Pronounce it as you like

 I stayed outside of Richmond Saturday night and Sunday I drove out to a part of the battlefield I'd not seen previously--the Rural Plains area. There was a Harvest Days event, and I love visiting during those events as it's more than just the house tour. I did tour the house but it requires some repair work and all the furnishings are missing. Like the Thomas Stone home, there is graffiti carved into the bricks.

I used a pin I had saved which you can see here. I used papers from Paper Loft as the kit I had on hand had extra banners. I interspersed those with a couple of the phrases from their cut-apart sheet and that filled the space. Granted the left side is a little wonky but it sort of works. The bottom borders are VERY old rick rack shortcuts from Old CM. I have a TON of those to use up and periodically I pull them out and throw them on a bunch of pages. I like that the Paper Loft pages have an antique feel to them but can also be used for a jazzier page due to the designs. It's multi-purpose!

The living encampment was a Confederate Group. It took a while for me to realize this as I'm so used to seeing Union forces on display. Additionally, they had soldiers from the Revolutionary period. Virginia has been bloodied a lot I suppose.

This layout is separated by the pocket page which holds the memorabilia. It's based on a VERY old CM virtual crop challenge (March 2017) (flipped upside-down). While the left and right backgrounds are the same (though I can't remember what pack they are from), since the soldiers were from different periods, the bottom borders are different. And since the pocket page is in the middle it isn't a noticeable change. The left page is a sticker from an old Reminisce Sticker sheet for the Civil War. The right side is a laser-cut border from the Welcome Home pack. On each side, I substituted an item for the other upright photo. On the left, it was the journal card. On the right, I took a few embellishments and filled the area. Those were left from the Gemtones pack.

Some of the other living history displays included a still--not for alcohol, but for making rose water! It was not only a scent to wear but would be used in medicines as well. Part of the Union's strategy was cutting off supply lines to the South.  The shortage of supplies forced people to substitute. One table displayed a variety of common substitutions. It was a particularly interesting point of view for my visit. This page ended the album.

This layout is based on another pin I had saved which you can see here. I did not round the highlight section (the grid pattern paper), but the rest of the items are pretty close. I used a cluster of photos and journaling for the larger photo on the sketch. For the title bar, I clustered some embellishments from the Welcome Home collection and then used a couple of the title stickers--I love how the scroll stickers make a frame for the title.

The Thomas Stone Affair

My next trip was in September 2017. I was heading to North Carolina for a family wedding and of course, took 2 days to reach there so I could visit a few parks along the way. This was a new park for me and one that I was very unfamiliar with. This house is a memorial to one of the Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence. The visitor center is easy enough to find. But it's daunting to realize that you must walk through that field to get to the house. It's worth it though.

This layout is based on a sketch from Creative Memories. They posted three options and you will see 2 of them in this blog post. The first is actually the third option if you look at this page from the blog. I wanted to use up my Reminisce line from Old CM and while I did use quite a bit, I still have a few items left! The focus of this layout is the border across the bottom (you'll see that I doubled the sketch). I used a Noreen Smith technique for "crazy squares" to get the shapes I wanted. Just a few stickers finished the layout.

I took one of the Ranger-guided tours of the house. I've seen many historic homes so I know about older structures. They did focus quite a bit on Thomas Stone's legal work and who would have visited them at Habadaventure (the name of the house). Some of the original pieces are on display at the Maryland Museum of History and so his house has to make do with reproductions.

These are 2 different layouts that are next to each other in the album. I based the color scheme on the wallpaper and the bedding fabrics. The left page is based on an Even More sketch. I chose an Aqua Combo pack for the layout. All of the papers coordinate and you can see that I was able to mix 5 different sheets for this layout (plus a touch of cardstock). The stickers are older CM and I think are supposed to be Easter stickers. But they have a nice vintage look to them. The right page is the second of the bonus sketches from CM (see link above). The top shapes were a little tedious to cut but worth it for the effect. I used the contents of one of our secret boxes called "Gemtones". The papers and embellishments worked perfectly for the layout. You'll see for both pages that I welded several photos together to get a single continuous room photo.

On my way back to the visitor center, I stopped at the family graveyard. The wrought iron is nice. The graves have all been updated with new plaques so not as interesting to me from a historical point of view. 

This layout is based on a sketch I saved. I was using up some of my Fast-to-Fabulous pages in the Secret Garden line. I also have some of the coordinating paper so I used those to layer on the background. Because the background is so light, the watercolor circle isn't as noticeable. But that's OK as it doesn't detract from the photos. I found a few flowers in my stash that matched the tone of the papers to create some clusters around the pages.

