Up the River

Welcome back to the blog! Today, we begin a series covering my December 2021 trip to the Hudson River Valley. The official name of the region, as related to the National Park Service, is the Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area. The area is vast, stretching from Yonkers, NY, in the south to just north of Albany (but not quite to Saratoga). In that 150-mile range are historic houses, Revolutionary War routes and battlefields, and even the home of a former president. In all, there are 83 sites to visit. We managed only a handful over the weekend, so you can see that a full exploration would take many months! 

I based this kick-off page on a sketch I had saved. I was digging through my stash and came across CM's Gallivant from 2017. There were just scraps of paper and a few stickers left, so I decided to use what I could and recycle the rest. I added a piece of non-CM paper that's been in the stash for a while. The gray-toned paper with the driving logos matched the original Gallivant papers well. CM had suggested Evergreen cardstock, but that color is no longer made. I chose Sequoia, with its gray-green tone, and it proved a good choice. I also used some blue-gray cardstock that matched the mountains, the brochure, and my sweatshirt for some of the contrast strips and triangles. 

The right side page mat is a piece of vellum with a map printed on it. I trimmed that somewhat larger than the original sketch, but I didn't want to cut down my bridge photos. Keeping the larger photos meant I wouldn't have room for the tags at the top, so I moved them to the bottom, which created a bit of symmetry with the left page. I had initially planned this as an itinerary page, but then decided that for a 2-day trip, that wasn't necessary. I changed the focus to my arrival in the area. It did give me a spot for the Hudson River Valley brochure, though!

The Patriot on the Hill

We have reached the final entry for the 2021 Union County Four Centuries in a Weekend. While at the Deserted Village, we walked up the hill behind the general store (the one you saw in the last blog post) to find a reenactor discussing the property's original owner. John Willcocks (later Wilcox) used the abundant forest to create a sawmill and sell planks for building homes. He was killed in the evacuation of Fort Lee (NY) during the War of Independence. He is not buried here, but has an original tombstone and an updated one that is a tad more legible. We enjoyed our talk with the reenactor about what life was like for soldiers of the period.

This layout is based on one of the 101 Sketches book from CM (page 82). I rotated the sketch 90 degrees because most of the photos were vertical. The background paper is from the Bedazzled collection. I love that dark blue tonal pattern with the gold stars. The white mats with gold stripes are also from that collection. The "Patriot" card is from a page my mom gave me from a colonial paper she found. The "journal box" is really a remnant of red-and-white striped paper from a 6x6 tablet. The little birdhouse worked well here as we were standing in the forest.

Where'd Everybody Go?

Welcome back to the Union County Four Centuries in a Weekend 2021 event. The last stop on our tour was called The Deserted Village. This location is a bit like one where restaurants come and go. None of them seems able to thrive for very long. This parcel of land was, in turn, a sawmill, a print shop (which required an entire village to operate), and a summer resort. As each venture failed, the buildings began to deteriorate slightly. A local foundation is raising funds and actively renovating many of the structures so they can be toured, with the eventual goal of housing people again. A barn has been restored and now hosts weddings. There is a tie-in to the Revolutionary War, which you'll see in the next blog post.

This layout was made for Tammy McEwen's end-of-year challenge. It was originally a sketch from the CM August 2025 Virtual Crop (scroll to sketch #3). As I contemplated the papers to use, I wanted something with an almost camping theme. I chose Earthy Home, and while it's stored in my heritage theme box, it could also be in the Camping and Nature box with the wooden texture paper and green leaf patterns. The top border, called "Charming Village," is intended for Christmas pages. But punched from a brown cardstock, it becomes my deserted village in the middle of the forest! A few random stickers from my stash reinforced the nature theme and the fall colors.

Too Salty

Welcome back to the 2021 Four Centuries in a Weekend series. The next visit was to the Salt Box House. Originally, salt boxes had a very steep slope on the opening edge. Here's an example of one.

