Convention in the Capital--part 2: Monuments and Memorials

These 2 layouts are actually taken out of order from the album, but the content was such that they really belong in the same blog post. So the first layout includes night photos. After the convention, Jim and I went to dinner at Union Station and walked back to our hotel. The daylight photo of the capitol came from a different walk, but I wanted to keep all the photos together. I had some trouble with the low light so the night images are a bit blurry. The Grant Memorial is right in front of the capital and since we could get close I could use a flash which gave some interesting perspective on the monument with the charging horses.

The left page is a pre-printed page with the capitol, flags and stars. To make a similar page on the right I used a Grant Memorial sticker from the Eastern National scrapbooking pack and 2 flag stickers. I used mini alphabet stickers from Creative Memories to make the title. I filled in the space between photos and journal box with star stickers. To give a little more definition to the page I used Washi tape in a blue stripe to cover the edges. When I looked at the 2 pages I decided to use the Washi tape on the left as well for more similarity. It's unfortunate that there are some stars that are partly covered by the tape, but otherwise I really like the effect.

The next layout is from a different day. Jim stayed in the hotel room while I walked up to see the Japanese-American memorial. A new stamp had been created for this memorial and I wanted to see it in person. Jim asked that I find the Meade Memorial on the way and take a few photos for him since Meade figured so prominently in Jim's book.

The page on the left is wall paper. I found the theme of the paper had an Asian feel to it. I added a few stickers to the journal box and corner from the Creative Memories Celebrations sticker pack. The right hand page background I created with the Creative Memories border maker system and the Our Memories Asian fan cartridge. There are a total of 9 blocks, each 4" x 4". I punched each side of each block in the middle of the block and then layered them like tiles for a background. It was labor intensive and I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it was fun to try once. I got the idea from this layout: Link here.

Convention in the Capital--part 1: The annual meeting

In early August 2011 the National Park Travelers Club held their 9th annual convention at the National Mall. Jim and I drove down after work Friday. Saturday morning I helped with morning registration before the event. There were several speakers (including me as a surprise fill-in for someone who canceled).

I think this layout turned out well. I scraplifted it from this layout that I found on pinterest: Left page, Right page. I had some blue striped paper for the top and left side, and I had a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 with stars and banners for the split in the middle. I chose red mats instead of white and I think that helps set off the photos over the white background better. My stickers and die cuts included my name tag from the event. The title was cut with the Cricut using one of the free fonts on the machine.

Back to 2011--Upper Delaware

In July of 2011 I decided I needed a road trip (and a few more Passport Anniversary Stamps) and took a drive to the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. One reason was that I had learned of a new stamp available at the Roebling bridge. Sadly, in the day or 2 since it was reported available it was stolen.

This layout is a set of pages from the destination album (sort of a precursor to the Fast to Fabulous pages).

After touring the bridge I drove a little further north and visited the Zane Grey museum--he of the Western Novel fame.

This page is of course wallpaper. The journal box is actually cut down from a border I owned. It originally had apples on either side, but the reddish brown tone was perfect for the western theme. I'm not sure if I wasn't allowed photos inside or if my photos were just so bad that I decided not to use them. But I always take photos of information signs just in case!

Northwest Adventure part 15--the last entry

Saturday was the final day of our trip (we left VERY early Sunday morning). The convention took up the afternoon and evening for us.

Here we are at the last page of the album. The left page is nothing special--just taking the red/white/blue theme from the cake and using the paper and journal box for the page. This is actually about the right side, which is the back cover to the album. I was working on this at a craft house (a place where we can REALLY spread out and stay overnight so our tables don't have to be packed up all the time). I got to the end and realized I didn't have a place for the convention program. I couldn't even put in an 8 1/2x11 sheet protector because I didn't have anything for the back. So I initially threw it out. I went to bed that night but woke up with an epiphany! Why NOT put something on the back cover inside? What else can you use it for? So I did, and there it is. I'm glad I threw it in a box for recycling so there was not a stain or crumple on it before I took it back out.

And there is the last entry for this adventure. Beginning next week we'll return to the chronological entries from 2011.

Northwest Adventure part 14--City walking tour

Just pointing out--the Chinatown pages as well as today are ALL the same day as the Bainbridge Island tour. It was a busy day! So after our tour in Chinatown, we walked downhill to the Klondike Visitor Center. There we were broken into several groups for tours of the city. Our guide liked architecture, so we learned a lot about the different building materials and how things were laid out in the city.

Both of these pages are from the picfolio remnant pages. I liked the layering on the brown accent piece on the left. Only 1 photo, but a tour brochure, a layered sticker and a journal box really fills the space. On the right I added another word cut from a piece of paper to link the random photos of the town.

Our tour took us through parks and down streets filled with little shops. The park on the left is dedicated to UPS workers, which I thought rather unique.

