Outside Mill City

 These photos are from the top viewing platform of the Mill City museum. Again, you can see the scorch marks from previous fires and the remnants of the original building walls. Nearby is the St. Anthony's Lock and Dam. I took photos from here but it's closed in the winter (April is still winter--see previous posts) so I didn't bother going to the visitor center.

This layout was made for the CM virtual Crop in June 2023. Look at this page and scroll to layout #4. I liked this layout because the wavy papers in the middle reminded me of the river. that's why I chose a peach color for the edges and blue in the middle (look closely, that blue paper ALSO has a wavy pattern running through it! I added a few stickers from the Travel Log collection and a couple from a very OLD CM travel pack. I used up a couple of photo corners as well to highlight a few photos (2 corners each).

Inside Mill City

My next visit in Minneapolis was to the Mill City Museum. This location hosts a Mississippi NRRA stamp as it backs up to St. Anthony Lock and Dam. For a long time, this area had been THE center for flour milling in the US, partly because of the massive water power coming off the river. For that reason, I'm including a tour of the inside of the building. There is an interesting movie about the area which feels sort of like you are in an elevator and you move floor to floor. In reality, I think the dioramas and movie screens move up and down. On the main floor are some excellent exhibits about flour from harvesting to processing to baking. Love the giant box of Bisquick!

This layout is based on a CM Virtual Crop from October 2021. I used a paper pack called Baked with Love which was free to my customers if they spent $250 with me. CM now includes some sort of embellishment--either tags, stickers or die-cuts--with the free packs. They change each quarter. I made this while away at my weekend crop and it was a good thing I had these on hand as I had forgotten to bring my folder of food scrapbook items. 

This is part of the exhibit focused on the milling process. You can see one of the grinding heads on the right page as well as grain elevators. 

This layout is somewhat based on the May 2023 CM Virtual Crop sketch #4. This month CM focused on Fast-to-Fabulous pages so all 4 sketches were double-page layouts. Again, I was at the crop house so I needed to use what I brought and the best choice turned out to be papers from 2 different kits. On the left, I had previously cut a circle from the Picture Perfect travel kit (a special kit from a few years ago). I backed that with some paper scraps. On the right is a SUPER old CM page from when they first introduced the concept of pre-printed layouts. However, there was a strip of foreign clocks. So turning to the sketch, I Covered those and any gaps on the far left with 2 strips of coordinating paper (also scraps). I did twist a photo as suggested in the sketch on the left. I replaced 2 photos with larger embellishments on the right (camera die-cut and an arrow tag). Using the title die-cut completed my paper pack! Feels so good to use up stock!

The most interesting part of the tour was finding out that one problem with milling flour is that it is flammable! And there were many fires over the years. One in particular burned not only its own mill but 3 or 4 nearby ones. You can still see the scorch marks on the walls!

This is a layout I made for a class I took and I cannot show you the sketch. The left side was to be a flower so I tried to take the technique and make it look like the explosion described above (and on the layout). The small "v" looking bits are remnants of a punch (punch poop as some say) and I was trying to make it look like flour was flying through the air. I had some paper from the fireman kit so I was able to introduce flames and the fireman's helmet and badge. It's not my best work but I think it is effective in telling the story.

Let's Just Go To The Lobby

Another stamping stop is the Mississippi River Visitor Center which is inside a museum in Minneapolis. Luckily you do not need to buy admission to the museum to get to the visitor center. It's a small space with a little bit of information about the river. There is a cool green screen to create a postcard image of yourself at the visitor center where you can choose the background. Given the snow of this week, I chose the winter photo. Outside the museum you can see a bit of the river but there are more interesting views to come!

This layout is based on the August 2022 Power Hour layout from Meggan and Tessa. I used the Ice Blue tonal pack from Creative Memories. They issue a new Tonal collection each quarter and they are quite handy for completing pages that don't necessarily have an obvious theme. The pack had a print that reminded me of a river and the river border punch helped carry that theme across the pages. The matching stickers for the tonal collections are somewhat generic but I was able to find several word stickers that matched the layout. I used one photo spot for a journaling box pulled from a winter collection with the same tones. The other benefit of the tonal collection is that it matches our design papers so you can extend the use of those kits!