Compare that to the slope on the back side of this house. This house style was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in snow-prone areas, because the steep slope allowed snow to slide off without damaging the roof and deflected strong winds. 

This is another stop on the Crossroads of the American Revolution, but it lacks a substantial piece of war history. The houses (2 houses joined) were built well after the War of Independence, though they contain artifacts from the war era. The collection is just that — a collection of donated items. Many of these historical societies need a professional curator to create distinct displays and stories for the houses. On the plus side, we found a historic nursing outfit, and as both Mel and I are nurses, we enjoyed posing with it. There's another oxen yoke too..... (Read the journaling on this blog post.)

This layout is inspired by Tammy McEwen's end-of-year challenge. Initially, it was CM's March 2025 sketch, which you can see here. Scroll to sketch #3. I had used it previously on this John Smith Chesapeake layout. You'll agree that the change of paper creates a dramatic difference between the 2. This layout uses Memoirs and Memories paper, and finishes off my stash of it. I chose a dark background and light-toned documents for the various elements, with the last edge in dotted gray. Instead of punching a design, I simply tore the edges for a vintage feel. The title box is from one of the original CM Archiver's collections. The "What a Trip" title sticker is printed in white, so it needs to be mounted on a dark cardstock strip to be visible. A few "antique" flowers from my stash finished off the layout.

Bonus post--Making it Work

Hello all! I'm adding a bonus post as I'm playing with Lasting Memories Challenges again. This post shows some of the downstairs areas of the Franklin D. Roosevelt House in Hyde Park, near Poughkeepsie, New York. This is part of my Hudson River Valley tour, which you'll see soon. When FDR contracted Polio, the house had to be modified to accommodate his wheelchair. The stairs to the downstairs rooms were replaced with ramps. Luckily, the family had put in an early elevator to haul luggage from the bedrooms to the entry hall. FDR used that for transport upstairs.

I put this layout together for the Lasting Memories challenge: using a quote. Since that's the only rule, I started by looking for a sketch to follow, and I chose this sketch from Club Scrap. They post a bonus sketch for those who receive monthly kits. I found a few of the layout instructions, so I was able to use them for my pages. I chose papers from the latest CM Decades packs. This one uses papers and stickers from the 1920s-1930s, which are right in the home's time period. I wanted to highlight how the Roosevelt family accommodated FDR's paralysis from polio, beginning when he was 21. I found a sticker that says, "Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances" (Benjamin Franklin). I thought that an apt saying for these photos and his drive to overcome his illness.

Scrapbookers Unite!

Welcome back to my 2021 Four Centuries in a Weekend trip. Our next stop was the Carter House. There is no significant reason this house is included in the Crossroads of the Revolution. It's the oldest house in Summit Township, preserved and moved to its current location by the historical society. No battles here; no prominent citizens lived here. It's just a lovely old house. It is currently home to the Historical Society, and what I loved most was the stacks of scrapbooks from the area. For anyone who wonders what will happen to their albums when they are gone, you should offer them to historical societies. They like seeing the everyday lives of people in the area.

This Layout is based on another of Tammy McEwen's end-of-the-year challenges. It's from the February 2025 CM Virtual Crop; you can see the sketch here. Scroll to sketch #3. I used Legacy of Love for the floral background paper, the title card, and the stickers. The borders along the edge of the patterned paper are from the Burlap and Lace collection. The title card matched the sketch perfectly, and I needed one more photo spot to complete it. Serendipity!

The Fighting Parson

Welcome back to the 2021 Four Centuries in a weekend event. This layout focuses on the Caldwell Parsonage, which is a fancy way of saying "house where the preacher lived." You'll remember that I mentioned Reverend Caldwell when we saw the church he preached at in Elizabeth, NJ. He and his wife, Hannah (pictured on the trading card), lived here with their 10 children. 

