Bonus Post--Up on the Hill

I'm adding another post based on a Lasting Moments Challenge. This is from the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site and is part of the 2021 NPTC convention, which we are now highlighting on the blog. He chose his house site so that he could look down on Washington, DC (from a literal and figurative point of view!) One of my favorite sites at his house is the little cabin behind the main house that he called the Growlery. It was a place for him to sit and ponder, and he used it quite a lot, from what I hear. 

I used the Lasting Moments Challenge #754 for this layout. Cheryl Even cleverly pointed out that the pieces (2 6x6 squares, 2 3x11 strips and 2 3x1 strips) fit together to make a 12x12 page like a jigsaw puzzle! I chose to place the 6x6 squares across the middle and the longer strips at the top and bottom to create a border-like effect. The paper is from the Our Moments line from CM. The journaling is on the new Write-On strips that are available in ivory. I love them for this heritage feel. I cut apart the leafy laser-cut borders to help decorate the page.

More Men Need a Growlery

As I said in the last blog post, I did take the house tour. The lighting inside was dim (no electric bulbs) and I'm not sure if that was saving energy, protecting the relics, or just the absentmindedness of the rangers. Consequently, most of my photos are quite dark and I decided not to use them. I did salvage a handful for the layout as you can see. My favorite part of the tour is actually in the garden. The little house on the right is called his "Growlery" where he would go to be grumpy and to think.

This layout is based on one of the CM Virtual Crop sketches from May 2024 (Sketch #3). I used up most of the Welcome Home collection for this sketch. There wasn't much paper left, so I looked at the mat cards and chose several with nice prints on them. Each card would generate 6 punches (the squares are 1 3/4" each so I could use the CM Punch). They do NOT go to the outside edges of the paper, so I started on the top row on the right edge and moved left. Then I repeated that pattern on the other 3 rows. 

Up on the Hilltop

After the conference, I decided to visit another new park--the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site which was his home while in Washington DC. He wanted to look out over Washington and wanted a house high on a hill. He certainly found it! You can see that the view is wonderful. The visitor center is at the bottom of the hill, so fair warning--there is a climb involved in the visit. I was able to tour the home and you'll see a bit of that in the next blog. In this blog, I posed with his statue and the entrance sign.

I created this layout as part of the CM Virtual Crop for May 2024. This is sketch #1.  While I enjoy the quote at the top of the unigrid, when unfolded I loved the idea of showing the portrait of Douglass in its entirety. That took up most of one page so I concentrated on the right side (as I typically do) and found that the photos for the rest of the first 2 pages fit the sketch referenced above. I chose a light blue cardstock for the bases and used some of my remaining stash of Welcome Home. As I had one photo to add to the left, I mirrored the papers from the right page to provide some continuity between them. I thought the "Home" sticker provided a nice title for the layout. I'm fairly certain I use the laser-cut and sticker titles in ways CM never imagined!