A Night to Remember

Today, we continue with the NPTC 2021 convention. On Sunday morning, I arranged a tour of Ford's Theater. Although I had been here once before, the only ticket I could obtain then was for a staged play in the theater (the theater still puts on productions throughout the year). For my 2021 visit, I arranged a tour that included a visit to the museum and a look at the Lincoln Box. 

I chose to organize the photos not so much by when I saw them on the tour, but based on the timeline of the evening. This layout sets the stage by showing the theater, a pair of tickets from that evening's performance (although it is unclear whether they belonged to the Lincolns), and items that would have been part of the evening, such as opera glasses and fans. 

The layout is based on the CM Project Recipe for the Fresh Fusion collection. The use of such dark papers for a recipe layout that was bright and cheery is a little incongruous, but I chose it for the photo array, not the paper colors. The papers are from the Paper Loft collection. Their heritage pack includes some brown and gray tones with wonderful old-time patterns. One pattern features ivory with vines, providing some contrast in the two-layered borders (made with the CM Border Maker System).  

All the Presidents Men and Women

Today, we finalize the layouts for the President's Dinner at the 2021 NPTC convention. One photo we try to get each year is a group of all the presidents who have served in the organization over the years. This photo is missing John, as he doesn't seem to attend the convention much anymore, but the other five of us were happy to be together again. This is the order in which we served: Mike at the far right, then Nancy, then Roland, then me, and currently, Yvonne. (John would be between Nancy and Roland).

This layout is based on an Original CM sketch. I replaced the block of 3 photos in the center with the 5x7 photo of our group. The papers are from the same collection as my dinner companions' layout in the last blog (Our Moments). I do love that tiled paper! The border is a laser-cut border from the collection. The base is bronze shimmer cardstock, providing a rich tone to the layout. The top word (Friendship) is a laser-cut title. The bottom phrase (Capture the Moment) is a sticker from the original CM collections. This page finishes volume 1 of my convention trip. There were so many photos over the 6 days of my journey that I had to put the rest of the material in another album. The end of the dinner served as a suitable stopping point for this album.

Dinner Companions

Welcome back to the President's Dinner at the 2021 NPTC Convention. I don't have many photos from the event. We began with a cocktail reception and then proceeded to dinner. You can see the menu below. I joined Carl and Marla Raboi, Carl's mom, and her significant other, along with Melania, Nicole, Brian Bailey, and a new member named Allan Randall. We had a great time talking over dinner and were able to get a couple of group shots in before the night came to an end.

For this layout, I chose one of Cheryl Even's Split Coast Stampers sketches. I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the right to align with the direction of my photos. I used the Our Moments collection from Creative Memories because I felt the colors matched the tone of the restaurant — the rich browns and reds are reflected in the wood tones of the walls and columns. I really like the paper with the tiles on it, so I made that the base for the 2 group photos. I used one of the tonal papers for the background and added 2 thin strips of gray for the outline of the square. This way, I didn't have to cover up the gray paper unnecessarily — paper saver! I didn't need much journaling, so I chose one of the mats with a smaller circle in the middle. The gray of the card matches the gray strips, which helps tie the layout together.

The Train Gang

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC Convention in Washington, DC. This post marks the beginning of a look at the President's Dinner — the traditional meal served after the convention meeting. The dinner was held at a restaurant across town from the hotel, but we were able to ride the Metro to a nearby station. Not everyone was as familiar with Metro, and I found myself leading a large group of club members. I had to turn around periodically to take photos of them behind me. 

This layout is based on one of Meggan and Tessa's Power Hours (May 2025). I pulled more of the red-white-and-blue papers from my stash, but I also borrowed embellishments from the Passport to Adventure pack. That pack had the nice Metro Train sticker and a 'Now Boarding' title. There was also a mat with the title that I liked for this particular layout. I chose to utilize the circular element as a journal box. I have some lined paper that can be cut with the Custom Cutting System. Cutting a slightly larger circle mat is a nice touch. There are three blades in that set — red, green, and blue. Each is about 1/4" difference in width from the pins to the blade, so you can easily create multiple layers. The left border is the same punch (Chevron) that I used on the cannon firing event at Fort Washington. Now it's backed with blue for a much different look!

Lasting Memories Guest Designer Week 4 (Mount Gulian Front to Back)

Hello everyone! I'm guest designing for Lasting Memories throughout September! This is my final entry, but you can review the previous entries from the past few weeks. Each one followed the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories, and I encourage you to join the challenge! Post your version using the link at the bottom of their post.

For this challenge, I moved to my December 2021 trip to the Hudson River Valley. There are numerous vintage houses in the area, and many of them are decorated for the Christmas season. One of the houses I visited is Mount Gulian. This home is over 300 years old. When we arrived, we were early for the tour, so I walked to the back of the house to explore the grounds. Or did I? Interestingly, this house was located on the river, and so the "back" of the house is truly the FRONT. People traveled mainly by river when the house was built, so they arrived on this side of the house. The side I entered, which is NOW the front, was originally the back door. Amazing how things change over time.

This week, our theme is to use plaid paper! When I think of plaid, I typically think of Christmas, so I went through my park-related photos and found this trip to the Hudson River Valley, where we toured old homes decorated for the holidays. I went through my Christmas stash and located some plaid papers. I followed this idea from the CM blog to create the borders at the top of the pages. I picked a few plaid mats to highlight the house and break up the green at the bottom. The large poinsettia was also one of the photo mats, but I fussy cut the image from the middle.

And the Winner Is...

Today, the blog continues its look at the 2021 NPTC convention. You'll remember that I posted my Saturday morning adventure as one of the Lasting Memories challenge posts back on September 7th. I stopped in Chinatown for a quick bite and then attended the convention meeting. Our meetings always feature a welcome from the superintendent and a speaker about one of the park units. Recognize the ranger on the right-hand page? He was one of the featured speakers at the Frederick Douglass bus trip event. And not only did he speak today, but we awarded him with the NPTC Flat Hat Award. This is the first time we have been able to present the Award at the convention. Usually, we hold a ceremony later in the year at the ranger's host park.

