But There's No Wall!

My next stop in Kansas was Fort Larned. I liked their entry sign area, which had metal silhouettes of soldiers. What is unusual about this Fort is that it never had an exterior wall. Think of it more like a base than an area for defense. The barracks here helped protect and police the traffic along the Santa Fe trail and work with the Native Americans in the area. The buildings are now made of beautiful brownstones. Originally, they were all wooden structures, but to preserve the fort, they switched to stones. The porticos came in handy as it was a bit drizzly during my visit. 

I made this layout as part of one of my Saturday morning classes. It uses a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. Unfortunately, I cannot post it here since it was part of a class I purchased. I wanted to highlight the brownstones, so I looked for a similar paper. I didn't have anything in stone or brick that I liked, but the brown and stripe paper I used was an almost perfect match. It came from the Keep the Faith pack, which is usually more appropriate for churches. The borders on the right came from the Wide Open Spaces collection, and so did the journal box. The remaining embellishments were from an older Close To My Heart kit. The stickers are foil and a little delicate. If you don't handle them right, they will tear as you try to remove them from the backing paper.

I had a few additional photos, and since I wanted to highlight the Santa Fe Trail connection, I used an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket. This is the front side. I chose a similarly toned brown paper and added it across the middle to match the 12x12 pages. I used a few random saddle and bridle stickers to represent the trail.

On the back of the pocket, I added 2 more photos of the Fort with a wide-angle look. This page has additional stickers from the CTMH pack.

A Tale of a Trail

After leaving Nicodemus, I drove to the Barton County Historical Museum. They have a passport stamp for the Santa Fe Trail. I took quite a while to explore the museum, which covers every era of this locale, from the Native Americans to the 1950s. I won't include all the pages about the museum, but they did have a display of the Santa Fe Trail, including this reproduction wagon filled with supplies. There are wagon ruts still visible in places, but I did not have time to go to each site (and not all were open due to the pandemic). I'm heading to Fort Larned next, another site along the route, but I will focus on its structures rather than the Santa Fe Trail. What you don't see on this page is the Santa Fe Trail passport book for Barton County (they have stickers, not stamps). I placed it in a pocket attached to the page. Stop by to see it for yourself!

This layout is based on one that I pinned. Take a look and realize that it is a VERY LOOSE interpretation. I was at a crop when creating this and purposefully had not brought all my cardstock. I forced myself to use scraps and other papers from my stash. The background papers are from an older Advisor-only pack called Painted Prairie. I liked the ombre effect and thought it created a sunset look. I then added some dark brown along the bottom to represent the earth and covered it with a border punch of wheat stalks. The wagon was cut on the Cricut. The sheriff is a very old item called "Paperkins." Before Cricut, die-cut machines, or fancy punches, these little kits gave us a parade of people in all sorts of costumes. This one came with a hobby horse, but I decided that would be too juvenile for the page. The final touch was the journal box. The Wide Open Places kit had this saloon door card and was a good fit.

Saving Grace

One of the buildings that the Ranger showed me was the AME church. Though built in 1885, it has undergone renovation several times, and now the park is trying to restore it to the original interior. They found a panel where people had signed the walls as they worked. They applied plexiglass over the top to preserve it so it remained visible. The other church, which I think was the Baptist church, is still in disrepair and cannot be explored. 

I made this layout as part of a Saturday morning class using a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. I cannot share the sketch with you, but it features one of my favorite tricks--fooling the eye into thinking there is more paper on the page. On the right page, you see a square of blue paper under the church photo and sunrise paper. That is a set of 1" strips carefully aligned above and below the sunrise paper! This is one way to save paper--we used just 1 sheet of double-sided paper for the layout. I used this paper from the Keeping the Faith collection. When I measured the first cut, I realized I could preserve the sunrise and cross. In the original sketch, a 4x4 photo was to be placed there. It's a great way to use the photo papers in some of our packs. My final embellishments included border stickers and stickers from the same pack.

A Tale of One City

In the morning, I made my way over to Nicodemus. I started my visit at the Town Hall, the visitor center. This ample space resembles an auditorium, with many tales of the city's inhabitants displayed around the room. There was just one ranger on duty, so I waited until he had time to give me a brief tour of the town. He highlighted 2 buildings and then had to return to the visitor center. They don't get many visitors, so I don't think I kept him from seeing anyone, though I know I wasn't the only one to visit that day. The walking tour brochure does detail the history of the buildings, and it's an easy walk around the town (though it was still chilly for early May).

