It's Been Two Years Without a Philadelphia Post!

It's odd--the closer I live to Philadelphia, the less I go there! At least to the National Park area. However, I decided to attend the Independence Day Parade there in 2019 and spent the day exploring old and new elements of the city. 

Because this day produced so many photos, I'm designing an entire event album. I wanted to do a kick-off page and chose a laser-cut 12" square that had been a promotional item from Creative Memories. I layered scraps of patriotic paper on the back to highlight the stars and then added a 4x6 mat from one of the kits. The numbers are red ABC-123 stickers.

I started my day at the visitor center because that's where the stamps are! Because it was a special day, many reenactors walked around, played instruments, and made colonial-era items like shawls or doilies. But the most impressive display was that GIANT table of cupcakes! The bakery was still decorating but I could see how the final project would be impressive!

This layout, and many more from this album are from a formula Creative Memories and Noreen Smith developed. It was one of the summer 2023 classes and you can review the video recording here. I made the pages from various patriotic packs I had on hand and some border punches. During the summer of 2023, I only had these 2 pages completed. Recently, I added a few more embellishments and a journal box before declaring it "done". I rarely complete an entire album of pages before working on an album but I enjoyed having them done as I returned to working on it this spring. While I may never do the entire formula to create an album again, I have turned to the formula to get ideas for a layout and then referred to the directions for the dimensions to cut the pieces. Let me know in the comments if you would complete an album through the formula method.

Centennial part 24--The Final Entry

Wow! It's been a 6-month journey showing the week I spent in and around Philadelphia for our NPTC convention during the NPS Centennial. Thanks for joining me and enjoy the last few layouts!

After Elfreth's Alley I returned to the Independence Visitor Center for the evening picnic (which was also a club meetup event). I did enough walking that day to complete a 5K race! (In 8 hours, but who's counting?)

The club members and I pulled out chairs and blankets and settled on the lawn area just outside the visitor center. The re-enactors were around and now included Teddy Roosevelt, Ben Franklin, and a few others. There was music and food and the components for a time capsule.

This layout is another kit that I purchased from Our Memories For Life, so most of the work was pre-designed. I placed some of the stars and the photos. Easy!

One highlight of the event was the free ice cream.

One more of the pre-purchased kits. I had bought a series for the summer and frankly was worried I would never get a chance to use it as I don't have kids and there are few opportunities to photograph a trip to the ice cream stand. Again, an easy layout and as I was close to the end of the book, a welcome way to finish.

We posed for a group photo with our new banners and I thought this was a great way to end the book.

The last page is simply blue gingham wallpaper (for the picnic feel) and a trimmed large group photo. The title stickers at the top you've seen before. As I'm getting close to the end of the pack I did have to modify them a bit to get all the letters I wanted, but I love that green leafy background for this layout. And that was all there was to it! (I even managed to lay them in a straight line this time).

Next week we'll return to 2013 and my ongoing National Park Adventures.

Centennial part 1--A Whole Week in Philly!

I will be taking a short break from my chronological album as I have photographed and posted everything I've finished. So to buy some time I decided to present the album I created for the 2016 NPS Centennial Convention. This was held in Philadelphia and surrounding areas and we spent a week there so that our end date was the actual centennial.

 This page was scraplifted from this pin. what amazed me most was that I actually owned several of the stickers that are on the original. That almost NEVER happens! 😀 This was not very difficult to put together. The large letters on top are from an old Creative Memories pack of Large Monogram stickers. Not made currently but great for titles like this. The buckles were rather simple and you can use this technique for suitcases or Santa belts. You make the under strap first at whatever width you like. Then make a square of gold slightly larger than the strip. For example, if you made a 1 1/2" belt you will want approximately 1 3/4" buckle. Next make a square in the same size as the belt and layer on top of the gold square. This is what makes it look like a woven strap. If you feel especially artistic you can draw in a prong for more realism.

The luggage itself is a rounded rectangle. The handle is made by cutting out an appropriate sized circle and tucking it under the case.

The first page is of course the itinerary. This time I listed all of the activities one could attend, not just the ones that are in the album. I highlighted the centennial in red and then added a few Philadelphia stickers to finish the page.

