From Dining Table to Kitchen

The formal dining room is one of the rooms off the main hall. It was set for a lavish Christmas feast. Not only are the dishes fancy, but the tableware and room ornamentation is rich and vibrant! I remember from a previous visit that the house has been examined by historical paint analysts (I'm sure they have a real title but that's as much as I remember). They take chips of paint and analyze the colors dating back to the original coat, so this is likely the original color of the room. It's rather bright for my tastes though.

I made this layout based on a sketch that was part of Tammy McEwen's 2023 end-of-year challenge. It was also a sketch from the September 2023 Worldwide Virtual Crop by CM (See sketch #5). You've seen it before in the Scrimshaw layout I made for the New Bedford Convention. To pick the colors of the papers I analyzed the photos. I chose the blue cardstock background to match the blue walls in the dining room, and the distressed red to match the wooden pieces of the room. The yellow is a natural match for red and blue (think of a brighter-hued red and how that would resemble a childhood-type layout). The borders are stickers I've had from a formal sticker pack (not CM).

From the dining room, I headed to the kitchen. As this is not seen by the company, it is much less decorative in appearance. However, you can see that all of those fancy dishes came from here! And what astounds me is that all of it was created on a fireplace or in boxes heated by coals. I wonder how long it would take me to figure out how to cook in those circumstances!

This layout is another double use--it was part of the CM virtual crop and also part of the 2023 Tammy McEwen challenge. In fact, you've seen this one before too! Remember the President's dinner from my New Bedford trip? Same layout but different papers. Because I was dealing with the kitchen I dug out my "Food" theme box of papers and embellishments. I thought I would use a wood texture paper to represent the table tops and cutting boards. I again matched the background cardstock to the walls of the room (sort of a muted yellow). As there was a bit of fruit on the table I decided to add some of the last pieces of "Locally Grown" papers with their citrus theme. The last sheet is a coral cardstock that helps tie in the citrus flesh. Instead of a photo in the circle, this time that became my title box. 

Christmas Spirit

I moved into a larger hall, which may have been the original entry hall. From here there were entrances to various rooms and access to the upstairs. The period-appropriate decorations were wonderful but I also enjoyed the standard adornments such as chandeliers, curtain tie-backs, and the paintings. I was interested to see that the park had provided a harpist for the event and she played almost directly under the portrait of one of the daughters with her harp. There were costumed docents in period costumes as well.

This layout is another double-use. I created this as part of Tammy McEwen's end-of-year challenge, but it was also part of the February 2023 Virtual Crop Challenges (scroll to challenge 4). It looks totally different than the layout I made for that event. If you don't recall it, check out this layout from my Dayton trip. This layout uses some very old CM materials. The tan border across the bottom is a decorative 12" paper strip that I cut in half (so that I had enough for both pages). the green papers use up more of the Reminisce papers. The remaining stickers are from a matching pack that coordinated with the 12" tan strip. I used cranberry cardstock for the base to pick up the red in the photos. I added a couple of pink mats for the larger photos to make them pop a bit as well.

An Old Fashioned Christmas

My next trip was in December 2018. I drove down to Hampton NHS for their annual holiday event. This house was a plantation in the early 1800s and they decorated the entire house in period style. I toured the house, grounds, and farm areas during this visit. I've been here before but never got a look at the outside pieces. I think you will find the next few weeks enlightening.

This layout uses up some very old CM Reminisce papers and stickers. Since there wasn't much, I chose just a decorative border, some mats, and a couple of rectangles to host a sticker cluster. The evergreen laser-cut border was from a different collection called Christmas Past. I cut it up to spread it around the page. The tag in the bottom right is one that I made YEARS ago so I was happy to get to use it. In fact, I think I rather based the rest of the layout on the need to use that particular embellishment. 😃

It took me a while to balance the photos from this particular part of the tour. I didn't want to make a second layout but didn't want to get rid of the photos either. So I chose a 6x12 peekaboo pocket. This is the front side with 2 vertical photos. I used paper from the same pack as the embellishments above to create thin borders.

This is the back of the pocket. With 3 horizontal photos, there is no need for paper or embellishments.

Wrapping it up

I did not get a chance to climb this lighthouse as it is not in good condition. The Osterhouts and I visited with several of the rangers. As NPTC members we can talk anyone's ear off regarding national parks and travel, and the 4 rangers here were wonderful to talk to and gave us some good ideas for future visits. The sun was setting and it was time to head home. This page completes the album

This page is based on a Virtual Crop layout. Scroll to Sketch #2 for the details. I used some more of the early NSD paper here, a border sticker, and a few other stickers from the kit. I originally saw the green paper as cloth, but after consideration, I decided that it could be similar to the texture of the bricks on the lighthouse. So I used it for the far right border and the mat under the photo of the lighthouse. I wanted a touch more detail on the edges so I used a fine-tip pen to draw some stitching around the cardstock. It's a good way to frame the page.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Sandy Hook Lighthouse was the last stop on the challenge. As this is a common occurrence, the crew handling the challenge materials were prepared and I was celebrated on completing the journey with cheers, bells, and horns. AND I was given my final card that completes the deck (well, it was, now that card is part of the layout below!) It was here that I met up with a couple from the NPTC--Karen and Tom Osterhout. I was there to witness Karen's completion of the Junior Ranger program and we walked about the site together.

