There Are Two Sides to Every Layout

While we were at the statue, we posed for a group selfie. We were a bit far from the memorial statue at the top of the hill, but we could see it better with a bit of zoom in the camera.

If this layout looks familiar, it was one of my bonus posts, as I played along with Lasting Memories again. (The link is here.) It will also give you some background on the sketch used.

The right-side layout was made to coordinate but didn't get posted simultaneously. However, the topic was slightly different, as I was venting my frustration with people who do not abide by regulations. Whether it's a COVID precaution or basic crowd control, it doesn't matter. I get very frustrated when I see people ignoring signs posted by the rangers. And this time, I just had to scrapbook it. 

The previous page was made with the Summer Denim and Feeling Bright pages. Since nothing was left of Summer Denim, I pulled some similarly colored and patterned papers from Feeling Bright for the coordinating page. Of course, the orange photo mats and the thin border at the bottom were the same papers. I found the "Covidiot" sticker in a pack of Covid papers and stickers from PhotoPlay. 

Just Plane Fun

In July 2020, Jim and I went on vacation with my sister and her husband. We had planned the trip before COVID-19 and decided to keep our reservation for a beach house. While in the area, we decided to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial while maintaining appropriate social distancing and masking around others (even outside for me, as you just couldn't be too careful). After getting our entrance sign photos, we drove to the large statue commemorating the first flight, and the camera used to capture the historical event. 

This layout is from one of the Paper Loft classes I took at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. The green strip of paper on the left is a pocket where I stashed the journaling box and a small card with the image of North Carolina (not from Paper Loft, but it matched well!). I added a few words and enamel dots to round out the layout. I thought the "Anything is Possible" quote was particularly relevant to this layout.

Homeward Bound

I'm sure you all had similar feelings during Covid. Since we were homebound during the first few months, we would do ANYTHING to relieve our cabin fever and feelings of monotony. So in April 2020, on National Junior Ranger Day, some friends and I vowed to complete a Junior Ranger booklet for one of the National Parks but to do it from home. I had the Junior Ranger book from last summer's trip to the Grand Canyon, so I pulled it out and completed it. I emailed the rangers and told them I would send it in for verification, but they didn't need me to do that. I was pleasantly surprised in June when I received an envelope with my badge and a lovely postcard from the ranger!

I debated the background for this page. I had been making a lot of Covid-themed pages, and that was what I had looked at first. However, since this is more about the Grand Canyon, I decided to pull this sheet of texture paper from the Creative Memories Leave Nothing Behind collection. The postcard took up a lot of room, so I wanted to keep the photos smaller. They did need to be matted, though, because the background paper was a bit "noisy." I chose blue to match the sky portion of the paper and the journal box. The stickers on the journal box are from the CM Covid paper pack (Love Each Other 2). Because the paper was so busy, I didn't need more embellishments besides my "time travel" arrow.

Visiting for Spite?

I was pretty upset by the treatment at the Christmas party at Gateway NRA. So, I decided to go to a different park to make myself feel better. Paterson Great Falls was about an hour away--not terribly close, but since I had quite a bit of daylight left, I made the trip. I started at the visitor center to get an overview. The town's claim to fame is that it was the first PLANNED industrial city. Who planned it? His name is Alexander Hamilton! The falls and the Passaic River provided great power to turn wheels, creating everything from cloth to locomotives. You can still walk across the falls, as seen in my photos below. It was freezing, and the spray coming from the water chilled me to the bone. I returned to the visitor center to warm up before exploring the rest of the city.

This layout is based on this pin (and doubled). I found a sheet of brick paper, which I split to cover the bottom of the pages, and decided on the blue stripe for the vertical elements. I decided to include several photos of the falls--peekaboo pockets to the rescue! I have 2 of them layered and chose to use a waterfall technique in honor of the falls. That means that each photo is layered a bit ABOVE the underlying image. The last embellishment set was made of stickers from the musical Hamilton. Someone at work sent them to me anonymously, and it became the perfect fit for this page.

Christmas Nostalgia

Every year in December, I strive to visit a National Park Site decorated for Christmas. For 2019, I planned a visit to the Sandy Hook portion of Gateway National Recreation Area (at the top of New Jersey). My previous visit focused on the lighthouse, but this time, I headed over to the old army post. Many buildings still stand from when this was an active base during WWII. One of the houses was set for a 1940s Christmas party. I was early, so I wandered the area, looking at the other houses and structures like the cannon.

If this layout looks familiar, you may remember the post from July when it was created. You can revisit the blog entry to learn how I made it.

When the official start time for the public open house came, I returned to the house. There had been a special Christmas party for the volunteers who man the base and the NRA. Many of them dressed in period attire. They reluctantly let me in (I had to show them that the public time had started). Their Christmas party was still in full swing, and I felt a bit awkward "crashing" their party. Nonetheless, they set the times, so I wandered through the house looking at the vintage holiday displays.

This layout is based on a sketch, but I cannot find the inspiration (sorry). I used paper from Creative Memories, one of the last sheets in the CM Joy kit. The embellishments are from Graphic 45, except for the car. I had saved that car sticker from the CM Decades sticker pack for the 1940s (and isn't it amazing how it matched the car in real life almost exactly?!?). 

I especially enjoyed seeing the display in the kitchen. The old tins and bottles with original labels were quite interesting. Upstairs, the rooms were set up for the commander and his family, so you see not only the uniform but also what the wife and children would wear and some of their possessions.

The left side of this layout is based on the 101 Sketches book (page 85). I'll admit it's a very loose interpretation. I turned the photos on their sides, and there were fewer pieces of paper between the photo elements.

The right side is based on a pin I've saved for a LONG time! Before the original Creative Memories went out of business, I spent time "pinning" all of the ideas from their blog, including sketches. Those sketches used a lot of smaller photos, and my technique at the time didn't match those (nor was I "reading" the sketches and interpreting them in my own style). I dug into my stash of Graphic 45 papers for this layout (both sides). I've always liked how their papers coordinate with historic home tours. I used a LOT of scraps to put these together, plus some random old stickers from my stash.

Give us Liberty!

The last stop of the day was at Liberty Hall. I had arranged an NPTC Meetup. While we didn't run into each other much during the day, we gathered here for the day's final tour. I set up my stamper near the official stampers and tried to pull everyone together. However, I missed the last tour as club members kept arriving and wanted to stamp! Well, there will be another one next time, I'm sure! Several of us headed to dinner after this to chat more, and then it was time to return to the current year.

This layout is based on one of the CM sketches in the 101 sketchbook (page 60). I am using a collection called Gem Tone, a secret box from a few years ago. I love it for pages with historic homes. It just seems to "fit". The bottom is 1 1/2" strips (again, a great way to use up scraps!) The border sticker across the top covers any slight imperfections in the length. The kit came with a set of laser-cut frames. The one you see above is 1/2 of the frame in the kit. I only needed to highlight one photo, and I could keep the other half for a different page. I tucked the cut edge under the brochure so you cannot see any imperfect edges.