Tatanka!

On Saturday, after my conference, I chose to visit the Chickasaw NPS unit. I spent the day there and was able to earn my junior ranger certificate. I also got to see bison! (Hence the reference to the Dances With Wolves name). I took a great many photos, but frankly you only need one to tell the story! So my kick-off page highlights the bison even though that was actually the last thing I saw.

This is a wallpaper page, and of course I bought the paper specifically for this trip. The bison in the background provide a nice base for my photo and the little sticker from the Eastern National Scrapbook kit.

Below is my main focus of the trip--I visited the natural springs in the area and completed the junior ranger booklet.

This photo is to show the way that I mounted the junior ranger book (turned, of course, to the certificate). Because I wanted to show the 2-page layout, I edited the photos to make a composite as seen below.

This layout is taken from a Club Scrap idea. Here is the link to the idea page (scroll to layouts 7 and 8). I didn't buy the entire kit, just a bunch of random papers, so I had to modify the left page and only use red on the top. Still, I think the brown works fine on the bottom and I really liked the stack of cards along the right edge.

Oklahoma Memorial at Night

In October 2012, I traveled to Oklahoma for a conference. The Health Professions Network not only discusses pertinent health care worker information but takes time to explore the city. This visit turned out to be very poignant as the leader of the group was a friend of one of the victims of the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing. They chose an evening visit to the site which is when the memorial chairs are lit. It was beautiful but sad. The memorial was once an official unit of the NPS, but it has been since moved to private hands and is only an affiliated site. (For the NPTC folks, there IS a stamp).

This is a wallpaper page using a sheet from the Creative Memories Brave paper pack. These pages were also submitted as part of the Summer Page Challenge. This paper pack was just introduced at the beginning of July (though I expect it to be sold out soon). Since it had a nice set of stripes already, I just matted and mounted the photos and the site's brochure.

Once inside the site, they said a few words about their friend and laid a rose on her chair. Because we saw the site at night, it was hard to get good photos. I just have a couple that worked and then I returned another day and bought postcards. As they are also from the nighttime view, it looks like they are my photos!

This layout is part of a 1-2-3 layout (but I can't link to it as it is part of a published book which must be purchased). The paper is also from the Brave pack. There are 2 long strips of one side of the paper and then the remaining piece is cut diagonally and layered across the 2 pages (reverse side showing). I added some old rose stickers to match the one placed on the chair. I found a journal box on the right side page which had a floral design. However, when I turned it sideways it sort of reminded me of the way the lighted chairs were reflected in the pool (shot from the other side of the site). I'm glad I got to see this memorial with the group as it really heightened my experience.

The Lost Orders

Between 2011 and 2015, Civil War Battlefield sites commemorated the 150th anniversary of the war. Many of them created special stamps for the occasion and the National Park Travelers Club had a special certificate for obtaining those stamps. I earned my certificate by attending a presentation on the Lost Orders at Monocacy in September of 2012. I will not tell the story here, but I do encourage you to look it up as it's an interesting piece of history.

I made this layout during the Creative Memories Sun-Sational Summer challenge in which we were to use ONLY new CM paper to develop layouts. That's really a challenge to me as I like to jump between all the variety of papers and items I own, but I did stick to the challenge for this layout.

To create this layout I used 2 pieces of paper--one from the Creative Memories Archivers Paper Pack and one from the Timber pack (no longer available). I cut each at 6" across the middle and then rearranged them so there was a "time" reference in opposing corners and similar patterned paper filling up the blank areas. The photos needed no matting with that paper--it's a really great background! The long border on the left is also from the Archiver's line, but from the Laser Cut Borders. If you've been to Monocacy you'll know that a bridge played a significant role in the battle, and I thought this gave the image of a bridge just a little. The journal box on the right is also from the Archiver's line and I loved the open journal book look to it. Especially when you can see the letter on the top of the page and the background of the brochure. This is one of my all-time favorite layouts.

The Hospital That Wasn't There

On the next day of my trip, I drove south of the city to the Chimborazo Visitor Center. This was the site of a rather large Confederate Hospital and the building on the site now (which wasn't there during the Civil War) houses a very nice medical museum. That's all I needed to hear to plan the trip!

