2018 Convention Part 4--What Once Was Modern

 Our bus trip headed to Pawtucket, RI to see the Slater Mill. This is one of the large weaving mills found along the rivers in the Northeast. They've gathered several buildings into the complex and we split into a couple of groups to take a guided tour. 

I created this layout based on an idea in my summer class. I saved this photo from when I originally posted my take on the challenge but I have added punched fence borders along the bottom. I didn't have them with me at the crop when I made the pages. I used Eureka papers from the Paper Loft. The word art is theirs as well but the rest of the embellishments come from an older Croptoberfest pack.

The site covers the history of the area for several hundred years and shows a variety of daily life examples from fancy houses to worker houses. One thing I learned here is that tea was shipped in decorative bricks--there's a sample on the table on the left page. I just assumed everything was loose but it made more sense to compact it to save space. They also went into the weaving process before industrialization. 

The challenge I mentioned above created remnant arcs, so the second part of the challenge was to use them in a follow-up layout. I added a couple of laser-cut borders to finish the pages and more of the Croptoberfest stickers.

2018 Convention Part 3--Well, Well, Well

On Friday Jim and I participated in the club's all-day bus trip. These events are a standard part of our club activities now and offer a way to get to some far-reaching park sites with minimal environmental impact (1 bus rather than 58 cars for example). Our first stop was the Roger Williams National Memorial. I had confused him with Will Rogers and kept thinking this was someone who "never met a man he didn't like". No, Roger Williams is the founder of Rhode Island. The visitor center is sort of small so we split the group in two with one half staying at the site and the other half touring the state capitol up the street, then we switched. My state capital pages won't be part of the blog, but the building itself is quite interesting.

In the visitor center, we watched a movie on the founding of the state. Supposedly he chose this site due to a natural well supplying water for the colony. There is a well in the courtyard but it is symbolic. Roger Williams built the colony on religious tolerance (after getting kicked out of several other puritanical villages). This was even earlier than William Penn's similar concerns when founding Pennsylvania. It's also a premise that found its way into the Declaration of Independence. Truly remarkable and historic.

I made this layout during a summer challenge class. The handout did call for 3 different double-sided pages. I ended up with 3 papers but with the same designs so there was less variety in my cuts. So when I made the layouts, I decided to use them a little more symmetrically, creating wide bands stretching across two pages. The papers are from a very old Croptoberfest kit but I liked the striped paper and floral design. I thought they went well with the garden photos and the heavy yellow presence in the interior photos.

2018 Convention Part 2--Back to School

Our first stop was in Norwich, CT. I had not heard of the Last Green Valley Heritage Corridor until I started planning this trip. The agency protects cultural, historical, and natural heritage in the Connecticut and Massachusetts areas. Our stop at the visitor center was brief. I did enjoy their displays of the historic school furniture but much of it had been turned into a visitor center with racks of brochures of the area. 

It doesn't happen often, but this is a page of my own creation! This uses Graphic 45 papers. I had purchased a sheet and cut it apart to rearrange it onto a base cardstock. I didn't plan this ahead and in hindsight, I wish I had not cut every object from the sheet individually as I could have used more of the larger sections for matting. I did get a little of the yellow/red by turning over a few of the items I wouldn't use on the page. Of course, that means I can't use them on a future page so I'll have to be on the lookout for more of this paper. I've seen a number of old schoolhouses in my travels.

2018 Convention Part 1--title and itinerary

It's time to highlight the 2018 National Park Travelers Club Convention. This trip did not get one of Jim's special monikers because it was really just a long weekend. I had just started a new job and didn't have much vacation time saved up so I minimized my days off. The host park for this convention was New Bedford Whaling. That's a unique concept as it doesn't commemorate just one individual, but an entire industry that was mainly housed in that area. Even if it's a short trip, I still had enough photos to warrant its own album. 

The album cover also has a ship's wheel, so I thought this was a great title page. It's based on this layout from the CM Blog. My first plan was to cut a ship's wheel on the Cricut. However, I was at a crop when it was time to make the page and I didn't have a Cricut available. I did use a Cricut to cut out the letters, but after I returned to my scrap room. 

