Reflections of Lincoln

Happy Halloween, everyone! It's so perfect that we continue our nighttime tour of the Washington, DC National Mall in 2021. Our golf carts took us right up to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I loved capturing the images with the night glow from the lights and the remnants of the sunset. This may be the first time I've understood why the reflecting pool is such an essential part of the National Mall. And then I walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If you've not been here at night, it's quite a moving experience--even more so than a daytime trip. 

Similar to the page in my last blog, I had another sheet of black paper with pre-printed photos around the edge. I had initially planned to use those side by side on a two-page layout, but the pre-printed images were arranged along the right-hand side of each page, so I couldn't achieve the desired symmetry. That's when I decided to separate the papers. 

This paper also featured the statue of Lincoln from the memorial; however, the page was quite crowded, and I wanted more space for the photos and unigrid. I took the thin white title strip off at the top, then I cut the page in half and spread it across two pages. I layered each of the 6x11 pieces onto black cardstock so the background consistency carried across the pages. That gave me all the room I needed for my own photos (anything that is a 4x6 or 6x4 photo is mine — everything else was pre-printed), as well as the unigrid from the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. To be consistent with the pre-printed photos, I matted all of my photos with white cardstock. I reattached the title strip on the right page. To give me a bit more symmetry, I cut a piece of white cardstock to the same width and found some pertinent stickers to fill in the space on the left page.

Around the Mall

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC convention. In this blog post, we cover a little more ground on our Golf Cart Night Tour. As the sun set, our driver took us to some of the more iconic areas, as well as the new Eisenhower Memorial (since we had just been there the previous week, no one disembarked the carts!). The Jefferson Memorial was visible from the MLK Memorial across the Tidal Basin just before we boarded the carts. On the right page, the Capitol was glowing as the sun set. As we came past the Grant Memorial, the sun was even lower in the sky. This is when the illumination of the memorials begins, as you can see with the Washington Monument.

With this layout, I started on the right page. The photos with the white border are pre-printed on the page along with the Washington, DC title. Since the images were centered at the bottom and right, the paper worked best on the right side of the layout. I liked that the page had a black background because it represented the nighttime tour. To fill in the left side of the layout, I pulled a new set of Advisor-only papers and embellishments called "Everybody Smile". It combines the summer's patriotic holidays with backyard barbecues and family reunion gatherings. The layout is part of the project guide, which is available with the papers if you earn the kit from me. I added the white mats to keep the photos from disappearing into the background. The journal box is from the Eastern National Scrapbook kit. While we didn't have fireworks, it was a nod to the nighttime experience.

An Eye Opening Experience

Folks, I'm happy to say that this is post #600 in my blog! Thanks so much for sticking with me through the years!

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC Convention and my travels through DC. In the last blog, we visited the site of Abraham Lincoln's death. After leaving the theater, I had planned to visit the African American Civil War Museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for renovations, and as of the posting of this blog, it still is. The latest estimate of reopening is November 2025! Since I couldn't see the museum, I wanted to stop at the memorial just across the street from the entrance. There were 2 National Park Rangers who provided an excellent background on the statue and the creation of the memorial. 

The statue in the middle is made "in the round," and additional photos of the other sections are in a peekaboo pocket on top. What made my jaw drop were the silver surround panels. It's rather hard to see in the photos, even in my close-up shots, but each panel is inscribed with the names of African American soldiers from the Civil War. There are more than 200,000 soldiers listed! I had no idea the number was that high. I just turned in circles, goggling at the sheer volume of people documented here. If you view the page in person, you will notice that I have focused on a close-up panel of the 54th Massachusetts, as it is the company most familiar to me due to the movie "Glory." 

I based this layout on a sketch that CM had provided in July 2023. You can see an image of it here, but I don't have a link to the actual document. I have a PDF, though, so if you'd like a copy, please email me and I'll send you the layout. I chose this layout because I had boxed myself into a corner with the last Ford's Theater page. I did not have enough content for a two-page spread of the Peterson House, so I created just the left side of the layout. That left an empty page on the right. I really wanted to use all my photos for this layout and create a 2-page spread of the monument, but I couldn't think of anything else to fill the right-side page and move forward. So I put all the photos on the desk and mulled over them for a bit. 

