Finally! Anhingas!

And finally, after talking about them for a few weeks, we can see the anhinga bird! I got some great views of them as the tram tour returned to the visitor center. Because they dive for their food, they need to dry their wings so you can often find them perched on a branch in the sun with wings extended. The birds below show different age ranges with the head and neck getting darker as they age. This is the final entry from the Everglades but there were 2 more parks that I visited and we'll start with them next week.

I based this layout on the March 2023 Power Hour layouts from Meggan and Tessa. I liked the diagonal overlaps at the bottom. It really highlights the vertical photos at the top. The background paper (leafy green) is from Totally Tonal Zoo papers. The orange diamond sticker borders are from that pack as well. If you check out the Power Hour,  you'll see how 2 borders can cover an excess of 24" of paper!  

This Post is Brought to you by the Number 5

The halfway point of the tram ride brings us to this viewing tower. It does provide a lovely view of the area and I was able to see my first Anhinga. He dived into the water and stayed down for at least 30 seconds, then rose up about 50 yards distant from where he entered. It was an amazing sight. And I think he did catch the fish! Also found was this unusual little snake (he's about the width of a pencil). Whatever he ate put a crook in him and gave him the image of the number 5!

For this layout, I wanted to return to the Scrapbook Customs paper. I used the opposite side this time which, similar to my previous CM paper, had the state shape in the corner. It was originally on the bottom so I trimmed it to 6" and moved it to the top. I used a coordinating piece of cardstock on the left bottom page. Both are mounted on dark brown cardstock which matches the photos well. I used a Monstera Leaf punch to get the brown and green leaves and then added some older flowers from my stash. The orange/coral tones popped. The Everglades Memories sticker and the selfie sticker are from the coordinating Scrapbook Customs Sticker pack. The other stickers and enamel dots are from CM packs.

Walk on the Wild Side

While on the tram tour, I saw a LOT of wildlife and even amazed myself that the zoom feature on the camera worked to get the close-ups. The middle 2 photos are not animals but do go well with the other bird photos. The top is an interesting flower I found and the bottom is a snail shell.

This layout is based on the CM Virtual Crop sketch from September 2023 (scroll to sketch #3 for the design). I used the CM What a Zoo Fast-to-Fabulous paper pack for the background. The zig-zag strips across the bottom are all stickers from the What a Zoo Tonal stickers. The title sticker is from the original What a Zoo sticker pack. Since it matched the other 3 it was the perfect choice of title! A few more bird stickers from that pack provide the interest to keep the eye moving across the page. 

Alligator Alley Part 3!!

Yes, even more alligators! This nest is near where the tram stopped (you'll see the viewing tower in a couple of weeks). The photo of the gator is actually from the return trip. We saw many different animals in trees and on logs as we returned. I just wanted to put all the alligator material on one page.

This layout is based on yet another sketch from the 101 Sketch Book CM produced (I'm trying to use every sketch in the book for one of their challenges). The sketch can be found on page 19. I used a border punch to create the decorative corners. I thought the wave would match the alligator/water elements well. Had I thought about it a bit more, I might have been able to get the corners punched without creating that break between the left and bottom pages (a similar problem on the top and right pages). The base is dark brown cardstock. To save weight, there are just pieces glued behind the cut corners. The middle square is from the Totally Tonal Zoo Textures pack. It looked a LOT like alligator skin to me!

Watch the Tram Car Please

My next stop was just down the road at the Shark Valley visitor center. I purchased a ticket to one of their Tram Tours (the alternative is to bike the 15 miles--not really my thing). This 2-hour tour took us deeper into the park where we could see tons of wildlife and really get a look at the terrain. I now understand hummocks a lot better! As you'll see in the next few posts, the experience is well worth the cost and time involved!

This is another of the 101 sketches from the CM book (page 11). The papers come from the Vitamin Sea pack but the title came from an older travel kit (I think Scenic Route). Because I ended the airboat tour on the left side, I only had the right-side page to kick off this part of the trip. That title (a laser-cut border) was the perfect way to transition to the tram tour. The Vitamin Sea border pack had the top border which matched well. The rest of the embellishments are from that pack as well. I punched a circle to offset the leaf on the top border.

Alligator Alley part 2

Our airboat tour included quite a few alligators as well as some really interesting landscape photo ops! I do have to wonder why the alligators (who should have been sleeping in the sun) came close to the boat. While they didn't feed the alligators during our trip, I do have to wonder if they do so later to encourage them to come closer. Still, the results could be negative if they decided to gnaw on someone's hand on the railing as in the bottom right photo!

If this layout looks familiar, it's because I featured it a few weeks ago as a bonus post. Refer to this page to get the details on the layout.

After returning to the dock I decided to indulge in a bit of fun photography. This was me posing in front of a green screen. I wasn't really sure what it would look like until it was done but I simply HAD to have it. 

This layout is based on a VERY OLD CM virtual crop challenge (2017!). You can see the original post here. I continued my use of the Cool Serenity papers. The large square is the light-colored paper. I did the math to figure out the best width for the contrasting dark stripes. I loved that one of the stickers was supposed to refer to a vacation as a getaway. However, the spacing turned it into the perfect caption for my faux photo. I mounted that sticker on darker paper so that it didn't blend into the background too much. The alligator sticker and plant leaves are puffy stickers from a newer CM pack Zoo Too. Although newer, the colors matched well. Don't be afraid to mix collections!