The Battle of Connecticut Farms Church, discussed in the last blog, is relevant here. As the British soldiers retreated, they streamed past this house. A shot was fired, which entered the home and killed Hannah. Was it intentional? Was it to get back at her husband, who had been preaching Independence along with the bible? No one really knows. But the moment is sealed into Union County history as the portrayal of her murder is featured in the official County Seal! The original house was, of course, burned by a Loyalist mob, but this home was rebuilt on the original foundation. 

This is the site of the local Historical Society, and so the contents range from the 1700s through the 1800s. The braided hair death memorial is typical of the 19th century, but it fascinates me. I had to take issue with the guided tour, though. We were shown a hip bath and told that families bathed in order, all in one bath, and that by the time the youngest were washed, the water was pretty dirty, which is where the phrase "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" originated. This is FALSE. Please stop repeating it. That phrase and others are debunked in this Snopes page.

This layout is based on another challenge in Tammy McEwen's end-of-year event. This one goes back to the CM November 2025 virtual crop, and it's the same sketch I used for the East Jersey Olde Towne Print Shop. Because it's different papers on the same sketch, you'd never know that they are from the same source material! It also helps that I had flipped the first layout horizontally. This one uses the Legacy of Love pack. I found 2 sticker borders for the right-side page, then a laser-cut border with a similar pattern for the left vertical strip. I thought that, based on Hannah and Reverend Caldwell's family life, Legacy of Love was a fitting title for this layout.

Fine Dining

Who else is scrapping during the snowstorm? I am working on my Hudson River Valley tour from December 2021. I stopped at Lyndhurst Castle, which you will see in a few weeks, but decided to play along with the Lasting Memories challenge this week. I chose these photos of the Lyndhurst massive dining room, all decked out for a fancy Christmas dinner. Who would have thought the fancy dinnerware would include pheasants painted on the plates!

As I mentioned, I based this layout on the Lasting Memories challenge (#783), which included this sketch of 4 photos. I turned the layout 90 degrees as my photos were all horizontal. I am using a 12x12 tablet from Recollections called Holiday Elegance. The paper is rich and luxe, with gold-foil pages on maroon and green papers. I won this pad at one of the crops I attended, and it will feature prominently on the Hudson River Valley pages. I chose one paper for the background and then another for the large 11x11 mat. I only needed a small border (one of the pages is a stack of several nice borders that I cut apart) to complete the sketch. The green and gold paper takes up the job of embellishing! I found a coordinating journal box in my stash to detail our trip.

But It's Not IN Connecticut!

Welcome back to the 2021 Four Centuries in a Weekend event for Union County, New Jersey. This blog picks up on Sunday morning, and my first visit that you'll see on the blog was to Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church. Apparently, they liked the name Connecticut, and the original settlers were primarily farmers. The church was also the site of a Revolutionary War battle. I actually visited here twice. I arrived and was awaiting Melania's arrival, but she was at Caldwell Parsonage. I went there to meet her, then returned. While she toured the church, I explored the graveyard further. Lots more 18th-century graves here, but in excellent condition! My favorite stone featured the "autograph" of the stone carver. British soldiers who died during the battle are in a mass grave at the center of the graveyard. That's on a peekaboo pocket that isn't pictured, but you can visit to see the layout in its entirety!

I made this layout during Tammy McEwen's End-of-the-Year scrapbooking challenge. She collected twelve of her favorite double-page layouts from the CM virtual crops this year and packaged them so we could work through the pages quickly in December. Each layout completed earns a ticket toward her prize of one of her classes. This layout was part of the July 2025 Virtual Crop, and you can check out the sketch here. Scroll to challenge #3. As I did with another church page, I selected 2 different background papers — brick on the left and patterned on the right. The light blue cardstock becomes the mat for all the photos. I used some leftover stickers from my stash for decorations. The church sticker is the oldest — likely at least 20 years old. But it still works.

My Favorite People

This post is the last in the Liberty Hall Meetup series from my October 2021 trip to the Four Centuries in a Weekend Event. The final photos inside the house are of the butler's pantry. There was a dumbwaiter and the butler's safe, where all the silver was kept. The last 2 photos are of our meetup group. You can see that for October, the weather was nice, as we were all in short sleeves, standing on the porch of the visitor center. We went out to dinner after the tour. You may remember that my friend Deb once ordered broccoli for breakfast, and I've never let her forget it. Broccoli for dinner is pretty standard, but I had to photograph it anyway!

