Friday was an ALL-DAY bus trip. And I do mean all day. We left around 8:00 in the morning and got back to the hotel after 10:00 PM. Our club loves these types of trips though as we are able to see many more parks during our visit. Our first stop of the morning was Wind Cave. We had a group tour but first had time to go through the visitor center. Many of our club members complete the Junior Ranger activities. The tour started outside the cave at a small opening that I would never have thought to enter. But this is the original natural entrance. Luckily we have a less strenuous entry through the elevator shaft.
Although this looks like a 2-page layout it is two separate single pages using 2 different sketches. the left page was made for one of my scrapbook classes. I used paper from the CM Leave No Trace pack. the large square makes for a nice frame for the photos and journaling box and the smaller piece on the left can easily be accented as a border. The right page is from this sketch I saved on Pinterest. I used similar papers from my stash of camping and nature-themed materials.
I enjoyed our time inside. I think there are more crystalline formations here than at Jewel Cave. Our group is pretty chatty so I do feel bad for the ranger that leads us through. Our tours take a little longer until our curiosities are satisfied.
This layout was based on one of the CM Virtual Crop sketches for November 2022. I used more paper from the Leave No Trace collection. I thought the stone paper was appropriate and similar to the Jewel Cave pages, I used the icicle border maker cartridge to create stalactites for the border elements. These are in black to contrast the lightness of the paper tones.
We like to take group photos on all of our tours and when I print them I think 8x10 is the best size so I can see all of the faces. It's so nice to do these group tours. It's like being in a big family.
For this page I used a very simple technique. The background is a black refill page (I've been trying to use them up) and I put a laser-cut page on top. There's no particular reason to use this one other than I liked the way it looked with the designs going in alternate directions. The title sticker and the small note about the formation of the cave as a national monument were mounted on similar colored cardstock so they would be visible against the black background. The other sticker is from Old CM and I think it's the perfect way to end this part of the trip.