Air Powered

 It was time to get our tour started. The fan is powerful but also very loud, so there isn't much narration of the area while we fly along the water. Periodically though, our captain would stop the boat and talk a bit about what we were seeing.

This layout is based on a Sketch and Scrap posting. I liked that they had more than 2 photos included, though you see that i added a 4th (it's really their business card). I used a rather old CM kit called Cool Serenity. There was little left when I began these pages and you'll see it on a few more layouts in this trip. It's not quite time to recycle the remnants but it's getting close! The title and the 3 items clustered at the top are all die-cut embellishments from the kit. The grassy-looking sticker under the title is from a different pack but I thought it worked well with the photo of the boat's wake. 

Snakes, why does it always have to be snakes?

Wow! This is Post #400 for my blog! Thanks to those who've stayed with me all these years. I hope you enjoyed my pages.

The next morning I headed back to the Everglades. I wanted to take an Airboat Tour. The NPS had its own tour but stopped offering tours after damage from a hurricane. Three concessionaires still offer them and they are all authorized by the NPS so to me, it is a valid option for touring. All three are along the same road heading toward the park and I chose this one because it was the first in line! 😁 I purchased my ticket but still had some time to kill before loading and they suggested the pre-cruise entertainment of a wildlife demonstration. The pseudo-ranger was handling a variety of snakes and other nasty things. There is an alligator locked up as well. It was a bit sad knowing that these animals were being handled as toys rather than the beautiful lifeforms they are. 

I based this layout on another of the 101 Sketches book (page 51). I used an older pack of CM papers called Vitamin Sea. I looked through all of my tropical and beach packs and liked how the background paper reflected the thatched hut look of the performance area.  The top border is a laser cut from the theme pack. The bottom border is a set of punched circles that I cut in half. The full circle title sticker works perfectly with those and pops given that it's a full circle. The snakes are from a pack I bought years ago. If you remember my odd wanderings in Greeley Colorado where I found a rattlesnake dress, this uses up the snakes I bought for that page. 

Anhinga Trail with no Anhingas

 My next stop was the Royal Palm Visitor Center. I wanted to walk the Anhinga Trail here as it is well known for viewing wildlife. Strangely I didn't see any of the birds for which the trail is named! I did have to stop and think about parking there after seeing the vulture warning sign (no damage to the car this time luckily). The trail is lovely, fully paved, and not terribly long (a little less than a mile). I do recommend it. Even though one of my first sights was a gator in the pond area at the head of the trail! (That's a zoomed-in image--I did NOT get close to any).

I returned to the 101 Sketches book for this layout (page 105). I chose the paper collection called Serene Waters. This not only has regular paper and stickers but some vellum paper as well. I chose 2 printed pages for the background and then layered the striped vellum on top for the left and right edges. I wanted to mimic the water flowing across the grasses. The top borders are laser-cut borders. I bought 2 packs so that I could mirror them across double-page layouts. Something to consider when you add them to your shopping cart!

Alligator Alley

I left the Corrigan beach party as I needed to head to Florida for a conference with the Health Professions Network. I had a couple of extra days, so I flew down early and visited some national parks. My first stop was The Everglades. I learned that this park is NOT a swamp as many would have you believe. The water source is continually moving and is in fact one of the slowest-moving and widest rivers anywhere. I learned a lot about the park at the Ernest Coe visitor center. There was a movie as well as a set of displays in the visitor center. I also joined a ranger as he walked around the porch with us pointing out some of the flora and fauna of the area. And that's where I saw my first alligator! (He's by the tree on the left page photo).

For these 2 pages, I returned to wallpaper as a technique. As I sometimes do, I started with the right-hand page. That is one of the Scrapbook Customs papers that I bought (I think I have at least 30 parks represented in my stash). I like that one of my photos from the porch was similar to the background of the paper so that went in the "sky" section of the paper. Because I wanted to keep the Everglades sign I only had enough room for a journal box. For the left page, I needed a place to display the unigrid. CM had recently released some travel pages and Florida was among them. This page with the outline of the state in the corner matched well with the Scrapbook Customs page and I was able to add a few more photos. The alligator embellishment was from the CM pack but the title, camera, and wildlife stickers were from the coordinating Scrapbook Customs sticker pack.

Bonus post--What Sharp Teeth You Have

Hello all! I'm cropping this weekend and took time to post for the Lasting Memories Challenge #675--Thankful for Die Cuts. This layout is part of a long vacation I took in September 2018. I am on an air boat ride in the Everglades and in addition to the great landscapes and flowers, we saw lots of Alligators! You can see in the bottom right photo how close they came to the boat! You'll see more of this trip in a few months.

I based this sketch on an October 2023 CM Virtual Crop challenge. I'm using up an older pack of CM papers and embellishments called Cool Serenity. I loved the die-cut leaves in the pack and it was a great match for the edge circles in the sketch. The border across the middle of the pages is one of the Border Maker cartridges. I thought the grass journal card matched even though it's probably supposed to be more for sports and front yards. In this context it certainly matches the sea grass.