For this layout, I turned to one of Cheryl Even's sketches from Split Coast Stampers (I flipped it horizontally to place the meetup on the right). I liked this layout because I printed the group photo as an 8x10, and it provided ample space to highlight it. I chose the papers and embellishments from Sweet Blossom (one of the secret boxes from 2023). You can see I didn't have as many photos as the layout indicated. I substituted one block for the title element (a cutapart block from the kit) and a journal box. I debated adding more of those elements to complete the sketch, but ultimately decided to leave the border and paper uncovered for a nicer effect. I was so happy to find that little title sticker "Fave People" in the kit, though!

The Gilded Age

Welcome back to my tour of Liberty Hall in October 2021. Additional rooms downstairs included the parlor and game rooms. I love the decor in here, from the chandeliers to the family photo collections on the side table. And that grammophone! I could get comfortable in here...

This layout is based on the Meggan and Tessa Power Hour class from September 2024. You can watch the video tutorial here (and look at their website to download a paper copy of the instructions). I used paper and embellishments from the Shabby Chic collection (an ancient secret box — possibly the second or third mystery box). Although the rooms are not shabby, the distressed floral print and the border with the baubles on a chain celebrate the spirit of the Gilded Age. The embellishments feature a touch of foil, making the page sparkle. I used a fairly dark background, so I chose a white gel pen to journal.

Give Me Liberty

Welcome back to the 2021 Union County Four Centuries in a Weekend event. My last stop for Saturday was Liberty Hall. I planned another meetup with our NPTC club members, as I had in 2019. This time, however, I was determined to join the tour. The blue house on the left page is the visitor center. Liberty Hall is the yellow house on the right page. Construction of the initial house (14 rooms) began in 1760, with the original owner serving in the Continental Congress and as New Jersey's first governor. The house passed through several other families before returning to a niece of the original owner. By the late 1800s, there was a push to expand the house, and it now stands at 50 rooms! 

By the early 1900s, the family started conservation and the creation of a museum, buying back period pieces from the original owners. The tours for the Four Centuries event are free. Unfortunately, they also only cover the garden and the first floor of the house. If you want the upstairs, you must purchase the whole tour on another weekend. I've seen so many old houses that I doubt I will return to see the rest. You can see a few of the rooms below, and you will see more in the following blog entries.

This layout was made for the CM November 2025 virtual crop. Scroll to sketch #4. The left page is mostly exterior photos, while the right side focuses on interior images, including the dining room set for a Halloween Party (we toured in October, remember). When looking through my collections, I decided on the Burlap and Lace collection, which had previously been a secret box. There were 2 packs of paper, and the lacy prints worked best for this layout. I used three tones of lace paper--white, pink, and brown. Those were layered on soft ivory cardstock. I used border stickers and a few other embellishments from the kit to round out the pages.

Stop Calling our House a Box

OK, first I'll explain the post title. There is an internet meme in which a scrapbooker proudly states that all her supplies can fit in one box. To which the husband says, "Stop calling our house a box!" That might describe me a bit 😆

My next stop for the Union County Four Centuries in a Weekend is Boxwood Hall. This is a lovely mansion and features many rooms of colonial and post-colonial decor. The owner, Elias Boudinot (the trading card on the left), served as one of the Presidents of the Continental Congress near the end of the war (1782-1783). Elias hosted George Washington for lunch on his way to the first presidential inauguration in New York City. Alexander Hamilton also stayed here for a time while attending the nearby Elizabethtown Academy. But that was before he was famous (just you wait!).

