Give us Liberty!

The last stop of the day was at Liberty Hall. I had arranged an NPTC Meetup. While we didn't run into each other much during the day, we gathered here for the day's final tour. I set up my stamper near the official stampers and tried to pull everyone together. However, I missed the last tour as club members kept arriving and wanted to stamp! Well, there will be another one next time, I'm sure! Several of us headed to dinner after this to chat more, and then it was time to return to the current year.

This layout is based on one of the CM sketches in the 101 sketchbook (page 60). I am using a collection called Gem Tone, a secret box from a few years ago. I love it for pages with historic homes. It just seems to "fit". The bottom is 1 1/2" strips (again, a great way to use up scraps!) The border sticker across the top covers any slight imperfections in the length. The kit came with a set of laser-cut frames. The one you see above is 1/2 of the frame in the kit. I only needed to highlight one photo, and I could keep the other half for a different page. I tucked the cut edge under the brochure so you cannot see any imperfect edges.

Post #500! Stop Inn

Wow, this blog is on post #500! Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me over the years. I hope you've enjoyed the tales as much as I enjoyed making and sharing the pages with you.

My next stop was this historic tavern. The location was active a bit AFTER the Revolutionary War. It was part of a stagecoach route connecting Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. They recreated the tavern and kitchen from the early 1800s. Another building on site is related to the Colonial era, but while it is preserved, it serves as their gift shop.

This layout is based on Cheryl Even's Sketch #76. I used an ivory piece of cardstock and a long strip of Old CM paper (I'm not sure what pack that came from, but it's probably 2009 or so). I cut another piece of cardstock with one of CM's large custom-cutting system shapes. It's no longer for sale on their site, but keep an eye out, as sometimes they do "retro" sales and bring back classic pieces for brief periods. Replacing one of the photos with a journal box allowed me to add the brochure for the site to the decorative element in green. I then added a 12" border sticker (cut in half so I could use it top and bottom) and a couple of old candlestick stickers, which I think are actually from a formal dining kit 😊. Given it's a tavern, I thought the "Cheers" title fit pretty well. 

No Bread For You!

My next stop was to the Frazee House. This house is undergoing extensive renovations, so there are only photos of the exterior. I did enjoy the story, though I wonder how true it is. Supposedly Betty Frazee was an excellent baker and the British Army, and supposedly Cornwallis himself, came through and wanted to buy the bread from her to feed the troops. As someone inclined to follow the American Rebels, she declined. Whereby the British ransacked her farm and took the bread anyway. True or not, it is that type of story that helped stir up sentiment to follow the Colonials. And of course, history is written by the victors...

If you've noticed, the past few layouts (including this one) include some little trading cards. They were available at the sites and with a shortage of photos, they really helped tell the story! They are all mounted with photo corners so that they can be removed and you can still read the story on the back. 

This layout is based on a sketch from the CM December 2023 Virtual Crop. Scroll to Sketch #1. I had pulled my patriotic materials to work on these pages and this paper was from a secret box. The paper is called "Starlight" and due to the stars, it ended up in the Patriotic box. It was the perfect background for this layout as I wanted something patriotic but also "homey". The quilted background paper fits both categories. I used some of the larger star embellishments as my journal boxes. If you look closely at the gold strips you might be able to see that they are cut with the new Colonial blade for our 12" trimmer. It's a small detail, but it does work!

Outstanding in His Field

I did not know about the next stop--Ashbrook Reservation. It's a local park and the site of a Revolutionary War Battle called the Battle of the Short Hills (definitely missing from my high school history book). If you want to read a bit about the battle, try this website. The stamp and information booth was in front of a local vocational-technical high school. It was quite odd to see tents and colonial-era people milling about there. I had a great talk with the gentleman on duty about people in the area and names from the era with which I was familiar. In his discussion about the battle, we looked over his cannon. And then he picked it up to show me that it was not only not "period" but was painted styrofoam! His associate had been taking photos with my camera and captured the moment that I realized the folly, and THAT was what I wanted to capture on the layout.