The Award is given each year by asking our members to nominate a ranger who has made an extra effort to ensure the satisfaction of our guests, or who has provided an outstanding presentation. The club has a committee to review the nominations, and then one (or one group) is chosen and announced at the convention. You can see the list of prior winners here. You may be lucky enough to see them in your own NPS travels!

The other awards being given out are to the members who completed their platinum status within the past year. You can see Jennifer Baxter, Cheryl, and Mike Carver (remember their last park, Eisenhower, which was featured at the start of this convention tale). There is also a large photo of all the current platinum members present at the meeting.

This layout is loosely based on Cheryl Even's Sketch #51. This is an excellent sketch if you have a lot of horizontal photos. So long as you get everything to 4" tall, you can arrange the pictures in 2 rows along the page, leaving some gaps for the background paper to show through. The argyle paper is a very old CM paper from my stash. I trimmed it to 8x12 to layer the photos. That left 2" above and 2" below for borders and journaling. The 2 borders below the pictures are laser-cut borders from the US of Yay pack. The "border" across the top was just from punching multiple ribbons with one of the CM punches. I had some small red letter and number stickers to spell out the title across the center of the ribbons. A few firework stickers to celebrate the accomplishments, and the page was done!

Rainbow Shirts Revisited

Today, we are finishing our visit to Glen Echo Park for the 2021 NPTC convention picnic. Before the convention started, I posted a request that people wear their 2020 Virtual Convention shirt to the picnic. This isn't terribly unusual — we typically wear the prior year's shirts on Fridays. But my request included a participation request that everyone get in rainbow order, so I could get a group photo. I was thrilled at how many people came over for the photo. Just outside of our picnic area was a set of risers. I'm not sure why they were there, but they were the perfect way to bring everyone together for the photo. 

I created this layout based on this idea from the CM Blog. I wanted something a little fancier than a plain white background, so I decided to create one. The small squares are made with a CM Border Maker punch and then adhered diagonally across the page. It was a LOT of punching, but it was worth the effort. In addition to this are the diamond shapes created with the CM Custom Cutting System. Since that filled the space with so much color, I journaled on some of the plain white Write Strips. 

Lasting Memories Guest Designer Week 3 (Francis Scott Key Memorial Park)

Hello everyone! I'm guest designing for Lasting Memories throughout September! I'll be sharing an extra layout every Sunday at noon for the next 2 weeks (and I encourage you to go back to review the last 2 weeks). Each one follows the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories, and I encourage you to join the challenge! Post your version using the link at the bottom of their post.

For this post, we are jumping ahead in the NPTC convention again. On Monday, we had a 2nd bus tour, and one of the stops was the Old Stone House in Georgetown. Though managed by the Rock Creek Park unit, the land isn't technically part of that park. However, nearby is Francis Scott Key Memorial Park, which IS. It was located close by where our bus was parked, so when we were done at the house, one of the Rangers walked us back to the bus, stopping at the park long enough for a few photos. 

This week, the Lasting Moments challenge is to use floral paper. I turned to CM's Spring Medley pack. The background floral paper had been used previously, and all that remained was a 1" wide frame. I found a piece of blush cardstock that matched the tone of the stones in the photos and trimmed that to 11". I found a sketch that I had saved and used it to finish filling in the elements. The green leafy print is also from Spring Medley. It's 6" x 9". I trimmed the statue's close-up photo to 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" and then matted it on a piece of blue paper from the collection. A few stickers and a journal box finished the layout.

You're Never Too Old

This blog continues the coverage of the Glen Echo Park picnic for the NPTC 2021 convention. You saw the carousel in the last post; now you can see me and my friends enjoying our free ride. Truthfully, I could have taken a dozen turns; it's such a great carousel! I chose a rabbit for my ride. I'm amused that one of the members chose the sled instead of an animal.

I chose another of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 layouts for this topic. You can see the original blog post from December 2016 here. The papers are from the CM Picture This pack. A few of the embellishments are from the coordinating Shutterbug pack. I liked the large block of photos on each page. The flash strips are part of the Shutterbug collection's page of printed borders. I needed to include them as the Shutterfly photos I use are JUST shy of 6" long. Since there was a small gap, I added the borders to fill in. Although not part of the original sketch, this is one way to differentiate your layouts if you use the sketch multiple times. I used two mats to finish the page — one as a title and one as a journal box. Because the photos do so much of the work, these layouts come together quickly.

A Roaring Good Time

Today, we continue our exploration of Glen Echo Park. Part of our Friday Night picnic included a ticket to ride the historic carousel. Some of the animals date to the early 1900s (and the horse pictured on the right page is not available for human riders due to its historic legacy). This carousel reminds me of Knoebels. I love it when they use ostriches, tigers, and large rabbits as animals to ride. There was also a Wurlitzer organ playing the music for the ride. Beautiful statues that you get to ride. How perfect was that for our club?!?

I based this layout on one of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 sketches, which can be seen here. I chose some Ivory cardstock and a piece of paper from the new Creative Memories 1920-1930 collection. I was thrilled to discover that CM offered a series of decades-inspired papers and stickers. The animals are so lively that the Ivory cardstock is a good resting spot for the eye. The title cluster may be too small. However, the kit doesn't come with mats, and I couldn't find one that worked well as a title. The little girl embellishments are from a heritage pack I've had in my stash for years. They were the perfect decoration for this ride.

The Story is in the Trip Itself (Lasting Memories Guest Designer Week 2)

Hello everyone! I'm guest designing for Lasting Memories throughout September! I'll be sharing an extra layout every Sunday at noon for the next 3 weeks (and don't forget to go back to last Sunday to catch my first entry). Each one follows the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories, and I encourage you to join the challenge! Post your version using the link at the bottom of their post.

