A Short Bus Ride Later

Though I was done with the Obscure Monuments Tour, I didn't leave DC right away. I took the Circulator bus (just $2!) back to the main part of the mall. I got off at the Lincoln Memorial and decided to renew my stamps there. It has been a while since I visited. I do enjoy stopping here though.

This is another of the papers from Scrapbook Customs. I just had a few photos of the monument and by trimming the "I Have a Dream" image to a small circle, I was able to arrange them around the photo of the memorial on the paper. 

My next stop was across the road at the Korean War Memorial. This one is so realistic I always expect one of the statues to start talking to me. I noticed that the statues were signed by the sculptor. That was a new revelation for me.

Well, I've looked high and low and I cannot figure out if this was a sketch. I think it isn't just because of the simplicity of the design. It's wallpaper with 2 strips of brown (those are old CM Natural Impressions strips that came pre-cut in the kit). I added some of the shoe bootprints--which fit well with the soldier theme. The mats are stone texture paper. That's an old Adventure pack so might be the last of that paper.

Obscure Monuments Tour part 4--The end of the Road

After clearing FDR we came back to our main purpose of obscure monuments. One of the smallest monuments in the area is the Japanese Pagoda monument. Given in 1957, it commemorates the treaty signed by the US and Japan in 1854. It is undoubtedly at home among the cherry blossoms in the spring. This particular monument gave me a great perspective of the Jefferson Memorial as well.

This layout is based on a CM sketch. I'm not really sure why I did this one. Usually, I only save the Virtual Crops or the Weekend Challenges for advisors but it doesn't seem to have been in either of those. Still, the layout worked as I wanted it to. I chose a lot of pink scraps to create the borders on the edges. That goes back to my Cherry Blossom theme. I could even pull in one of the decorative mats from the Eastern National scrapbook pack.

Continuing on around the Tidal Basin, we crossed a bridge with decorative troughs. Though it looks much older, it was installed in the late 1980s. The image is "Jack Fish" who was the Park Superintendent and was about to retire. The staff decided to immortalize him on the bridge. Our tour continued on and headed to the George Mason Memorial (skipping the Jefferson Memorial). George Mason was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which served as an inspiration to Thomas Jefferson while drafting the Declaration of Independence, so it's appropriately placed. In addition to the collonade and his statue there is a lovely garden (well, lovely in the summer).

This layout is based on a CM Virtual Crop sketch. I rather liked this one as it was created all from one sheet of double-sided paper. I added some laser-cut borders to the bottom. All of this is from the Homestead collection from CM.

We had an option to follow the Ranger to one more stop--East Potomac Park. Having no other plans, I went along. It is a short walk from the Mason Memorial. It's a bit of a forgotten park and only has a few benches and a small bit of grass. This urn was given to us by Cuba (back when we were talking to them). The monument originally stood in Cuba to honor the American deaths aboard the USS Maine preceding the Spanish–American War in 1898. The Ranger told us that this monument had been located elsewhere on the Tidal Basin and was subsequently put into storage. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and placed in this park.

I used another CM Virtual Crop Sketch (October #3). There was a hint of fall color in the photos so I went back to the Hello Autumn. That was a good choice for another reason-I'd used it so much that I had a lot of scraps and this is one of those layouts that will use up your scraps! The border strip hides any slight inconsistencies in the lengths of the bottom row. 

Obscure Monuments Tour part 2--Obscure or Hard to Reach?

 The ranger met us at the WWII memorial kiosk and our first stop was the John Paul Jones memorial. I've seen this statue many times so I'm not sure how obscure it is. However, crossing 17th street to get there was the tricky bit. We all arrived safely though and the ranger was able to tell us about his naval exploits (noting he was sometimes thought more of a pirate than a naval officer).

This layout is based on a sketch from my October class. I had remnants of the star paper which served as the borders. I chose 2 other papers for a naval feel, even though they don't really have a Revolutionary War feel to the papers. The left side is a page I bought for our visit to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. The right side is a blue-toned camouflage. I was a little afraid that all the patterns would clash but after questioning it on the Facebook page, everyone assured me it worked so I left it. I added a couple of embellishments from the Deep Blue Sea pack as well for the title and journal card. The anchor is a VERY old CM die cut.

We walked along Independence Avenue and came to the monument recognizing the first delivery of the Japanese Cherry trees that make the tidal basin so famous. The lantern was recently moved to this location so that it would be less obscure (sort of ironic). This area has the original trees (or at least the ones that didn't die). They are a slightly different species than the ones along the tidal basin.

