpaper. That argyle/border/decorated circle was from a similar pack and since it matched the left page I used it for the den. I think that the paper matches the photos well. 

Just before you exit the house is Eisenhower's workspace for his presidential years. It's a small space as he preferred this home for relaxation. But he could never escape the "football"--yep, that briefcase was the nuclear armament codes! It's of course empty now (or is it!?!). After our tour, some of the group had lunch at the Lincoln Diner in Gettysburg.

This page is my take on a Creative Scrapbooker sketch. This is the link to a page with a step-by-step layout. I used some scraps of paper for the border across the middle and then some longer border stickers from a very old CM Christmas-themed gift pack (it had some strips of paper but never full sheets). I liked that the border helped differentiate between the house and the lunch. Since there was just one photo of the lunch I was worried about making a page. This solved that problem!

A Christmas Twist

Inside the house was made ready for Christmas eve! There were even presents under the tree! I love the way the room was lit and the tree was glowing even though it was in the afternoon.

As I said last week, this is the page I made for my stint as a guest designer with Lasting Memories. The change is that the door photo that you saw last week was originally on this page in the top left. When I got to the remaining photos I realized that I could add another indoor photo here so I carefully peeled the door off and replaced it with the poinsettias. I love collecting memorabilia and added an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket to include the tour brochure. You may recall that the left page is a Fast-to-Fabulous base in the Season's Greetings collection. I have some paper from this line too so I was able to add a bit to the pocket to help match the decorations of the left side.

The living room and dining areas were also heavily decorated for Christmas. Poinsettias were everywhere but so too were vintage decor like the Santa bottom right.

For this layout, I used CM Virtual Crop Sketch #8 from the June Worldwide Virtual Crop. Because the left page is 8 1/2 x 11 I had to modify the proportions. The large butterfly-looking piece in the middle of the sketch was reduced to just the bell on the right page. (I made that bell once before--it's several ovals stacked together). The sketch has borders around the bottom and sides. I used 2 different borders and alternated the colors so each page is a little different. I did keep the stacked corners--just a couple of scrap pieces from the Season's Greetings line. I also used mats from that collection on the right under the photos. The tree and sleigh were fussy-cut from the mats as well. I think I nearly completed this collection!

More Meetup Madness

The next park I visited was in December 2016. The Eisenhower home decorates each year for Christmas and I was interested in seeing their display. They were also hosting a special weekend open house at the beginning of December with cocoa and cookies in the visitor center. I planned a meetup for that weekend and had quite a few NPTC members join me for the event. Below shows us getting on the bus at Gettysburg and riding out to the park. We gathered in front of the sign for our formal group picture. I still had the banners from the Philadelphia convention so we could get that in the photo as well.

This layout is based on a sketch from the CM Virtual Crop in November 2021. I used 2 Fast-to-Fabulous base pages for this so I only had to add a little detail. I added the dark blue page that is split across the middle, and the border on the bottom (one of the border-maker cartridges). Most of the materials come from an older travel pack called "Gallivant". I liked that I could use the mat as a filler for one of the photos but also as a journal box. I just added some lined paper to the bottom.

The tour took us around the outside of the house, and you'll see a bit more of that on the next layout as well. You can see that they included Christmas touches starting at the front door!

You have seen a small bit of this visit as I used several photos for a layout when I served as a guest designer for Lasting Memories in the summer of 2021. However, I moved some photos around. Check out this original blog entry. That front door photo was moved! The background paper is from a store in Gettysburg called Forevermore Scrapbooking. It's a favorite of mine, and I'm hoping that they find a new home as their landlord made them close the original store a few months ago.  Similar to the Lincoln Memorial page a couple of weeks ago, I used this base to show the other dimensions of the entrance. The photo of the side and the front door makes for a complete outside view of the structure. The title element was also from Forevermore.

Here's more of our group as we toured the grounds. Eisenhower was quite a golf fanatic going so far as to install his own putting green. I got lucky as the wind stretched his flag out so you can see it has his general's stars on it! For December the weather was chilly but we didn't have to deal with snow so the outside walk was not too uncomfortable.

This layout was based on sketch #6 from the CM virtual crop. I used a pack of paper and embellishments earned as part of a challenge called appropriately enough "Picture Perfect". The neutral tones worked well with the winter grass. Not sure I like the punched border down the left side but if you don't think about it much it may look like photography flashes. 😃 I used one of the decorative blades on the 12" trimmer for the middle of the square, and I think I forgot to change it out when I cut the black wave under the "flashes". But it seems to have worked out fine!

