One Fine Day

 As you walk the De Soto trail, you come to an area with several religious monuments. There is one that has an obelisk and then a large cross. Both were placed by local parishes as memorials to the DeSoto expedition. Not to DeSoto himself though--to the memory of the 12 priests that were part of his excursion! There was a statue of DeSoto in the same area but that suffered from vandalism and so has been removed. It's a shame that people feel the need to desecrate memorials.

You may remember that I posted this layout previously when I worked on the Lasting Moments Challenge. Review this blog post and you can find details about the choice of colors and the sketch I used.

If Monty Python Came to Florida

From the visitor center, you follow a path around the park ending in the visitor center parking lot. I loved the cut-outs along the way but could not keep from imagining John Cleese's voice of "Stupid English K-nig-its" when I saw the soldiers in period outfits. The view from the point is quite lovely though and there is a small beach.

I went back to the 101 Sketches book for this layout (page 73). I continued using the Tropic Time kit. The hint of flowers and leaves framed these photos perfectly. I cut down a mat to get the title and then added a die-cut. I love that it is already decorated with many layers of leaves, flowers, and birds. The top right square is from a complimentary pack called Pineapples and Palms. It was a gift from me to my customers if they spent $250 that quarter. The Monstera leaf is prominent in the patterned paper, the small square on the right, and in the cluster by the title so I chose one with lines to be the journal box as well. It was the final touch to the page.

A Different Look at History

In March 2019, Jim and I headed to Florida to take in some spring training baseball games. Since we were going to be in the area, I added a stop at De Soto National Memorial (very close to the Pirates home field in Bradenton). I didn't know what to expect--De Soto was not prominently featured in my elementary school days, so we took time to explore. It really is a sad story. Though he is credited with a great deal of exploration and discovery, he is among many Spanish "conquerors" who tried to eliminate the native cultures of the area. The park is fairly small. It is the trailhead of the De Soto Trail which covers the first year of his travels and ranges along the western coast of Florida. There is a place for living history events but we were a little early in the season to view those. In their place, they have life-sized poster cutouts of the inhabitants. You'll see more of that next week.

I based this layout on a sketch from Even More Scrapping. CM has a collection called Tropic Time that was a perfect match for this area. One of the coordinating colors is dark green, so I chose the background cardstock in that shade and then layered a touch of gold along the edges. The leaves are all die cuts in the collection. You can see that I split one of the sticker borders (sort of sunshine) to add a little more interest to the top. 

Bonus Post--Complementary Colors

Hello all! I'm presenting a new layout for you as part of the Lasting Memories Challenge #687--Complementary Colors. This layout is part of a trip to the DeSoto National Memorial in Florida. Part of their nature trail includes these 2 religious statues. DeSoto's expedition had 12 Catholic priests, and the local diocese provided these 2 statues in the park. 

Complementary colors are those directly across from each other on a color wheel. There's a copy of a color wheel in the link to the challenge above. I chose blue and orange for my colors. The background paper is baby blue and the 1" borders are an orange-toned designer paper. I also decided to make the clouds a dark blue as part of the contrast, though I was mighty tempted to use the white on the reverse side. The blue worked out well though. The layout is based on a CM Virtual Crop sketch that I saved. The papers are from the CM collection "Tropic Time".

50-states Album Part 6--Florida

My next state completed is Florida. I like that the photo I chose is not only the NPS sign but has a beach as well.

This layout is based on this border set. The layout was quite simple and I used a CM collection called Sun Kissed, which is still available. I used one paper as a backdrop. Though it could be a pool, I think it could also be water along a shore. The border is blue cardstock with a strip of the leaf paper and 2 stickers for the edges. Letters were cut on the Cricut. The fish stickers are from a much older line called "Cottage". It's nice to use up some of the older stuff with the new and see it match so well!