Oh the Things I Will do for a Stamp--Part 3

My next trip was in April 2018 to the HPN conference in Minnesota. After I was done with the conference I stayed and saw a little of Minneapolis. My first stop was Fort Snelling but just for a stamp. I drove up the river to Coldwater Spring. I did not walk out to the spring house as it was a cold day (if you see the full album you'll know that even in April it can snow in Minnesota!) I was quite interested to see the stamp that is accessed from behind the sign and only by entering the secret code! (found on the NPTC database of course). It took me a while to find the appropriate sign but I did, and I entered the code and got the stamp! I didn't have ink (if you try this you really should bring your own) so I used some snow to wet the bottom of the stamper and got enough residual ink to stamp my book!

I based this layout on a pinned sketch. I used more papers from the Outdoor packs but while I like this overall, there are a few changes I would make. First, the title at the bottom right should have been trimmed from both the top and bottom so it didn't look like it was falling off the page. Next, I would have done a little something else with the border that runs through the middle. It's mostly covered up. I probably could have made it go OVER the photo on the bottom left. I do like that I cut a ring from white cardstock to highlight where the lock box is on the photo--a great way to draw the eye. And I like my use of a few random stickers and embellishments from Gallivant (a collection that is almost used up).

Big Wheel Keep on Turning!

Hello all! It's time for another bonus post to join a Lasting Memories Challenge! Tonight I worked on this section of the Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI. It's part of the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park and was part of the bus trip in July 2018. You'll see more of this trip in a few weeks. Meanwhile, see if you think Jim is loafing in that photo below!

So, as I said, I'm working on a challenge for Lasting Memories (and tonight is the last night to get it in!) For the challenge, we needed to use 3 items beginning with 3 sequential letters and then 1, 2, and 3 items. So, I am using the letters "C" for Cornice, "D" for Die Cuts, and "E" for Enamel dots. And I used 1 corner, 2 rulers, and 3 enamel dots! (Also 3 die cuts.) The overall layout is based on this pin from my sketch board. There will be a peekaboo pocket on the bottom left corner of the right side of the layout with more photos of the pulleys and belts. The papers are a mix of CM design kits. I'm close to using up many of the "Home" based packs. There will be some consolidating and "Recycling" coming soon!

Resting but not Relaxing

 For this visit, I drove to the Jockey Hollow cabins area. The distance between where the enlisted men stayed and where General Washington stayed is considerable but I suppose they couldn't put all the men in town. They have recreated several cabins and outfitted them with daily rations. The bunks are just boards but I imagine they also pulled in some pine branches to cushion the beds. Up to 12 men in a cabin at once! Perhaps all the body heat helped them stay warm. My favorite photo is the plaster cast of a soldier in his bunk.

This layout is based on an idea I pinned. I used some of the paper from the Deep in the Woods collection from CM. The page is actually quite simple--there are just 3 papers (double-sided) and the squares are 4" tall by 3" wide. I just staggered them across the bottom of the cardstock and topped each with a border sticker that resembled a birch log (hides any non-uniform cuts). I added a journal box from my stash and topped it with a few other stickers. A quick page to end the visit.

It's Not Easy Being Green

It's bonus post time! I'm playing along with Lasting Memories again so here's an additional layout for this weekend! (And there may be more to come!) This layout starts a tour I took along the Green in Dover which is part of the First State National Historical Park. The stamps, you may recall from this post, are inside the Old Dover State House and the staff there will tell you that touring that building in no way counts as visiting the National Park Unit. So I planned my visit to take advantage of a guided walk along the Green. One of the first stops was King George's Tavern, a gathering spot for discontented colonials who debated the need to break with England. Eventually, this was also the site where Delaware ratified the Constitution making it the First State of the Union (and ultimately naming the National Park Unit!)

This layout was made to fulfill the Lasting Memories Challenge #658 "Sharing is Caring". The instructions are to scraplift one of the design team's previous layouts. I chose this layout from Cheryl Evans. I used her sketch but did make a couple of modifications given my photos. I also used 2 different papers for the "A" and "B" pieces on her layout. There were some gaps at the corners and as I was hunting embellishments I found 3 die-cuts from a CM Heritage kit from many years ago. The black cardstock provided a nice tie-in across the 2 pages though and I think it was a great finishing touch. The background cardstock is Avocado (yes, the 70s have returned!) which is new from CM (I just got my supply this week). I added some Graphic 45 papers from the Olde Curiosity Shoppe as components A and B as well as the embellishments. It came together fairly quickly!