Summer Road Trip Part 1--Richmond

 In September 2016 I had quite a road trip. My in-laws had reserved 2 weeks at the beach in North Carolina, and the Health Professions Network was scheduled to be in Louisville around the same time. We'll spend a few months going through all the National Park components of the trip. There are 2 full albums and of course many more layouts you won't see here as they are either family events or non-NPS sites. 

This is the kick-off page for the first volume. It doesn't say volume 1 because I naively thought that I would get everything in one album. The base page is a fast-to-fabulous page from one of the travel packs. The title "Life is an Adventure" was pre-printed on the page. I added a strip of brown cardstock as a sign base and then cut a few directional words from patterned paper and found a few travel stickers that would describe a road trip. The old station wagon sticker and suitcase were the final touches. I based the page on this layout I pinned.

You can see from my itinerary that I drove thousands of miles! My first stop was in Richmond where I revisited the Maggie Walker National Historic Site. I had time to watch the movie in the visitor center and get stamps but didn't tour the house again. I doubt that much has changed inside the house.

The left page is based on this page that I saved on Pinterest. I changed up the components of the top border but it has the same feel. I thought that gave me enough room to print my itinerary. On the right, I decided to make a border from a sketch I had saved from Creative Memories. Follow this link and scroll to the third sketch to see the suggestion. I used some Paper Loft papers and a few stickers from my Heritage stash to finish the border and I love how it turned out.

While in Richmond I stopped by the Tredegar Iron Works which is the main visitor center for the area. I didn't go to any of the outlying battlefields on this trip. Tredegar is always a nice place to stop and see the artifacts. This time I focused more on the outdoor elements of the building.

For this page, I pulled an old sketch I had saved from CM's 2017 Virtual Crop. While I kept the borders at the top and bottom, I didn't add the title to the middle of the page. The borders were made with 3" strips of brick paper and a lattice border maker punch which I cut in half. The vintage train added to the overall brown/sepia tone (even though these are full-color photos).

Blaze a Trail?

After leaving the Best Farm at Monocacy, I headed back toward home. I decided to stop at Catoctin Mountain Park along the way to get some stamps. I asked the Ranger if there was a short trail I could follow. I've stamped here before but really wanted to "claim" a visit. He recommended a short hike to an old site that had been used for moonshining! The path followed a small stream and there were nature trail signs along explaining the flora and fauna (if you consider insects fauna) of the area. 

This layout is based on a Creative Memories sketch from June 2021. I used the Art Nouveau collection with its earthy and leafy prints. I used a newer border maker cartridge for the left side border, but most of it was covered with photos and the brochure, unfortunately. I thought I was being clever by adding the XXX on the bottles since we are talking moonshine. 

The BEST Jerry, the BEST!

 In June 2016, Monocacy National Battlefield held an open house. Literally--one of the farmhouses (called the Best Farm) was opened for special tours. It's only open 1-2 days a year so I took advantage of the opportunity to visit. And get stamps. They had some reenactors in period costumes and some ranger talks in the barn. I spent a nice day wandering around the displays.

I was playing along with the Creative Memories Virtual crop and based this on sketch #12. This was another mystery box weekend and the contents (Shabby Chic Rose) had a perfect rustic fit for the farmhouse. The box also included the medallion flower punch and I used a series of them to create the border between the top and bottom sections of the layout. You'll notice I doubled the sketch and repeated the process on the right as well. The title sticker on the right is from a very old pack of CM paper but I thought the sentiment worked well with the theme.

In order to use all the photos I wanted on the layout, I included 2 peekaboo pockets on the right page.

My second set of pages focused on the living history encampment featuring a physician. I can spend a long time looking over the medical history items. The ether bottle was a new one for me.

This layout is also based on a sketch from the virtual crop. This time sketch #11. The paper is from the Homestead collection--another pack that works well with historical and rustic themes. The overall technique is a series of 12" strips (varying widths) and some border stickers to separate the areas. There is another peekaboo pocket here. I have the contents of the lean-to tent as a close up once you lift the photo of the tent. I thought that was clever.

Pretty in Pink

 The last stop on the Ranger Tour was the Jefferson Memorial. I found it difficult to get a decent picture of the statue because there is little light coming in. As you can see in the left photo it was a bit of a cloudy day, and while that's normally great for photography, not when the statue in question is under a dome with narrow spaces between the columns. The ranger went so quickly from monument to monument that I did not have time to gather stamps on the way. After the tour was over I retraced my steps back through the tidal basin so I could get the stamps at all the gift shops. That made for a LOT of walking (over 20,000 steps on my pedometer!) Luckily I could hop on a red bus to take me to Union Station for my trip home.

This layout is from a pajama party layout. I chose to use pink for the Cherry Blossoms on the unigrid, even though it clearly was NOT Cherry Blossom time along the tidal basin. I don't get much chance to use pink paper so it was a nice way to dig into my stash. The 2 pink background papers are from the Blend and Bloom pink pack. I used aqua as the accent color. The class taught us how to make the borders to divide up the page. I wish I had lowered the left border a little so that it was more in line with the strip under the statue. I added some of the smaller stickers from my DC stash that either highlighted the Jefferson Memorial or Cherry Blossoms. The small sticker on the bottom left of the journal box was fading into the background so I mounted it on a spare piece of aqua.

