Taking the Dam Tour

When we were done with Walk 93, my sister and the rest of our merry band drove to the Johnstown area. (It was a Saturday and we could stop at Conzattis). We had lunch at Pappy's pizza just like when Lisa and I were little. Then we split and I headed to Saint Michael to take a Johnstown Flood tour. Having grown up a few miles from here you wouldn't think I would need to take a guided tour, and in fact, I did know many of the stories; but a part of the tour was inside the Clubhouse. While I passed it all the time, it has only recently been open for tours. But that's next week's story. Today I focus on the visitor center and the incredible diorama of flood debris hanging in the lobby above the theater entrance. If you haven't seen the movie, you should. I believe it won an Oscar for documentaries.

This layout is another Creative Memories Virtual Crop challenge. As you can see in the sketch, the bottom row is supposed to be 4 small photos. I liked it better with my stitched-together panorama. Since I had room I added a small mat from the Archiver's line (still using that up). The background paper is another from the Painted Harvest pack. The other papers are from a very old "Earthy" line from old CM. I inked the edges of the journal box to get it to stand out more.

Walk 93 Part 2

This week we look at the fun side of my visit to Flight 93. Times with my sister are NEVER dull, and we were both excited to do this event together. Also joining us were her boyfriend Jason and her daughter Sierra. Jason has very long arms (he's tall) and so he is essentially a human selfie-stick.

This layout is from the Creative Memories Virtual Crop. I liked the technique on the right page where you make cuts along only half of a square and fold down the inside. It creates a border and allows you to use both sides of the paper at the same time. I used paper from the Creative Memories "Fresh Fusion Brights" pack. The red matched our shirts and the reverse side in green accented nicely (red and green are opposites on the color wheel and always look good together--even if it isn't Christmas). This was the weekend we got the mystery box and the double star punch was part of that kit. I used it to finish filling in some of the blank areas around the page. I liked the right side of the sketch where we created faux Polaroid photos. Cutting a mat longer than the photo by about an inch gives you that look. It also leaves a great space for journaling.

This layout focuses on the walk. Whenever I go to a National Park I always seem to find those like-minded passport devotees like myself and this walk was no exception. If you see the photo below where I'm talking to 2 people (lime and red hoodies), that was me touting the benefits of the National Park Travelers Club to potential members. Lisa found it amusing and took a photograph of it.

This layout is also from the CM Virtual Crop. Challenge 6 featured a card and a border. I used the border sketch to create toppers for these 2 pages. I used some papers that were close in color but are not exactly the same print for the background. All of the paper comes from a collection called "Painted Harvest" which is an older CM line. The fall tones matched the photos well. The borders include the Cable Chain border maker cartridge. Decorations are flowers that I have been gathering over the years. I tried to stick with the red colors to match the layout. I know flowers are not exactly what you expect for fall but I think they work well here.

Walk 93 Part 1

In September of 2015, Flight 93 held a charity walk to raise money for the park. They had just installed a new path around the site. My sister Lisa had always wanted to do something like this with me so I invited her and it ended up being us plus her boyfriend Jason and her daughter Sierra. We arrived at the park early and had time before the event to tour the visitor center and overlook the park from the new balcony. 

This layout is based on a sketch from the Creative Memories Virtual Crop from September 2020. The paper is an older pack called "Reflections". The pack included some matching paper tape and I used that to make the diagonal stripes on the right page. I liked the soft feel for a rather somber occasion.

It was interesting to tour the visitor center with Sierra who was only a year old when the event occurred. And even years later, I needed the tissues provided by the park at the end of the display. 

This page also was part of the September Virtual Crop. This crop was the first time they instituted a mystery box. We didn't open it until just before the first challenge launched. The papers included in that box (there was also a tape runner and a punch) were used for this layout. It had a sort of star-light feel to it and matched the tone of the displays. I was also able to use up some button embellishments (paper buttons) and a few ABC-123 stickers. Next week we'll focus on the happier side of the walk.

No Fooling! Less than a day-trip

I figured I might as well continue the tradition of posting on April Fools day! Enjoy the bonus this week and come back for another layout tomorrow night!

On a Saturday in September 2015, I was near Valley Forge for a conference. Not one to waste an opportunity to refresh my stamps, I headed over after the conference and then drove through some of the park. It was a lovely day for the drive and I was able to get out and explore the various stops.