If this layout looks familiar, I posted it for the Lasting Memories Challenge. For details about the construction and papers, check out this blog post.

I added an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page between the main pages of the layout. I placed the walking tour brochure and a photo of the crumbling infrastructure on the front. I used a piece of paper from the same pack to create a feeling of continuity as you look at the pages.

On the back side of the pocket, I added 2 more photos of the town (same building but one zoomed in). And to emphasize the forlornness of the site, I added a die cut of a crooked house. It's supposed to be on a Halloween page as a haunted house, but scrapbooking has no rules. I also found an old CM die cut that had some embossing. I used a black marker to ink the embossed areas to make them more visible.

Cover Story

Welcome to Kansas! In the next few weeks, we'll review my trip from May 2021. I had been vaccinated and felt like I needed another getaway (it had been more than 6 months since my last national park trip--that's unheard of for me). However, I still didn't want to go where there were too many people. Nicodemus National Historic Site in Kansas posted on their Facebook Page that they would soon be opening, which seemed remote enough to match my goals. While today's post won't directly include anything from Nicodemus, I wanted to show you the kick-off to the album. 

This is the album's cover page, but I did something more unique. I used 2 of the 6x12 peekaboo pockets for the top. Looking closely, a tab under the barn door latch says "Lift." When you lift that tab, you will see the layout below. The 12x12 base and the 2 peekaboo extensions on either side create a complete 2-page layout! The idea started with that barn door paper. I'd always wanted to incorporate it into a design, but you can't tell what it is if you cover it in photos. I only added the Kansas title I purchased from Paper Wizard for this page. Cutting it in the middle was tricky as it is about 7 layers of different colors. But I managed the feat and was able to attach the 2 sides so that they met evenly on the papers.

The trip started with a flight to Wichita, and I drove to the Schweizer Hotel in Hill City, KS. There are not many hotels in Nicodemus, and this one was inexpensive. I was a little leery over what I would find, but it was similar to staying in my grandmother's house! The furnishings are all vintage but sturdy enough to be livable, not a museum. Indeed, they encouraged me to sit in the front area as if it were my living room. There will be additional pages in the album, but I'm limiting myself to showing these 2 pages since it doesn't really have anything to do with the National Park site. If you are ever in the area, I encourage you to visit and stay the night.

I didn't follow a sketch per se, but I've created pages like this before. The difference is that instead of splitting the middle page across 2 backgrounds, it is solid with 2 wings. The back of the barn door paper (Rustic Manor collection) has a marble look, and I thought that worked with the photos. In contrast, the main page is a light wood tone. I added some rustic rose paper cutouts from a very old tablet. I found a few journal boxes in my stash and 2 matching laser-cut borders for the edges. In the next blog, we'll look at Nicodemus.

A Taste of West Virginia

We decided to have lunch at the lodge. Initially, we sat on the patio, but those pesky wind bursts blew our umbrella (and nearly our food) all over, so we asked to be moved indoors. (Remember, this is still pre-vaccine Covid, so it was not a decision we took lightly). We enjoyed our appetizer of brisket dip, and then each of us ordered sandwiches. The bonus to eating lunch here was that they "validated" our sky ride, so we did not have to pay! 

I made this layout during the Tammy McEwen end-of-2024 challenge. It's based on the March 2024 Virtual Crop Sketch #4. I chose papers from the Backyard BBQ pack from Creative Memories. I liked the red gingham paper and added some red cardstock to punch the dinner plates and silverware for the bottom borders. I didn't want to use many of the stickers from the BBQ pack since this was a restaurant, so I dug through my stash and found all of those corn-on-the-cob stickers, so I threw one on each of the plates. A few full plates and napkin packs helped round out the layout. This also ended the album, so we'll visit a new park next time!

Autumn is in the Air

After our hike, we relaxed at the resort's outdoor features. Though the fire pit had no fire, the swings were pretty comfy. We also found some Adirondack chairs overlooking the river. We enjoyed that, except when the wind created microbursts around us, and the leaves and dirt flew. You can see Kris protecting herself during one of them! 