This week, we are sticking with the NPTC 2021 convention, but going a little out of order. I'll return to the Glen Echo Friday night picnic in the next post. On Saturday morning, before the main meeting, I made a trek to the LBJ Memorial Grove. Remember that I did not drive to DC, and this is one of those locations where a car would have been helpful. I had initially intended to rent a scooter (the kick-push kind), but I quickly realized I do not have the balance for that, or a bicycle. My next plan was to take the metro to the Pentagon station and pick up an Uber from there, as it would be cheaper than taking an Uber from the hotel. Navigating from the station platform to a spot where the Uber could pick me up was a challenge. Clearly, I could not go into the Pentagon. However, the parking lot was restricted too, so I had to find an alternative way to the road to get picked up. But I managed, and he was able to drop me off at the park near the entrance to the Grove. 

I enjoyed a short visit, as there really isn't much to see other than the monolith and an information sign. There's a small boardwalk to the river where I got to watch more birds. And then I had to get back for the meeting. I called another driver to take me to the Metro station. I watched on the app as they drove around, unable to find the parking lot where I was standing, and then drove away, canceling my ride! Luckily, someone else was able to take the request, and I did make it back in time for lunch and the meeting.

Welcome to challenge #767--striped paper! I created this layout using a VERY old CM sketch (this is actually from the OLD CM company). I chose the striped background in a red-white-and-blue pattern to maintain a patriotic tone, given my embellishments. To soften the bold stripe, I used a sheet of white vellum where the sketch called for a large rectangular block. To adhere vellum, you should try CM's vellum adhesive. It's a bit goopy when you apply it, but when you burnish the paper over the adhesive, it disappears! I chose the blue star paper for the large circle element and a fussy-cut embellishment for the smaller circle. All of the embellishments come from the Eastern National scrapbook kit. You can journal directly on vellum if you like, though you might want to give it an extra minute or two to dry before handling so that it doesn't smear.

The Gang's All Here

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC convention and to our Friday Night Picnic! The bus tour ended with a stop at Glen Echo Park. It is one of the portions of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and is a great destination. It was a leisure destination for Washington, DC, during the early 20th century, and it still has some ways to relax. The historic carousel is here, and you'll see that in a future post. We used the pavilion to host our Friday night picnic (a tradition for many years now). One of the rangers shared some information about the park, and we had plenty of time to catch up with our friends. I have photos with some of my favorites — many of whom I hadn't seen in years!

This layout is based on a Club Scrap free sketch. They post the sizes and cutting guides, making it easier to assemble. The papers came from an old CM patriotic pack. I liked the vibrancy of the designs. You can mix patterns by using a large, medium, and small one, so it doesn't feel too overwhelming. I started using dark blue gingham paper for mats, but that proved overwhelming, so I switched to navy cardstock, which helped create a clear distinction between the photos and the prints. A few stickers from the stash, and the page was done!

Down on the Farm

We are back to the bus tour at the 2021 NPTC convention. After leaving Fort Washington, we drove to the nearby Oxon Hill Farm. The parking lot is a bit of a distance from the farm, so they set up the stamping table at the end of the parking lot, in case anyone didn't feel like making the walk. But Mel and I did walk over to see the animals. Several cows were in the field, and again, there were a plethora of chickens roaming around. They don't seem to be afraid of people at all and think we are all going to feed them because they roam around our ankles the whole time. It was pretty hot that day, so mostly I sat at a table in the shade and talked to some of my park friends. It was a lovely, peaceful stop.

This layout is loosely based on this pin that I saved. I pulled my Farm stash from the shelves and found that I had a portion of the fence border with the chicken on it. Additionally, I had die cuts left from other kits and old CM that included the chicken on the title square. I strung all of that along the bottom of two papers that had red tones (one was supposed to be a barn wall — can you tell there's a window in the middle?). Layering the photos and Unigrid was pretty simple once the borders were done. There is journaling in a peekaboo pocket that sits on top of the chicken photo.

Lasting Memories Guest Designer week 1 (Night tour golf carts)

Hello everyone! I'm guest designing for Lasting Memories throughout September! I'll be sharing an extra layout every Sunday at noon for the next 4 weeks. Each one follows the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories, and I encourage you to join the challenge! Post your version using the link at the bottom of their post.

For today's post, we are going to jump ahead in the 2021 NPTC convention. On my last night (Monday evening), I took part in a Night-time Monuments tour. We were escorted around via these extended golf carts. I'm glad I didn't have to sit backwards on the end, otherwise the carts were GREAT! They could take us right onto the monument areas, which saved us some steps and time. I highly recommend this tour if you head to DC.

Each week, Lasting Memories challenges us to incorporate a specific design on our papers. This week, the theme is Polka Dot paper. The challenge I had was FINDING polka dot paper! I finally located the yellow with white dots in my Birthday stash. The rest of the papers and embellishments come from the CM Imagine and Magic Awaits packs. I knew that the colors in those packs would match the carts perfectly. For the design, I turned to Cheryl Even's sketch #12. You'll see that it originally was a single-page sketch. I just took the sketch and mirrored it to create the double-page layout.

Sounds of Freedom

As I promised in the last post, here is the Fort Washington Cannon Firing event. I always enjoy seeing these, and by now, I understand the various steps. You can see from my photos how far away the reenactors were from the crowd. These photos were taken with Zoom to allow me to see more details. You can also see in the top horizontal photo that there is a small box well behind the cannon. This is where the ordinance is kept, and there is quite a production of someone being told to fetch it, taking it out of the box and putting it in a satchel, and then walking the few feet to the cannon, where it is removed from the satchel and fired. The boom is always a loud shock for me, even though I know it's coming.