There are two images of my layout. I had JUST a bit more than would comfortably fit on a single-page spread and less than what I wanted for a 2-page layout. So I ended up using one of the CM 6x12 Peekaboo pockets to extend the page a bit.That allowed me to put the unigrid front and center and have a couple more photos at the back. 

The overall layout was based on the sketch for one of the virtual crops. I used some log paper from the Adventure pack as the base and a matching border sticker to tie the pocket back in. The base paper for the pocket is also from the Adventure pack and the brown plaids were plain enough to not create distraction or eye pain! The stickers of the soldier and drum are from the Eastern National scrapbook kit. The rest of the flowers and leaves came from a variety of packs and were most likely chosen because they were close at hand.

Along the Outer Banks

In August 2015 I started driving to the annual vacation spot in North Carolina. For this trip, I hugged the coast a bit more stopping in Manteo to see Fort Raleigh as well as refreshing my stamps at a couple of other nearby parks such as Cape Hatteras and Wright Brothers National Memorial. My Wright Brothers stop was so brief, all I got was a brochure and the stamps. I love the long drive by myself though I appear in fewer photos. The weather was great and I learned a lot on the trip.

This page commemorates my stops at 3 different parks. The borders were copied from this Pinterest item. It uses the Cool Serenity papers that I had handy from my White Sands pages. I intentionally made the wave borders going in opposite directions. I think it adds visual interest that way. The middle of the page uses some stickers I had purchased in the Atlantic Beach area years ago. The large square cut in half brings the 2 sides together. The stickers luckily had the same tones as the CM paper and stickers so you don't really notice they are from 2 packs. After I photographed this layout I realized that I had printed the lighthouse in 2 sizes so I switched to a 5x7 photo with less mat showing. 

My stop was designed to pick up a new park: Fort Raleigh. Not only did I get to see the park sites but I stayed for their outdoor performance of the Lost Colony (including a back-stage tour!). I recommend seeing that play if you have time and are in the area. The visitor center has a lot of great dioramas and interactive displays as well. A nice day-long visit.

My next layout is based off a layout I saved from the original Creative Memories blog. You can see it on my Pinterest page here. I turned the page 90-degrees to accommodate my horizontal photos. I dug out my corner rounder for this layout as well. I used to use that on every photo originally but now it's just for special occasions. I used up some of the old CM Cottage paper and stickers for this one. Using patterned paper for some blocks meant that I didn't need a ton of photos. I also used them as journaling boxes and a place for title stickers. 

Out of the fire

My last layout for the Meetup trip is of the final steps pouring the molten iron and revealing the finished product. We were a few rows back in the audience so it was hard to get good shots of the craftsmen pouring the liquid metal. They make very small batches now. I'm sure when the furnace was in full production the cauldrons were much larger. 

This layout is based on a free sketch I got from Club Scrap. Due to COVID 19, the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention was transitioned to virtual. We were sent to this website for the directions (there's a video as well) but we had to supply our own papers. I chose a piece of textured paper that looked like rusted metal from the Creative Memories Timeworn paper pack. I added a sheet of cardstock called "Copper". I was hoping it was a shimmery paper but it ended up just looking dull green. If you look at the website, the sample pages have a LOT more photos, even putting small photos in the four squares across the top right page. I didn't have many photos left of the day so I spread them around and filled some of the remaining blocks with stickers and journal boxes. The frame around the 4x4 photo on the left page is from the Memoirs and Memories embellishment kit.

Casting begins

During our time at Hopewell Furnace, we got to walk through several areas demonstrating the production of iron pieces. The left page focuses on the creation of heat. Water runs over a wheel which pumps a bellows. That pushes air into the furnace to increase the heat. In the photo below, I'm listening to the rush of air through the pipe as it heads to the furnace. On the right we watched re-enactors preparing a mold to be cast. It was just like when I was in metal shop in high school!

I made this page as I took a "Summer Camp" class for scrapbooking. The week's challenge was to take one of our punches and turn it into a stamp. I used the Medallion punch on a styrofoam plate and then secured that to a wooden block leftover from our stamping days. I did not re-ink the stamp each time I pressed down. This enabled me to get gradations of the image. The styrofoam was thin so you can see that I inadvertently inked the block and that showed up on the page as well. I used metal designed stickers and die cuts to finish the page.