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. 

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.