For this layout, I wanted to utilize the black shadow border and die cut I bought for Civil War pages. The border includes horses pulling the cannon, and the die cut is the rammer. Again, brick paper would work against the photos, but a dark red paper (I think this is called cinnamon, and it's the last 2 pages I have of this color) gives the impression of brick without the distracting detail. To add a little military flavor, I chose the old CM border maker cartridge, Chevrons. I punched them in navy blue cardstock and then placed a bronze shimmer piece behind it to make the sergeant stripes. A few items from the stash provided the titles. I used the new ivory write strips for journaling to make it easier to see on the page.

Up Against a Wall

This post continues our discussion of Fort Washington during the 2021 NPTC convention. The tour included lunch and a cannon firing demonstration. You'll see the cannon next time. We grabbed our box lunches when they arrived and tried to find a bit of shade to eat. There were no picnic tables within the fort grounds, so we formed a line along one of the walls that offered some shade. This is another location with a LOT of stamps, so they put tables out in front of the commander's house for us to do our thing. That's the bottom right photo. 

This sketch is based on a sketch that CM provided to advisors. When we offered more Theme packs (which consisted of a couple of printed papers, a sheet of cardstock, and a sheet of stickers), they wanted to share ideas on how to use them to create pages. You can view the sketch here, and if you click "visit site," you should be able to download a copy if you haven't seen it already. I used the Bedazzled collection for these pages, along with some brighter, more patriotic papers. One sheet of paper is split across the bottom of the page. Another paper is cut at 5" and 1" twice and then layered on top (using both sides of the paper). The border across the middle is a brick border punch, and it picks up the walls in the photos perfectly. I had actually toyed with brick paper as the background, but honestly, the images were getting lost. The sketch shows some 3x4 pictures at the bottom left and right. I chose to make a couple of banners for each side as decoration. 

A New Slant to the Fort

Today, we continue the 2021 NPTC convention in DC. The next stop on the Friday bus trip was to Fort Washington. Two of the park's more interesting features have little to do with the military fort. In the layout below, you will see the Eastern Cedar tree that is growing at a slant. It makes you look twice to decide which of you is on more solid footing! Another reason to stop at this fort is to visit the Fort Washington Lighthouse. I've featured that before, when I participated in the Maryland Lighthouse Challenge. The planned bus stop didn't allow me enough time to walk down and see it up close again, but I could see it from the fort walls.

To make this layout, I chose to use a sketch from Cheryl Even's work with Split Coast Stampers. I wanted to use this as a kick-off page, as I knew the remaining photos would all take 2 pages for the story. I used Sweet Blossom for this page. You may not notice it right away, but the papers are all 11.5" long. That creates a 1/4" border around the layout. The background is beige cardstock, so it's a subtle difference, but I like that it isn't too garish. I needed to trim the 4x6 journal box to fit the space, so I ended up cutting one of the corners; however, it didn't impact my ability to journal.

Please Stamp Politely

Today's post is the last entry for the Frederick Douglass stop on the NPTC bus trip. This is more about the club and our members instead of the site, though. Stamping is an obsession with some of our club members. We like to find and stamp all the variations of a stamp (all caps? mixed upper and lower letters? with a period after D.C., without a period after DC? Those little details are important to us). Frederick Douglass has always been a site with a considerable supply of stamps (as of this posting, there were 18 different stamps available in the visitor center). With over 100 stampers converging on the site, they wisely moved all the stamps to the front yard where we could form a line and get our images. I wish I could say that it was orderly. As I was trying to get stamps (and trying to logically keep them all separate from what I had and hadn't used yet), people in the line behind me were reaching over me and moving the stamps about as if I were not even there! I know I'm not the only person who has experienced that, and it saddens me to see that sort of behavior. If you are a club member, I urge you to act politely and responsibly when visiting our 433 (current) units. The staff will appreciate it, and so will your fellow club members.

This layout was supposed to be another bonus post, but I goofed up on the directions. The June challenges at Lasting Memories focused on using a series of specific paper sizes when creating a layout. For challenge #755, it was three 5" squares, three 1.5x5" strips, and three 2" circles. I noticed that one of the designers had used three squares and three strips to create a block in the middle of the page. I started there but moved the pieces around a bit more and used the strips as borders. I filled the top and bottom of the page with borders (a set of 3 star banners in red, white, and blue for the top and half of a boot border punch for the bottom). The papers for the 3 squares came from a 6x6 paper pad in my Patriotic collection. I struggle with those pre-cut sizes, but I was happy to be able to use them in this manner. I added my journaling to the page and photographed it as DONE. And when I went to post my link, I realized--I forgot the circles! So I  couldn't post the layout to the challenge, and I wasn't interested in going back and trying to figure out where to add the circles. So the most we can say about it is it was INSPIRED by the challenge. It's still one more page done in the album!

Porch Talks

Today's blog continues our look at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. This is our 2nd stop on the NPTC Friday bus tour in 2021. Although we were divided into two groups for two separate ranger talks, in reality, everyone gathered in front of the porch as the rangers tag-teamed one talk for us. Both were excellent speakers. The one in the photo on the right had also been a speaker at our virtual convention in 2020 (and you'll see him again in another blog entry). 

For this layout, I used the Project Recipe for Passport to Adventure, featuring Passport to Adventure papers. (A rarity, I know!) The background cardstock is Canary, and I made my cuts using the green arrow paper (this time because it matches the rangers' outfits) and the street map paper (which looks like a blueprint). Both of those were scraps from other projects, so I used navy cardstock to create the mats. I punched out the circles from a remnant of gold paper and added some circle stickers, as well as another passport stamp design from one of the photo mats.

Looking Down on DC

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC Convention. The next stop on our bus trip was the Frederic Douglass House. I've been here once before, but it was nice to revisit. On this trip, we did not go through the house, so I'm glad I had that experience previously. Frederick Douglass purposefully built his house up on the hill so that he could literally "look down" on Washington, DC. He was not a fan of politics as he struggled to fight for civil rights for all. The room on the bottom of the right page was his "Growlery," and I imagine he spent a lot of time there grumbling about politicians.

