The Unofficial State Bird

So many states claim the mosquito as the unofficial state bird that it's almost a cliche. But when you see "Mosquito Meter" crafted into the display, you know there are bound to be problems. I guess I'll need to carefully plan my visit to the real park so that it's not a war zone! You'll remember that Jim and I experienced a horde of mosquitoes during our visit to Portsmouth Island (or check out that blog post by clicking the link). I may have to do this park without him!

This layout is again from one of the classes I took. It was a fairly simple concept where you lay out the letters and a border sticker and then chop and mat them to create a crazy title. I had kept a piece of the S'More Memories pack that had dragonflies as the design. But given the photo of the Mosquito Meter, you thought mosquitoes instead, right? This layout only used one piece of paper. I cut the squares for the corners from the left-over paper after the title was done.

The OTHER big trail

The next display covers another immense trail in the National Park System--the Pacific Coast Trail. Unlike the Appalachian trail, this is not an official unit. The trail extends from the Mexican to the Canadian borders and so crosses a wide variety of environments. The designers condensed all of that to just a few square feet of floor space! 

This layout is from the same class as the last 3 entries--so again, no sketch. The design focused on building those borders on the left and bottom right. My cuts were supposed to be through the middle of a chain punched with the Border Maker System. But the cuts are not quite perfect so I had to use other items to hide the imperfections (like the John Muir quote mat). The tree border was punched directly onto the background paper (that particular punch is not a chain) and I mounted a bit of cardstock underneath to bring out the tree design. I finished it off with a couple of clusters of stickers from my assorted packs.

This layout is from a DIFFERENT class--but alas I still cannot show you the sketch. I like splitting paper across a 2-page layout and that happened twice here (the light blue and the green forest designs). That technique helps the eye move from one side of the layout to the other. The sketch called for borders under the photos and instead of a punch, I used some strips from a cut-apart sheet. The left border (Adventure) was a bit smaller than the right so I mounted it on a wider piece of paper. But that was TOO pale so I added some rope borders at the top and bottom. A lot more stickers on this one to fill in some of the dead spaces (and honestly to use up some of those sheets!)

And now a word from our sponsor...

 My next stop was Yosemite National Park. I was a little surprised to find so many Subaru advertisements here, but not only do they support the Flower Show, they are working with Yosemite to reduce waste. The floral portion represents Olmstead Point. Also included is the Mariposa Grove sequoia. This California Tunnel Tree is a popular destination within the park.

This layout was created for one of the classes I took and I cannot share the sketch. My layout required some photo manipulation to get the entrance to Olmstead Point in view. Once I trimmed the photos, I matted them in pink and left them square on the bottom to allow a small journaling space. 

The page technique uses "welding" to get both sides of a paper into the act. I liked the contrast between the bright pink flowers and the tree. When you have such a vibrant pattern (the pink flowers) it helps to use it in small amounts on the page. I cut the borders and then flipped the middle. The pieces are reattached using long stickers. I was able to use some very old CM stickers from the Jumbo Great Lengths purple pack. (You can also use strips of scrap paper along the back for the same effect, but the stickers hide the seam).

Following the sketch, I added a border using the Tulips Border Punch from Creative Memories. I think I should have chosen a slightly darker shade of purple for those as they seem to get lost on the tree papers. The rest of the embellishments are more stickers from the GL Purple pack. I trimmed the squares and rectangles into banners to finish the page.

What a Blast

The next display was of Hopewell Furnace. Located not too far from Philly it's another local favorite. As with the Valley Forge display, the creators decided to go with what the place looked like after its original purpose (iron making) was over. The elements such as the furnace were recreated with fall-type leaves. The display was rather large and you could walk through the structures. I liked that they also added non-floral elements such as the pantry supplies.

The layout is based on a class I took and I am not allowed to share the sketch. I used the Hello Autumn collection from Creative Memories. The green and orange colors matched the display perfectly. I liked the portion of the sketch where we punched borders and layered them into a small 4x6 space (see the rustic fence behind the bottom photo on the right page?  Just 2 embellishment clusters here. CM had a matching foiled leaf pack to go with the collection and I clustered them for titles and a little journaling. I also substituted one photo for a journaling box. 

I like that we didn't center the photos in the boxes. It gives a little more movement to the page and shows the background papers a bit better.

It's more than Atlantic City

When most people think of the Jersey Coast, they think of the casinos and not much else. But just inside that commercialized zone is a series of small protected zones like the Pine Barrens and the Maurice River. These were temporarily combined to form the New Jersey Coastal Heritage route--an affiliated unit for the National Park Service. I'm surprised that this was the topic of one of the displays as in reality there is no organizational body overseeing that designation. There is one stamp left in Southern Jersey. However, the areas are protected by private foundations like the various lighthouse agencies. 

The inspiration for this layout was from a class I took and I cannot share the sketch. It was pretty straightforward though--3 pairs of patterned papers cut with the Decorative Trimmer and separated just a bit to create a "river" through the middle. I used more of the Woodland Whimsy papers for this layout as well as a few animal stickers from the pack. It was originally a baby pack so it can be difficult to use some of the titles from the kit. The title across the bottom is a mixture of mini ABC-123 letter packs. The yellow didn't show up well so I outlined them in dark pen. The title isn't SUPPOSED to be another river on the page but I won't argue if you think it matches that layout. I'm just bad at making things straight sometimes!

Of course there's a stamp!

 In the corner, the NPS set up an authentic Ranger Station with real NPS rangers staffing it throughout the show. To prevent overwhelming the Philadelphia staff, additional help was brought in from volunteers across the country. That was probably beneficial as they might have had to field questions about a number of far-flung parks on display.

Creative Memories posted a special sketch challenge for National Sticker Day. They had recently released a second version of the Emoji stickers which had more masked versions due to COVID. I chose to use the original packaging to complete the challenge. It worked so well for this page because it was such a lighthearted topic.I especially love the Indiana Jones emoji--it just seems to go with the ranger page perfectly. The background paper is from the Woodland Whimsy collection. The log paper is some scraps of Adventure I still had. I used the rolling trees border maker cartridge for the edging.

How Green Was the Inn?

 The next display covered one of the affiliated units of the NPS (as if the choice of the more than 400 parks wasn't enough!) The Schuylkill River NHA runs through Philadelphia but goes up into the Pottsville area. They have yearly paddle events along the length. Of course in Philly, this runs right into the Boathouse Row area. This mid-19th century site still runs as a restaurant today in the Wissahickon area.Creative Memories wanted to honor Australia Day which occurs in late January. They posted a blog featuring a cute layout and then turned that into a sketch for us to follow. I used that sketch for this layout--the main feature of which is the circle on the bottom with the 3 tails. I used paper from the Woodland Whimsy pack (the girl's pack I think). That's the background and the darker orange papers. For the circle, I chose one of the circle punches. By starting with a 6" square of paper, you end up with a lacy-trimmed circle. This one had a tulip pattern that I thought went well with the page. I added 2 strips of paper for the tails and then added a border sticker in the middle. A few sticker embellishments from the same collection finished the page.