I made this layout as part of a Cricut class I took from one of my Facebook groups. I didn't follow instructions well so I didn't have the cuts done before the class started so I was behind the entire time. But they sent the directions with both cut files for the lighthouses AND print-then-cut files. I started with the print-then cut files and couldn't figure out why we were also assembling cut-out versions. Turns out it was to be my choice--I didn't need both. Ah well, that provided me with a supply of embellishments that I've been able to sprinkle throughout this album. When it came to assembling the page I had some difficulty trimming my photos to fit the small squares in the filmstrip so I left a few empty and used them for journaling and embellishments. This ensured that people would see the concept. The few stickers on the page are using up more of the old NSD kit. It's ALMOST done.

On the Hook

My last stop on the Lighthouse Challenge is at the Sandy Hook Lighthouse in a part of Gateway National Recreation Area. This park has additional sites in New York. This part of the unit includes the lighthouse, lots of beach areas, and the remains of a military installation. On this visit (and, like McArthur, I shall return) I only visited the lighthouse.

This layout is based on a sketch from the CM 101 sketches book (page 10). The essence of the sketch calls for a large die cut or cluster group in the upper right corner. What I really liked about the sketch is that the left side included a vertical photo and a square photo. I substituted the unigrid in that place. It does call for a border around the background paper, so I gutted the background cardstock and then layered a slightly trimmed wood texture paper on top. I struggled a little with embellishments as I was nearly out of lighthouse stickers. With the red strip of paper under the unigrid, I decided to add some blue embellishments. I now keep a "rainbow" binder which separates small embellishments without other themes by color. I turned to the blue page and found all the blue stars and the little laser-cut banner and that seemed a perfect fit. One of the few remaining lighthouse embellishments I DID have, was added to the side of the journal box to give it a little more interest. I suppose on my "to-do" list should be creating more of those embellishments on my Cricut.

The Last Stamp Standing

My next park visit happened in October 2018 when I decided to participate in the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge. This event happens every year on the 2nd weekend in October. The challenge involves visiting 13 different lighthouses and life-saving stations in New Jersey over 2 days. Most of those buildings have nothing to do with the National Park Service (except the last one which I'll show you next week). The lighthouses start along the Delaware River (a fact I hadn't known before starting the challenge) and along the way, the route gets very close to Fort Mott which is a stamping point for the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail. However, as their website will tell you: "Since September 30, 2011, as a result of a sunset clause, the National Park Service is no longer the legislative authority to be involved in the management of the Trail. At this time there is no single authority responsible for the management of the trail, although there are legislative efforts to reinstate the NPS as the legislative authority."

While the rest of the sites have relinquished their Passport Stamp, the Fort has not (and as of 2023, still hasn't!) So I decided to make a little detour and visit the Fort, get my stamp, and then finish the lighthouses.

I worked on this album while at a crop. Planning to attend a crop means figuring out what papers to take without taking my entire crop room. I knew that this fort was on the tour so I took military pages. Yet when I got to this layout I didn't really feel the military essence (also it was a single right-hand page given the prior layout). I had also brought my "Fall" themed papers with me and this paper and embellishments are from that group, specifically from the Harvest Delight CM papers (circa 2019).  The layout is loosely based on a sketch or rather one of a series of sketches from Creative Memories. Noreen Smith developed a set of formulas. By cutting one pack of paper (generally 12 double-sided pages for CM) as the formula indicates, you can create an entire album by arranging the strips in various ways. I didn't need to do all of the cuts, I just figured out which strips were used and what the widths were.

The Fort hosts a small museum detailing life during its active years. The large gun below is the correct size but is actually painted on the wall. A few buildings are remaining and some batteries are falling down. As I wanted to keep moving to the lighthouses I didn't spend too much time on site here.

This was a fairly easy layout as it is technically the "Wallpaper" technique. I bought those 2 papers at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. The yellow house was blending a bit into the tan background so I matted them on black cardstock. I added a few stickers from the new CM sticker pack "Called to Serve" to add a little more eye movement around the page but this one came together quickly.

Gone Fishing

As I was walking along the water, I crossed the bridge and saw the egret on the rocks. I took a few more photos and turned around to see that it had jumped up to the top of the bridge! And then, as I watched, it dipped its head into the fisherman's bait bucket and helped himself to lunch! You just never know what you will see in the parks!

I made this layout for an end-of-year challenge group I joined from Tammy McEwen. She put together a series of sketches from the CM blog throughout the year that totaled 23 pages (plus a bonus). I made this during her challenge but you can see the original here (scroll to sketch #7). I had used this one previously but when you change the papers, and put it in a different album, it doesn't really matter. Don't believe me? Check out this post that I made a few months ago. It's the 2nd layout on the page and uses the exact same sketch but with an older NSD pack. This time I used Tropic Time papers. The fish borders come from the Serene Waters pack. My only wish is that they had reversed the coloring so that it would match in the middle instead of starting over on the right page. The title sticker is from the Scrapbook Customs sticker pack.

Landlubber

My next stop is to Biscayne National Park. I was a little later arriving than I had hoped so I missed all of the boat tours that show off the park. Biscayne is about 99% water with just a tiny bit of land for a visitor center. I did what I could to explore that land but I will definitely have to come back to see some more.

In my quest to use up the Cool Serenity papers, I chose to use 2 borders I had made a while ago. Each border consists of a punched wave border, a contrasting lime green strip, and a 4x6 homemade mat with decorations from the kit. They did a nice job framing my photos of the entrance and compass. I added 2 Biscayne-specific stickers. On the left mat, I added a small shield sticker for the park. On the right, I added the map of the park from the Scrapbook Customs sticker page. I had a bit of the lime green paper left so I added the strips to balance the pages (right side of the left page and a small piece under the top photo on the right page).