If part of this layout looks familiar, it's because the right page was a bonus post for a Lasting Memories Challenge. The rules of the challenge said that a double-page layout would have to incorporate at least 2 of the exact paper sizes from the challenge. I didn't need to do that, so I omitted the left side from my entry. I like the unigrid from here because of the full-page photo of Douglass. It complements the heritage papers I selected nicely. The strip along the left is a laser-cut border that I back-filled with the gold and red papers you see on the right-hand page.

Feathered Friends

Today's blog will finish up my visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. But don't worry, there's more to the 2021 NPTC Convention yet to come!

In addition to the lovely flowers in the park, there are opportunities to see wildlife that you wouldn't expect in a city like Washington, D.C. The ducks might not be exotic, but I was surprised to see the great white egrets hunting for fish. We also saw blue herons, but I didn't capture them on film. 

For this layout, I used the Flourish Project Recipe from Creative Memories. I continued using the Sweet Blossoms fast-to-fabulous papers, and this time turned the borders to the bottom. If you look at the original recipe, you will see that I flipped the pages as I wanted the circular photos on the right. I didn't think about it when I created the page, but it's like looking at them through a telescope! Since I had more photos on the other page than the recipe called for, I didn't need to fill the top of the page with more than a small title sticker. But on the right, I wanted a bit more at the top. The Love border is on the back of one of the mat papers, and I trimmed that with the border at the top and bottom for a bit of definition.

Wild Flowers

In today's post, we continue our exploration of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens at the 2021 NPTC Convention. In addition to the numerous lotus plants, there is a rich assortment of hibiscus and other plants. (And look at the size of that leaf! It's as large as my head!) The brown "thing" is a dried lotus pod, so I suppose that should have been included in the previous layout.

I created this layout based on the CM Project Recipe, 'Bottanical Burst'. I used two sheets of Sweet Blossom paper, which is in the Fast-to-Fabulous style (meaning the borders are pre-printed). I turned the borders to the middle of both pages, so I got a bonus change of color there. I used a piece of white cardstock to create the circle, cut it in half, and layered a tonal paper between the edge of the border and the circle. I punched a leaf border from that same tonal paper and made minor cuts so that it would flow around the circle. It took 3 strips of border to complete the page. The title and sticker flowers were from the same kit, and I finished the page quickly.

Pretty in Pink

Welcome back to Kenilworth Gardens! Our NPTC 2021 Convention Bus trip left us off here for about an hour and a half, and my friend Melania and I did a lot of walking. In this layout, you'll see the lotus blossoms for which the park is best known. There are a series of pools, and each one is bursting with color. I tried to capture a few of the best blooms for posterity.

This layout is another that I created for the Creative Memories Virtual Crop in June 2025. Scroll to Layout #3. The advisor who created this sketch provided an introductory video to talk about how she made her cuts. I followed her advice closely and chose the Jazzberry and Lime Tart papers from the Vivid Melodies collection. (There is a bit of this left if you want to check the store.) Those 2 colors best matched the blooms in my photos. The vertical photo mats were created by punching one of the sheets with an older border punch featuring tulips (as I mentioned in the last blog — tulips somewhat resemble lotus blossoms). Even if they didn't, a floral punch of any shape would work well here. I trimmed the photos to the correct dimensions and layered them according to the sketch. I knew that with a sketch featuring smaller photo sizes, my florals would be perfect. I tend to center them but leave a LOT of landscape, which eventually gets cut away. There are a few additional photos in a sleeve made for the Happy Album. It provides room for 4 horizontal pictures and a bit of journaling in the middle (that's why you don't see journaling on this layout). A few bits of greenery embellishments completed the page.

Lotus Blooming Everywhere

Welcome back to my 2021 NPTC convention tour. This continues the Friday bus trip that we started in the last blog post. Our first stop on the bus trip was Kenilworth Gardens. Visiting Parks in DC is sometimes complicated. Most people think that each place they visit is a "unit". Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens is part of the Anacostia Park section of DC. But even that isn't a unit. They belong to National Capital Parks--East. And no, there is no corresponding north, south, or west designation. That is just the management office. The official unit here is simply "National Capital Parks."

I was happy to visit here as I don't often visit DC in the spring or summer, and this is when the park truly shines. After getting off the bus, we all lined up for stamps (of course). I noticed that there was an abundance of Lotus-themed items everywhere, including the bike stand you see below. Turns out Melania has a lotus tattoo as well! The only thing we missed in this visit was the visitor center, so I'll have to go back at some point and watch the movie there.

This layout was based on one of the Power Hours from Meggan and Tessa (April 2024). The paper is from Old CM — one of the pastel Spring addition packs. They have some pre-printed borders and were the precursor to the Fast to Fabulous pages, I think. I cut up the elements (stripes, blue floral, and green floral) and layered them as per the instructions. There is a lotus blossom laser-cut border in the new Serenity line, and so I moved that over to this layout. It turns out that tulip stickers also somewhat resemble the lotus blossom, and those three stickers were a great way to fill the gap after my journaling.

The People on the Bus

This post takes a look at my next adventure at the 2021 NPTC Convention. On Friday, my friend Melania joined me on one of the buses as we made a LONG tour of several park sites. There were three buses — two regular-sized and one Sprinter-sized. We wisely decided to go in the smaller van, where we had very comfortable seats. Melania had missed our Belmont Paul photo the day before, but she brought her suffragist doll with her on our excursions.

