Good Old Golden Rule Days

Another building I visited in the East Jersey Olde Town Village is a one-room schoolhouse. This one is of stone construction. I typically associate these with the frontier and assume log cabins, but this one was made of sturdier stuff. The desks were all paired, and each had its own slate tucked into a well at the front.

This layout is based on one of the CM sketches in the 101 Sketch book, page 52. I turned the sketch 90 degrees because my photos were all landscape. 

I used a base from the Copper and Kraft paper pack (an advisor-only pack). The pattern reminded me of the Graphic 45 papers that make up the rest of the layout. I've finally come to the last of my historic school papers and embellishments. I really liked that little rectangular photo of the kids going to school next to my journal box. That captures the essence of the time period perfectly! The title elements are from the Copper and Kraft kit as well. A little brighter than I would have hoped for, but it was the right sentiment for the title. 

The bottom row border is supposed to be a series of books. I first struggled to find that punch because, well, it wasn't a punch! That's one of the cutting dies I had purchased. Once I realized that, I created 2 segments to place side by side to form a border. I need a less busy pattern for the paper. Neither the books nor the little counting phrase was 12" long, so I filled in the left edge with another embellishment image. Not strictly school, but young girls, and that worked for me. 

Half a Door is Better Than None

Welcome back to my tour of East Jersey Olde Towne Village. We finally come to the areas that were staffed. I enjoyed talking to this housewife about her daily life. The house has a small garden to the side, though most of the plants were well past the harvesting stage. I liked that they had included a half-door, and she was standing in the doorway awaiting my visit! The tour covered only the first floor and focused primarily on the kitchen, which was fine with me. 

This layout is based on one of the CM Virtual Crop Sketches from November 2025. Scroll to layout #2 (I turned it to the right). November 2025 was also a Secret Box opening month, and I always buy those kits. This one included the border maker cartridge you see on the right side of the 4" strips. I wasn't sure that the 3 strips would align correctly when stacked, so I carefully placed them on the paper holder as I wanted them on the page. Post-it notes help to hold paper in place if you need more stability. The brown border sticker is a leftover from an older kit in my stash, but I thought it worked well with this layout. There were also leftover buttons and hearts, which reflected the homey feel of the photos.

Horsing Around at the Blacksmith Shop

Welcome back to my tour of East Jersey Olde Towne in October 2021. The next location I visited was also unstaffed — the blacksmith's shop. I've seen forges working at other parks, so I didn't need the details, though it is usually a nice program. Additional rusty farm equipment was just outside the barn, so you get a whole idea of all the items they had to work on. Lots of horseshoes are lined up as well.

I based this layout on one of the CM virtual crop sketches from November 2025. Look at sketch #1 (I doubled it for this layout). I wanted to focus on the red barn and the brick chimney. The background paper is cranberry cardstock, and I had 2 matching pieces of brick paper for the mat area. I punched the barbed wire fence with a CM Border Making Cartridge. I trimmed off one link so that it fit just over the mat area. I found a mat with a distressed gray pattern and trimmed it into 4 equal segments. By tucking those under the brick paper, it looks like a single long piece extending across the page. Saves paper that way! I found a border sticker that I cut into short lengths to use as a title, and then mimicked that effect by putting my journaling on white write strips on the right page. A few stickers from the CM On the Farm pack rounded out the layout. 

Up a Steep and Very Narrow Stairway

This blog post is a continuation of the Indian Queen Tavern tour. The upstairs is more reminiscent of family life than of an inn, but it still houses some wonderful pieces. I especially liked the piano (which might be a harpsichord, I forget the details). The stairway itself is a special historic artifact. The period style called for a very sturdy yet winding, narrow staircase. This saves room in the floor plan, but can be treacherous on the climb. Watch your step if you visit!

I based this layout on a pin I had saved. Noreen Smith made the original pages you can see in this pin, but she only posted a photo of the design, no directions. I tried to emulate her style from the one clue in the original post—it's all from one sheet of paper. I chose the last piece of paper in my Literary Romance collection and used the woodgrained side. I started by cutting an 8" square from the center of the paper. That piece is placed as a diamond on the right side of the layout. The remaining piece of paper is turned so the corners hang over the left page edges. I tried to center the paper as best I could, then turned it over and cut off the sides, leaving me with the 4 corner elements for the right-side page. I couldn't tell whether Noreen meant the center mat sections were also from the same sheet of paper, but I don't think they are. For that reason, I found 2 8" square remnants in my stash and used them to mount the photos in the center of the pages. The title element and the corner stickers on the left page are from Creative Memories. The remaining embellishments are from the Paper Loft collection.

In the Inn

Welcome back to my extended fall break from 2021. The first building I walked through in the East Jersey Olde Towne Village was this tavern. It started as a private residence, but with the addition of rooms and remodeling, it eventually became a tavern and inn. The first floor focuses on the tavern portion with the bar room and dining room set up for travelers. As with many other locations, Washington is reputed to have dined here on his journey between New York and Virginia. The manikin below is supposed to represent him. I love that they included a mock-up of the food served, too!

This layout is based on a Club Scrap layout that I saved. The link to the layout sample is here. I found a link to the PDF directions that include the cutting guides (email me if you would like a copy). I chose papers from Paper Loft. Isn't the teapot design simply the best fit for the background? The directions call for several decorative papers. I used 1 sheet for the stripes, 1 for the border bases, and 1 for the small squares. The green tonal paper didn't precisely match the teapot background, so it creates the visual separation needed for the layout to work. There are a dozen 1" squares on the layout. You could use all one pattern, or use this as an excuse to use up a variety of scraps. Just make sure the tones match. The small journal box and the other embellishment cluster were remnants I found in my stash pile.

It Takes a Village

My fall 2021 vacation extended through the weekend, though my husband returned to our home. Union County holds its Four Centuries in a Weekend event on the 2nd weekend of October. I planned to attend those events, but since they don't start until Saturday, I used Friday to schedule visits along my travel route. New Brunswick, NJ, is in Middlesex County (not far from Rutgers University), so I made plans to pick up a few more stamps there. The East Jersey Olde Towne is a collection of buildings that would have been found in Colonial America, but like the Appalachian village in the Great Smoky Mountains, gathered from various sites and moved to a central location. They have a regular supply of living history actors, and I got to meet several of them.

This layout is based on one of the CM Virtual Crop layouts from October 2025. Scroll to layout #1. The secret to the long strip that flows off the bottom of the page is to use 2 mats that are 4 1/2" x 6 1/2". You need to pick 2 that match and tape them together in the middle (you'll cover that with the photos). That gives you 13 inches of length, so you can position it with the ends just hanging off the sides, then trim the excess. I also used some paper from the collection (I'm using Legacy of Love again) because there were decorations in the middle that I wanted to cover, and it wasn't quite covered by the photos, as they were trimmed to 5 1/2" long each. The base is a sheet of  Hot Fudge Brown cardstock. I gutted the middle so I could use it for the mats on the smaller photos. There is a companion page on the right with the village map, and there will be lots more journaling as I go, so I was OK with the small journal box under the photo.