No Foolin! It's back to FDR!

Happy April Fool's Day! I guess no need for an extra post since it's a Friday. Today we'll cover a bit more of my ranger talk along the Tidal Basin. Our next stop was the FDR memorial. The ranger is quite a character and continually mugged with the various statues. But he was quite knowledgeable and I enjoyed hearing his perspective on FDR's 4 terms. 

Although I completed this in May, I used a sketch from my January class. I wanted to pull out the oxidized look of the statues and plaques so I chose a piece of paper from "Painted Harvest" (which I think was a bonus pack of paper--it only had one of each design included). The green is probably supposed to be a leaf, but it gives a nice base for the antique look. The other thing to highlight was the stone so I chose another piece of the Stone paper pack. Black borders define the edges of the page. The sketch was set to have all the photos on the decorative pages. This is another instance of using that as a background and adding my photos regardless of shape. The 2 vertical photos do not detract from the layout even though they cross the black borders. However, if you would like everything to be "between the lines" you can cut the strips in the middle wider so that everything is tucked away.

FDR's second term is marked by the great tragedies of the depression and dustbowl. The wall behind the ranger highlights all of the programs he created in his "New Deal". They include faces and hands of those helped by the programs. It's the first time a ranger explained this mural to me and it really highlighted the chamber. Before that, I thought it was a random decoration. Though I should know that the NPS doesn't do "random" too often.

This layout  is based on a May class sketch. It called for 2 decorative circles and a wide strip through the middle. I chose the same paper pack as the first 2 pages--Painted Harvest and Stone. I took one 12" laser-cut border strip and cut it into 3 sections to use as embellishments around the page. The title comes from the Memoirs and Memories sticker pack. Though it has gears on it, I think the sentiment fits perfectly.

The 3rd term focuses on WWII of course. The second statue of Roosevelt, though much larger, shows how much he's aged. His knee and Fala get a lot of touches so they don't have the oxidation that the rest of the statues do.

This layout is based on a PJ party that I attended. I cannot show you the sketch, but it focused on building the border on the left. Cutting the triangles and diamonds was a little tricky but using some scraps from the Memoirs and Memories pack as well as the Archiver pack, I was able to get a nice "army" feel to the page. I added the stickers of the WWII hats and helmets to provide context. Not a lot of embellishment but it sets the tone nicely.

Monumental Memories

 I walked from the Mall toward the Tidal Basin, passing a few well-known statues. I made my way to the MLK memorial where I would meet with a ranger for a guided tour of the larger units along the path. This will be the first time I see it in this direction.

For this layout, I followed the 1-2-3 layout for February 2021. The video of the sketch being put together can be found on YouTube here. The download is available through her Facebook group. I used a paper from the CM texture pack "Stone". The black marble and tan stone on the opposing sides reminded me of the materials used in these monuments. Even though they don't all stand together, it brings them together on the layout. The cuts were simple and I had just a few embellishments to add. The ship on John Paul Jones' statue is from the Eastern National Scrapbook pack. The "Monumental Memories" title is a die-cut from that pack as well. The small honor and star stickers were from a different patriotic sticker sheet.

On the Mall

After lunch, I stuck around to take a tour of the tidal basin. As we passed the NPS Information booth on the mall, we were disappointed that it wasn't staffed and the stamps were locked away from us! I stopped for a moment to take my photo with the Washington Monument. It was being renovated during my visit so I was unable to go to the top.

This page is a leftover sketch from a summer camp. The main idea was to do some stitching. While the class leader advocated using real thread, I stuck with faux stitching. I outlined the banner by holding a ruler against the edge and dotting every other block along the path. Then I free-handed the cross-stitch look along the bottom. I used a bit of my non-CM stash here. The background paper was just shy of 12x12 and I don't know if I bought it that way or if I trimmed it previously. I layered with the grid paper so I could do my stitching and then cut a scrap of light blue for the banner. I used some star and heart stickers from various sticker packs. The title is from a Paper House sticker sheet. Does that make too many monuments? (2 photos and a sticker). I don't think so!

As I usually do, I visited the WWII memorial briefly. I managed to find someone to take my photo with one of the title pillars but strolled along the outside mostly. 

I bought this kit from Scrapbook Concierge. They create elaborate layouts that you buy as a kit and assemble at home. They look straightforward, but I always end up looking at some pieces and saying "What do I do with this?" For this kit it was the small gray rectangles. It turned out they were to create shadows on the pillars around the reflecting pool. I really had to concentrate on aligning them from smallest to largest and matching the left and right sides. While I like their layouts they don't leave a lot of room for photos, though I was able to add one more by covering some of those pillars. I don't always use the photo corners provided but I did like them here. I used one photo spot as a journal box so I was able to get all the components I wanted included.