The left page is wallpaper--a page of waterfalls for a few photos of falls in the garden. The blue layered tag gave a little depth to the page. On the right, I just matted the photos and added a die-cut of a totem pole to go with the photo of the totem pole in the city. The frog and turtle stickers are from the Cabana series from Creative Memories. I thought they were cartoonish enough to mimic the totem pole images and filled up the left hand corner.

After walking all over town, we returned to the visitor center for a pizza dinner. We were to take ANOTHER tour that evening but we were so exhausted we just canceled our tickets and returned to the hotel.

Northwest Adventure part 13--Chinatown

Happy New Year!
After our return from Bainbridge, we headed in the direction of our afternoon tour--the Wing Luke museum. This is in the Chinatown area of the city and we located a restaurant. Our lunch was one price and included appetizers, entrees, soup and drinks for $10 each! Jim and I really enjoyed lunch there! We walked back to the Wing Luke museum for our guided tour. This museum commemorates the lives of those who came from all over Asia to make a new life in America.

As I worked on the layout above, I started with the right page (I do that quite a bit actually). The borders were from the Asian Miyabi paper again with one border cut to fill in the blank horizontal spaces around the page. Then looking at the left I wanted the same colors, so I used scraps from other pages to set off the title and highlight the photos a bit.

Our tour included an Asian apothecary shop which has some of the original items preserved in their original jars (EW!). From there we walked through a series of rooms that housed individuals and families in boarding room type areas.

The title on the left page is actually from a photo I took. It was the only thing of consequence in the photo so I trimmed it and mounted it on a scrap of paper. A similar scrap on the bottom with a design line from the Asian Miyabi set helped finish the page. The journal box has 3 circles cut from other green paper and those are stickers of sushi in the circles. I thought the food appropriate for the shop as it sort of was a grocery as well as apothecary. The page on the right is based on this sketch (See sketch here). It' a very literal interpretation though the stickers were again the chopped sections of design lines.

We continued through the building and I was fascinated by the kitchen area which had a projection of cooking food in the wok. Every facet of life is represented from work to play and even military service.

The left page is wall paper. I love paper that looks like wood. I often think of it more for beach photos but to me it looked much like the floor. On the right is a plain piece of paper with a border remnant at the top. Green and red were used throughout the layouts and helped to give them a sense of similarity. Also on these 2 layouts I used a hexagon punch to be the base of stickers and to help set them off from the backgrounds.

This day isn't over yet! Come back next week for the next installment!

Northwest Adventure part 12--Bainbridge Island

OK, back to something related to the National Parks! On Friday 7/18, we joined a group of NPTC folks for a tour of a new installation on Bainbridge Island. There are a couple of ways to get there, but we chose the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge.

The pages above are Fast-to-Fabulous and again, are almost opposites of each other. I think they go together quite well and all I had to do was add some journaling and label the coastlines. These pages were done in about 10 minutes!

Once we got on the island we drove to the memorial. It is an affiliated site of the Minidoka National Historic Site which remembers the Japanese-American Internment during WWII. We had a local guide who described the building of the memorial as well as the lives of the people memorialized there.

It's hard to believe that something so sweet would work on such a sad remembrance, but I actually really like how this layout came together. The papers are part of the Creative memories "Fabulous" power palette. The backgrounds are actually "wallpaper" but with enough space at the top and bottom to be able to add a border. The paper lanterns are made using the Creative Memories tag punch. You can find directions here: lanterns. I had the journal box from a scrapbooking yard sale so I'm not sure where it came from, but they look like cherry blossoms to me and so I thought it would match the pages.

As we walked through the memorial we saw the beautiful carved plaques that reflected the lives of the people before, during and after internment. If you get to the area, I highly recommend visiting.

I took my cue from the school girls on the bottom. I used the Creative Memories Asian Miyabi paper and stickers. There are ideas on the back of the paper and sticker inserts and I modified one for this layout. I thought the backpacks looked like they would be used to go to school. I used the contrast of red and green but it doesn't even remotely look like Christmas.

After we finished the tour we drove to the Historical Society which is where the stamp is located. We took a few minutes to look through the outside displays but needed to catch the ferry back to Seattle.

Because the themes of the 2 layouts were different but connected, I used a double border on the left page to box that page in so that it looked separate. I also ensured the backgrounds were different colors so that there was a contrast--your eye isn't looking to continue the story on the right. The left page borders use some older Creative Memories short cuts called "rick rack". I layered stickers from the Asian Miyabi pack over top so it was almost a vine. The 2 fans at the top filled in a little dead space. On the right is one of the pre-designed picfolio inserts. The vertical line helped set off the brochure.

Well, that ends my first year of the blog for National Park Scrapbooks! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have and will come back next year for more!