For this page, I used a sketch I had saved from CM's November 2022 Virtual Crop. The yellow vehicles could be buses or just traffic, so I used that as the background (not a CM paper, it's from a tablet in my stash that is all travel-theme papers). As I sorted through my travel stash, I came across some remnants of paper and stickers from the Gallivant collection (circa 2017 CM). The colors matched Melania's shirt, which is a good way to maintain continuity throughout the page. The bottom border is a strip of pink paper from that pack as well. The thin strip of map paper had just enough to be able to see "Washington," so I wanted that included (though I'm not entirely sure it's supposed to be Washington, DC on the map). The sticker borders around the map paper are from the Staycation pack. It looks like an unfolded paper map to me, and all the colors blend nicely.

Welcome-Bienvenido-Benvenuto-Aloha

Technically, THIS is the start of the 2021 NPTC Convention. Everything else I did in the last few posts (Eisenhower, Clara Barton, the Navy Memorial) was all a prelude to the main event. The reception was new this year and provided an opportunity for new members and first-time attendees to meet fellow club members. There were light refreshments, and we were able to pick up our bags with materials for the next few days (such as bus passes, a copy of the Stamp Pad newsletter, and some promotional materials for DC). 

This layout was made for the CM Virtual Crop in June 2025. Scroll to Challenge #1. This sketch was the perfect opportunity to highlight one of the papers from the Washington DC Scenes pack by Creative Memories. When I trimmed the paper to 11", I cut from the top and left sides to ensure the detail was intact. I also chose to NOT turn that lower right corner. It may have worked either way, but I like it better with the image intact. The top 2" is the reverse side of the paper and became the perfect place for a title. Those are the die-cut letters CM introduced a little while ago. These are in white and match the Red, White, and Blue theme perfectly. I found those 2 small star cluster stickers and thought they would accent the turned corners nicely as well.

Below are a few extra photos of my friends and me enjoying the reception.

You have to love Peekaboo pockets! It allowed me to add six photos to this one-page layout! That's an effective use of space!

Suffering Suffrage Cats!

We continue the NPTC 2021 convention in Washington, DC. After leaving the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office, I met up with several of my friends outside the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument sign. The building was closed for renovation, so we weren't able to go inside. But we came prepared with our Suffrage Cats. 

This lovely little stuffed animal was created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Although detractors attempted to use cats to portray women's passivity and discourage them from petitioning for the right to vote in the early 1900s, the women turned it around and made the cat their mascot. All of us had either received them as gifts or bought them outright for ourselves, and we wanted to show them off, so I arranged this photo. I sent a copy to Belmont-Paul to say, Sorry we missed you. They LOVED it! They posted it on their Facebook page, and, from what I gather, also sold a lot more cats!

I originally planned for this layout to just feature the 5x7 photo of our group. However, the Facebook memory appeared before I created this, and so I ended up downloading and printing a copy of the Facebook post that included the photo. The style is based on one of the CM Virtual Crop sketches from June 2025 (Scroll to Layout #2). The 8" square in the middle became the perfect mat for the printed post. I used some scraps of a theme pack called "Cattitude" for the top and bottom triangles. I didn't have anything in a vertical layout, so I had to root through my stash to find a matching tone. The yellow of the rough plaid does match the tiny paw prints on the first set of triangles. The purple was perfect, and because purple and gold are part of the suffragists' colors, it was serendipitous. 

The cat-themed stickers were also from the Cattitude pack. The top left and bottom right corners featured some random stickers from the Washington, D.C. stash, and they complemented the theme well. I like that the corners were 2" empty squares. While many people who put this layout together used printed paper there, I was able to fill the corners with stickers. It reminds me of the technique where you punch the border maker cartridges in all but the first and last notches of the guide. Something like this layout. That one used a "knock-out" style punch, but you can do it with any type of cartridge.

Little Things Make a Big Difference

You will recall that I've been featuring my visit to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office location. My final pages provide a closer examination of the preserved items. The most important artifact is the photo in the left-most circle. That's the infamous letter that made its way through the layers and "tapped" the workman on the shoulder. Other relics include everyday items such as salt, brushes, stationery, and the original gas lamp tubes. The socks (middle photo on the left) were collected to be given to soldiers when they were being repatriated from the prisoner-of-war camps. Clara and other ladies who assisted her would collect, clean, and darn them so that they were serviceable again. 

This layout was made for the CM Virtual Crop in June 2025. I opened my new package of Legacy of Love papers and embellishments as I knew the tone would match the historic accent of the photos (everything seems to be brown in historic context, doesn't it?) You can get a look at the sketch here: Sketch #4. The left and right edges use a ledger-like paper. I wanted to use that as a long journal box on the left side. The next set of strips is a combination of pieces punched with a border maker cartridge and 1/2" strips of paper. The scalloped edge is a laser-cut border from the embellishment pack. A few other stickers were used to create clusters around the page, and it was done. 

Missing in Action

We are continuing to review the layouts for the 2021 Washington, DC convention. My next stop on my travels was a visit to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers office. In 1865, Clara was appointed by the government to coordinate the efforts of locating prisoners of war, recovering wounded, identifying the dead, and matching them with the families who were searching. For over three years, she occupied rooms on the third floor of this building, using them as a storeroom, office, and lodging. After she left this location, most of her supplies were still stored here. Nothing was moved through the early 1900s. In 1911, the building's owners were worried about mandated updates due to safety concerns (if you haven't read about the Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York, I encourage you to learn more about it). Their solution was to board over the entire set of stairs and rooms on the third floor. For 85 years, no one knew there was anything more than the first and second floors. In the 1990s, the building was slated for demolition. One of the workers felt a "tap" on his shoulder and when he turned around, an envelope was poking from the ceiling. This led to an exploration and the rediscovery of these rooms. Deterioration had occurred, so they spent several years restoring the space to its original appearance as it was when Clara Barton used it. It is now a museum, and definitely worth a visit!

This layout is one of the Paper Loft layouts I made at a class in Lancaster. The large, folder-shaped mat was initially intended to serve as the base for a mini album. I don't usually need that, so I used the base as a mat (there's a peek-a-boo pocket on top, so it could be a mini album). I added the wood-toned journal box and then used a similar paper to mat the vertical photos on the right. The title area is one of the Civil War trading cards. I mounted it with photo corners so I can look at both sides.