I had purchased a kit from Club Scrap with an oriental/Cherry Blossom theme to it. I chose one of the pages from that kit for the photos. Even though it's fall and the trees are not blooming, I wanted to highlight that the story is about Cherry Trees. My photos matched the layout well and I only needed to add a few more flowers to the small top boxes to complete the page.

Obscure Monuments Tour part 1--Mall Time Again

 In November 2016 I made a trip down to DC again. I traveled after my Saturday morning Zumba class (which is why I look frazzled in the photo). Since there is a meetup planned for Sunday morning I thought I would stay overnight, and if I was going to do that well then maybe I should visit some DC sites on Saturday. I found a Ranger Talk for Saturday afternoon focused on "Obscure Monuments". I thought that would be an excellent way to see something new and I signed up for it. After getting off the metro I took a moment to post a quick selfie on Facebook with the Washington Monument in the background.

This layout is based on one of my October class sketches. I used the Hello Autumn papers mostly because I was there in the fall. I added 2 embellishments from the Eastern National scrapbook packs. The Greetings tag is from the DC pack and the Monument sticker is from their regular pack. Perfect accompaniments to the page. Also detailed enough that I didn't need to layer additional stickers or embellishments with them.

I made my usual stop at the World War II memorial. There were a couple of re-enactors but I didn't get a chance to talk to them at all. I did see the plaque to Bob Dole for the first time so I snapped a photo of it.

The left page of the layout is a simple wallpaper technique. The paper is from Scrapbook Customs and I just had to throw a couple of photos on it to introduce the memorial. The right page is another sketch from my October class. The red and yellow border on the right was leftover from a page I had made about Russian Migs. The re-enactors spurred my design--I wanted the red/browns to match their uniforms. The red photo mat is a scrap from a very old patriotic 8 1/2 x 11 pad. I tied the 2 together with the blue star paper from the Americana pack (I think I've used that on EVERY layout featuring WWII due to the fountain). My sticker clusters were from a Revolutionary War pack (the eagle and "Proud") and from a military pack.

While at the monument I focused on the fountain. Luckily it was November and no one was swimming in it (which people do even though there is a sign asking people to refrain). I had some fun getting photos of the water including the reflecting pool with the Lincoln Monument.

This layout was made for one of the pajama party events from Creative Life Scrapbooking. The triangles across the top should be straighter and had I drawn a line across the page in pencil it might not slope up. Still, the angle is fairly slight. The papers were all from blue-toned paper packs to reflect the water scenes. The embellishments were from "Picture This" which not only matches the blue theme, it captures the spirit that I was playing with photography. 

Monumental Memories

 I walked from the Mall toward the Tidal Basin, passing a few well-known statues. I made my way to the MLK memorial where I would meet with a ranger for a guided tour of the larger units along the path. This will be the first time I see it in this direction.

For this layout, I followed the 1-2-3 layout for February 2021. The video of the sketch being put together can be found on YouTube here. The download is available through her Facebook group. I used a paper from the CM texture pack "Stone". The black marble and tan stone on the opposing sides reminded me of the materials used in these monuments. Even though they don't all stand together, it brings them together on the layout. The cuts were simple and I had just a few embellishments to add. The ship on John Paul Jones' statue is from the Eastern National Scrapbook pack. The "Monumental Memories" title is a die-cut from that pack as well. The small honor and star stickers were from a different patriotic sticker sheet.

On the Mall

After lunch, I stuck around to take a tour of the tidal basin. As we passed the NPS Information booth on the mall, we were disappointed that it wasn't staffed and the stamps were locked away from us! I stopped for a moment to take my photo with the Washington Monument. It was being renovated during my visit so I was unable to go to the top.

This page is a leftover sketch from a summer camp. The main idea was to do some stitching. While the class leader advocated using real thread, I stuck with faux stitching. I outlined the banner by holding a ruler against the edge and dotting every other block along the path. Then I free-handed the cross-stitch look along the bottom. I used a bit of my non-CM stash here. The background paper was just shy of 12x12 and I don't know if I bought it that way or if I trimmed it previously. I layered with the grid paper so I could do my stitching and then cut a scrap of light blue for the banner. I used some star and heart stickers from various sticker packs. The title is from a Paper House sticker sheet. Does that make too many monuments? (2 photos and a sticker). I don't think so!

As I usually do, I visited the WWII memorial briefly. I managed to find someone to take my photo with one of the title pillars but strolled along the outside mostly. 

