Washington Really Slept Here

 I had an afternoon tour of the mansion and took a little time to see the area around the house as well as photograph the exterior architecture. It's a Georgian-style building from the 1770s. The owner had died but his widow allowed Washington to stay during the winter of 1779-1780. He was here for about 6 months. Martha would stay here as well and of course several other pieces of his entourage,  visiting dignitaries and servants. Mrs. Ford and her children lived in just 2 of the rooms.

For this layout, I dug into my saved sketches and found one from December 2021. I used one of the border maker cartridges to punch a border (as it's double-sided paper, I could use both colors and the border wouldn't disappear into the background.) The paper is the old Cottage line from Old CM. I'm just about done using that pack!

Inside, the rooms have been returned to how they would have looked in that winter (which by all accounts was one of the worst on record for heavy snowfall). Though Washington's bedroom attracted attention, I was interested in the camp beds used by his aides. It gave it almost a circus feel! The kitchen had to feed a lot of people but at least it would have been warm there.

This layout is a kit I purchased from Paper Loft. I thought that since there was a bit of food the teapot theme would work well. I had to fussy-cut the medallion papers but I do like the effect it gave to the borders. 

MorrisTOWN

I live in MorrisVILLE and sometimes I get it wrong and say I live in MorrisTOWN. I don't, but I did visit there. This was the winter encampment for Washington's troops in the winter of 1779-1780. It was one of the worst winters on record. While the park includes some reproduction huts from the encampment, this trip was specifically to Washington's Headquarters in the Ford Mansion. I started in the Visitor Center where there is a video and several rooms of artifacts. I traveled there as it was a special weekend and they had an author doing a reading and discussion of his book based on the life of a slave that was Washington's valet. It was geared to middle-school students so I bought an autographed copy for my nephew Thomas.

This layout is loosely based on a CM Virtual Crop sketch from February 2022. I did the long strips at the top and bottom but did NOT include the large square on the right side. I had more photos to include and did not feel a need to include any more paper. The decorative paper along the top is the rest of my Reminisce paper. It's bordered by some plain brown strips. I debated adding my Cricut cut of Washington. I thought he was too "cartoonish" but as I was completing this at a crop with my Mom and Sister, they assured me it worked fine. And well--there he is.

One area of the museum held paper artifacts such as manuscripts, booklets, and even money. Alexander Hamilton's writings are on display here. In another area, they extend the museum to include a bit of everything else from the revolutionary war. The large oval is a single link from a chain that was used to protect the Hudson River from British vessels. The size and weight were astonishing.

This page is also a layout from the CM virtual crop. This was Sketch #6. I thought for quite a while about what base paper to use. Eventually, I decided on a page from the wedding pack that had a journal appearance. I added a Cricut cut of the quill and ink and that gave it the heritage feel i was looking for. The border at the bottom is again the Reminisce line. I fussy cut the title box from another piece of paper but it layers well with the dark strip.

Who is David Wills?

After lunch, I decided to add a visit to the David Wills House. I knew it was part of the park but never the significance. This is the house that Lincoln stayed at the night before giving his Gettysburg Address. David Wills was instrumental in getting the National Cemetery established and then played host when Lincoln came to do the dedication. His house is on the square in Gettysburg.

I based this page on a CM Virtual Crop sketch. When I looked at the sketch I realized that one of the Fast-to-Fabulous pages that matched the one I used for the Eisenhower page was quite similar to the sketch. Instead of banners, it was white pine branches! I added a piece of white snow paper to the middle of the page so that the bricks wouldn't get lost in the red of the page. (Making it just wide enough to hold the unigrid). Since the ticket was too close in color to the white paper I mounted it on one of the tags from the embellishment pack. The left border is a laser-cut border from the Seasons Greetings line.

The downstairs rooms describe the Wills family and their daily life. Also included are period pieces salvaged from the battlefield such as the medical kit. In some ways, the rooms were stark as a lot of the details were on glass panels around the edges of the room. The NPS site has an excellent virtual tour on the website. If you've not been there in person, it's a great way to explore the site.

I decided to keep going with the F2F pages. The corner stripes were pre-printed. I added 2 laser cut borders to finish framing the page. I added a couple of embellishments from my Paper House pack of vintage die cuts. The top hat, the carriage, and the family walking (near the journal box) are all from that pad. Since the pages were a little light I used the decorative mats behind many of the photos to add some more depth.

The main attraction is of course the Lincoln Bedroom (the one in Gettysburg, not the one in the White House). They claim this is the original bed though most of the other items are just similar to how they would have looked during his stay. This is the room where he finished the speech that I would memorize in elementary school.

This layout is the end of the album and it worked out that there were just a few photos of the house left. I merged the 2 together so that there was a panorama view of the bed. It's a fairly simple layout with just a wallpaper background (some old Reminisce paper that rather matches the carpet) and white mats under the photos to keep them from getting lost. I added 2 corners to the journal box. These are die cuts from a very old CM Heritage kit. 

Some Retro Pages

As the tour moved upstairs we saw fewer Christmas touches. Mamie and Dwight kept separate bedrooms. Hers all in pink! I guess the general needed his own side to escape the pink. 😁

This layout is based on another CLS PJ party idea. Using the CM Custom Cutting system I cut progressive sizes of shapes and used the positive (shape) and negative (hole) to layer into different pages. I used some retro paper from older CM (I think this is the Vintage pack but it could be something else). The paper matched the decor but to me it all sort of blends together and I don't see the different papers as much as I thought I would. Well, done is better than perfect!

Back downstairs we visited the kitchen (where they are making Christmas Cookies!) and the den (where they are wrapping Christmas Presents). I remember seeing the kitchen on my previous tour but had not known it was state-of-the-art when installed! I always enjoy the den. There's such a warm, homey quality to the space.