This layout is loosely based on this pin from CM's December 2022 Virtual Crop (also on page 58 of the 101 Sketches book). the background paper is one of the patriotic packs from my stash. Since that was in blue and white, it made sense that my mats were red. I chose 2 punches to add decorations--the CM star punch which makes a frame star and gives you the inner cut star, and the rocket punch. Clustering those in opposite corners gives you the flow across the page. The flag embellishment is from a pack I picked up from Paper Wizard. I bought that pack of minis for my Boston photos. I guess I'll have to pick up another pack!

How could you not like the Drake?

My next adventure was in October 2019 for the Union County Four Centuries in a Weekend Event. Union County, NJ is the home of many historic sites with connections to Washington and the Revolutionary War, the Industrial Revolution, and World War 2. Some sites are connected to the Crossroads of the American Revolution historic trail and have National Park stamps. The event organizers also created Union County stamps so we can generally get 2 at each location. Though it is a 2-day event, I had to work on Saturday so I visited just on Sunday and got to only a few locations. The event is held yearly, so I can return for more visits.

My first stop is a home called the Drake House Museum. This house's claim to fame is that during the Battle of Short Hills, George Washington used the front parlor as his headquarters. The photos on this layout reflect the heritage and rooms that are decorated in the colonial style (including a kitchen and medicine cupboard). I also got to pose as Alexander Hamilton's long-lost cousin. See a resemblance? 😁

This layout is based on Noreen Smith's January 2019 1-2-3 layout. I reversed the layout (imagine it flipped horizontally) so that the tall column of photos is on the right side of the layout. I used some of the last of my CM Americana paper packs. It really is perfect for that Colonial Era theme. The papers are layered on light blue cardstock. Flipping the sketch meant that I had a large blue area on the far right. I used a similar scrap of tan paper to cut 1 3/4" squares. Do you see the small square on the top of the left page? That is part of the indicator sheet included with all the CM paper. It provides a look at each of the papers so you can see at a glance if it will work with your photos. I cut that square as it matched the layout best and mounted it. The small bunny on the right is from an 8 1/2 x 11 paper pad I bought a long time ago. This is just the image of what a paper piecing project would look like, but with a little fussy cutting, it too became an embellishment. I had an extra 12" sticker border with those rustic stars that finished off the layout.

Trail's End

After visiting Petroglyph, I drove to Santa Fe to visit with a friend. Near a museum we stopped at was this large statue installation commemorating the end of the Santa Fe Trail. It was more of a commerce route than an immigration route. The statues were quite lifelike, especially in the light of the fading sun. 

This layout is based on a sketch from the September Worldwide Virtual Crop from Creative Memories. I pulled the Wide Open Spaces collection from my stash. The middle section is the paper resembling a saddle; I wanted the horses and cows' paper for the outside. The sprinkle stickers are some very old CM. The journal box was fussy-cut from the mat to fit the space better. The title box on the bottom left is from a sheet of New Mexico mats and works perfectly here.

The next layout is another you've seen before as it was the 3rd installment of my Guest Designer stint for Lasting Memories in October. You can review the story and layout here.

Next week we move back east!

Bay Window

My next set of park visits occurred when I went on vacation with Jim's family in September 2019. We had returned to the Rehoboth Beach area and I took a day to drive west toward the Chesapeake Bay. I drove to the small town of Vienna, MD where the Nanticoke River Discovery Center had a stamp (of course) and a small display of Captain John Smith and his travels. I also visited the nearby waterfront to get a look at the water. It was late morning but a beautiful day to be outside. 

The trail follows the historic route taken by John Smith (yes, the one that married Pocohantas) and his crew in the summer of 1608. He is credited with mapping much of the East Coast and those detailed records, published in England, were the impetus for many to migrate to the New World. In essence, he might more rightfully be considered the man who Discovered America!

