The Last of the Flower Show

The hours for the Flower Show were ending as I came to the smaller displays. Here is my final entry in the album--the Edgar Allan Poe cabin from Acadia. Poe shows up in a number of National Parks, and of course, has his own in the Philadelphia area. But here we see a highlight of his stay in one of the cottages. They decorated the door and yard with symbols of his writing such as a typewriter and a raven. I thought it was well done and made for a great ending page.

This layout is based on one of my year-long classes so I can't show you the sketch. I based the color scheme on the door with its rich purple. The Secret Garden stash which I bought specifically for this album (and yet used very little of) did come in for the last page. The washed look of the purple background was a great canvas for the floral aqua-colored papers and stickers. I used a dark purple cardstock for the middle strip and was also able to journal using a white gel pen. The original sketch was to be just 4 photos in 4x4 size, but there was no way for me to trim the upper left photo so it's a bit asymmetrical and yet works. I hope you enjoyed the past months traveling across the country through one evening at the flower show. Join me next week as I return to my larger travels and we head to the First State National Historical Park!

Thirsty?

Only 2 more layouts for the Flower Show! For this week, it's the bridal display for Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Everything was so romantic! I took a few photos to send to my sister who was planning a wedding that year.

This is another layout that I cannot share the sketch for. Because of the wedding theme, I wanted to use pinks. I was able to use some scraps to accent the page. In real life, you can see more detail. This photo doesn't really show some of the prints well. The circle that is cut in half is from one of the circle punches from CM. There are tulips around the edge. Though everything else is roses, it doesn't clash.

The Golden Arches

It's the last post of 2021. I hope you all had a great year. I look forward to sharing more layouts with you in 2022! 

The next display was for Arches National Park. There were multiple arches made of stones, wood and flowers all lined up along the walkway. It's funny how an arch makes you change perspective. Do you look at the arch itself or do you look at what is revealed in the opening? Or both! I think you'll see that I took both perspectives in my photos.

This layout is based on a class I took. I used more of the paper from the Mystery Box as well as some red/orange cardstock. I had the title from a page of park names that someone gave me and it drove the rest of the colors on the page (though the display certainly matched that tone as well). You can see that the paper was cut and then folded back on itself to get the contrast in the 4 quadrants of the layout. That also means that you can tuck photos under the edges for a change. I added the arched border across the top to highlight the theme and then just a few stickers from my stash that were floral but in the same red/orange tone. 

Stop and Smell the Roses

Tomorrow is Christmas Day. I hope you have an enjoyable holiday season with friends and family. Thanks so much for adding me to your celebration! 

As I came to the end of my night at the Flower Show, the displays change from the over-the-top extravaganzas that I've been showing you, to smaller, compact, and sometimes even dainty displays. I loved this small set of flowers and a manikin from Weir Farm. The park is all about artistry and many people go there to paint landscapes. The artist who originally lived there had painted "Flora" and that photo was turned into a 3-D rendering through flowers.

This layout is based on a sketch from the February CM Virtual Crop. I used papers from the Full Bloom collection for the edges. This type of layout is a great way to use up scraps from any collection. The inner-most 3 squares are all one sheet of paper. By using the CM 12" trimmer, I can stop a cut before coming to the edge of the paper. I made several squares by trimming a block from the center of each consecutive cut. By flipping the middle square, I had a nice set of contrasting colors. The green and dot paper is not from Full Bloom, but from a "green" themed pack. CM offers those types of packs fairly often so they can coordinate with multiple other paper sets. It certainly helped pull Full Bloom into a full layout.

It's All There in Black and White

Lots of photos for you today! The next set of displays focused on a brilliant photographer named Ansel Adams. Known for his dramatic photos of landscapes using black and white photography, a group of designers used the black and white motif to present multiple national parks in this theme and even included large prints of Adams as backdrops. I am putting them all in this post as I think they should be seen together. 

The first park represented was one I would not think of seeing in black and white--Kalaupapa National Historical Park in Hawaii. The site is now a place of refuge but had originally been isolation for those with leprosy and other infectious diseases. It's now home to many rare plant species. The cascading flowers create a lot of movement in a still-life I think.

