But the building isn't the National Park Site

 My next stop was Dover. I visited the Old State House because that is where the NPS stamps are located. I took the tour with a rather, um, well let's just say, opinionated docent. I felt that I was attentive (especially since I was the only person on the tour) as she took me through the various rooms and uses. At the end, I politely asked for the stamps and that's when I was informed that the building had absolutely nothing to do with the First State National Historical Park. The actual NPS site was the Green outside of the building. Apparently having the stamps was a great inconvenience to her and what was most interesting was that she felt a need to capture the number of stamp impressions I made (one did not stamp completely and so I had to make a 2nd impression). It was almost as if she wanted to charge me for the number of stamps I made. 

So on to happier thoughts--let's talk about the layout. I followed one of the sketches in my year-long class. When following a sketch I often have to substitute. For example, the bottom row was supposed to be made up of 6x4 photographs. I substituted the unigrid for a pair on the left, and a journal box on the right. That left me enough room to put an extra-long item on the left. Instead of a 4x6 photo, it's another brochure about the First State sites. There are 2 more photos under the journaling box. That is the top of a peekaboo pocket. See the picture below.

I did use wallpaper for the background of both pages. I found a sheet that was colorful but not too distracting. Then I used some old paper from the Earthy collection for the borders and upper-page mats. I know that I could have added some embellishments but when I get to this era, I seem to have a shortage of appropriate elements. I'm not one to put flowers on a page, especially one that is focused on history. 

And Yet More Flowers!

 Well, although we left the flower show, I have another page of flowers to share! My next trip was in April 2016. I had been in Atlantic City for a conference and had a long weekend to drive back to Lancaster. I started with a drive down to Cape May where I caught the ferry to Lewes, DE. My plan was to visit all the sites in the rather new National Park called "First State". In Lewes is a small house called the Rhys Holt house and that was my first destination While I did get a stamp at the house there was no tour, so instead I walked around the town. They were having a tulip festival and it was a beautiful day for walking.

This layout is based on another of my class sketches. The basic idea was to have similarly toned borders on the left and right. I had made the tulip journal box and matching borders YEARS before. While I would not normally have chosen yellow for the palette I was following an example I found online. For the right side and the banners, I found the same paper to bring the color all the way across the page. Then I added some additional flower stickers ( the red tulips were from the same original kit called "Cabana").

The Last of the Flower Show

The hours for the Flower Show were ending as I came to the smaller displays. Here is my final entry in the album--the Edgar Allan Poe cabin from Acadia. Poe shows up in a number of National Parks, and of course, has his own in the Philadelphia area. But here we see a highlight of his stay in one of the cottages. They decorated the door and yard with symbols of his writing such as a typewriter and a raven. I thought it was well done and made for a great ending page.

This layout is based on one of my year-long classes so I can't show you the sketch. I based the color scheme on the door with its rich purple. The Secret Garden stash which I bought specifically for this album (and yet used very little of) did come in for the last page. The washed look of the purple background was a great canvas for the floral aqua-colored papers and stickers. I used a dark purple cardstock for the middle strip and was also able to journal using a white gel pen. The original sketch was to be just 4 photos in 4x4 size, but there was no way for me to trim the upper left photo so it's a bit asymmetrical and yet works. I hope you enjoyed the past months traveling across the country through one evening at the flower show. Join me next week as I return to my larger travels and we head to the First State National Historical Park!

Thirsty?

Only 2 more layouts for the Flower Show! For this week, it's the bridal display for Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Everything was so romantic! I took a few photos to send to my sister who was planning a wedding that year.

This is another layout that I cannot share the sketch for. Because of the wedding theme, I wanted to use pinks. I was able to use some scraps to accent the page. In real life, you can see more detail. This photo doesn't really show some of the prints well. The circle that is cut in half is from one of the circle punches from CM. There are tulips around the edge. Though everything else is roses, it doesn't clash.