As I mentioned, this was a long weekend. You can see from the itinerary that it was a total of 4 days. And 2 of them were driving back and forth to Massachusetts from our home north of Philly. And I still grit my teeth remembering the traffic going through Connecticut.

This layout is based on a sketch from Sketches in Thyme's July challenges. The sketch included a place for an 8x10 photo. I took that space and made the itinerary from a large piece of journal paper. Such a short trip that I had MORE than enough space to detail our wanderings. That meant I could add a few larger stickers and die cuts to the bottom. I split a laser-cut border from the CM Automobiles pack to frame the edges of the journal box. The background paper is a page I've had in my collection for YEARS! I was so happy to figure out a way to use it. I still have 1 more piece (as I usually by everything in twos) so be on the lookout for the next usage!

A Girlsie in Boise

 My other new state page is for Idaho. In June 2023 I hosted a meetup for National Parks Across America. While I did not get enough members to make it an official meetup, the 5 of us who got together did have a great experience. We had a ranger talk and then explored several of the overlooks. One couple and I had lunch at a nearby diner before heading on our way. That event is now the 2nd Saturday in June so if you want to join us, check the forums. We are already planning the 2024 event!

I based this page on a layout I found on Pinterest. The background paper on the original layout reminded me of this yellow vacation paper from Old CM. I like the cartoon nature of the paper--it is such a happy design! I used a Cricut to cut the border for the state. While I couldn't make it a frame to my selfie, I was able to use it for the backdrop to one photo and as a journal box as well. The baked potato and title were also cut from the Cricut. The baked potato usually requires some explanation when people look at the page. Hopefully, now that I have a photo of a baked potato next to it, people will figure out what it is supposed to be.

Misery Loves Company--that's why it's such a crowded state

We're going to take a little detour from my travels to add to my 50-states album. First up is a page from July 2022 when I made my first visit to Missouri by attending the NPTC Convention. The host park was the Gateway Arch but we also visited a few other parks such as Grant's home. The Arch was my 150th park so it was great to be able to hit that milestone with friends. There was a LOT to see inside the visitor center in addition to our car ride up to the top of the Arch. The ride itself is memorable. If you've been there, you know what I mean!

The idea for this page came from a kit. While I didn't buy it, I did pin the image so I could recreate it myself. I don't remember exactly what paper pack this background page came from but the ombre effect was a great way to make it look like sky. I made this well before I had photos so it was serendipitous that my photos matched so well. The bottom border is a punch from CM. I used the CM Custom Cutting System to make an oval ring and then trimmed it to resemble the arch. It's not quite the same but you get the effect. The cut-out of the state shape turned into a perfect journal box. Since it was black cardstock, I used a white gel pen. The state name is in stickers. Amazingly I had enough to spell out the state without "manufacturing" letters!

On the Green

My next NPS trip was on July 7, 2018. I had a free day for a Saturday so decided to pick up the Delaware capitol stamp as well as re-visit First State. While I had been to Dover previously, I had not focused on the actual "Green" which is a large park-like space in front of the Old Courthouse. They have guided tours on the weekends so I timed my visit to see one. It was a warm day but we were able to keep to the shade as much as possible. 

Does this layout look familiar? That's because I posted it a few weeks ago when it was made. Check this blog post for details on the creation.

The tour continued through several blocks. We didn't go inside any of the buildings (other than a gift shop) so I only have the doors and porches for many of the buildings. We did get to visit a cemetery and while that is probably not someone's idea of a great tour, I love to look at old gravestones. 

For this layout, I used a sketch from my summer class. As I posted when done, I felt like I "fought" with these photos for several days before figuring out how to make them work. I kept the Avocado cardstock as a base to have continuity between the first and second layouts. The contrasting paper is from Paper Loft. Since I doubled the sketch I couldn't use one of the large triangles for mats, so I used similarly toned paper scraps from Paper Loft. The stickers were from a Serenity sticker pack from CM.