This layout was created for another challenge in the CM Virtual Crop in February 2021. I again turned to the mystery box papers. I thought blue was a good color to offset the black and white flowers. Two of the papers had ombre tones in them and I thought flipping the stripe ombre (dark top, light bottom) on the regular paper (light top, dark bottom) highlighted the cascades on the photos. I chose yellow stickers to accent the page as well. There are some ivory/yellow tones in some of the "white" photos--though that might be artifact from the lights in the space.

The next part of the display was the domed room of Carlsbad Caverns. I have visited this park but not been in the cave so I definitely need to go back someday. I do like going through caves, as long as there is ample room to walk. I'm not one of those who want to go on the cave tour where you have to shimmy through a box to prove you won't get stuck. Let's just admit that I'll get stuck and leave me on the regular path!

This layout is another sketch from the virtual crop. More importantly, it used a template that was included in the mystery box. Check out the blog post here to see the sketch and a photo of the template (you couldn't buy it, you could only get it in the mystery box). I will be the first to admit, I don't really like using templates. I've used them several times and I always seem to mess up the cuts and ruin the intended "symmetry". This one had a lot of straight angles so I figured I could use my trimmers to make the cuts, which helped a little. I chose papers from the O Canada pack. The darker background reminded me of stone and the yellow I chose just as an accent. The diamond-shaped pieces are from a scrap of stone paper I still had. I thought it would help fill in the page since I didn't have many photos of this section. I finished by using an icicle border maker cartridge to punch stalactites and stalagmites for the edges. That's probably the part of the layout I like best.

Next stop, the Grand Canyon! I've been here twice now and I can't say that I ever knew there were aspen groves! I focus so much on the canyon that I forget there are other things. Here they are collected and secured with flowers around the middles. 

This was one more of the challenges for the virtual crop. I changed the number of photos in the original sketch, which you can see here. I utilized paper from the Camouflage pack. The background paper is birch bark and I turned it so that there was some definition against the direction of the trees in the photo. I also used leafy paper in the middle to help the photos stand out. Two brown borders also helped define the photos. One is a leftover border and I liked that it had the hiking boots printed on it. I chose the CM Stamping set to create the title. I thought that the uneven covering of ink on the letters also represented the tree bark.

OK, we come to the last layout in the Ansel Adams collection. This one is King's Canyon--another site I've not been to. Though I found out recently that my grandparents did! I have their photo album from the 1960s when they went on several cross-country trips and my grandmother labeled many of the sites so I know where they are. Now I can recreate their photo when I visit!

One more sketch from the virtual crop (check it out here). I returned to the mystery box papers and to the use of blue to offset the black and white flowers. For one of the circular elements, I chose to create a journal box by using the custom cutting system on a piece of ruled paper. I accented with some stickers (top and bottom) from a couple of older, non-related CM packs. But I thought the colors and tones matched the layout. My favorite piece of this layout is the border at the top and bottom. I used a new border maker cartridge called "Mirrored Triangles". In addition to punching a set in white, I punched a set in black and used that to edge the white against the striped paper. It gives a great shadow effect. The title was one of our laser-cut titles. I love those packs. So much easier than splicing letters together!

It's BOTH

One of the more unusual designations in the National Park Service is for the Redwood Forest. It is both a National and a State park! I don't know how they separate out the duties and the funds but I'll have to explore that when I get a chance to visit the real trees. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the beautiful display from the Flower Show. We see more poetic license here, in more ways than one! First, the "Chandelier Tree" doesn't have a chandelier in it--it was named for the way the branches flow, resembling a chandelier. Second--the Chandelier tree is NOT part of the NPS unit. It's a privately owned area that charges for the privilege of driving through the tree. The National Park site has no entrance fees. Of course, there are no drive-thru trees in the park either--not since 1969. You have to admit though--the team did an EXCELLENT job on this display!

For this layout, I was participating in the February Virtual Crop with Creative Memories. You can see a copy of the sketch here. This month was one of the "Mystery Boxes" that CM has a few times a year. We buy the box and leave it sealed until the first sketch is released and we join in a virtual unboxing together. It's a lot of fun! Then we're encouraged to use that material for our layouts for the crop if it works with our photos (but it's not mandatory). It did work for my photos. The orange and green combinations highlighted the earthy tones of the photos. The one non-Creative Memories element is the large tree on the left. That's from the Eastern National Scrapbook kit. There's really no better embellishment for this display!