I bought this kit from Scrapbook Concierge. They create elaborate layouts that you buy as a kit and assemble at home. They look straightforward, but I always end up looking at some pieces and saying "What do I do with this?" For this kit it was the small gray rectangles. It turned out they were to create shadows on the pillars around the reflecting pool. I really had to concentrate on aligning them from smallest to largest and matching the left and right sides. While I like their layouts they don't leave a lot of room for photos, though I was able to add one more by covering some of those pillars. I don't always use the photo corners provided but I did like them here. I used one photo spot as a journal box so I was able to get all the components I wanted included.

50-states part 29: Washington DC

How appropriate that the post for the weekend of Independence Day features our Nation's capital! There have been so many trips to DC that it was hard to find just a couple of photos to highlight. I ended up choosing one of my visits to the National Mall when I got to have a book signed by my favorite author--Diana Gabaldon. The other image is from the monument on the Mall that means the most to me--the WWII monument (honoring my grandfather).

The idea for the layout came from this page. The background paper with the faint image of the US in gingham is a sheet from Creative Memories "Star-Spangled" paper pack (a retired line). It was actually a remnant from another project but that was perfect because I could add the red and blue borders. The top border is one I had made YEARS ago. I either found an idea sheet or blog post and copied it with what I had available. The strip across the middle is vellum which helps soften the dark navy blue of the paper. I planned to use that for some Cherry Tree visits but hadn't used it by the time I got to this page. So I used the cherry tree elements to carry through onto the journal box. Pink is a nice match for the bright red and also tames the dark blue. Quite patriotic on multiple levels.

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

I was leaving the conference on Friday because I was scheduled to go to my annual scrapbook weekend. That meant I could go to one of the office buildings to get the stamps you can't get on the weekends, so I chose the Department of the Interior. Constitution Gardens is very close to their building and so I made an effort (in the chilly weather and on icy paths) to visit this park. I'm sure I've walked through it previously but I wanted to actually stop and see the markers.

This layout is based on a sketch from my Scrapbooking Class. Ironically, the template was from June and had a beach theme to demonstrate the technique! My beach ball area became a journaling circle. The background is a piece of rounded corner cardstock that CM provided as a Christmas treat many years ago. The bottom right corner has a circle with a snowflake on it and I intended to use that where the dark blue one was but decided I wanted more contrast. I covered the hole with the vertical paper (an older piece of CM from a winter collection). The border is one I've had for a long time. I didn't have to do each square individually, it comes as one unit. The extra, dark-blue snowflake helps add some color to the top of the page. I thought my use of 2 sizes of letters inspired for this layout. It gives it that frosty look!

The Spoils of War

My visit to Arlington Cemetery was to visit a new NPS unit for me. Arlington House was the family home of Robert E. Lee. Because he chose to fight for the Confederacy during the civil war, the government confiscated his property and began burying Union soldiers in the yard (the start of the National Cemetery). Eventually the house was restored to its 18th/19th century form and outfitted with family pieces. Robert E. Lee's wife was a descendant of George Washington's wife Martha Custis and so there are quite a few nods to the Washington line in the house as well.

This is another example of making the right side first. I scraplifted the right side from this page which features the Archivers paper and borders from CM (now retired). I thought the roses were a good fit for the home and so on the left I chose the rose paper borders for the top and bottom with the same background paper. The die cut on the left is from the Eastern national DC scrapbook kit

Even though a government shutdown was happening I could still tour just about the entire house and so I made my way down to the basement kitchen. I also toured the slave quarters behind the house.

This is wallpaper with a wood paper from the CM Timber pack. I matted the photos  with a piece of brown burlap from the Cloth pack (both now retired). The kitchen tools across the top is from a previous release of an 8x8 recipe book. I use the papers and elements on my 12x12 pages.

After leaving Arlington I took the bus back to the Mall area and stopped at the largest cache of passport stampers in the city--the bookstore near the Washington monument.

This ended my tour in DC for this trip. I chose to use a wallpaper page featuring cherry blossoms as that was the original purpose of my trip, even though I never saw any. I did grab a quick photo of the Washington Monument still under renovation from the earthquake.

Along the Mall

My next page is just a few random monuments that I went by on my way back to the Metro. The top left photo is John Paul Jones whose statue is in a very busy traffic island. To the right is the World War Memorial for DC and of course the bottom is the Washington Monument. I liked the sunset look here too. In fact, it is probably just me turning 180-degrees from my picture of the Lincoln Memorial in the WWII reflecting pool.

The page was created from this challenge on the Creative Memories Blog. Although I didn't participate in that virtual crop, I do save all the ideas in my Pinterest folder and often come back to do them later. I liked the easy way I created the background. This actually allowed me to use some of my 8 1/2 x 11" paper because I could cut off strips and layer them into a "V" on the page. Once the pieces were in place, I trimmed off the excess at the edges. The title is a die cut from the Eastern National scrapbook pack. Then I just had to mount the photos and journal and it was done!