I made this layout during Tammy McEwen's end-of-year challenge. She brings back sketches from the CM blog over the year, and we are to create additional layouts to help finish our albums quickly. The sketch had originally been shared during the summer in a weekly challenge. I chose Shades of Golden Harvest for my layout and used orange shimmer cardstock for the base. Instead of pockets, I trimmed the foliage photos to 3x4. I love how trimming my horizontal images makes it look like they are matted when they are simply attached to the orange base. The large blue mat on the left is a piece of vellum that had been issued with the papers. I didn't have any stickers left from that pack, but I found some in my stash that worked well, including a thin title sticker border that I cut and layered on the right side.

Blazing a Trail

After my "dip" in the Bluestone River, we decided to take the River Trail. They had not maintained all of the trail, which was confusing, but we did manage a nice walk. I found some hanging vines along the trail and persuaded Jim to do a little "Tarzan" impersonation. Although it is called the River Trail (and does start near the river), we ended up on a path further into the hills for the return part of the trip.

I chose one of Cheryl Even's sketches for this layout (I love that she allows so many photos on the layouts). You can see a copy of it here. The sketch calls for a border at the bottom. I chose the one on the left page that I had made in one of my Saturday classes with my customers. The technique will work with any paper pack and is great for using up scraps. Cut any color of cardstock to 1 1/2" wide, then cut a bunch of 1" strips of paper. Start away from a corner, lay one of the strips diagonally across the cardstock, and then trim the ends. Continue mixing and matching strips along the length, cutting off the extra at the edges. For the left side, I added a small title and embellishments from the coordinating sticker pack (this is all from Hello Autumn). When I decided to use the border, I found more papers and created another matching one. (I matched the angle of the paper from the first border so that there was consistency across the page. After that, I simply mounted the highlight photo on a mat and arranged the rest of the pictures and memorabilia. I found that lovely mat card and turned it into a journal box. I switched to a white pen when I got to the dark green section of the card.

Am I Bluestone

Once we reached the resort, I headed over to where the river flowed and could put my hand in the river. Now I have officially visited the park!😀 What's interesting is that while Pipestem is the official location of the park, there are no stamps here. I obtained the stamp about 40 miles from here, at the New River Gorge Visitor Center. 

I used the CM Virtual Crop Sketch from September 2024 for this layout. Scroll to layout #5. I chose a vibrant background cardstock (Goldenrod), so my designer papers are more tonal, and the colors are muted. These are scraps from Hello Autumn, which is just about gone. I did add some embellishments from Leave Nothing Behind, but the photos do most of the work on this layout.

Risky Business

On the 3rd day of our vacation, we traveled south to get to the 3rd and last National Park, the Bluestone National Scenic River. Our best way to visit was to go to Pipestem State Park. During the trip, my sister-in-law Kristin was considering trying a zip line, but we never arranged that. This was the next best thing. To get to the river and the resort, take an aerial tram (gondola) down the mountain. The "Ride at your own risk" sign gave us a little pause, but it was a very comfortable and pretty ride down. 

This layout was made using a 1-page (12x12) sketch by Cheryl Even. I doubled it by creating a mirror image of the page on the left. I wish I could tell you the name of the paper packs I used for this. I was going through scraps, and I could only identify the tan strips in the middle. That's part of Hello Autumn. The leaves are part of an older "Fall In" collection. I liked how bright and cheery they were on this layout. 

Serenely Silent

 Our visit ended with the main Patterson House and burial ground. There were a few more stories of the battle and a description of why someone not family is buried here. The story of the fight in the cornfield reminds me of other battlefields I've seen. Imagine the devastation to a family's income for the year or starvation in the area because the crops were crushed in the fighting.

This is another layout from the Croptoberfest 2016 pack. This layout does something I RARELY do--the background papers are different! They are, of course, coordinated, and the softened tones of the pattern lent themselves to the reflective mood of the photos.

That's a Deep Subject

Near the farmhouse stood a gazebo-like building. Further investigation revealed that it was the site of the well. Oddly, the structure would not have been historically present during the battle. In 2000, a "witness tree" fell over in a windstorm. To preserve the memory of the tree, they cut it into lumber and constructed this well covering. I suppose that's a thoughtful way to keep the story going.

