Decisions, Decisions

We found a place where the trail was split as we walked along. We weren't prepared for that, so we stood there contemplating. Ultimately, we decided to head to the right. It is supposed to be a loop. If that's true, we should have been able to return to this point. We never found evidence of a loop, though. You'll see in the next post that we came across an old homestead and then retraced our steps back to this point.

This is the third laser-cut page. I love the little owl hidden in the trees. You don't even see him until you place a small circle behind him (yellow would work well here, too). I felt lucky to have this pack with me as I assembled these at my 2024 Croptoberfest event. It helped speed up the process of completing the album.

Oh, Christmas Tree

As we walked the trail, Jim came across a tiny evergreen that reminded us of the Charlie Brown tree from the Peanuts Christmas cartoon. Apparently, when Jim was a boy, he tried to get his family to choose something similar for the family tree, and, well, no one forgets something like that! So I made him pause for a couple of photos--one a close-up so you could see the branches against his pants.

This is another page from the Creative Memories 2023 Croptoberfest pack. It's one of the laser-cut pages mounted on decorative paper, contrasting nicely with the blue plaid and the cut-out areas. The three circles at the top are places where smaller photos could go. Since I had nothing for those, I filled each with punched shapes and embellishments. Since the pages had been completed, these were a breeze to assemble!

Burn Baby Burn

After leaving the visitor center, we felt like hiking in the woods. The ranger's information pointed us to a nearby trail called Burnwood Trail. It was an easy hike through old-growth trees (though we also found some new growth). The trailhead was nearby, so we chose to hike before eating lunch.

This layout was created from the Creative Memories 2023 Croptoberfest collection. Here's a sample of the materials.

Creative Memories offers packages with extra paper and laser-cut frames along with an instruction booklet to create additional pages. I put them together for my customers so they can see the finished products and so that I can warn them of any typos or places to pay special attention when cutting. And that's why there is a little tear on the frame on the left page. I had used repositionable adhesive, but it has gotten stronger over time. After a year, it ripped as I tried to edge my photo underneath. OOPS!

Gorge-ous!

By the fall, I was getting worn out and needed to escape. Still, where do you go with a pandemic raging, no cure, and no vaccine? Well, the middle of West Virginia sounded remote enough to be safe, and the possibility of seeing the changing leaves was enough of a draw to get us out of our house. In fact, Jim's sister also needed a break and joined us. We rented a cabin near New River Gorge National Scenic River (well--it was at the time; now it's a National Park!) On our first day after travel, we headed to the visitor center to get our bearings and, of course, my stamps.

You may recall this post from last summer—it was the last of my guest designer spots. The post provides details on the layout.

To better view the bridge, follow the boardwalk behind the visitor center. It is 178 steps down (and back up!) It was much more crowded than I thought it would be for a mid-week October visit. Then again, it was near Columbus Day, so many people had the same idea. So, that meant masks as we did the walk.

I wanted to use the paper from Scrapbook Customs featuring the bridge photo. I made that the left side of a layout. The right side is the 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page where I added the information sheet on the bridge. I folded it to see the best of the highlights. I matted our photos so they would pop from the page.

For the final pages on the boardwalk trail, I turned to a set of pages I had made at one of the Paper Loft classes at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. I carefully restructured the left page to retain many of the original elements but trimmed it to 8 1/2 x 11 to fit the pocket page. I felt rather proud of myself for figuring that out!

Lasting Memories Post 4--Falling For You

Hello all! I'm serving as a Guest Designer for Lasting Memories all through October! I've been posting an extra layout each Sunday at noon for the past 4 weeks. Each follows the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories and I hope you join the challenge! Post your version through the link at the bottom of their post.

For the final installment, we hop into 2020 and my first visit to New River Gorge (which was a National River when we visited but is now a National Park!) Covid was still sweeping the nation but I badly needed a getaway from work. However, where do you go where you can stay away from people? How about a cabin in the middle of West Virginia? So, Jim, I, and his sister Kristen journeyed down for a few days of relaxation and "leaf peeping". On our first morning there we headed to the visitor center. Since no one could go inside, the ranger was under the porch area. We got a few ideas for hikes and then went to the overlook behind the center to see the famous bridge spanning the river.

This week's Challenge is LM #725 - Costumes - dress up your layout by adding something sparkly! I chose Sketch #4 from Creative Memories' Virtual Crop this month. The paper is from a 2019 pack called Harvest Delight. It was not the pack I thought I would use. With the challenge of using something sparkly (admittedly NOT something I use a lot), I thought about Hello Autumn from 2020. However, when I pulled that pack I realized I had already used the foiled elements! So I dug through the box of Fall items and found this one. The sketch calls for a 10" piece of paper in the center but I only had 1 full sheet left. I decided that I would use the 4-squares technique in a smaller way. I cut 10" white cardstock (actually the title pages for some other packs I had used) and layered the 5" squares to ensure there were no gaps. Then I used the foiled leaves wherever you see hexagons on the sketch. I was able to trim one photo to a 4x4" square and then trim a journal box to the same size. That fills in for the horizontal 6x4 photo on the right page. All that is left from the pack now is one long strip of white designer paper, stickers, and a few mat cards. I kept those together for now but may decide to donate them the next time I empty my "purge" box.