Not so Tiny

Last week we looked at a tiny home. This week we move to the Redwoods of Muir Woods--definitely not tiny! You can see the structure from across the entire convention center floor. It's an odd structure but is meant to represent the rings of the large trees. You can walk under it to look at it through the center (bottom photos).

This layout is based on a class sketch. I have to admit, it is not necessarily one of my favorite layouts, but it is done. I used more of the Woodland Whimsy pack for the background and the large circle. I chose a different pack for the contrasting stripe across the middle and that's the piece that I probably should have changed. The background was chosen because it matched the smaller hanging elements. The stripe was for the surrounding trees. But I think it skews a little more tropical than it should. Still, it's done!

A Tiny Bit of Olympic National Park

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I want to thank you for following my blog and my journeys through the National Park System.

The display for Olympic National Park featured the concept of "Tiny Houses". The builders are recommending a structure like this as a visitor center to help preserve the environment. The outside of the house included local trees and plants as well as a small garden. Going through the display did bring back wonderful memories of my trip there.

This layout is based on one of my class sketches from February. I used a background from the Woodland Whimsy collection and a dark strip for the banner from the S'Mores collection. I was able to use up a bit more of my Olympic Park stickers as well as a few random nature stickers from my collection. I love these pages when they come together quickly.

Poetic License

The title this week is the only thing I can think of to explain the next exhibit. If you see the actual monument at Lincoln's Birthplace, you will see a large marble structure. Inside there IS a replica of a birth cabin. The display below in no way resembles either of those 2 entities. But they were going for rustic simplicity and I suppose they did achieve their goal.

I looked through my saved pins featuring flowers and a general "Spring" theme and found this blog post from Creative Memories. I had pulled my Full Bloom collection as one of the items I wanted to use for this album and so I was able to replicate the borders. Given the large photo (created by welding 3 separate 4x6 photos together) it seemed the perfect backdrop to the rustic garden on display. I was also able to use a few of my paper flowers in the upper right corner. It's not a design element I use often so when I get a chance to use my stash I take it!

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 Unofficial State Bird

So many states claim the mosquito as the unofficial state bird that it's almost a cliche. But when you see "Mosquito Meter" crafted into the display, you know there are bound to be problems. I guess I'll need to carefully plan my visit to the real park so that it's not a war zone! You'll remember that Jim and I experienced a horde of mosquitoes during our visit to Portsmouth Island (or check out that blog post by clicking the link). I may have to do this park without him!

This layout is again from one of the classes I took. It was a fairly simple concept where you lay out the letters and a border sticker and then chop and mat them to create a crazy title. I had kept a piece of the S'More Memories pack that had dragonflies as the design. But given the photo of the Mosquito Meter, you thought mosquitoes instead, right? This layout only used one piece of paper. I cut the squares for the corners from the left-over paper after the title was done.

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!)

And now a word from our sponsor...

 My next stop was Yosemite National Park. I was a little surprised to find so many Subaru advertisements here, but not only do they support the Flower Show, they are working with Yosemite to reduce waste. The floral portion represents Olmstead Point. Also included is the Mariposa Grove sequoia. This California Tunnel Tree is a popular destination within the park.

This layout was created for one of the classes I took and I cannot share the sketch. My layout required some photo manipulation to get the entrance to Olmstead Point in view. Once I trimmed the photos, I matted them in pink and left them square on the bottom to allow a small journaling space. 

The page technique uses "welding" to get both sides of a paper into the act. I liked the contrast between the bright pink flowers and the tree. When you have such a vibrant pattern (the pink flowers) it helps to use it in small amounts on the page. I cut the borders and then flipped the middle. The pieces are reattached using long stickers. I was able to use some very old CM stickers from the Jumbo Great Lengths purple pack. (You can also use strips of scrap paper along the back for the same effect, but the stickers hide the seam).