This layout is based on a Beginner's Project Recipe given to CM Advisors in January 2023 (I can email you a copy on request). It was meant to correspond to the paper you see in the layout called "Homebody". The sketch can be thought of as one of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 sketches, though it only takes 2 cuts! You can use any paper, but the Homebody kit had this print that reminded me of the carpets in all of the rooms of this house. Instead of cutting 2" strips from the same side of the paper, I made 2" cuts on each side, leaving me with the border elements for the right side of the page. The middle section is then moved to the left. Both are layered on more papers from the kit, though cardstock is certainly an option. A small pack of embellishments is available with the paper and provides a few clusters of interest around the page.

They Can't ALL be First

Welcome back to the Four Centuries in a Weekend 2021 event. My next stop in Elizabeth, NJ, was the First Presbyterian Church. The congregation began in the 1660s, though they met in a meeting house, not this building. The building they erected was burned by the British during the Revolutionary War. This building dates from just after the war (about 1785). I imagine they burned the first structure as its minister, the "Fighting Parson," was often preaching about the British atrocities (especially after they killed his wife). We'll get to their lives a bit later as we'll visit their home. 

For now, the highlight of this visit was the churchyard next to the church. I'm used to seeing the intricate carvings on 19th-century tombstones, so I was interested to see the 17th- and 18th-century versions. Many of them have fallen into disrepair, but a few remain in good condition. I saw a lot of winged skulls for the decorations. Not quite as intricate as the 19th-century stones, but quite interesting.

This layout is based on one of the CM Project Recipes I've saved, called Memoirs and Memories, though I used Keeping the Faith papers (of course — it's a church!). I moved things to reflect the needs of my layout. I used the vertical paper strip on the left as a mat for the brochure rather than photos. I moved the cluster of embellishments from the bottom of the right-hand column to beneath the pamphlet, since that's where the space was. On the right-side page, I added the photo mats but used a paper design with crosses to offset the pictures and give the graveyard a stronger sense of place.

What is more unusual for me is that I used 2 different papers for the backgrounds! I liked the brick on the left (and I had just acquired a bunch of brick papers at a crop I was attending, so it was a nice freebie!) But it didn't work on the right, so I used a sheet of matching cardstock. The borders have been in my stash for quite a while. I punched them at a previous crop (several years ago) and ended up not using them for that particular layout. I was looking for something "wrought iron" to enclose the graveyard, and these were the perfect fit. This is why we hold onto things!

Four Centuries in one Site

Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome back to my blog and to my Fall 2021 trip. The Union County Four Centuries in a Weekend theme meant that sites located across the county spanned the early 1600s through the 20th century. The William Robinson Plantation took that quite literally, putting a World War II reenactment troop on the front lawn. The house itself dates back to the 1600s, so yes, four centuries in one location! I had visited this location previously, but returned as I was missing a stamp. Having more time here, let me take a closer look at this reenactment. There was a communications tent in active use, and some sort of platoon meeting and activity.

This layout is based on a Fast & Fun Project with Noreen from November 2023. I used the same collection she did, though I didn't have any more of the dark blue word paper, so I substituted navy cardstock. I used a border along the bottom that repeated the word "ARMY". I had more photos than she did, so most of the text was covered. Well, that happens sometimes. There is an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket between the 2 pages of the layout, so this is a one-page layout.

Inside the house, the focus is more on the building's history. The original owner was a physician, and so there is a large display of apothecary jars and equipment. In the backyard, there is an old horse-drawn milk wagon. I had not seen this previously, and it was an interesting display.

The right side of the layout was made with a CM Sketch from April 2022. They had posted three sketches for Earth Day to encourage us to use up our scraps (rather than throwing them out). Those sketches were only ever on Facebook, not on the blog, as they usually post, so the Pinterest link is the only way to view them currently. I used Paper Loft Euphoria papers for this layout (both the back of the 8 1/2x11 pocket and the interior house photos). The border across the middle of the page is a recent punch from CM, and although it is a canning jar, it matched the bottles on the shelves in the photos. I had punched that in black for a different layout, but never used it. This also allowed me to use a scrap in the spirit of the original challenge.