This layout is a page from a 2016 Creative Memories Croptoberfest (if you sense a theme to these pages, you're right--they are all part of the same box of "Fall" themed papers). When I assembled this kit (and it pre-dates me as an advisor, so I never taught it to anyone), I put the photo mats in place as directed in the recipe. And, of course, when I added my photos, they were all in the wrong direction. So I used my Multi-purpose tool to pull them up. A few remnants of paper or tears were still visible, but most of them could be covered by strategically relocating the mats. I then added the "having FUN!" card (leftover from a Paper Loft kit) to cover some additional goofs. 

Same Old Story

Happy Valentine's Day to all! I hope you LOVE my layout 😁💕😊 

After leaving the woods, we found ourselves at the edge of the plantation. We could see the canon and many signs regarding the Civil War battle fought here. I was surprised not only that the battle took place (I'd never heard of Carnifex Ferry before our trip) but also that it secured the division of the states to create West Virginia! There must also be other factors, but it's undoubtedly part of the story.

This page is part of a kit I got as a visit to a scrapbook store during the Buggies and Buds Shop Hop. This was a fun activity that my mom and I often did. At the end of September through Columbus Day, a small group of stores in Central Pennsylvania connected and hosted an event where we would travel from store to store getting our book stamped (guess why I enjoyed it). Along the way, we got "Make and Take" kits, usually greeting card kits but occasionally scrapbook layouts. This had been a 2-page layout, but I used the other side of the design previously. I liked the old wagon here as a 'tip of the hat' to the Civil War era.

There's a Fungus Among Us

After leaving the falls overlook, we continued the trail. The foliage was lovely, and since we weren't hurrying, we could stop and look around. The yellow diamond is the blaze for this trail. You can see in one photo below that we were amidst some very tall trees (that's Jim compared to the tree heights). And then I came across that stump that was just COVERED in mushrooms! 

This layout is from the Creative Memories 2022 Croptoberfest collection. And believe it or not, you can STILL order it! Check out this link. Below are the sample layouts that the Project Recipe kit makes. You can see that I rearranged where I wanted my photos on the pages (this layout is at the bottom of the 2 samples). When I help people create the pages, we always stop before attaching the photo mats. That way, when you are ready to use them, you can adjust the layouts to your photos. But since the tree had mushrooms and the layout had mushrooms--it's almost like they were meant to happen together!

Bonus Post--Happy Horizontals

Hello all! I'm posting a bonus entry tonight for a layout I just completed. You'll see more about this trip in a few weeks. In May 2021, I made a trip to Kansas, and one of my visits was to Nicodemus. This historic site commemorates the community founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. It became a rich cultural settlement with banks, schools, theater, all surrounded by a prosperous farming community. Though there were many of these founded, this one is the only one still inhabited. The population is quite small--less than 50 people remain. But they have a reunion once a year, and the descendants all return to celebrate the town.

I created this layout using a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. It was from a package I purchased, so I cannot post the sketch, but it did create the horizontal paper strips you see that match the Lasting Memories challenge for this week. The papers are from the Botanical Bliss collection; most have a floral or butterfly print. But I loved this distressed wood with the green dot print on the reverse. I also used a darker background from the same paper pack with a small detail that might be wheat. There were no embellishments with that paper, so I dug through my stash and found a few laser-cut pieces that would provide a little more color to a fairly light page.

Falling For You

As promised, here are the photos of the Pillow Rocks Overlook. That's the Gauley River, and it's as close as we'll get to it on this trip. We picked the perfect time to visit—look at the leaf color in the photos. We stood here just looking for quite a while before completing the trail. Those rocks don't look like pillows, though. Someone has a vivid imagination!

The left side of this page was made with one of the Advisor Only paper packs. Advisors also receive project recipes to use the papers. While I rarely follow those ideas, I made this one-page layout. When I pulled the photos, I replicated another page on the right side. Unfortunately, I had little of the paper pack remaining. I dug through my stash and found some comparable papers for the background. I didn't find enough to do ALL the leaves I needed (those are one of the CM punches). The top border on the right page is a little different. But the border stickers create a tone for the layout that works.

By Gauley

On our second vacation day, we headed to Carnifex Ferry State Park. As it was October and too cold to do an activity on the Gauley River, I settled for seeing it flow through the park. Kris had a problem with her socks, so I took a couple of photos of her, readjusting them before we started hiking 😀. I added the overlook sign here, but you'll see the pictures in the next blog post.