This sketch is based on the June 2024 Virtual Crop from Creative Memories (scroll to sketch #2). You can see that I doubled the sketch to reach 2 pages. The paper is from Creative Memories' Serene Water collection. The coordinating cardstock colors include orange. While that is a color I don't use much, it gives the perfect POP to the middle square. As you can see in the directions, there are 4 strips of 3" decorative paper underneath. This type of sketch is a great way to use scraps if you have them. 

Madness in the Desert Part 2--Getting My Kicks

 Few people realize that Route 66 is part of the National Park Service. In 1999 Congress passed an act which appointed the NPS as one of the administrators for preserving the legacy of the "Mother Road". You can read more about the NPS' influence here. My travels hadn't taken me near it, though my husband and I did enjoy watching Alton Brown travel along much of it and eating from local restaurants as he and his crew traveled. Parts of Route 66 do go through Arizona and one of the unusual structures we saw on a bus trip was this hot dog stand. Literally, you DRIVE THROUGH it! I only wish we had a chance to stop for a bite.

The design I focused on for this page was the journaling box. I had saved this pin from AC Moore. The luggage tag turned out to be just right for a journal box. As I had recently received Route 66 stickers, I was able to recreate it. Then all I had to do was mount my photos on black cardstock and arrange them on the page. The large Route 66 vinyl sticker was one I obtained on the trip as well. I think it was part of the goodie bag we received when we registered for the convention.

Wheeling along

In April 2019 I headed to Cincinnati for a Health Professions Network conference. I left work in the evening so got as far as Pittsburgh before stopping for the night. The next morning I made a quick stop in Wheeling for some park stamps in the Wheeling National Heritage Area. The visitor center has some stamps and the artisan center across the street has more. I couldn't stay long enough to see the Artisan Center but to make this more than a "stamp and run" I walked down to the river to see this historic bridge. It was the first bridge to cross the Ohio River and at one point the largest suspension bridge in the world. When the pioneers arrived at this point they had to ferry or wade across. A bridge allowed for faster and easier travel. I enjoyed walking down, standing under the bridge, and looking up through the mesh grates.

I based this layout on one of Meggan and Tessa's Power Hours (December 2021). I chose to use just the right side of the layout as I had created an itinerary of the trip on the left. I used papers from the Wanderlust collection. 

The Last Stamp Standing

My next park visit happened in October 2018 when I decided to participate in the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge. This event happens every year on the 2nd weekend in October. The challenge involves visiting 13 different lighthouses and life-saving stations in New Jersey over 2 days. Most of those buildings have nothing to do with the National Park Service (except the last one which I'll show you next week). The lighthouses start along the Delaware River (a fact I hadn't known before starting the challenge) and along the way, the route gets very close to Fort Mott which is a stamping point for the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail. However, as their website will tell you: "Since September 30, 2011, as a result of a sunset clause, the National Park Service is no longer the legislative authority to be involved in the management of the Trail. At this time there is no single authority responsible for the management of the trail, although there are legislative efforts to reinstate the NPS as the legislative authority."

While the rest of the sites have relinquished their Passport Stamp, the Fort has not (and as of 2023, still hasn't!) So I decided to make a little detour and visit the Fort, get my stamp, and then finish the lighthouses.

I worked on this album while at a crop. Planning to attend a crop means figuring out what papers to take without taking my entire crop room. I knew that this fort was on the tour so I took military pages. Yet when I got to this layout I didn't really feel the military essence (also it was a single right-hand page given the prior layout). I had also brought my "Fall" themed papers with me and this paper and embellishments are from that group, specifically from the Harvest Delight CM papers (circa 2019).  The layout is loosely based on a sketch or rather one of a series of sketches from Creative Memories. Noreen Smith developed a set of formulas. By cutting one pack of paper (generally 12 double-sided pages for CM) as the formula indicates, you can create an entire album by arranging the strips in various ways. I didn't need to do all of the cuts, I just figured out which strips were used and what the widths were.