Meetup at Manassas

 The ultimate purpose of my trip was this meetup on Sunday morning. Shellie (in the denim jacket) wanted to host a meetup and we gathered quite a few people together. We all met at the visitor center, saw the map, and did our stamping. Then we joined a ranger talk that walked to the farms just around the visitor center. We also visited the Stonewall Jackson statue. The ranger pointed out that Jackson was more often than not sleeping while in the saddle and did NOT have the "Superman" physique as the sculptor created. We went to lunch afterward and then I returned home.

This layout is another of the Pajama party layouts. I was a little unsure about using it because I didn't know how to incorporate the 4x6 photo. I cut the right side to fit the square (I think they are 3.5x3.5) and decided to just put the rest on the adjoining block I like the way that it worked. The title of the Stonewall Jackson monument had a similar treatment but I stacked the pieces in one block. My favorite is the lower border on the left page. I just love the way the ovals framed those 2 uniform coats!

Fall at the Wall

 My last stop was a revisit to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. This area has 2 distinct phases--The Wall (which comes in the following layout) and the statues of the men and women who served. As the women's monument is nurses, it's the one I gravitate to repeatedly. It's also done in the round; you really need to see it from all sides to understand it.

This layout was done for one of the Creative Life Scrapbooking Pajama Parties. I thought the Chevron Punch (one of the Border Maker Cartridges) worked well for the small strips as it sort of reminds me of sergeant stripes on a uniform. The papers are from the camouflage collection of a few years ago. The cardstock is Copper. It's sort of a green/brown and I find it works best on my military pages. There is a sticker in the EN scrapbook kit that shows the statue of the nurses. That's the only embellishment I needed.

I made my way down to the Wall. The light was starting to fade already but it gave quite a glow to the trees just above. I am always moved by the tributes that are still left for the soldiers listed here. The single yellow rose is an image I think of often.

This layout was also one of the CLS Pajama Party layouts. I used the Spiced Plum collection (it was part of a Secret Box that we opened together for a CM virtual crop). The border above the hexagons is a Wheatfield border. But to me, it echoed the leaves along the top right page. I decorated the hexagons with a multitude of old leaves from my collection. The sticker of the wall and the words Memorial Wall were from a DC Sticker pack I had in my stash.They worked well on the tags from the embellishment kit.

A Short Bus Ride Later

Though I was done with the Obscure Monuments Tour, I didn't leave DC right away. I took the Circulator bus (just $2!) back to the main part of the mall. I got off at the Lincoln Memorial and decided to renew my stamps there. It has been a while since I visited. I do enjoy stopping here though.

This is another of the papers from Scrapbook Customs. I just had a few photos of the monument and by trimming the "I Have a Dream" image to a small circle, I was able to arrange them around the photo of the memorial on the paper. 

My next stop was across the road at the Korean War Memorial. This one is so realistic I always expect one of the statues to start talking to me. I noticed that the statues were signed by the sculptor. That was a new revelation for me.

Well, I've looked high and low and I cannot figure out if this was a sketch. I think it isn't just because of the simplicity of the design. It's wallpaper with 2 strips of brown (those are old CM Natural Impressions strips that came pre-cut in the kit). I added some of the shoe bootprints--which fit well with the soldier theme. The mats are stone texture paper. That's an old Adventure pack so might be the last of that paper.

Obscure Monuments Tour part 4--The end of the Road

After clearing FDR we came back to our main purpose of obscure monuments. One of the smallest monuments in the area is the Japanese Pagoda monument. Given in 1957, it commemorates the treaty signed by the US and Japan in 1854. It is undoubtedly at home among the cherry blossoms in the spring. This particular monument gave me a great perspective of the Jefferson Memorial as well.

This layout is based on a CM sketch. I'm not really sure why I did this one. Usually, I only save the Virtual Crops or the Weekend Challenges for advisors but it doesn't seem to have been in either of those. Still, the layout worked as I wanted it to. I chose a lot of pink scraps to create the borders on the edges. That goes back to my Cherry Blossom theme. I could even pull in one of the decorative mats from the Eastern National scrapbook pack.

Continuing on around the Tidal Basin, we crossed a bridge with decorative troughs. Though it looks much older, it was installed in the late 1980s. The image is "Jack Fish" who was the Park Superintendent and was about to retire. The staff decided to immortalize him on the bridge. Our tour continued on and headed to the George Mason Memorial (skipping the Jefferson Memorial). George Mason was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which served as an inspiration to Thomas Jefferson while drafting the Declaration of Independence, so it's appropriately placed. In addition to the collonade and his statue there is a lovely garden (well, lovely in the summer).

