Feathered Friends

Today's blog will finish up my visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. But don't worry, there's more to the 2021 NPTC Convention yet to come!

In addition to the lovely flowers in the park, there are opportunities to see wildlife that you wouldn't expect in a city like Washington, D.C. The ducks might not be exotic, but I was surprised to see the great white egrets hunting for fish. We also saw blue herons, but I didn't capture them on film. 

For this layout, I used the Flourish Project Recipe from Creative Memories. I continued using the Sweet Blossoms fast-to-fabulous papers, and this time turned the borders to the bottom. If you look at the original recipe, you will see that I flipped the pages as I wanted the circular photos on the right. I didn't think about it when I created the page, but it's like looking at them through a telescope! Since I had more photos on the other page than the recipe called for, I didn't need to fill the top of the page with more than a small title sticker. But on the right, I wanted a bit more at the top. The Love border is on the back of one of the mat papers, and I trimmed that with the border at the top and bottom for a bit of definition.

Wild Flowers

In today's post, we continue our exploration of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens at the 2021 NPTC Convention. In addition to the numerous lotus plants, there is a rich assortment of hibiscus and other plants. (And look at the size of that leaf! It's as large as my head!) The brown "thing" is a dried lotus pod, so I suppose that should have been included in the previous layout.

I created this layout based on the CM Project Recipe, 'Bottanical Burst'. I used two sheets of Sweet Blossom paper, which is in the Fast-to-Fabulous style (meaning the borders are pre-printed). I turned the borders to the middle of both pages, so I got a bonus change of color there. I used a piece of white cardstock to create the circle, cut it in half, and layered a tonal paper between the edge of the border and the circle. I punched a leaf border from that same tonal paper and made minor cuts so that it would flow around the circle. It took 3 strips of border to complete the page. The title and sticker flowers were from the same kit, and I finished the page quickly.

Pretty in Pink

Welcome back to Kenilworth Gardens! Our NPTC 2021 Convention Bus trip left us off here for about an hour and a half, and my friend Melania and I did a lot of walking. In this layout, you'll see the lotus blossoms for which the park is best known. There are a series of pools, and each one is bursting with color. I tried to capture a few of the best blooms for posterity.

This layout is another that I created for the Creative Memories Virtual Crop in June 2025. Scroll to Layout #3. The advisor who created this sketch provided an introductory video to talk about how she made her cuts. I followed her advice closely and chose the Jazzberry and Lime Tart papers from the Vivid Melodies collection. (There is a bit of this left if you want to check the store.) Those 2 colors best matched the blooms in my photos. The vertical photo mats were created by punching one of the sheets with an older border punch featuring tulips (as I mentioned in the last blog — tulips somewhat resemble lotus blossoms). Even if they didn't, a floral punch of any shape would work well here. I trimmed the photos to the correct dimensions and layered them according to the sketch. I knew that with a sketch featuring smaller photo sizes, my florals would be perfect. I tend to center them but leave a LOT of landscape, which eventually gets cut away. There are a few additional photos in a sleeve made for the Happy Album. It provides room for 4 horizontal pictures and a bit of journaling in the middle (that's why you don't see journaling on this layout). A few bits of greenery embellishments completed the page.

Lotus Blooming Everywhere

Welcome back to my 2021 NPTC convention tour. This continues the Friday bus trip that we started in the last blog post. Our first stop on the bus trip was Kenilworth Gardens. Visiting Parks in DC is sometimes complicated. Most people think that each place they visit is a "unit". Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens is part of the Anacostia Park section of DC. But even that isn't a unit. They belong to National Capital Parks--East. And no, there is no corresponding north, south, or west designation. That is just the management office. The official unit here is simply "National Capital Parks."

I was happy to visit here as I don't often visit DC in the spring or summer, and this is when the park truly shines. After getting off the bus, we all lined up for stamps (of course). I noticed that there was an abundance of Lotus-themed items everywhere, including the bike stand you see below. Turns out Melania has a lotus tattoo as well! The only thing we missed in this visit was the visitor center, so I'll have to go back at some point and watch the movie there.

This layout was based on one of the Power Hours from Meggan and Tessa (April 2024). The paper is from Old CM — one of the pastel Spring addition packs. They have some pre-printed borders and were the precursor to the Fast to Fabulous pages, I think. I cut up the elements (stripes, blue floral, and green floral) and layered them as per the instructions. There is a lotus blossom laser-cut border in the new Serenity line, and so I moved that over to this layout. It turns out that tulip stickers also somewhat resemble the lotus blossom, and those three stickers were a great way to fill the gap after my journaling.

Don't Chicken Out

In May 2019 I headed to National Harbor (just south of DC) to attend an AST conference. As I wasn't a delegate, I had large blocks of time where I didn't have to be in a lecture, so I took the opportunity to visit some new locations. One stop was the Oxon Hill Farm which is part of the National Capital Parks management system. This working farm teaches about the history of farming and provides an opportunity to get into the country for those who live in the city. When I visited there was a group of school children on site already. Because they had just one ranger, the visitor center (the large red building below) was not open when I arrived. So I chose to wait on the porch. But I was CLOSELY watched by the chickens who were not sure I should be sitting there. I never realized chickens could be guard animals!

This is Sketch #2 from the May 2024 CM Virtual Crop. I chose the "On The Farm" kit from last year to create my layout. The base is Kelly Green cardstock. I chose 3 papers to layer on top--the white chicken wire just because there were chickens involved, the red because the tonal print is chickens and the yellow for a pop of a different color. The chickens are all stickers from the pack, but the title has 2 die cuts attached. This kit was so popular when it came out that the bonus embellishments sold out within a few hours and I missed them. So I bought the digital kit and used my Cricut to print then cut the objects. You can't tell the difference!