Northwest Adventure Part 4--Cruising Glacier Bay

On day 2 of our cruise we entered Glacier Bay. I was delighted that Princess Cruises works with the National Park Service and has rangers come on board. There was a ranger talk in the theater and then later the rangers narrated our trip over the loud speakers as we approached various glaciers. They brought a lot of materials with them and one sign was a great stand in for the Visitor Center sign photo I usually take. The white square of paper is something the rangers bring--probably because they don't expect people to have the National Park Passport with them and this gives them a place to stamp. Of course my group all had our passports but we took these as well.

I'm interposing material between the pages of my layout again, though instead of eliminating it, I'm actually showing the newsletter and the brochure that they provided about Glacier Bay. Above, the left page is another page from the picfolio travel album kit. It eerily mimics the cover of the unigrid doesn't it? As noted in a previous post, the Princess Patter is in a protective 8 1/2 x 11 photo sleeve from the early Creative Memories years.

You can see the edges of the sleeves pretty well in the above photo. An additional piece of memorabilia is the information sheet specifically about Glacier Bay.

The right hand side of the layout is a Fast to Fabulous page with a bunch of post marks on the paper. Sort of mimics the passport stamp even though that's now covered up with the brochures. The photos are of the ranger talk in the ship's auditorium. I photographed our bunch of club members as we all hung together. A couple of stickers from the NPS scrapbook kit adds to the journal box. One other piece of memorabilia is a little note from the rangers welcoming our group. Nice to be noticed!

Now we move into the cruise through the bay. Sorry that this photo is blurry. I didn't realize it until after the album was packed away. (I will be happy to be moved and unpacked!) On the left page I used another pre-made picfolio page but I did add a few stickers along the blue strip to give the page a little character. The right page is another paper bought specifically for this book and other than our weather was more dreary, it was spot on!

The cruising took all day, so after we spent some time out in the drizzle and cold we decided to have lunch. The left page reflects our Alaskan themed food again. I used a sketch to create the layout (click here to see the sketch). I like that it gave me a good chance to use up some scraps. Then I was able to use similar scraps on the right to create a background for our pre-dinner preparations (alternately relaxing and looking out the window).

The last 2 pages are from our last foray out of doors. As we neared the main glacier we returned to the deck and I squeezed my lens between the protective plexiglass so I could get some unobstructed views. I still cannot believe how close we got. This is another picfolio page with the addition of a camera sticker from the kit as well. On the right is a set of borders I made with an old die cut (use silver shimmer cardstock to highlight the lens and flash) and travel themed paper. This page is all about those out taking photos so I thought the camera appropriate to the layout. One thing about Alaskan photos, the stark blues really reduce the need for photo mats!

OK, this last layout has nothing to do with the National Park, but after dinner we went to one of the lounges and several of our friends were put in a hula hoop contest. The results were hilarious and one of our friends actually won! I just add it here because it gives me a chance to wax poetic about the Cricut.

All of the decorations on this page were cut with the Cricut (formal affairs cartridge believe it or not). I think I actually cut the records backwards but it still works! I love the detail you can get on the die cuts and being able to layer them adds a nice bit of color and texture you can't get with the old-fashioned diecuts.

My first NPTC convention

Although I had been on the club message boards for quite a while, I had never attended a convention. For 2008 the location was Lowell in Massachusetts, and I thought Jim and I could take a drive to attend. I received a GPS unit for my birthday and purchased my EZ Pass transponder for the tolls so we were set!

We left Thursday night and drove to a hotel in Connecticut then completed the drive on Friday. We went into Boston first and took a whale watching cruise which was fabulous! On Saturday morning we drove into Lowell to see the park. I loved the trolley at the visitor center. Because it was our first time we didn't really know about all the club events. I could have joined a group taking the trolleys as a tour of the city, but didn't know enough to register for it. Still, we had a good time looking at the various buildings and we had lunch at a nearby restaurant. Jim returned to the hotel and I went to register for the meeting.

On the left page I used  an 8 1/2 x 11 page from the Eastern National scrapbook pack as a giant photo mat for the picture of me at the park sign. I didn't realize when I created the page that I had pulled that paper from the DC pack. Still, you have to look very closely to see the error. With the park unigrid and copies of the passport stamps I got at the meeting, that page filled up quickly. On the right page I found a yellow stripe print that helped bring out the colors of the trolleys. I actually pieced together a couple of scraps to cover the page but you have to look very closely to see it. I matted the photos in white to help them pop from the page.

At the meeting, I was greeted by Craig Bailey (I think) who had not only the stamp commemorating this convention, but a new stamp called a "Member Stamp". That's one of the stamps on the page above and it shows me as a member since March 31, 2008.

For some reason I also got a copy dated for the convention, but again I don't really think I knew what I was doing at the time. I was wowed by the meeting. There were speakers from the park and acknowledgement of people who had visited all of the national park units available.

I believe I made the right hand page first and then based the left page off of the color scheme of the right. The right hand page is my interpretation of a page sketch. There are various people and organizations who create sketches. You pick one that matches what you are looking for. Here is the sketch I used for this page. View sketch here. You can see that I went fairly literal on this interpretation, even using circles for the design elements. When you interpret a sketch not only do you get to choose a set of papers to match your photos, you can choose whatever embellishments work for you. I could just as easily have used stars, hexagons, or even stickers there. I also used the sketch in its original direction. You can always tilt the sketch 90 or 180 degrees to make it fit your photos for the layout.

During the meeting, the break was scheduled so that people could walk over to the Boott Cotton Mills to get the stamp available there. I joined a couple of people and took a quick tour before heading back to the meeting.

This became a 1-page layout to finish Lowell. Because it was a vintage set of rooms I chose a paper that reminded me of old-fashioned wall paper. A few sewing notions on the journal box helped with the story of the girls' jobs. Again, all photos were matted in white to help set them apart from the busy background.

My First Little Blue Book

My next entry is a single page from Independence. I took my Surgical Technology class to Philadelphia to see the Mutter Museum. After the museum I walked down to Independence National Historical Park and was able to see the Liberty Bell. If you examine the photos closely you'll see that the space between the visitor center and Independence Hall is rather undeveloped. The Liberty Bell is off to the side in a small building and there was no museum of information--just the bell. The grass isn't even mowed much in the park space.

But what is most important about this trip is this is when I finally decided to purchase the National Parks Passport and I got my first stamp. Just one. I also bought the sticker pack and thought that I was supposed to stamp across the sticker so it's really hard to read the bottom. I quickly deduced that was a mistake and haven't done it since :)

Here is that first stamp:

I like the border I made though my spacing is a bit off. That is a pack of stickers available at the Visitor Center gift shop and I think they help balance out my photographic inabilities. I think at the time that I was convinced I didn't need photo mats but looking back I think they would have helped the page a bit.