The Road Least Traveled

While in Rehoboth, Jim and I took a day to drive down to Assateague Island National Seashore. I thought I had been to this park before, and likely I had visited the visitor center, but apparently, most of my time had been spent at Chincoteague. I don't ever recall seeing so many of the native horses, nor of them being so close to the car!

We hiked to one of the beaches along a trail. At one point, they were trying to build a resort in the area and there was residual macadam from the roadway that was to be used to enter the site. The idea was abandoned but the road, or bits of it, remain. You can walk on some parts of it--indeed it is the bulk of the trail we chose. 

This layout is based on a sketch from the CM 101 sketches book (page 104). The sketch calls for a series of diamonds on the left side and when I saw the print on this paper, I knew it was the perfect fit. I believe the background pages are old CM. I didn't purchase them though--my sister and I had taken all of our unused scrapbook supplies to sell at a specialty yard sale earlier this year. This paper didn't sell so I took it for my own stash (I think it was my sister's though it could have been my mother's). I liked the way the blue pulled out the sky and our clothing in the photos. A touch of green matched the grasses as well. There is a 2nd paper that forms the mats for the right side of each page. It keeps a bold pattern from becoming overwhelming. The "Road Trip" die cut and horse sticker are from the Eastern National scrapbook kit.

It Was Once

My next National Park Trip was part of a long vacation in September 2018. Jim's family had planned to go to Atlantic Beach as usual, but a hurricane had ripped through the town just the week before and they were still in cleanup mode. So we hastily researched alternatives and decided to head to Rehoboth. In that area, I chose to refresh my First State stamps from the Ryves Holt House in Lewes, DE. Jim and I took a tour of the building which had served as an inn. Some of the original supports and doors were still in place-something I didn't discover on my first visit 2 years prior. 

But between this trip and today, the house is no longer part of the First State National Historical Park! In March of 2021, this site was removed due to a legal problem. As part of the NPS rules, buildings must be on land owned by the same entity as the structure. Unfortunately, the building is on land owned by the church next door. So until that changes, this is no longer an NPS site! I'm glad I visited it while I could.

This layout is from a kit I purchased from the Paper Loft. I love that their papers have a muted tone to them. It works so well with a variety of historic visits. I thought the tones of this matched the house's red and the wood pieces' browns. It's a simple enough layout to recreate. Just cut 12" strips of paper or cardstock at 7" and 5". Do the same for a piece of patterned paper and mix them so that there are 12" of each per page. I've done something similar on other layouts, sometimes with 2 sheets of decorative paper.

Even Smaller than the Dinkie

Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for joining me for another year of National Park Scrapbook page posts! 

The last layout in the series highlights the smaller trains on display this weekend. In one building the local model railroad groups created a large display. Outside, someone brought their personal-sized yard train and in another building, there were Lego train sets. These were of particular importance to my dad and nephews.

This layout is based on one of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 layouts (July 2017). You can still see the video here. I used a pack of CM paper called "Essentials" which had a foiled dot pattern and some bright colors. They don't say Lego on the pack but you can tell that's what they were thinking when they made the papers. I used 2 different shades of cardstock. I liked the blue but since one set of triangles was the exact same shade, I chose to move those to the right side of the layout and use a green cardstock base. Normally you would flip over and use the back side to decrease the "matchy" problem. But the back was large strips of white and yellow and wouldn't mix too well. I think this turned out fine in the end though.

An Inside Glimpse

We got an inside view of two important rail cars. On the left page below is the standard display at Steamtown. It's an original US Mail railway car. You can see the bins and sorting table inside the car as the postal workers would sort as they moved from town to town. Then we got a chance to ride in a caboose. The quarters were VERY tight and Thomas ended up sitting on the floor. Like the Dinkie train, it was a quick ride out and back, but still fun.

This was a quick layout to put together. I didn't follow any particular sketch. The pages are from the CM Trains collection and feature the photos at the top and bottom and the red/white border. I just had to place the photos between the striped borders, journal a bit, and add the decorative sticker to the right page.

It's So Small!

In the museum area, we found a rusted-out version of a small engine called a "Dinkie". This was memorable to me as the intersection just below our house was called the Dinkie when we lived in South Fork, PA. We discovered it was so named because when the area was being mined, the employees boarded a small train there to take them to the mining site. That train was called a Dinkie and the name stuck! In addition to that antique though, was a new and functioning engine and they were giving free rides on it behind the museum. We all piled in for a 5-minute ride out and back.

I based this layout on a sketch I had saved from Even More Scrapping. I always like her sketches because she includes measurements. I chose yellow and red as the main colors based on the photos (especially the old caboose and the Dinkie engineer's bright shirt). For the contrast piece, I used a scrap of the train and tunnel paper (which I think is actually for Disney World's Thunder Mountain ride). I debated the small squares on the layout and then, as I was browsing my punch catalog, realized that the engine and cars from the CM train punch would work perfectly. I had to stack the punched shapes on the left as I didn't think a vertical train would look right, but the overall effect worked for me. I added a couple of other train stickers and die cuts from my stash to finish the layout.

The Ring of Fire

One of my favorite parts of the trip was a walk back to the repair shop. They highlighted the process for replacing wheels which have an inner and outer layer. They heat the outer layer by setting it on fire. This expands the ring and then it is maneuvered over the inner wheel. As the fire is extinguished the metal contracts and seals the 2 pieces together. My dad indicated he does something similar when working with model trains, only using a cigarette lighter, not an acetylene torch! To cap off the experience, the engineer and his guitar-playing sidekick sang the Johnny Cash song "Ring of Fire". Another highlight was seeing "Connie" written on the engine being repaired.

After joining Meggan and Tessa's August 2023 Power Hour, I made this layout. Meggan's layout included all these circles so when I thought about the "Ring" of fire, I knew I needed to put the layout to work. I chose a few photos that could be cut into circles. I continued to use the CM Trains paper pack but added a few other odds and ends from my stash. By finding some papers with photos or small images that would fit the circles, I could make a richer layout. I had cut one photo (the one of me pointing) into 4x4 before realizing it should stay 4x6. I added a piece of punched train track to fill that gap. You'll notice I turned the papers so that the arcs almost complete a circle across the layout instead of a wave as Meggan's layout did. What's your favorite layout you've made? Feel free to comment here or post on my Facebook page.

On the Right Track

My nephew Thomas was there, but he doesn't like to be photographed so I had him take the group shots. These are just a few of our group photos through the day and a couple of the engines on display. This weekend is a time for Steamtown to highlight how important rail was in building the US.

I based this layout on a pin I had saved. I moved the tracks to the bottom of the page and then added the red and white striped border stickers to the top. Those are supposed to resemble the arms that hold traffic back when a train is coming to a crossing. I used cardstock as the base and cut some train track paper to cover the middle and act as mats for the photos. The right side includes a trading card I obtained at the site. I mounted that with photo corners so that I could remove it in the future if I like. I had one large die cut remaining from the CM Trains pack. I took a cue from another layout and used it as a journal box by mounting it on some ruled paper. The title is created with letters from a very old Club Scrap pack. Though it was to be a school theme, I mixed the fonts to create a little interest along the pages.