Delawarean or Pennsylvanian?

 I backtracked a bit to visit the Dickinson Plantation. I had known him as a Pennsylvanian and of course the impetus behind Dickinson College. He is best known as the Penman of the Revolution. But his home was in Delaware. And that's after the 3 lower counties broke from Pennsylvania to form the state. So my tour was an eye-opener in several ways. The tour started in the visitor center with a video and then we walked to the house. The home is reminiscent of the 1700s and I loved the manikins of the Dickinsons included in the rooms.

I based this layout on a pin I saved from The Paper Loft. I did use Paper Loft papers for the background but didn't have the exact pages so I had to create the scene. The background papers had a solid print all over, so I "gutted" the middle to make a frame and then just mounted them on the scrapbook pages. With the new CM trimmer, it's easy to do and I have a video of it on my Facebook page (around 10 minutes in). That saves paper for another use!

I used a Cricut to create the tree and house. I used green cardstock for the doors because the house does have a green door (used to indicate the wealth of the people living there). I flipped the tree and house from the original layout because of the way the photos fit. That provided me with an opportunity to add the horse and carriage die cut from Paper Pizazz (now out of print). The small image of a woman and child on the right page is from the same die-cut tablet.

The tour moved into the servants' areas such as the kitchen and included a stop in an outbuilding that featured some old weaving looms. As I worked a loom during my Art Club days in Junior High School, it brought back a lot of memories.

This layout was based on a sketch from the April 2021 CM Virtual Crop. I chose to use some VERY old stash from the Earthy line. I thought the dusky prints worked well with the heritage photos. The left page had the border of diamonds printed on it. I just had to add a circle cut from a scrap and a couple of stickers from the pack. On the right, I used the top circle to do some extra journaling. The bottom circle on the sketch was completed with a sticker. CM used to make pages of decorative shaped stickers (circles, tags, rectangles) and I didn't know what to do with them. I do now!

But the building isn't the National Park Site

 My next stop was Dover. I visited the Old State House because that is where the NPS stamps are located. I took the tour with a rather, um, well let's just say, opinionated docent. I felt that I was attentive (especially since I was the only person on the tour) as she took me through the various rooms and uses. At the end, I politely asked for the stamps and that's when I was informed that the building had absolutely nothing to do with the First State National Historical Park. The actual NPS site was the Green outside of the building. Apparently having the stamps was a great inconvenience to her and what was most interesting was that she felt a need to capture the number of stamp impressions I made (one did not stamp completely and so I had to make a 2nd impression). It was almost as if she wanted to charge me for the number of stamps I made. 

So on to happier thoughts--let's talk about the layout. I followed one of the sketches in my year-long class. When following a sketch I often have to substitute. For example, the bottom row was supposed to be made up of 6x4 photographs. I substituted the unigrid for a pair on the left, and a journal box on the right. That left me enough room to put an extra-long item on the left. Instead of a 4x6 photo, it's another brochure about the First State sites. There are 2 more photos under the journaling box. That is the top of a peekaboo pocket. See the picture below.

I did use wallpaper for the background of both pages. I found a sheet that was colorful but not too distracting. Then I used some old paper from the Earthy collection for the borders and upper-page mats. I know that I could have added some embellishments but when I get to this era, I seem to have a shortage of appropriate elements. I'm not one to put flowers on a page, especially one that is focused on history. 

And Yet More Flowers!

 Well, although we left the flower show, I have another page of flowers to share! My next trip was in April 2016. I had been in Atlantic City for a conference and had a long weekend to drive back to Lancaster. I started with a drive down to Cape May where I caught the ferry to Lewes, DE. My plan was to visit all the sites in the rather new National Park called "First State". In Lewes is a small house called the Rhys Holt house and that was my first destination While I did get a stamp at the house there was no tour, so instead I walked around the town. They were having a tulip festival and it was a beautiful day for walking.