Following the sketch, I added a border using the Tulips Border Punch from Creative Memories. I think I should have chosen a slightly darker shade of purple for those as they seem to get lost on the tree papers. The rest of the embellishments are more stickers from the GL Purple pack. I trimmed the squares and rectangles into banners to finish the page.

What a Blast

The next display was of Hopewell Furnace. Located not too far from Philly it's another local favorite. As with the Valley Forge display, the creators decided to go with what the place looked like after its original purpose (iron making) was over. The elements such as the furnace were recreated with fall-type leaves. The display was rather large and you could walk through the structures. I liked that they also added non-floral elements such as the pantry supplies.

The layout is based on a class I took and I am not allowed to share the sketch. I used the Hello Autumn collection from Creative Memories. The green and orange colors matched the display perfectly. I liked the portion of the sketch where we punched borders and layered them into a small 4x6 space (see the rustic fence behind the bottom photo on the right page?  Just 2 embellishment clusters here. CM had a matching foiled leaf pack to go with the collection and I clustered them for titles and a little journaling. I also substituted one photo for a journaling box. 

I like that we didn't center the photos in the boxes. It gives a little more movement to the page and shows the background papers a bit better.

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!

Of course there's a stamp!

 In the corner, the NPS set up an authentic Ranger Station with real NPS rangers staffing it throughout the show. To prevent overwhelming the Philadelphia staff, additional help was brought in from volunteers across the country. That was probably beneficial as they might have had to field questions about a number of far-flung parks on display.

Creative Memories posted a special sketch challenge for National Sticker Day. They had recently released a second version of the Emoji stickers which had more masked versions due to COVID. I chose to use the original packaging to complete the challenge. It worked so well for this page because it was such a lighthearted topic.I especially love the Indiana Jones emoji--it just seems to go with the ranger page perfectly. The background paper is from the Woodland Whimsy collection. The log paper is some scraps of Adventure I still had. I used the rolling trees border maker cartridge for the edging.

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.

Boy oh Boy

My next stop was at the Lincoln Boyhood Home. Hard to believe that it is even smaller than the original, but they included an outdoor garden as a main focus of plants.

This layout is from my year-long class so I can't link the sketch. I used several variations on branches to get my rustic look. The paper at the top is from a photo paper pack. By cutting it I could stretch one piece of paper over 2 pages. The brown plaid is a leftover piece from one of the adventure/outdoor paper packs. The borders at the top and bottom are made with different border punches. The top is a border maker cartridge. If you look closely I have the branches facing to the middle to draw the eye there. The bottom is a stand-alone border punch. I chose to leave the branches bare this time because of the split rail fences in the photos. 

I balanced the left and right sides with 2 quotes. On the left is the sign from the display. On the right, I stacked a sticker from an NPS sign sticker pack (all blank) with a heritage phrase from Paper Loft. Just a couple of left-over fall stickers finished off the layout.

Off the Beaten Path

 The next display is of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail--the big one that goes from Georgia to Maine! I've been on very small segments of it and I'm sure there were a lot of options for the designers. They chose a generic-looking walk in the woods but also included one of the sleeping shelters. For through-hikers, this is their hotel on many nights. Also authentic--the white blazes on the trees indicating the path!

For this layout, I broke up a 2-page layout I made at a paper-loft class. It was mostly lantern paper so I added a border of trees from one of the CM outdoor packs (Winter woods--but it doesn't really look wintery). A few more random stickers of backpacks, hiking, and squirrels, and this one was complete!

Dele-Where?

 The next park to be highlighted is First State National Historical Park in Delaware. Which in reality takes the entire state of Delaware and includes several stops. The components highlight the founding of the county as well as its participation in the Revolutionary War, so the designers created a "Colonial Garden". To the best of my knowledge (and I've been through the various sites a couple of times) the only places that you would find this is either Lewes (which as a bunch of historical houses though not part of the park system) or the John Dickinson Plantation. Which I don't remember from my visit there. Still, they put together a lovely display.

This layout is based on one of Organized and Creative Mom's sketches. It's the same page as last week's layout, but the other sketch. I used the very old "Sorbet" line. The stickers are a bit "cartoony" but the background papers worked well. I like using the middle of a frame that  I cut for a different project as the base.