Here's a look at the upstairs rooms. They arranged the furniture much as Barton would have used it in the late 1800s.

This layout should look familiar. I posted it as a bonus post on June 14th. You can read about the layout creation here.

Water Water Everywhere

Today, we continue with my NPTC Convention Trip to Washington, DC, in 2021. The stamps for the Navy Memorial that you saw in the last blog post are inside the Navy Memorial Visitor Center. They have a small museum downstairs. I initially thought the statue represented the iconic image from Life Magazine of a World War II sailor returning home and kissing a nurse. It's not far from that, but it has a more family-friendly feel to it when seen from the correct angle. There were also a few displays of diving gear and life on some of the naval vessels.

I started creating this layout by reviewing this pin from Split Coast Stampers. If you're a regular visitor to this blog, you're likely familiar with my frequent use of sketches by Cheryl Even. I discovered that she had initially created sketches for the Split Coast Stampers group. That's a message board where scrapbookers challenge each other and display their work. I scrolled through their gallery and found all of Cheryl's early sketches, pinning them for future use. As I considered which papers to use, I realized I wanted a nautical feel, so I pulled a recent bonus pack from CM called "Boat Life." It's just 6 pieces of paper, a few mats, and some embellishments. The stormy seas background was exactly what I wanted for these photos. The paper came with the borders printed at the top. All I had to do was mat the pictures and the title card and add a little journaling.

In the Navy Memorial

Happy Independence Day, everyone! How appropriate that we are using patriotic-themed papers and photos in today's blog! This entry continues our exploration of Washington, DC for the NPTC 2021 convention. 

After leaving the National Archives, I walked back to Pennsylvania Avenue. One of the stamp locations is connected to the US Navy Memorial at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street. There is a large circle in the middle. It's tough to tell from the ground, but an aerial view would show an image of the globe. Around that circle is a bas-relief sculpture depicting historic moments in the US Navy from the Revolutionary War to the present day. There is also a Lone Seaman statue. There are several of these around the world, and I've now seen 2 of them (one in Normandy). If you've seen any, let me know in the comments below!

This layout was one of my 1-2-3-4 Pack Classes. I cannot show you the sketch, but the overall technique created the 2 banners at the bottom of the page and the 1" borders across their middles. After layering in the photos, I realized that I had some large chunks of blue at the top and bottom. I also had a scrap of paper with the 2 borders diagonally printed across the page. I cut them and rearranged them to be horizontal, layering the pieces where the pattern overlapped. (Another solution to that problem would be to use those 1" borders across the top for some extra interest.) Those gold and white borders were the best additions, though. Since the borders had some gold tones, I could add the gold anchor sticker (a recent addition to my stash from a goodie bag exchange on my latest cruise). The paper for the banners was from a CM pack specifically themed for Washington, DC trips. I love it when their paper matches my trip so perfectly! 

No Relation

We are continuing with my exploration of Washington, DC, during the 2021 convention for the National Park Travelers Club. On Thursday morning, I had scheduled a tour of the National Archives. I was awake far earlier than I needed to be, so I leisurely made my way down to the building. Along the way, I came to this statue of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. To the best of my knowledge, he is not related to either Winfield Scott or John Hancock. At the time, I was not sure what he was known for or why there was a statue of him. My investigation later revealed an impressive resume, including a notable distinction at the Gettysburg battlefield. If you want to read more about him, start with this page from the National Park Service.

I based this layout on a Creative Memories Blog Post. I noticed that Meggan Jacks had created a video of her version of this layout, so I decided to play along. Well,  I started a bit before turning on her video. Trust me, you want to watch her video before tackling this layout. She has some great tips on avoiding my mistakes. (If you can't see them, I'm not going to point them out.) 😀 I used papers from the Bedazzled Geometrics pack. There are no embellishments for that paper, so I pulled some mats from my stash and then opened the Rainbow Binder to look for blue-ish embellishments. I thought the laser-cut remnants of the stars worked well once I covered some of the uneven edges with the title words.

Shining Bright

You'll recall that the last post mentioned the new Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C. My visit was not only to count the new park (though that didn't hurt), but it was because three of my National Park Travelers Club friends were reaching our ultimate goal. When you have visited EVERY park in the system at the time you reach the last park, you have reached our Platinum Status. It's highly coveted and challenging to achieve. In July 2021, there were 423 units in existence (as of this blog post, it's now 433), and you have to travel to remote places like Guam or the most northern and complex parts of Alaska. Jen "Oma" Baxter, as well as Cheryl and Mike Carver, reached that goal by visiting this unit, and so we held a Meetup to celebrate with them. Jennifer even had her grandchildren with her to help commemorate the event. 

I made this layout during one of my 1-2-3-4 classes for my scrapbooking customers. Due to the way I purchased the sketch, I am unable to share it with you. However, the placement of the photos is crucial in this case. The middle block of 4 is taking up space on the page, allowing you to use the decorative paper to S-T-R-E-T-C-H across the page. Because the platinum status was so important to this page, I used silver shimmer cardstock as the base and a piece of gray patterned paper from the Silver and Gold pack. Matching embellishments were from the same kit. I used some shimmer ABC-123 numbers to highlight their park visit achievement on the title card. You probably can't tell from the photo, but I also used one of the shimmer pens to add some sparkle to the rest of the embellishments.

I Like Ike

This post continues our examination of the 2021 NPTC Convention in Washington, D.C. After arriving by train, I checked into my hotel and then took the Metro to the newest unit — the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. It sits between the Air and Space Museum and the Department of Education (he created both NASA and the Department of Education during his presidency). It's an open-air memorial and has several installations tracing his life from farm boy to soldier and then president. 

