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Friday, February 11, 2022

Old Swede's Historic Site

 After I was done at the Dickinson plantation, I drove to Wilmington. The weather had turned a bit colder and rainy but was still manageable. There are 2 structures at the site. First is a home that served as one of the initial settlements in the area (Fort Christina was the original name). There are a couple of rooms on the first floor to explore. I had a private tour with the docent. After the home (and the stamps) we walked out to the cemetery of the neighboring church. There are very old graves here. You might be able to see the date 1699 made of colored bricks in the church wall.



These 2 pages go together but were formed by 2 different sketches. The page on the left is from sketch #4 in the CM April virtual crop. I turned the page 90-degrees to the right because I had more horizontal photos. I substituted one of the mat cards from the pack for one of the photos. I thought the title on the card was perfect for such an old homestead. This layout uses materials from the Memoirs and Memories line as well as a few other odds and ends from my stash.

The sketch on the right is from sketch #3 in the same crop. When CM posts the sketches, 3 are published on Friday afternoon/evening and 3 more on Saturday. I generally wait until Saturday morning to start cropping which means I have more options to choose from when putting layouts together. That's why sketch 3 can come after sketch 4. I was able to use a LOT of scraps on this page. The background paper was chosen to highlight the bricks of the church as well as to provide a place to contrast the brown and white of the few last pieces of the Archivers line from CM. I carefully measured the spaces I needed for my photos and trimmed paper and mats to be the background and the filler "bars". I liked that I had 2 small title boxes together to fill in the bottom right corner. That was a great place for the title sticker (though unusual to put it on the bottom).


Next, the docent took me inside the church. It reminds me a great deal of Gloria Dei in Philadelphia (and was of course by similar colonists). Having a lot of use over the years there are a lot of historical objects such as the original door key and the graves of those laid under the church floor. This parish is still in active use.



This layout is another from the CM virtual crop, sketch #5 this time. Given the theme of the photos, I turned to 2 newer packs from Creative Memories--the Graceful Theme pack and Keep the Faith papers. These 2 packs had some delightfully rustic wood and of course, had some religious stickers. I hadn't originally planned to keep these for myself but it turned out that I had use for them! The border of the 2 pages is a bit tedious to make and yet whenever something like this is proposed, I jump in and do it. The papers were cut into 3/4" strips and then cut into different widths to arrange the tiled look at the top. Because the papers are double-sided, I could mix and match even more as I built the border. I cut new papers for these, but these types of borders are great ways to use scraps!


After we explored the main part of the church, she took me to the bell tower and I got to ring the bell! It's a little tricky to get the spacing of the pulls just right to keep it pealing but I was able to get it done! I had the docent take my photo while I was doing it. They're a little blurry but I love them!



My last page of this visit used a sketch from my monthly class so you can't see the original sketch. You can tell it wasn't from the CM crop because there are no CM papers on here (other than the journal box). You have to use CM papers in their virtual crop if you want to win (which I never have) so I look for opportunities to use the rest of my stash with the other classes and challenges I try. You can see it's a simple layout--a 10" square in the middle and a wider paper across the page which also serves as a photo mat. I used a plain scrapbook page, so to give more interest I doodled some stitching around the border. I used a straight edge to keep them aligned but just dropped a mark wherever I felt it was needed. The bells are my favorite embellishment. I had a Pinterest pin with "Punch art" for bells and I used the custom cutting system to make the ovals and colored them in with marker to make the clappers. Since you can't see the bell in the photo I thought it was a nice way to include them!

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