This layout is based on one of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 layouts. I finally found a way to see her blog (the links you find on her YouTube videos are all broken). So check out the link to the layout here and a link to the YouTube video. I bookmarked one of her pages to go back and find the directions and her hints and tips. You can search at the top of the page for a specific month or collection. This layout uses paper from the "Leave Nothing Behind" collection. I used 3x4 photos on the right side of the design instead of 4x6, so I got a little more white space on the right side, but I'm OK with that. 

I bought an Echo Park "Stateside" collection, and on the reverse of the West Virginia paper is that small map in the middle of the 6x4 photos. I was happy to find that the river and the park were on that portion of the map, so I highlighted them with a yellow marker and then cut a round enamel circle so that you could see both sections.

A Walk in the Woods

After lunch, we decided to hike a different trail and drove to the Bridge Trail. We would have seen another view of the big bridge if we had completed it. However, as we reached the top of the hill, the footing seemed a bit tougher than we were prepared for, so we turned around and headed back to the car.

This sketch is based on one of the CM 101 layout sketches (page 32). I used more Paper Loft papers. The trees are a border punch. It amazes me that layering one over a photo doesn't detract from the image.

Let's Have a Picnic

After our walk, we had lunch. We had packed a cooler with sandwiches, chips, and snacks. There was a picnic pavilion near the trailhead, and we dug in! Hiking really builds an appetite! The other photo is of a bar we passed (closed, of course). It was food-related, so I added it to the picnic page.😀 Note the bag of trail mix in front of me. I made that at home and brought it with us (homemade granola, too). One of the ingredients was dried apple. I chose a bag at the store that wasn't crispy, and Jim declared it to be too much like styrofoam to eat, so I had to pick those pieces out and eat them myself.

This page is based on a sketch from the CM Worldwide Virtual Crop (Scroll to sketch #3). I used papers from the Paper Loft. Since I only had a couple of photos, I replaced two of the photo spots with large embellishments from the Paper Loft cut-apart cards.

The Homestead

As I mentioned in the last blog, our trail led to an old homestead. Little remained except the family cemetery. Kristen was fascinated by the little stones. It looks like many of them have been replaced with modern grave markers. Still, the markers that simply say "Mother" and "Father" can be moving in their own way. Jim helped the photo process by clearing the fallen leaves off all the stones.

This layout uses papers from CM's old " Cottage " palette. It was one of my favorite packs, especially as the stickers had a vintage feel. I started the page creation with the borders at the top. I had created those from an idea sheet CM produced simultaneously with the palette. At that time, CM used pages that were NOT true 12x12. They were 12" long but only about 11 1/2" wide. That made it a bit tricky to use with non-CM materials ("contraband") as you would have to trim all of the pages. However, CM eventually joined the standard sizing and now makes everything in true 12x12 size. But that means these papers don't fit! They are about 1/2" short. I've used multiple techniques to overcome that, including sacrificing a second piece of paper to fill the gap or only using the paper as a mat. For this layout, I trimmed the orange papers to create rectangles but intentionally left some of the white cardstock showing behind the paper and the borders. Luckily, I'm almost done using these papers, so I won't have to be so creative soon!

Decisions, Decisions

We found a place where the trail was split as we walked along. We weren't prepared for that, so we stood there contemplating. Ultimately, we decided to head to the right. It is supposed to be a loop. If that's true, we should have been able to return to this point. We never found evidence of a loop, though. You'll see in the next post that we came across an old homestead and then retraced our steps back to this point.

This is the third laser-cut page. I love the little owl hidden in the trees. You don't even see him until you place a small circle behind him (yellow would work well here, too). I felt lucky to have this pack with me as I assembled these at my 2024 Croptoberfest event. It helped speed up the process of completing the album.

Oh, Christmas Tree

As we walked the trail, Jim came across a tiny evergreen that reminded us of the Charlie Brown tree from the Peanuts Christmas cartoon. Apparently, when Jim was a boy, he tried to get his family to choose something similar for the family tree, and, well, no one forgets something like that! So I made him pause for a couple of photos--one a close-up so you could see the branches against his pants.

This is another page from the Creative Memories 2023 Croptoberfest pack. It's one of the laser-cut pages mounted on decorative paper, contrasting nicely with the blue plaid and the cut-out areas. The three circles at the top are places where smaller photos could go. Since I had nothing for those, I filled each with punched shapes and embellishments. Since the pages had been completed, these were a breeze to assemble!

