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.