This layout is based on a CM Virtual Crop sketch. I rather liked this one as it was created all from one sheet of double-sided paper. I added some laser-cut borders to the bottom. All of this is from the Homestead collection from CM.

We had an option to follow the Ranger to one more stop--East Potomac Park. Having no other plans, I went along. It is a short walk from the Mason Memorial. It's a bit of a forgotten park and only has a few benches and a small bit of grass. This urn was given to us by Cuba (back when we were talking to them). The monument originally stood in Cuba to honor the American deaths aboard the USS Maine preceding the Spanish–American War in 1898. The Ranger told us that this monument had been located elsewhere on the Tidal Basin and was subsequently put into storage. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and placed in this park.

I used another CM Virtual Crop Sketch (October #3). There was a hint of fall color in the photos so I went back to the Hello Autumn. That was a good choice for another reason-I'd used it so much that I had a lot of scraps and this is one of those layouts that will use up your scraps! The border strip hides any slight inconsistencies in the lengths of the bottom row. 

Obscure Monuments Tour part 3--Men with 3 letters

 We needed to walk to the end of the FDR memorial for our next obscure monument and the ranger just couldn't resist doing a short presentation on both MLK and FDR (see? 3-letter men). I always learn or see something new. This time it was the signature of the artist on the MLK memorial. So even if you've taken a tour before, sometimes it's worth it to go again!

The left page is my own creation (it happens). I had pulled some of my "Patriotic" stash for the MLK page. I added a mat as a photo to keep the balance around the page. The tag "Liberty and Justice" was the basis for the layout. It's matted on red and then to make it the same size as the photo and journal on top it's matted on a remnant of the paper I used for the half-circle. The thin border at the bottom is the bar code strip for the background paper. I don't have a lot of paper from places other than CM but I do use some. It's nice when they give you that extra border to decorate the page. I added a ticket (I think it is supposed to be a tag when folded) and then found the 3 letters for the title (pretty sure the M was originally a W). I used a sketch from the August Scrap Your Stash Class on the right. It uses a border maker cartridge to decorate all 3 photos. This uses up some ancient CM paper.

The walk through FDR took a bit longer (it's 4 terms after all). The ranger talked a bit about the funeral procession and the relief panels depicting it along one of the walls. 

I am not sure what sketch I was following for this layout. It might be an older virtual crop sketch. In the beginning, those sketches didn't have much paper manipulation. So by using just 3 borders (beige at the top and bottom, yellow gingham, and border stickers at the top) there is a "frame" for the photos. Using photo corners in the angles between the photos helps draw the eye around the page. My favorite cluster is the bottom left--I fussy-cut a bunch of elements from one of the Eastern National scrapbook papers. The rest of the elements are from Art Nouveau and yes, the flowers really go well with stone and brass!

Obscure Monuments Tour part 2--Obscure or Hard to Reach?

 The ranger met us at the WWII memorial kiosk and our first stop was the John Paul Jones memorial. I've seen this statue many times so I'm not sure how obscure it is. However, crossing 17th street to get there was the tricky bit. We all arrived safely though and the ranger was able to tell us about his naval exploits (noting he was sometimes thought more of a pirate than a naval officer).

This layout is based on a sketch from my October class. I had remnants of the star paper which served as the borders. I chose 2 other papers for a naval feel, even though they don't really have a Revolutionary War feel to the papers. The left side is a page I bought for our visit to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. The right side is a blue-toned camouflage. I was a little afraid that all the patterns would clash but after questioning it on the Facebook page, everyone assured me it worked so I left it. I added a couple of embellishments from the Deep Blue Sea pack as well for the title and journal card. The anchor is a VERY old CM die cut.

We walked along Independence Avenue and came to the monument recognizing the first delivery of the Japanese Cherry trees that make the tidal basin so famous. The lantern was recently moved to this location so that it would be less obscure (sort of ironic). This area has the original trees (or at least the ones that didn't die). They are a slightly different species than the ones along the tidal basin.

I had purchased a kit from Club Scrap with an oriental/Cherry Blossom theme to it. I chose one of the pages from that kit for the photos. Even though it's fall and the trees are not blooming, I wanted to highlight that the story is about Cherry Trees. My photos matched the layout well and I only needed to add a few more flowers to the small top boxes to complete the page.