A Bridge Not Too Far

 In the summer of 2017, I took a new job that took me from central PA to the north of Philadelphia. Before leaving the area I wanted to collect any of the stamps that had appeared. When they are so close you tend not to think of them but when they were about to be 2 hours away, it seemed a good idea to get them while I could! The Susquehanna River National Heritage Area is a relatively new system and my guess is that it will eventually rival the Hudson River Valley in the preponderance of stamps! For now, this bridge between Columbia and Wrightsville was a nice day trip. The art deco pillars were interesting to me. It's a bridge I've been over several times, it was nice to stop and see it for the inherent design.

I based this layout on a saved sketch from Sketch-N-Scrap's blog. When I originally saved it I was just looking for things to pin. I'm now following their blog and plan on entering their various sketch challenges. Hopefully, you'll be seeing some of those posts soon. This page was created using some of the Neutral and Green Tonal paper packs from Creative Memories. The colors of the papers matched the colors of the photos nicely. Again you can see that the 3 patterned papers do not clash with each other. There is a medium and 2 smaller prints, so not overwhelming to the eye.

The Great Western Journey Part 17--End of the Road

We have come to the final entry for the Great Western Journey. If you recall, we flew into Denver to start the trip. Before returning to Denver we made a bit of a southern spur to visit my aunt and uncle who live in Florissant. They had a lovely log cabin there and we stayed for a couple of days. In that time we of course had to go to Florissant Fossil beds. A repeat visit for me, it was Jim's first time seeing the unusual artifacts in the park

This layout is one that I made many years ago when Club Scrap first brought out their National Park collection. If you go to this page and scroll to pages 13-14 you will see the base. It looks like I might have been short some of the right-hand page papers but given the number of photos, it works out fine. I didn't bother with ribbon on this one but I did add the cute saying on the bottom right corner to fill in some white space.

I suggested a different trail for this visit and my uncle joined us on the walk through the meadow. The Petrified Forest loop leads you to the large fossilized remnant that you see below: "The Big Stump". It's impressive in size but also for the remnants of sawblades from the 1800s where people tried to get the stump to move or sell pieces of it.

This layout is based on the CM December 2022 bonus challenge. It was a single-page challenge but I doubled the "recipe" for this layout and it worked well in a larger format. The background papers are from the Leave No Trace collection. They are likely supposed to be redwood or sequoia trees but it works well for the fossilized trees (which were redwoods anyway when they lived many years ago!) The borders along the outside edges were made with the Spiky Evergreen border maker cartridge. Each border is 2  sets of punched leaves that I intertwined randomly before adhering to the page. The inner-most border is called "Leaf Trail" and as that was more of an edger border, I could cut them to create the frame edges. Once those were in place a few embellishments and a journal box completed the layout.

Also along the path was a selection of native plants, some with labels on them. My uncle pointed out that many of them were also visible in his front yard. I noted that while this was true, he had no identification signs in his yard! Our visit included several other non-NPS sites and then we headed back home. The rest of the album is available at my house if you want to view it, so drop by for a cup of tea and a visit!

This layout is based on one of my Noreen Smith classes, so I cannot show you the sketch. The papers used were a combination of spring pages. The green "grass" in the middle is from one of the textured paper packs called Glowing Gardens. That bold look is a good contrast to the all-over floral print of the longer strips. One larger embellishment provided the "rest" from the busy patterned paper so that I could add a title easily. I used a few random embellishments from my stash for the rest of the clusters.

The Great Western Journey part 16--I'm not bluffing (no Foolin Post!)

 Happy April Fool's day! Here's my annual No Fooling post! 

Our loop took us south into Nebraska and so we stopped for the night and the next morning visited Scotts Bluff. This area is part of many trails as indicated by the variety of unigrids and passport stamps.

There are 4 total unigrids to include and it turned out that 2 of them were horizontal and 2 vertical. I chose an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page and mounted them on pages from the Wildflower textured paper pack (textured paper means photographic). Now pay attention to that background page, as you will see it again soon.

While at the park we toured the museum in the visitor center and then headed outside for sign photos. 

The right-hand page is based on this sketch that I saved on Pinterest. Remember the front of the 8 1/2 x 11 pocket? The strip I cut off is on the right side of the page. I chose a complimenting scrap to cut the bracket (it's made with an older part of the Creative Memories Custom Cutting System). I liked this sketch as I had quite a bit of journaling to do and there was a long area in the middle of the bracket that worked well.

We did finally drive to the top of the bluff so we could take in the view. We walked the short nature trail up there as well. I can see why this was a popular (as well as noticeable) place for everyone to stop as they migrated west. If they could talk, the rocks could certainly tell many stories.

This layout is based on one of the last sketches from my year-long class with Noreen Smith. I used an Advisor Exclusive pack called Painted Prairie (appropriate enough!) for the base pages. I've always liked the technique of cutting 2 different background papers and then spreading the pages across the layout. I so rarely have 2 matching background papers that this technique makes it easier to keep scrapping. Similarly, the horizontal strip is one sheet. Keeping the paper against the photos and other papers gives the illusion that I used more paper but stretches your stash! My embellishments were a little loose as I went with ropes and guitars to highlight trail life. Not completely accurate but I'm getting to the end of the Wide Open Places pack!