The Fort hosts a small museum detailing life during its active years. The large gun below is the correct size but is actually painted on the wall. A few buildings are remaining and some batteries are falling down. As I wanted to keep moving to the lighthouses I didn't spend too much time on site here.

This was a fairly easy layout as it is technically the "Wallpaper" technique. I bought those 2 papers at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. The yellow house was blending a bit into the tan background so I matted them on black cardstock. I added a few stickers from the new CM sticker pack "Called to Serve" to add a little more eye movement around the page but this one came together quickly.

2018 Convention Part 6--Religious Freedom

Touro Synagogue in Newport was the next stop on the bus trip. This is designated as a National Historic Site but is not one of the NPS units, most likely because it is still an active congregation. The history of the community is one of perseverance and faith. I do recommend taking the guided tour to hear the entire story. The most notable occurrence in the congregation's history is their concern for religious persecution after the colonies won their independence. Their letter to Washington and his reply is reprinted today to demonstrate what religious tolerance should be for everyone. Copies are available in the visitor center. When I visit active houses of worship, regardless of the faith, I tend not to take a lot of interior photos as it can be considered disrespectful. In this temple, they did ask us to refrain from photos until the end and to take photos only from the rear of the building. The vertical photo on the left page is my photo. The remaining images are all postcards that I bought in the gift shop.

This layout is based on one of the CM Virtual Crop sketches that I saved. The paper and stickers are from a Judaic pack that I purchased from CM a few years ago. When it was first sold, two of my fellow advisors held a class to help those unfamiliar with the Jewish faith to understand what the designs were and why they were included in the pack. I'm very glad I took that class as I felt much better choosing the papers and stickers to correspond to the sketch. Now the red matches the photos but is really supposed to represent pomegranates for one of the holidays. You don't see the fruit on the tonal paper so I think it worked well for a non-holiday layout. A special thanks to the Rabois (friends of mine from the NPTC) who also looked over this after I completed it and assured me that I did not inadvertently make a faux pas on any religious icon usage.

2018 Convention Part 2--Back to School

Our first stop was in Norwich, CT. I had not heard of the Last Green Valley Heritage Corridor until I started planning this trip. The agency protects cultural, historical, and natural heritage in the Connecticut and Massachusetts areas. Our stop at the visitor center was brief. I did enjoy their displays of the historic school furniture but much of it had been turned into a visitor center with racks of brochures of the area. 

It doesn't happen often, but this is a page of my own creation! This uses Graphic 45 papers. I had purchased a sheet and cut it apart to rearrange it onto a base cardstock. I didn't plan this ahead and in hindsight, I wish I had not cut every object from the sheet individually as I could have used more of the larger sections for matting. I did get a little of the yellow/red by turning over a few of the items I wouldn't use on the page. Of course, that means I can't use them on a future page so I'll have to be on the lookout for more of this paper. I've seen a number of old schoolhouses in my travels.

A Bridge Not Too Far

 In the summer of 2017, I took a new job that took me from central PA to the north of Philadelphia. Before leaving the area I wanted to collect any of the stamps that had appeared. When they are so close you tend not to think of them but when they were about to be 2 hours away, it seemed a good idea to get them while I could! The Susquehanna River National Heritage Area is a relatively new system and my guess is that it will eventually rival the Hudson River Valley in the preponderance of stamps! For now, this bridge between Columbia and Wrightsville was a nice day trip. The art deco pillars were interesting to me. It's a bridge I've been over several times, it was nice to stop and see it for the inherent design.

I based this layout on a saved sketch from Sketch-N-Scrap's blog. When I originally saved it I was just looking for things to pin. I'm now following their blog and plan on entering their various sketch challenges. Hopefully, you'll be seeing some of those posts soon. This page was created using some of the Neutral and Green Tonal paper packs from Creative Memories. The colors of the papers matched the colors of the photos nicely. Again you can see that the 3 patterned papers do not clash with each other. There is a medium and 2 smaller prints, so not overwhelming to the eye.