The first thing I did was trim them down to see how small I could make them. Then I evaluated each photo to see if it would contribute to the story. I didn't really need 6 pictures of the wall of names. I chose a horizontal photo that showcases the immensity of the memorial, and then added two close-up images in a peekaboo pocket on top (which you don't see here). I had trimmed one photo to a relatively small size, which also provided more space for journaling. Once I found the layout, I assembled the pages fairly quickly. This uses the Secret Box "Great Times" paper and embellishments. The sticker in the bottom right corner is from the Eastern National scrapbook kit. 

Lasting Memories Guest Designer week 1 (Night tour golf carts)

Hello everyone! I'm guest designing for Lasting Memories throughout September! I'll be sharing an extra layout every Sunday at noon for the next 4 weeks. Each one follows the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories, and I encourage you to join the challenge! Post your version using the link at the bottom of their post.

For today's post, we are going to jump ahead in the 2021 NPTC convention. On my last night (Monday evening), I took part in a Night-time Monuments tour. We were escorted around via these extended golf carts. I'm glad I didn't have to sit backwards on the end, otherwise the carts were GREAT! They could take us right onto the monument areas, which saved us some steps and time. I highly recommend this tour if you head to DC.

Each week, Lasting Memories challenges us to incorporate a specific design on our papers. This week, the theme is Polka Dot paper. The challenge I had was FINDING polka dot paper! I finally located the yellow with white dots in my Birthday stash. The rest of the papers and embellishments come from the CM Imagine and Magic Awaits packs. I knew that the colors in those packs would match the carts perfectly. For the design, I turned to Cheryl Even's sketch #12. You'll see that it originally was a single-page sketch. I just took the sketch and mirrored it to create the double-page layout.

No Relation

We are continuing with my exploration of Washington, DC, during the 2021 convention for the National Park Travelers Club. On Thursday morning, I had scheduled a tour of the National Archives. I was awake far earlier than I needed to be, so I leisurely made my way down to the building. Along the way, I came to this statue of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. To the best of my knowledge, he is not related to either Winfield Scott or John Hancock. At the time, I was not sure what he was known for or why there was a statue of him. My investigation later revealed an impressive resume, including a notable distinction at the Gettysburg battlefield. If you want to read more about him, start with this page from the National Park Service.

I based this layout on a Creative Memories Blog Post. I noticed that Meggan Jacks had created a video of her version of this layout, so I decided to play along. Well,  I started a bit before turning on her video. Trust me, you want to watch her video before tackling this layout. She has some great tips on avoiding my mistakes. (If you can't see them, I'm not going to point them out.) 😀 I used papers from the Bedazzled Geometrics pack. There are no embellishments for that paper, so I pulled some mats from my stash and then opened the Rainbow Binder to look for blue-ish embellishments. I thought the laser-cut remnants of the stars worked well once I covered some of the uneven edges with the title words.

I'm King of the World!

The photos below are from the Titanic Memorial in Washington DC. (Does anyone else think James Cameron visited here before having Jack perch on the rail?) The memorial was created by women's groups shortly after the sinking to commemorate the men who lost their lives by giving up space in the lifeboats to women and children. I visited on the anniversary of the disaster. This is one of those times belonging to the National Park Travelers  Club helped me with a visit. I not only never knew this monument existed until someone posted about it, but found out that the stamp was hanging from the wayside board! It was only hanging there for the weekend. You can still get that stamp at the Eisenhower Memorial in DC now.

This layout is a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. As part of the rules of the group I cannot show the original sketch or directions but you can see my finished project. This was made during one of my weekend classes with my customers so please let me know if you wish to join a future class. The paper is, appropriately enough, called Deep Blue. I've used it before but had these 3 pages remaining (the 2 background pages are also from that pack). I think the gray stripe contrasts with the rest of the blue nicely and there is a great nautical feel from the borders added on top of the striped strips. I broke out some navy sticker letters for a title. It must have been a new pack as I didn't have to fudge any of the vowels. Just a couple of other stickers in the corners of the page and the layout was complete. We did 4 layouts in less than 2 hours that morning!