I created this layout based on a pair of pins. Sometimes the only way to pin an idea is to pin the left and right sides separately. I used olive cardstock as the base (a perfect match to Army green, don't you think?) Sadly, they are my last 2 pieces. You will notice that I cut my side triangles incorrectly. It's a 3" piece of paper cut corner-to-corner. I actually did cut it right, but when I turned it over to apply the adhesive, I realized that the stars would be even better than the blue words on the other side. Luckily, the angle isn't crucial to the overall design. I added 2 borders from a cutapart page I bought at the Lancaster Convention. I was aiming for a military theme, and the stars and Jeeps fit nicely. I filled the gap on the bottom right with a few soldier stickers. Look closely, and you might catch that those are actually "Green Army Men" toy soldiers. I figured if I lined up their "bases," it would resemble a strip of ground. The remaining word and star stickers came from the CM Military Service pack.

Bonus Post--Up on the Hill

I'm adding another post based on a Lasting Moments Challenge. This is from the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site and is part of the 2021 NPTC convention, which we are now highlighting on the blog. He chose his house site so that he could look down on Washington, DC (from a literal and figurative point of view!) One of my favorite sites at his house is the little cabin behind the main house that he called the Growlery. It was a place for him to sit and ponder, and he used it quite a lot, from what I hear. 

I used the Lasting Moments Challenge #754 for this layout. Cheryl Even cleverly pointed out that the pieces (2 6x6 squares, 2 3x11 strips and 2 3x1 strips) fit together to make a 12x12 page like a jigsaw puzzle! I chose to place the 6x6 squares across the middle and the longer strips at the top and bottom to create a border-like effect. The paper is from the Our Moments line from CM. The journaling is on the new Write-On strips that are available in ivory. I love them for this heritage feel. I cut apart the leafy laser-cut borders to help decorate the page.

Training Time

This week, we start the journey to DC for the NPTC 2021 Convention. As I made my preparations for the convention, I realized that most of Washington, DC is walkable, and for the parts that were not, the club would have bus trips. So instead of frustrating myself with I-95 traffic and the cost of parking in the city, I took the train! It was a very comfortable ride down to Union Station. I splurged on an Uber to get my suitcases to the hotel, but I never really missed having a car during the few days I was in the city.

I based this layout on another pin that I saved. I was surprised to find, scrolling through my favorite layouts on Cricut Design Space, that the components for this layout were already created. I didn't cut the large rectangles on the Cricut--I can do that with my 12" trimmer. However, the suitcases, postcards, and stamp frames were all cut using a Cricut. Any items in white that would fade into the background were edged with black ink. The small bit of railroad track on the left is a leftover piece from the CM border punch. The bridge on the right page is a laser-cut border from one of the Creative Memories collections. The train sticker was the perfect size to layer on top. A few other train and ticket stickers from my stash finished the layout. I made a trial run of my itinerary, so I knew I would need two columns to list all the entries. Cutting the journal paper in half helped!

Kicking Off the Album

In this post, we begin a new journey. It's time to highlight the 2021 National Park Travelers' Club Convention, which we'll explore over the next several months. It was held in Washington, DC, and the host parks were Mary McLeod Bethune and Carter G. Woodson National Historic Sites. (Interesting fact--I have not added either of those parks to my park total list as they were not open for touring during our trip and I haven't had a chance to return when they WERE open.)

I based the title page on this pin I had saved. In the original pin, you'll see a plane in the middle circle, but I wanted to switch that up to a train. As you'll see next time, my primary mode of transport to DC was on Amtrak. For the phrase "Let The Vacation Begin", I did some letter manufacturing. I used straight letters (I, K, M, etc.) to create the "T"s and trimmed a "W" for the second A in vacation. But my favorite hack was to use the compass "N" to complete the word "vacation." I knew there was no way I was going to get "Begin" from that same sticker sheet, so I decided to change to a different sheet of stickers. Those letters are all from one sticker sheet, but it features a variety of fonts and colors, making it easy to mix and match. The NPTC lettering is traced from a CM template and colored in with a brown marker. The template has a "school days" feel to it, but the lettering was the right size to fit on the title tag.

Bonus Post--Lost and Found

Hi everyone! I'm adding a bonus post today because I'm participating in the Lasting Memories challenges again. This layout includes photos from the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office in Washington, DC. You'll see more of this in a few weeks as I take you through the 2021 NPTC convention. As a taste, this was an office space used by Clara Barton to help track prisoners of war and other soldiers wounded in battle during the Civil War. Her office was boarded up with all of her belongings in the early 1900s, and it was almost 100 years later when it was discovered again. This page shows some of the furnishings restored to their original rooms.

Lasting Memories' challenges this month include a list of paper sizes to use. You can see the details of challenge #753 here. I was pleased to see that Cheryl Even took those sizes and created a sketch based on them, along with the other rules of the challenge. I used her sketch as the basis of my layout. I pulled a variety of papers from my Heritage box to create the design. I struggled to find a title until I discovered the sticker about believing in miracles — given the history of this space, I think it fits perfectly!

You'll Like This a Bunch!

Our last stop in the Chatham Manor gardens is a series of grape vines. I just liked the look of them. They are not historic. The family that currently owns the rest of the plantation land does make Chatham Wine, but there are so few vines here that I'm not sure this would be enough for them to bother with. It may just be that the NPS gardeners put them in to tie in the current family business. This ends my trip (and the album). Next time we'll start the 2021 NPTC Convention!

I based this layout on one of Meggan and Tessa's Power Hour layouts from November 2024. I chose the Vineyard Escape papers from Creative Memories, which were initially a gift with purchase. There is a photo paper in that pack that looks EXACTLY like my photo. But instead of choosing that one for the base, I chose one that was more of leafy ivy. The contrast is then from a paper that I believe is supposed to be red wine. This came with a small collection of die-cut embellishments, including the little journal box. I liked the brick top of it because of the brick walk in the photo.