This ends my DC trip, but next week I will highlight a trip to Wisconsin!

Another stop at WWII

It's just before Memorial Day, so a perfect time to post this visit to the WWII memorial.

Until writing this blog, I don't think I realized how many times I visited the WWII memorial. It may actually be a higher visit count than Independence! Coming off the Tidal Basin, I had to go past this area on my way to the Metro station, and so it's always nice to stop. As the sun was setting, I couldn't take many photos, but I did like the sunset view of the Lincoln Monument over the reflecting pool. Of course I had to take a photo of the Army Air Forces symbol as I remember my grandfather who served in the war in that branch of the military.

When I found this paper, I KNEW I had to use it for the WWII memorial. The wall on the other side of the reflecting pool is filled with stars representing those who died during the war. I mounted everything on black to set it off from the field of stars. The unigrid even got mounted on black cardstock. The bottom of the page is another black strip of paper with a border sticker of stars from Paper House's Washington DC cardstock stickers. Above that is a die cut of the WWII memorial from the Eastern National.

Convention in the Capital--part 2: Monuments and Memorials

These 2 layouts are actually taken out of order from the album, but the content was such that they really belong in the same blog post. So the first layout includes night photos. After the convention, Jim and I went to dinner at Union Station and walked back to our hotel. The daylight photo of the capitol came from a different walk, but I wanted to keep all the photos together. I had some trouble with the low light so the night images are a bit blurry. The Grant Memorial is right in front of the capital and since we could get close I could use a flash which gave some interesting perspective on the monument with the charging horses.

The left page is a pre-printed page with the capitol, flags and stars. To make a similar page on the right I used a Grant Memorial sticker from the Eastern National scrapbooking pack and 2 flag stickers. I used mini alphabet stickers from Creative Memories to make the title. I filled in the space between photos and journal box with star stickers. To give a little more definition to the page I used Washi tape in a blue stripe to cover the edges. When I looked at the 2 pages I decided to use the Washi tape on the left as well for more similarity. It's unfortunate that there are some stars that are partly covered by the tape, but otherwise I really like the effect.

The next layout is from a different day. Jim stayed in the hotel room while I walked up to see the Japanese-American memorial. A new stamp had been created for this memorial and I wanted to see it in person. Jim asked that I find the Meade Memorial on the way and take a few photos for him since Meade figured so prominently in Jim's book.

The page on the left is wall paper. I found the theme of the paper had an Asian feel to it. I added a few stickers to the journal box and corner from the Creative Memories Celebrations sticker pack. The right hand page background I created with the Creative Memories border maker system and the Our Memories Asian fan cartridge. There are a total of 9 blocks, each 4" x 4". I punched each side of each block in the middle of the block and then layered them like tiles for a background. It was labor intensive and I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it was fun to try once. I got the idea from this layout: Link here.

Convention in the Capital--part 1: The annual meeting

In early August 2011 the National Park Travelers Club held their 9th annual convention at the National Mall. Jim and I drove down after work Friday. Saturday morning I helped with morning registration before the event. There were several speakers (including me as a surprise fill-in for someone who canceled).

I think this layout turned out well. I scraplifted it from this layout that I found on pinterest: Left page, Right page. I had some blue striped paper for the top and left side, and I had a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 with stars and banners for the split in the middle. I chose red mats instead of white and I think that helps set off the photos over the white background better. My stickers and die cuts included my name tag from the event. The title was cut with the Cricut using one of the free fonts on the machine.

No foolin--this was a trip to the mall!

Well, I just couldn't pass up the pun so I am adding a 2nd installment this weekend in honor of April Fools Day. This layout is another example of a trip to the National Mall which isn't really about the park as much as it is a special event held there. But, there is a photo of the Washington Monument, so I'm going to count it as a park visit.

I found out about the National Book festival because my favorite author, Diana Gabaldon was there to do a reading and sign copies of her new novel "A Breath of Snow and Ashes". Jim and I also got to listen to David McCullough. It was just a day trip, but we made the most of it.

I hesitate to call this layout "wallpaper" technique. The cardstock from Creative Memories was 10x12 (at the time) so they don't really cover the page. I ended up taking a contrasting sheet and using it to cover the open middle. If you look closely you'll notice the torn edges. I don't think I had a tearing tool at the time, it was just a hand rip. The maroon and green color scheme comes from the brochure for the festival, and coordinates nicely with the photos.

