Convention in the Capital--part 4: Canal Boat Ride

Jim and I joined a group trip out to Great Falls Tavern where we prepared to take a ride on an authentic canal boat. The trip is staffed by re-enactors in period garb who perform all the same tasks as the original canal workers--handling the mules, opening the locks, and running the boats.

This is another example of when I work on the right page and then make the left page fit the style. I wanted something that would have a little nautical feel to it but also would work well with the historic feel of the photos. This is the inspiration for the right page: Scraplifted from here. I certainly added more photos, but kept the basic elements. Once that page was done, the left fell into place. The rope stickers were from the Creative Memories National Scrapbook Day kit. Since I had that out, I found the background paper on the left that resembled wood from a boardwalk. That worked out for the "land based" part of the photos. I did mat the unigrid because it was getting lost in all the grey and white of the page. The die cut with the description of the tavern is from the Eastern National scrapbook kit.

Once on the boat we had a great view of the locks as we traveled through. It was really amazing how much water flowed through the lock as it took us up and down the canal.

I returned to wall paper for these pages. I believe these are from an older Creative Memories travel pack, though I don't remember the name of the pack. I liked the gear because it reminded me of a ship's wheel. I only matted a couple of the photos because they were so close in color to the page that I didn't want them to be lost. The journal boxes are from a Club Scrap farm kit.

We ended our trip with a group photo. Since group photos look better at 8x10, they need a full page to themselves. Again, I found a ship's wheel to accent the page with a small journal box from club scrap.

Convention in the Capital--part 3: Teddy Roosevelt Island

Sunday morning, the club sponsored a get-together on Theodore Roosevelt Island. Several club members and I took the Metro and then walked to the park. Once there, one of the capitol locations with a LOT of stamps had set up tents with all the stamps available to us. It was a veritable smorgasbord of stamping! We listened to a ranger talk but did not take advantage of the walk around the island.

The background of the left page of the layout is an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper split into thin strips and spread across the page. The paper is from the Eastern National scrapbook pack. If you can't quite make out the pattern, it's the NPS arrowhead logo printed in tile fashion across the page. The journal box originally had a flower in the left corner. Technically, it's still there, but I covered it with a Teddy Roosevelt sticker. (This sticker and the Grant sticker from last week are from the Washington DC scrapbook pack from Eastern National. Slightly different than the traditional pack.)

The right page is just plaid wallpaper. I didn't mat any of the photos because the  little bit of foliage I left when trimming the photos was sort of a mat for me.

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.