Burn Baby Burn

After leaving the visitor center, we felt like hiking in the woods. The ranger's information pointed us to a nearby trail called Burnwood Trail. It was an easy hike through old-growth trees (though we also found some new growth). The trailhead was nearby, so we chose to hike before eating lunch.

This layout was created from the Creative Memories 2023 Croptoberfest collection. Here's a sample of the materials.

Creative Memories offers packages with extra paper and laser-cut frames along with an instruction booklet to create additional pages. I put them together for my customers so they can see the finished products and so that I can warn them of any typos or places to pay special attention when cutting. And that's why there is a little tear on the frame on the left page. I had used repositionable adhesive, but it has gotten stronger over time. After a year, it ripped as I tried to edge my photo underneath. OOPS!

Gorge-ous!

By the fall, I was getting worn out and needed to escape. Still, where do you go with a pandemic raging, no cure, and no vaccine? Well, the middle of West Virginia sounded remote enough to be safe, and the possibility of seeing the changing leaves was enough of a draw to get us out of our house. In fact, Jim's sister also needed a break and joined us. We rented a cabin near New River Gorge National Scenic River (well--it was at the time; now it's a National Park!) On our first day after travel, we headed to the visitor center to get our bearings and, of course, my stamps.

You may recall this post from last summer—it was the last of my guest designer spots. The post provides details on the layout.

To better view the bridge, follow the boardwalk behind the visitor center. It is 178 steps down (and back up!) It was much more crowded than I thought it would be for a mid-week October visit. Then again, it was near Columbus Day, so many people had the same idea. So, that meant masks as we did the walk.

I wanted to use the paper from Scrapbook Customs featuring the bridge photo. I made that the left side of a layout. The right side is the 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page where I added the information sheet on the bridge. I folded it to see the best of the highlights. I matted our photos so they would pop from the page.

For the final pages on the boardwalk trail, I turned to a set of pages I had made at one of the Paper Loft classes at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. I carefully restructured the left page to retain many of the original elements but trimmed it to 8 1/2 x 11 to fit the pocket page. I felt rather proud of myself for figuring that out!

The Last Supper

During the early part of the pandemic, restaurants were forced to close as they were natural places where the virus could spread. Many found ways to serve take-out (including take-out bar service) to help cover some expenses. City Tavern asked people to purchase gift cards during that time to have funds to continue operating. I love that restaurant and its chef, so I ordered a $50 card. I was happily surprised to receive the card with a handwritten Thank You note from the chef!

In September 2020, there was some ability to reopen the establishments by utilizing open-air seating. Jim and I used our gift card and went to Philly one evening for dinner. I enjoyed it very much, especially as we hadn't had a chance to dine out in months. It was a nice treat that I didn't have to cook. Sadly, just a few months after our visit, City Tavern announced they would have to close permanently. It was one of the saddest days of the pandemic for me.

I completed this layout as part of Tammy McEwen's End-of-Year challenge. I originally finished this during the April 2024 CM Virtual Crop (scroll to sketch #4). For this version, I used papers from the Silver and Gold packs, including a newer part of the "Enchanted Memories" line that was part of the winter 2024 releases (bonus paper you could only get from your consultant). I found a couple of embellishments with scrolls and Old English fonts. That pulled out the 18th-century vibe with our pewter cups!

Meeting Virtually Everywhere

On Saturday, I donned my new convention shirt. We had a special one produced with a logo indicating the virtual convention, and everyone was to order it in the color of their home region. I live in the Mid-Atlantic, so I got a light blue shirt. On the same weekend, I attended a virtual crop and worked on pages from a previous convention. Therefore, my submission to the forum for that day included both the shirt and the scrapbook pages. Later in the afternoon, I joined the convention meeting. We had several speakers, door prizes, and trivia.

This page is based on one of the CM December 2024 sketches (scroll to sketch #1). Like my Junior Ranger page, I used the "Leave Nothing Behind" kit and augmented that with "Set Up Camp." The 2 collections have similar patterns and color profiles, so it is easy to mix and match the 2. I created the circles for the banners by punching with the CM Circle punch. I was short by one green circle. It did not matter as I found a sticker I could put in its place. The other circle embellishments fit into the paper circles very nicely.

By the way, if you want to see the full layout that I'm holding in the photo, check out this post from January 2021, where it was featured!