50-states Album part 21--Home Sweet Home: Pennsylvania

I knew Pennsylvania would be a tricky state to do for me since it is less a "destination". But I've lived all over the state so I wanted to include as much of my history as I could. I ended up including photos of 3 of the houses I've lived in as well as a couple of other notable spots like where I went to school.

The color palette had to be yellow and black of course since I'm a fan of all the Pittsburgh teams. The letters for "HOME" were cut on the Cricut. A look at the "top" level shows my first home and my current home. You can see that there's more underneath and you can see a star in Erie (one of the places I went to school).

Opening the first two flaps you can see highlights of where I visit. Primanti Bros. restaurant is always a favorite stop when in Pittsburgh. On the right is me with the Drexel Dragon on the day I dropped off my dissertation for my doctorate.

In the middle view, you can read more of the journaling and you can see more cities. I found small icons to represent the various locations. The steel mill for Pittsburgh was a good find for me. The pine trees in the Poconos area are a Creative Memories punch.

Lifting the journal box you can see the expanded view of the state and the first home Jim and I bought together in 1994.

The overall idea for this page came from this layout. I like what I've made. I do wish that I could have included more but I think it would have made the state too cluttered. Given all the flaps, it's one of the heaviest pages in the album now.

50 states album part 20--Oregon

The photos here are from my 2013 trip to Portland for my cousin's wedding. I traveled with my Mom and that always is a fun time. In addition to the wedding, we had time to do some sightseeing. We saw a lot of waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge, but Multnomah is truly awesome!

I scraplifted the idea from this layout about the Oregon Trail Museum. We actually did visit that museum on this trip but the photos didn't make the cut for the layout. I chose a lighter background print that coordinates with the cut-out of the state shape. I made the wheels a little bigger as well. The title is cut from the Cricut Destinations cartridge. I stretched it into the large oval and backed it with the same red as the state shape outline. Fairly simple to construct actually.

50-States Album part 19--Oklahoma

I've just had one trip to Oklahoma--my first HPN conference. We visited the memorial during our trip--several people in the group knew one of the victims which made for a very emotional tour. I also went to Chickasaw as well as the State Fair. Luckily I got a selfie with one of the weird characters walking around.

This layout is based on this image. The background paper has a leathery look to it and I found denim, bandana and some red houndstooth to make the layers. I used a tearing tool to get the rough edges. It gives it a  bit of a rustic look. I thought cutting the shape of the state from Denim helped tie the top and bottom of the page. I also like that I just used the state abbreviation instead of writing out Oklahoma.

50-states Album Part 18--Ohio

This post highlights a trip from last year in which I made an effort to get photos of myself as I did my travels. I was returning from an HPN conference in Cincinnati. While I had been to the Taft park unit previously, I had no photos of my visit which included ME. Hopewell Culture was a new park for me. Ironically I SHOULD be returning from this year's HPN conference except that with COVID-19 we held it electronically and I stayed home.

This isn't the most updated photo of this page. I took the photo and posted it to a Facebook group where we share scrapbook layouts and someone commented that I was missing something from Ohio University--a Buckeye. So I searched the internet and managed to find a cut file and made their mascot from cardstock. It's just above the state image.

The page idea came from this layout idea. I only used the left-side ideas. Cutting the state flag and shape turned out to be relatively easy. The lettering on the state is from a plastic template I have with an alphabet. I've used it a few times, and it makes a nice title.

50-States Album Part 17--North Carolina

 Jim's family traditionally takes a week vacation in North Carolina each summer so I've made many trips to that state--generally in the Atlantic Beach area. That is very close to Cape Lookout so I've made several visits to the visitor center as well as the lighthouse which is on an island offshore. The Old Burying Ground is in nearby Beaufort and is another favorite spot to visit while we are in the area. There are some very interesting characters buried there.

The background paper is from Keller's Creations. I discovered that company at a scrapbook convention in Lancaster. They teach a class on quick layouts with their paper packs. They have some pre-cut shapes that help things come together quickly. I used the 6" square technique to create the background.
The polaroid looking photos on the left were from a different kit that I used and had leftover. The center one with the die cuts was meant as decoration. The other 2 were empty. I matted them with coordinating blue cardstock and added some embellishments from the cut-out page included with the paper. The letters were also part of the kit and I like the way I arranged the state name.

50-states album Part 16--New York

Some of my favorite trips to New York are shown below. Mom, my sister Sue and I took a bus trip to New York City for a day and we got to go to the Statue of Liberty. This was pre-9-11 and you could just take a ferry over and line up to get inside. Another trip was when Jim and I took a long weekend and drove randomly to the Finger Lakes and then ended up in Niagara Falls.

The basis for this page was this quilt block. I know that's a bit unusual, but you can get inspiration from just about anywhere. I know I've seen challenges where you interpret a magazine ad and transform it into a scrapbook layout. In reality, it isn't much different from following a sketch. What I took from that block was the icons for Niagara Falls, the Statue of Liberty and the state shape. I used a piece of paper that has a watery look to it so the backdrop behind the Cricut cut of the falls would be more realistic.

The top of the page is a  border maker cartridge from Our Memories For Life (OMFL) which was an offshoot of the original Creative Memories. The pattern in that direction echoed the falls to me. The  Statue of Liberty cut came from a Destinations cartridge for the Cricut.

50 States Album Part 15--New Mexico

My foray into New Mexico has so far been limited to my NPTC convention trip in 2015. The convention itself was in El Paso, TX, but our weekend events extended into the surrounding area. El Paso is not that far from the New Mexico line and I spent a full day exploring various NPS sites.

This page is based on the elements of this layout. I merged the state flag and the state cutout so I could include the photo of the Welcome sign--even though I'm not in it. It serves as the title of the page in a way. I rather like the desert structures in the bottom right corner It was a free cut and I think the tones of yellow give it depth for such a simple cut. Yellow mats tied the rest of the page together. It was a fairly quick layout.