I love this piece of paper. I don't remember what line it is from, but the silhouettes of soldiers seemed perfect as the backdrop to the introduction page. Almost ghostly in fact. To keep it simple, I just matted the photos with some dark paper similar to the black in the unigrid.

The next layout showcases the inside of the museum. I was delighted with the array of instruments and the displays. My favorite (which I hope is not too gory for my audience) is the amputation with the anatomical drawings to illustrate the tourniquet and bone knife. I actually used a few of these photos in one of my surgical technology lectures because the overall technique for amputation hasn't changed in 200 years. We've only upgraded the tools to high-speed electrical or gas powered saws.

Because I had so many photos, I only needed to decorate the edges. I used the Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe paper and cut out the middles of 2 pages. The apothecary jars around the edge seemed the perfect choice for the medical photos. There were just a few blank areas left which became a journaling box and then a place to layer stickers or cut-outs from the other pages in the pack.

A Walk through Maggie Walker's House

Maggie Walker's residence was preserved to honor her work in developing community opportunities for African-Americans in the Richmond area. In addition to starting a bank, she had a role in many charitable organizations and women's rights groups. She had some tragedy in her life as well and that is talked about through the tour of her house.

I don't have any photos from the interior of the house, but I was able to get my photo taken with the NPS sign and to show the entire structure by knitting 2 photos together. To highlight the page, I took a rather old idea shown in this pin and updated it with stickers I had on hand (like the shoe instead of glasses shown in the original). Sorry the bottom right corner got cropped too much. That is a sticker of a trunk similar to the one in the pin. The journal box is from a Club Scrap farm/heritage page that I had. I chalked the edges brown to set it off on the page. No matting because the photos are so oddly shaped. Just a simple layout!

South to Richmond

Beginning this week we move forward to August 2012 to my annual trip to North Carolina with Jim's family. I travel on my own so that I can make stops at some national park units on the way. This year I drove to Richmond. Though I didn't see all of the park, I did see the Tredegar Iron Works and Chimborazo Hospital.

The border for the left page was based on this Father's Day Card. The inner squares use the Creative Memories Postage Stamp punch and then I used their mini car punch to add detail. By mixing up the colors of the cars on the background (sometimes turning them over to get a totally different color) it creates movement on the page. The white square underneath helps highlight the cut out cars in the postage stamps.

The background of the border and the Junior Ranger book on the right are from the same piece of paper. This is an early CM piece when they made papers 10x12. Still, by cutting it and spreading it across 2 pages, you get a lot of use from one sheet. The color block journal box was designed that way, I didn't make it. However, you could certainly use that as a template to make one of your own!

A New Friend

My last stop on the trip was a visit to Albert Gallatin's home called Friendship Hill. Mr. Gallatin was responsible for our treasury set up and for proposing the first National Road. I had a devil of a time finding the place because my GPS kept trying to take me on dirt roads! But I finally made it.

This page is opposite the Turkey Rock page of last week, so essentially kicks off the last section of the book. The page was inspired by this sketch. I like the simplicity of the design, but with the mechanical paper it brings that part of his story out quickly. The edges of the paper were rounded with a paper rounder (like this one) which gives the paper a softer effect.

The main part of my visit was a tour of the house. It was a self-guided tour and I worked on the Junior Ranger program which helped me focus on each of the rooms.

I feel like this is a 2-page layout but when I look at it, it almost seems like 2 pages just next to each other. I liked the wall paper on the left because the chair seemed reminiscent of the older furniture. On the right I used a Scallop Burst Border Maker on the top edge, then chalked the edge with brown ink to bring out the detail (the yellow was a little too light on the Spargo pages I use). The bottom are layered photos which took up quite a bit of space, so the journal box and stickers got the top half of the page by default.

My last page of the album.... I wasn't sure how to finish the journey, but the Junior Ranger book turned to my pledge page seemed a good idea.

The junior ranger book is rather thick, and since I wanted a bit of color I chose cardstock photo corners (a very old Creative Memories kit) in red. The edges of the page use the Medallion border maker cartridge.  A very useful design that has worked in many types of layouts for me. A little journaling about the end of the trip, and the book was done!

I hope you've enjoyed this voyage. Next week we begin my 2012 trip to Atlantic Beach with my in-laws. Lots more stories to come!