End of the Line

Our tour stepped into an alley next to the courthouse--one I never realized existed! We heard stories of the free blacks who were entrepreneurs in the area. I took some time to marvel at the architecture of the courthouse but that wasn't a part of the tour's discussion.

This page is based on a CM Sketch from the August 2021 virtual crop. I did not include the circle in the upper right corner but did combine 2 sheets of paper and a border sticker to decorate the page. If you open the CM page you'll see that you can also take this sketch in a "fancier" direction if you want to. I used a very subdued palette as well as a touch on the page due to the theme.

We stopped at another cemetery. There were monuments to people extending over several hundred years. I enjoy cemetery art so photographed some of the monuments that really have nothing to do with the UGRR experience. 

This layout is from a sketch from another blogger that I follow--Cheryl Even. She makes sketches for her albums and posts them for others to use, so she's one of my inspirations. She also posts on the Scrapbook.com forums and I've followed her on there for a time. I turned the sketch so that the paper remnants (and this page is REALLY scrap booking) were across the top. I used a remnant of a sticker across the bottom and a few random sticker embellishments as well.

The last stop on our tour was most unusual--it was in the parking garage entryway. This building was originally a train depot and was a transition place for those moving on toward Canada on the UGRR.

This page is one half of a layout I made in a Paper Loft class. The kit had many mats included and we arranged them across the middle of the page. I thought the "Unexpected Directions" title was perfect given the odd location for the talk. The 2 blue squares on the right were to be for photos, but I chose to use them as journal boxes. Again, not much other decoration on the page given the theme.

Above Ground on the UGRR

Our tour group assembled and we started walking down the hill away from the square. Our first stop is the Thaddeus Stevens house (he helped ensure the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation). This is preserved in the middle of the Lancaster Convention center. The original door and markers are on the outside. We didn't get to go in. Around the corner, you can see the excavated cisterns. They believe they were used not for water, but to hide enslaved people on the UGRR.

This layout is based on a layout that CM posted using Countryside Comfort (the first layout on the page). I did not have the exact paper pack but found that the Croptoberfest papers from that year worked just as well. I did not originally save this design to my Pinterest board though. I saved the borders on the layout below. But as that didn't work with this configuration of photos, I scrolled up the page and realized that the fence would be a perfect addition to this home story. 

Another stop on our tour was a church that I had passed every day going from work to home. This church allowed enslaved people to worship with the rest of the congregation and for the times, that was quite progressive. Numerous historical markers adorn the church walls.

This page lent itself to the original borders that I saved (second on the page from the link above). The tones of the Croptoberfest paper match the brick quite well and the rest of the colors accent the deep red tones. While there is a third layout on the CM site, I'm not sure I have enough materials left to complete it. However, it's saved on Pinterest so there's always a possibility!

Hometown Tourist

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I want to say how thankful I am that you read my blog. If you have any comments or suggestions, please drop me a line!

I know a couple of ladies from the Park Travelers Club that live close to me so we decided to have an outing together and chose a walking tour of Lancaster focusing on the Underground Railroad. Before we got started I took the opportunity to photograph some places I've been to frequently such as the Penn Square statue of soldiers and the Central Market. 

This page was a kit from Scrapbook Concierge. It's another example of pages that I am glad to have completed, and that I will NEVER do again. It took a while to figure out which photos would easily (not sure that's the right adjective but we'll stick with it for now) morph into the letters in "Lancaster". It took quite a while to fussy cut and apply the photos to the letters. I did get lucky in that one photo could spread across up to 2 letters if positioned correctly.

The Devil Went Down to Jersey?

 In New Jersey, there is a National Reserve (an affiliated area, not a true national park) called the Pinelands. If you grew up in New Jersey you likely heard tales of the "Jersey Devil" -a creature that flies around the Pine Barrens creating havoc. It's their version of Sasquatch apparently. The story was told in this display but they also highlighted the various crops like berries and vegetables grown in the area.