This layout is based on another of my class sketches. The basic idea was to have similarly toned borders on the left and right. I had made the tulip journal box and matching borders YEARS before. While I would not normally have chosen yellow for the palette I was following an example I found online. For the right side and the banners, I found the same paper to bring the color all the way across the page. Then I added some additional flower stickers ( the red tulips were from the same original kit called "Cabana").

The Last of the Flower Show

The hours for the Flower Show were ending as I came to the smaller displays. Here is my final entry in the album--the Edgar Allan Poe cabin from Acadia. Poe shows up in a number of National Parks, and of course, has his own in the Philadelphia area. But here we see a highlight of his stay in one of the cottages. They decorated the door and yard with symbols of his writing such as a typewriter and a raven. I thought it was well done and made for a great ending page.

This layout is based on one of my year-long classes so I can't show you the sketch. I based the color scheme on the door with its rich purple. The Secret Garden stash which I bought specifically for this album (and yet used very little of) did come in for the last page. The washed look of the purple background was a great canvas for the floral aqua-colored papers and stickers. I used a dark purple cardstock for the middle strip and was also able to journal using a white gel pen. The original sketch was to be just 4 photos in 4x4 size, but there was no way for me to trim the upper left photo so it's a bit asymmetrical and yet works. I hope you enjoyed the past months traveling across the country through one evening at the flower show. Join me next week as I return to my larger travels and we head to the First State National Historical Park!

Thirsty?

Only 2 more layouts for the Flower Show! For this week, it's the bridal display for Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Everything was so romantic! I took a few photos to send to my sister who was planning a wedding that year.

This is another layout that I cannot share the sketch for. Because of the wedding theme, I wanted to use pinks. I was able to use some scraps to accent the page. In real life, you can see more detail. This photo doesn't really show some of the prints well. The circle that is cut in half is from one of the circle punches from CM. There are tulips around the edge. Though everything else is roses, it doesn't clash.

The Golden Arches

It's the last post of 2021. I hope you all had a great year. I look forward to sharing more layouts with you in 2022! 

The next display was for Arches National Park. There were multiple arches made of stones, wood and flowers all lined up along the walkway. It's funny how an arch makes you change perspective. Do you look at the arch itself or do you look at what is revealed in the opening? Or both! I think you'll see that I took both perspectives in my photos.

This layout is based on a class I took. I used more of the paper from the Mystery Box as well as some red/orange cardstock. I had the title from a page of park names that someone gave me and it drove the rest of the colors on the page (though the display certainly matched that tone as well). You can see that the paper was cut and then folded back on itself to get the contrast in the 4 quadrants of the layout. That also means that you can tuck photos under the edges for a change. I added the arched border across the top to highlight the theme and then just a few stickers from my stash that were floral but in the same red/orange tone. 

Stop and Smell the Roses

Tomorrow is Christmas Day. I hope you have an enjoyable holiday season with friends and family. Thanks so much for adding me to your celebration! 

As I came to the end of my night at the Flower Show, the displays change from the over-the-top extravaganzas that I've been showing you, to smaller, compact, and sometimes even dainty displays. I loved this small set of flowers and a manikin from Weir Farm. The park is all about artistry and many people go there to paint landscapes. The artist who originally lived there had painted "Flora" and that photo was turned into a 3-D rendering through flowers.

This layout is based on a sketch from the February CM Virtual Crop. I used papers from the Full Bloom collection for the edges. This type of layout is a great way to use up scraps from any collection. The inner-most 3 squares are all one sheet of paper. By using the CM 12" trimmer, I can stop a cut before coming to the edge of the paper. I made several squares by trimming a block from the center of each consecutive cut. By flipping the middle square, I had a nice set of contrasting colors. The green and dot paper is not from Full Bloom, but from a "green" themed pack. CM offers those types of packs fairly often so they can coordinate with multiple other paper sets. It certainly helped pull Full Bloom into a full layout.