On the right is an 8 1/2 x 11 portrait sleeve. The real reason this is here is that as I was working on the album I realized that I hadn't made a space for the unigrid and I really wanted to include it. I also needed more room on my visit to the US Mint which is the layout below. To fill out the rest of the page I added Washi tape to the top and bottom for a simple border and then added a die cut of the Liberty Bell that I've had in my stash for a while.

So the first thing I did upon arriving in Philadelphia was visit the Mint. I know it isn't an NPS site, but the page ended up including some random walks through the city and the Ben Franklin Memorial, which IS part of the NPS as an Affiliated Site. I also grabbed a shot of Independence Hall as I walked by. Another photo is of the Penns Landing bridge which is near where I parked.

As I said, the left page is the portrait sleeve and ended up being a great place to store my tour brochure from the Mint as well as a postcard. The brochure is mounted with paper photo corners. I thought the red helped set it off a little bit. The right page is part of a Fast to Fabulous set which was called Uncharted. It's a little bit of vintage and travel combined. The page has a built-in border and then a small print. All I had to do was mat the photos. There are 2 more stickers from the Philadelphia pack and their borders match the photo matting somewhat. All I needed was a journal box and it was done!

Guess who's in Philly again?

If you guessed me, you're right! For my niece's birthday I gave her a certificate for a trip to any National Park with me. She could bring a friend and she also got a souvenir. Sierra chose to go to Independence National Historical Park for New Year's Eve and took her mom. The weather was a bit snowy but we made the trek down successfully. As it is a low visitation time of year you can simply pick up tickets at the visitor center and we essentially walked right onto the next tour. We had time afterward to see the Liberty Bell.

I had bought a piece of 12x12 paper with an image of the Declaration of Independence on it so I thought it the perfect wallpaper for the left side of this layout. On the right I added some decorative stickers but mostly just mounted and framed the photos and memorabilia. I love the patriotic/colonial stickers I found but cannot remember where I got them. That's too bad because I really would like another sheet.

Independence Hall 2005

So, another spring and another class trip to Philadelphia. This year I made plans to get tickets to tour Independence Hall. They have also completed construction on the new Liberty Bell pavilion which includes the museum pieces and x-rays of the bell. There is a much better view of Independence Hall from the Liberty Bell itself but a little tricky to get just yourself in the photo!

The 2-page layout above is an example of the wallpaper technique. This is the Jewel tone Fourth of July set from Creative memories. All I had to do was add a couple of mats to set off some of the lighter toned elements (like the ticket to enter Independence Hall) and the page comes together fairly quickly. Journaling on printed paper is too difficult so I have a plain white journal box. If I HAD to edit the page I might add something fancier to the journal box, like a sticker or 2. Or maybe journal in blue or red ink.

This layout also benefits from my standby scrapbook fodder: postcards. I ALWAYS get a postcard or two when I stop by a new site. They are professional photos that I will most likely NEVER be able to replicate. They really set the scene and provide detail. I tend to mount them like photos unless there is something very unusual on the back (like a good description of an object or area). In that case, I will mount them with photo corners but that's a pretty rare occurrence for me.

This became a 3-page layout which is a little unusual for me. I do a LOT of 2-page layouts except for the last page of an album. The third page was more of the city life page concept then the national park itself. You can see that I incorporated more of the photo stickers on the page. Otherwise it is a simple border piece (pre-cut from a pack from Creative Memories) and a piece of scrap paper also from the jewel tone pack mentioned above.

Would love to hear your comments, so take a moment and drop me a line below!

My First Little Blue Book

My next entry is a single page from Independence. I took my Surgical Technology class to Philadelphia to see the Mutter Museum. After the museum I walked down to Independence National Historical Park and was able to see the Liberty Bell. If you examine the photos closely you'll see that the space between the visitor center and Independence Hall is rather undeveloped. The Liberty Bell is off to the side in a small building and there was no museum of information--just the bell. The grass isn't even mowed much in the park space.

But what is most important about this trip is this is when I finally decided to purchase the National Parks Passport and I got my first stamp. Just one. I also bought the sticker pack and thought that I was supposed to stamp across the sticker so it's really hard to read the bottom. I quickly deduced that was a mistake and haven't done it since :)

Here is that first stamp:

I like the border I made though my spacing is a bit off. That is a pack of stickers available at the Visitor Center gift shop and I think they help balance out my photographic inabilities. I think at the time that I was convinced I didn't need photo mats but looking back I think they would have helped the page a bit.