This layout is based on a border sketch from Creative Memories. Our CM Advisor group was given the challenge to use one of the sketches from the weekend and I made this border from pumpkin and apple border maker cartridges. I used paper and stickers from the "Locally Grown" pack due to the gardening nature of the display. The pumpkins and apples are a little too close to the same shape and I didn't get the variety of colors I was looking for to make them stand out, but it's a cute border and just needed a backdrop for the photos and journaling box. 

The OTHER big trail

The next display covers another immense trail in the National Park System--the Pacific Coast Trail. Unlike the Appalachian trail, this is not an official unit. The trail extends from the Mexican to the Canadian borders and so crosses a wide variety of environments. The designers condensed all of that to just a few square feet of floor space! 

This layout is from the same class as the last 3 entries--so again, no sketch. The design focused on building those borders on the left and bottom right. My cuts were supposed to be through the middle of a chain punched with the Border Maker System. But the cuts are not quite perfect so I had to use other items to hide the imperfections (like the John Muir quote mat). The tree border was punched directly onto the background paper (that particular punch is not a chain) and I mounted a bit of cardstock underneath to bring out the tree design. I finished it off with a couple of clusters of stickers from my assorted packs.

This layout is from a DIFFERENT class--but alas I still cannot show you the sketch. I like splitting paper across a 2-page layout and that happened twice here (the light blue and the green forest designs). That technique helps the eye move from one side of the layout to the other. The sketch called for borders under the photos and instead of a punch, I used some strips from a cut-apart sheet. The left border (Adventure) was a bit smaller than the right so I mounted it on a wider piece of paper. But that was TOO pale so I added some rope borders at the top and bottom. A lot more stickers on this one to fill in some of the dead spaces (and honestly to use up some of those sheets!)

It's more than Atlantic City

When most people think of the Jersey Coast, they think of the casinos and not much else. But just inside that commercialized zone is a series of small protected zones like the Pine Barrens and the Maurice River. These were temporarily combined to form the New Jersey Coastal Heritage route--an affiliated unit for the National Park Service. I'm surprised that this was the topic of one of the displays as in reality there is no organizational body overseeing that designation. There is one stamp left in Southern Jersey. However, the areas are protected by private foundations like the various lighthouse agencies. 

The inspiration for this layout was from a class I took and I cannot share the sketch. It was pretty straightforward though--3 pairs of patterned papers cut with the Decorative Trimmer and separated just a bit to create a "river" through the middle. I used more of the Woodland Whimsy papers for this layout as well as a few animal stickers from the pack. It was originally a baby pack so it can be difficult to use some of the titles from the kit. The title across the bottom is a mixture of mini ABC-123 letter packs. The yellow didn't show up well so I outlined them in dark pen. The title isn't SUPPOSED to be another river on the page but I won't argue if you think it matches that layout. I'm just bad at making things straight sometimes!

How Green Was the Inn?

 The next display covered one of the affiliated units of the NPS (as if the choice of the more than 400 parks wasn't enough!) The Schuylkill River NHA runs through Philadelphia but goes up into the Pottsville area. They have yearly paddle events along the length. Of course in Philly, this runs right into the Boathouse Row area. This mid-19th century site still runs as a restaurant today in the Wissahickon area.Creative Memories wanted to honor Australia Day which occurs in late January. They posted a blog featuring a cute layout and then turned that into a sketch for us to follow. I used that sketch for this layout--the main feature of which is the circle on the bottom with the 3 tails. I used paper from the Woodland Whimsy pack (the girl's pack I think). That's the background and the darker orange papers. For the circle, I chose one of the circle punches. By starting with a 6" square of paper, you end up with a lacy-trimmed circle. This one had a tulip pattern that I thought went well with the page. I added 2 strips of paper for the tails and then added a border sticker in the middle. A few sticker embellishments from the same collection finished the page.