The top left and bottom right corners come from a border making class I took once. It was really difficult to keep all those individual strips together so if you look REALLY closely you will probably see the adhesive showing through some of the gaps. Between that and the stickers though, I was able to keep this intact until it found a place on my pages. It has a fall sort of feel to me, so it works pretty well on the layout.

Another trip to Washington D.C.

Well, I'm on my 2nd snow day thanks to Winter Storm Stella so I thought I'd post another entry. Today I highlight a trip my husband and I made to DC, or at least the NPS portion of it. I am not including a stop we made to the US Postal museum or the Supreme Court because they aren't an official unit of the National Park Service. So if you want to see those pages, you'll have to stop by sometime!

We visited the brand new World War II Memorial just a few days before the official opening ceremony. This was a great visit and especially important to me as my grandfather served in the Army Air Corps during the war as a flight mechanic. I was especially moved by the wall of stars.

I did not digitally merge my photos of the wall of stars, I just took sequential pictures. (My camera does have an option to allow me to line up the pictures but it isn't perfect). I ended up cutting the middle section in half and spreading the image across 2 pages which I really like. I also included photos of the Atlantic operations memorial as that is where my grandfather served. The red, white and blue theme was a sure-fire win but it's still got a lot of blank areas (and that isn't really intentional dead space).

Our walk around town included a stop at the Old Post Office Tower and we went up to take a look and get the stamp.

Here is another lesson in what to do with 8 1/2 x 11 paper in a 12x12 scrapbook. Cut it into strips and spread it across the page! I actually own a template which sizes the strips appropriately but you can work with just about any size that is effective. On the right is a Creative Memories pocket page. I used that to include the unigrids for the various parks. I only put the name of the city at the top, but I probably could add some decoration to the page as well.

Here is the other side of the pocket page and the beginning of our special Mall experience. You'll notice that the letters I chose for the title are all different shades. It was my attempt to not have to manufacture letters. One problem with sticker sheets is that there are limited letters and once you spell out your first title you are sometimes stuck missing a key vowel to complete the second or third use. I actually like the effect as it becomes sort of an ombre look and goes well with the "wallpaper" I chose to mount the photos.

We were in town for several days as I was there for a conference, so we had evenings and then the weekend to explore the city. It was our second visit to the Mall when we discovered that to enhance the WWII memorial opening, they held an encampment of WWII memorabilia, reenactments, and displays. The stickers used on this page actually came from one of the displays at the event. I carried the green theme through from the prior page but just as accents along the borders. There was quite a bit of green from the grass and vehicles though so not much more was required.

It's nice to know that you can return to a park and see it in a different way over and over again.

Back to the Mall

Another trip to DC. This one is with my husband Jim. It was an extremely cold weekend and I'm surprised we got to see so many things outdoors. This is our first look at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and though you can't see it in the photos below, when we arrived it was foggy. You really felt like part of the patrol.

On the left page I made a border with what I think is a "Fast Formulas" design from Creative Memories. The red accents really work with the photos but I think I could do a better job with the title. As I noted earlier--more footprints! I had several pages of these so I know I used them on a lot of pages.

A couple of "firsts"

I have researched my scrapbooks and my first page of a National Park visit is this 2-page layout to Gettysburg in 1988. My Uncle Larry and his family came to visit from Texas, and we took a family trip. This is not my first ever visit to a national park--I know that my family took a trip to DC in 1976, but I don't seem to have any photos of that trip.

What I like about this layout is the fence I created out of paper strips. I also like the ivy letters (and I think I still have a few to use). I do wish that I had been better at placing the letters in a straight line though. Like many layouts from this era (and I'm guessing I created this around 2000-2002) there is a lot of white on the page. I think I could have put a little more paper behind the photos. But overall the composition is pleasing.

A couple of pages later, I found this layout from a trip to DC (which I am including here in order to tie in my first visit to any national park). My brother and I went specifically to see something at the art museum though I don't remember what. We also walked over to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and I remember buying a poster of the wall. We parked outside the city and rode the Red Line from Shady Grove. I still remember the sound of the conductor reciting "This is the Red Line to Shady Grove" on the way back to the car. I wish I could record that sound here--probably the one drawback to scrapbooking.

The technique I used here is called "Between the Lines". I created a double border with design lines top and bottom and then filled the middle with small decorative stickers. The title sticker worked well for this technique and then I matched the stars and stripes along the bottom. This may be the first use of the footprint path, but definitely will not be the last.

Overall I like this page though again I think I could have used more paper under the photos.

So that's my first entry. Stay tuned to see how my scrapbooking progresses!