The Great Western Journey part 15--what's so bad about it?

 After we toured the Minuteman Facility we drove to nearby Badlands National Park. The plan was to drive through the park (a windshield visit) and the exit would put us on the path toward our evening stop. 

This layout was created with 2 papers from Scrapbook Customs. I tried to buy as many of the park papers as I could because they do not last long in their inventory. One side has a photo view of the park with a traditional entrance sign. The reverse has a wood pattern with an image of the state and the park's name. I also added stickers from a coordinating pack so I could add the park map on the left page and a few additional elements on the right. The image of the park on the left page (next to me and the sign) was so close to the photo page that I wanted to layer them. That is a peekaboo pocket and there are more photos of the landscape underneath.

Jim and I were amazed at the formations and at one point Jim told me to stop the car because he just HAD to get out and touch the rock to see what it was made of. In 104F heat, he still did that. So I stayed in the car and took photos. We came across some higher-elevation spots where we could get some great selfies so I did eventually leave the car.

These 2 pages were separate 1-page layouts from one of my Noreen Smith classes. I used the Leave No Trace paper pack from Creative Memories. I believe the background paper is supposed to be HooDoos from Bryce Canyon (or maybe it's supposed to be the Grand Canyon?) Regardless, it worked well for the Badlands as well. I utilized more stickers from the Scrapbook Customs pack--I really like the way the sign "hangs" from the right page. 

And then we started driving toward Nebraska. The problem was that the road turned into a dirt path and was very rough. Washboard doesn't BEGIN to describe it. And then there were the prairie dogs. They were EVERYWHERE and kept crossing the road in front of us almost daring us to hit them. We'd had it with that road so we stopped briefly, consulted a map, and found a path that would get us back on a regular road even though we wouldn't be in the park. As we headed south toward Nebraska we also had a large elk jump across the road in front of our car. You really have to keep your eyes open out west!

I haven't had too many opportunities to do a page without photos, but the highlight of this page is journaling. I came across the old die cut of the rural road so I used that as the base. I had one remaining prairie dog sticker so I cut the tails from some beaver stickers and added them to the road. The nice part of this page is that I got to use up quite a few scraps of paper and some stickers and embellishments from many older kits. But it all helps tell the story!

The Great Western Journey part 14--Home of the Brave

Jim and I had scheduled a tour of the Delta Air Wing Launch Site. This rather nondescript house was full of eye-opening information. It's been decommissioned but they left everything just as it was on their last day. We arrived early after finishing at the visitor center so we sat in our car. It was a very hot day (104F) and we would periodically run the car to get some air conditioning. The ranger came out to us to say that we could come through the gate and into the house, but as he had to remain with us at all times, anytime another tour member arrived we all had to walk back outside with him (and stand in the shade on the side of the house). Once the tour started we heard about daily life for those charged with pressing a button to begin a nuclear war (as well as the support people who kept them ready for their job). Note the lock on the refrigerator. Not only is there no late-night snacking but it keeps someone from tampering with the food supply. And that "smoker" is not for a barbecue. It's to burn classified documents!

This layout is based on a sketch I saved from Even More Scrapbooking (she had posted it on Splitcoast Stampers and her own blog). I like her sketches because she includes dimensions. The base pages as you may have noticed are plain black CM pages. Since I was using the patriotic theme I didn't need other base pages to cover it and the black against the red, white, and blue is striking. The paper is from a Bedazzled set that was free with purchase a little while ago. The white star paper is cut to 11x10. That means that I have a 2x10 border left over. I simply turned that over to the blue side to use as the borders! The red stripe was scrap paper from the same kit. For the circle elements, I chose round stickers from my stash.

Continuing through the living spaces we got to see the bedrooms and lounge areas. I'm still marveling that they left the battleship game in progress. Then we made our way down to the work zone where 2 airmen held the keys to launch the missiles. The middle photo on the right is the door to the bunker. Apparently, each unit had its own distinctive door art. The ranger is showing a photo of the bunker which is essentially a sealed chamber--also to prevent tampering.

The right page may look familiar as I posted it just after I completed it in November 2022. Refer to this post for details on the paper. The left page is based on a sketch from the CM Virtual Crop in September that I saved. The paper is from the same kit as the right-side page.

The time spent in the launch room was limited but we saw so much! The cable Jim is holding is the same one we saw in the morning but now we could see it close-up. Those layers of wrap were to protect it from being easily damaged. Saddens me a little to know that someone did NOT catch the misspelling of Emergency!

This layout is based on a sketch from my last class with Noreen Smith (December 2022). The sketch is for a single page but I doubled it and turned the right page 90 degrees to the right. That creates a visual symmetry that helps you look at all the photos without realizing it! This is some VERY old patriotic paper and when you have such bold patterns it is a good idea to use them sparingly. Those 9x11 strips mat the photos and create interest on the page at the same time.