The left page is a continuation of the negative/positive papers from the last layout. They were leftover from my cuts so I thought I could stack them in a similar fashion. Again, not my favorite but it does match the kitchen decor. I got to use up some non-CM stash with the stickers of the kitchen goods. The right page is wallpaper. That argyle/border/decorated circle was from a similar pack and since it matched the left page I used it for the den. I think that the paper matches the photos well. 

Just before you exit the house is Eisenhower's workspace for his presidential years. It's a small space as he preferred this home for relaxation. But he could never escape the "football"--yep, that briefcase was the nuclear armament codes! It's of course empty now (or is it!?!). After our tour, some of the group had lunch at the Lincoln Diner in Gettysburg.

This page is my take on a Creative Scrapbooker sketch. This is the link to a page with a step-by-step layout. I used some scraps of paper for the border across the middle and then some longer border stickers from a very old CM Christmas-themed gift pack (it had some strips of paper but never full sheets). I liked that the border helped differentiate between the house and the lunch. Since there was just one photo of the lunch I was worried about making a page. This solved that problem!

A Christmas Twist

Inside the house was made ready for Christmas eve! There were even presents under the tree! I love the way the room was lit and the tree was glowing even though it was in the afternoon.

As I said last week, this is the page I made for my stint as a guest designer with Lasting Memories. The change is that the door photo that you saw last week was originally on this page in the top left. When I got to the remaining photos I realized that I could add another indoor photo here so I carefully peeled the door off and replaced it with the poinsettias. I love collecting memorabilia and added an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket to include the tour brochure. You may recall that the left page is a Fast-to-Fabulous base in the Season's Greetings collection. I have some paper from this line too so I was able to add a bit to the pocket to help match the decorations of the left side.

The living room and dining areas were also heavily decorated for Christmas. Poinsettias were everywhere but so too were vintage decor like the Santa bottom right.

For this layout, I used CM Virtual Crop Sketch #8 from the June Worldwide Virtual Crop. Because the left page is 8 1/2 x 11 I had to modify the proportions. The large butterfly-looking piece in the middle of the sketch was reduced to just the bell on the right page. (I made that bell once before--it's several ovals stacked together). The sketch has borders around the bottom and sides. I used 2 different borders and alternated the colors so each page is a little different. I did keep the stacked corners--just a couple of scrap pieces from the Season's Greetings line. I also used mats from that collection on the right under the photos. The tree and sleigh were fussy-cut from the mats as well. I think I nearly completed this collection!

More Meetup Madness

The next park I visited was in December 2016. The Eisenhower home decorates each year for Christmas and I was interested in seeing their display. They were also hosting a special weekend open house at the beginning of December with cocoa and cookies in the visitor center. I planned a meetup for that weekend and had quite a few NPTC members join me for the event. Below shows us getting on the bus at Gettysburg and riding out to the park. We gathered in front of the sign for our formal group picture. I still had the banners from the Philadelphia convention so we could get that in the photo as well.

This layout is based on a sketch from the CM Virtual Crop in November 2021. I used 2 Fast-to-Fabulous base pages for this so I only had to add a little detail. I added the dark blue page that is split across the middle, and the border on the bottom (one of the border-maker cartridges). Most of the materials come from an older travel pack called "Gallivant". I liked that I could use the mat as a filler for one of the photos but also as a journal box. I just added some lined paper to the bottom.

The tour took us around the outside of the house, and you'll see a bit more of that on the next layout as well. You can see that they included Christmas touches starting at the front door!

You have seen a small bit of this visit as I used several photos for a layout when I served as a guest designer for Lasting Memories in the summer of 2021. However, I moved some photos around. Check out this original blog entry. That front door photo was moved! The background paper is from a store in Gettysburg called Forevermore Scrapbooking. It's a favorite of mine, and I'm hoping that they find a new home as their landlord made them close the original store a few months ago.  Similar to the Lincoln Memorial page a couple of weeks ago, I used this base to show the other dimensions of the entrance. The photo of the side and the front door makes for a complete outside view of the structure. The title element was also from Forevermore.

Here's more of our group as we toured the grounds. Eisenhower was quite a golf fanatic going so far as to install his own putting green. I got lucky as the wind stretched his flag out so you can see it has his general's stars on it! For December the weather was chilly but we didn't have to deal with snow so the outside walk was not too uncomfortable.

This layout was based on sketch #6 from the CM virtual crop. I used a pack of paper and embellishments earned as part of a challenge called appropriately enough "Picture Perfect". The neutral tones worked well with the winter grass. Not sure I like the punched border down the left side but if you don't think about it much it may look like photography flashes. 😃 I used one of the decorative blades on the 12" trimmer for the middle of the square, and I think I forgot to change it out when I cut the black wave under the "flashes". But it seems to have worked out fine!

Meetup at Manassas

 The ultimate purpose of my trip was this meetup on Sunday morning. Shellie (in the denim jacket) wanted to host a meetup and we gathered quite a few people together. We all met at the visitor center, saw the map, and did our stamping. Then we joined a ranger talk that walked to the farms just around the visitor center. We also visited the Stonewall Jackson statue. The ranger pointed out that Jackson was more often than not sleeping while in the saddle and did NOT have the "Superman" physique as the sculptor created. We went to lunch afterward and then I returned home.

This layout is another of the Pajama party layouts. I was a little unsure about using it because I didn't know how to incorporate the 4x6 photo. I cut the right side to fit the square (I think they are 3.5x3.5) and decided to just put the rest on the adjoining block I like the way that it worked. The title of the Stonewall Jackson monument had a similar treatment but I stacked the pieces in one block. My favorite is the lower border on the left page. I just love the way the ovals framed those 2 uniform coats!