Do You Hear What I Hear?

These are the wind chimes that had recently been installed. They call it the Tower of Voices and eventually, there will be one chime for each member of the flight. When I visited there were just 8 bells so that they could study how they moved in different weather conditions. I would like to go back when it is completed. I could hear the chimes but it was quite soft. I was surprised that I could go inside the bottom of the tower and take a photo of the bells above me.

This layout is based on another of the NSD Virtual Crop sketches. Scroll to Sketch #5 (the Bonus Sketch). I had trouble deciding on what paper to use but eventually realized that this paper from Wanderlust would work. I mounted the paper on black cardstock. You can see a lot more of my black cardstock than called for in the sketch. I made it a bit larger because of how I had to cut the paper (the border was pre-printed but I cut it off and then turned the paper into a square and mounted it on the black cardstock). I gutted the black cardstock and used it to mat 2 of the photos. I had another black mat handy so all photos would stand out.

I was thinking about how to add the memorabilia to the pages. I was out of 8 1/2 x 11 pockets, but I did have some sticky memorabilia pockets. I decided to attach one to the inside back cover of the album and tucked my Junior Ranger book and the Unigrid inside. I don't think I'll have a problem with them falling out as I store my albums vertically.

Photographic Memory

My trip ended with a visit to Flight 93 NM. I stopped by as they have a new item--the Tower of Voices. You'll see that in the next post. Since I've been here several times I decided to complete the Junior Ranger book. I didn't follow the trail, just looked at the memorial materials near the visitor center.

I've had this background paper on hand for a while now. I originally bought it to highlight the Walk 93 I did with my sister but used different papers for that one. So when I was planning out the album I pulled these 2 photo pages and they ended up being a good base for my trip this time. The papers are from Forevermore Scrapbook in York PA. We would always go there during the Buggies and Buds Shop Hop. They had several floors of wonderful products. But even better, they had a large inventory of photo pages like this covering many national park sites and lighthouses. I struggled a bit with creating this layout. I re-watched a video from Noreen Smith on working with photo pages and she said that you either wanted to make the photos similar to the background or wildly different. I chose similar ones but matted them to stand out from the paper. I also took her advice of adding a border to the bottom of the page. I didn't need many embellishments for my scrapbook page, but I added a grassy journal box and a plane that I thought added to the pages.

Walk 93 Part 2

This week we look at the fun side of my visit to Flight 93. Times with my sister are NEVER dull, and we were both excited to do this event together. Also joining us were her boyfriend Jason and her daughter Sierra. Jason has very long arms (he's tall) and so he is essentially a human selfie-stick.

This layout is from the Creative Memories Virtual Crop. I liked the technique on the right page where you make cuts along only half of a square and fold down the inside. It creates a border and allows you to use both sides of the paper at the same time. I used paper from the Creative Memories "Fresh Fusion Brights" pack. The red matched our shirts and the reverse side in green accented nicely (red and green are opposites on the color wheel and always look good together--even if it isn't Christmas). This was the weekend we got the mystery box and the double star punch was part of that kit. I used it to finish filling in some of the blank areas around the page. I liked the right side of the sketch where we created faux Polaroid photos. Cutting a mat longer than the photo by about an inch gives you that look. It also leaves a great space for journaling.

This layout focuses on the walk. Whenever I go to a National Park I always seem to find those like-minded passport devotees like myself and this walk was no exception. If you see the photo below where I'm talking to 2 people (lime and red hoodies), that was me touting the benefits of the National Park Travelers Club to potential members. Lisa found it amusing and took a photograph of it.

This layout is also from the CM Virtual Crop. Challenge 6 featured a card and a border. I used the border sketch to create toppers for these 2 pages. I used some papers that were close in color but are not exactly the same print for the background. All of the paper comes from a collection called "Painted Harvest" which is an older CM line. The fall tones matched the photos well. The borders include the Cable Chain border maker cartridge. Decorations are flowers that I have been gathering over the years. I tried to stick with the red colors to match the layout. I know flowers are not exactly what you expect for fall but I think they work well here.

Walk 93 Part 1

In September of 2015, Flight 93 held a charity walk to raise money for the park. They had just installed a new path around the site. My sister Lisa had always wanted to do something like this with me so I invited her and it ended up being us plus her boyfriend Jason and her daughter Sierra. We arrived at the park early and had time before the event to tour the visitor center and overlook the park from the new balcony. 

This layout is based on a sketch from the Creative Memories Virtual Crop from September 2020. The paper is an older pack called "Reflections". The pack included some matching paper tape and I used that to make the diagonal stripes on the right page. I liked the soft feel for a rather somber occasion.

It was interesting to tour the visitor center with Sierra who was only a year old when the event occurred. And even years later, I needed the tissues provided by the park at the end of the display. 

This page also was part of the September Virtual Crop. This crop was the first time they instituted a mystery box. We didn't open it until just before the first challenge launched. The papers included in that box (there was also a tape runner and a punch) were used for this layout. It had a sort of star-light feel to it and matched the tone of the displays. I was also able to use up some button embellishments (paper buttons) and a few ABC-123 stickers. Next week we'll focus on the happier side of the walk.

Some NPS sites are sadder than others.

This entry looks at a layout from my first visit to the Flight 93 Memorial in 2007. My mom and brother joined Jim and I for a Pirates game in Pittsburgh. My brother Joe left the next morning for his cross-country solo road trip while Jim, my mom and I headed back to Harrisburg. On the way I wanted to stop at the site not only because it is a National Park but because I grew up just north of here in South Fork. This is the literal representation of the phrase "Hitting close to home".

The site is a small red barn and a fence. Like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, people leave tributes and memorabilia at the fence which the rangers collect and categorize. They have the transcripts of the black box recorder and reading it is incredibly saddening. We stayed to hear a volunteer talk about the flight events. All of the benches have the names of the victims engraved along the backs. One of them had the last name of Corrigan (no relation that I know of).

This was a more difficult layout to create. Although it is patriotic it also had to be subdued so the background of dark red with a light stripe worked well to bring out the dark memorial stones.

In this layout I finally figured out what to do with the large tag stickers that Creative Memories created. In previous layouts I had tried to write on them but being glossy, the ink just wiped away. The words "Pride and Honor" were all on one line in a sticker but I cut them into 3 parts and attached them to the tag and voila--a mini title. Similarly, I used the "Home of the Brave" to begin the title box. I really brought the emotion out. Simple stickers of hearts and stars finish the detail.