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. 

First to Stamp!

In June, the National Park Travelers Club was notified that a new stamp had been made and placed in Wrightsville, York County. That's near my house! So in early July, I decided I would take a drive to locate the stamp and made a stop on my way home from work. I was the VERY FIRST PERSON to use the stamper. I even helped the folks to set the date wheel. Unfortunately, the ink pad was quite wet and it took a while to get a decent impression, I doubt the docent really understood why I wanted my photo taken of me stamping but she complied. The home is part of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail--a water-based trail that commemorates Captain Smith's explorations in the early 1600s. I'll need to return eventually as the site was open,  but no tours were scheduled until the next day.

This is the left page of a 2-page spread. The base of which is a layout I made at a Paper Loft class during one of the Lancaster Scrapbook Conventions. It was the July 4th weekend and the combination of the red and blue papers gave it not only a patriotic touch but also had a nice historic rustic look that worked on this page. The following page is about our dinner cooking on the fire pit so I didn't photograph that half of the layout. I like having pre-made pages ready to go. It can make for fast page completion. Notice that there are 2 vertical 4x6 photo mats. I don't always allow that to determine how I layout the photos. I just consider them part of the background and use it as I would any other component.