Finally! Anhingas!

And finally, after talking about them for a few weeks, we can see the anhinga bird! I got some great views of them as the tram tour returned to the visitor center. Because they dive for their food, they need to dry their wings so you can often find them perched on a branch in the sun with wings extended. The birds below show different age ranges with the head and neck getting darker as they age. This is the final entry from the Everglades but there were 2 more parks that I visited and we'll start with them next week.

I based this layout on the March 2023 Power Hour layouts from Meggan and Tessa. I liked the diagonal overlaps at the bottom. It really highlights the vertical photos at the top. The background paper (leafy green) is from Totally Tonal Zoo papers. The orange diamond sticker borders are from that pack as well. If you check out the Power Hour,  you'll see how 2 borders can cover an excess of 24" of paper!  

This Post is Brought to you by the Number 5

The halfway point of the tram ride brings us to this viewing tower. It does provide a lovely view of the area and I was able to see my first Anhinga. He dived into the water and stayed down for at least 30 seconds, then rose up about 50 yards distant from where he entered. It was an amazing sight. And I think he did catch the fish! Also found was this unusual little snake (he's about the width of a pencil). Whatever he ate put a crook in him and gave him the image of the number 5!

For this layout, I wanted to return to the Scrapbook Customs paper. I used the opposite side this time which, similar to my previous CM paper, had the state shape in the corner. It was originally on the bottom so I trimmed it to 6" and moved it to the top. I used a coordinating piece of cardstock on the left bottom page. Both are mounted on dark brown cardstock which matches the photos well. I used a Monstera Leaf punch to get the brown and green leaves and then added some older flowers from my stash. The orange/coral tones popped. The Everglades Memories sticker and the selfie sticker are from the coordinating Scrapbook Customs Sticker pack. The other stickers and enamel dots are from CM packs.

Walk on the Wild Side

While on the tram tour, I saw a LOT of wildlife and even amazed myself that the zoom feature on the camera worked to get the close-ups. The middle 2 photos are not animals but do go well with the other bird photos. The top is an interesting flower I found and the bottom is a snail shell.

This layout is based on the CM Virtual Crop sketch from September 2023 (scroll to sketch #3 for the design). I used the CM What a Zoo Fast-to-Fabulous paper pack for the background. The zig-zag strips across the bottom are all stickers from the What a Zoo Tonal stickers. The title sticker is from the original What a Zoo sticker pack. Since it matched the other 3 it was the perfect choice of title! A few more bird stickers from that pack provide the interest to keep the eye moving across the page. 

Alligator Alley Part 3!!

Yes, even more alligators! This nest is near where the tram stopped (you'll see the viewing tower in a couple of weeks). The photo of the gator is actually from the return trip. We saw many different animals in trees and on logs as we returned. I just wanted to put all the alligator material on one page.

This layout is based on yet another sketch from the 101 Sketch Book CM produced (I'm trying to use every sketch in the book for one of their challenges). The sketch can be found on page 19. I used a border punch to create the decorative corners. I thought the wave would match the alligator/water elements well. Had I thought about it a bit more, I might have been able to get the corners punched without creating that break between the left and bottom pages (a similar problem on the top and right pages). The base is dark brown cardstock. To save weight, there are just pieces glued behind the cut corners. The middle square is from the Totally Tonal Zoo Textures pack. It looked a LOT like alligator skin to me!

Watch the Tram Car Please

My next stop was just down the road at the Shark Valley visitor center. I purchased a ticket to one of their Tram Tours (the alternative is to bike the 15 miles--not really my thing). This 2-hour tour took us deeper into the park where we could see tons of wildlife and really get a look at the terrain. I now understand hummocks a lot better! As you'll see in the next few posts, the experience is well worth the cost and time involved!

This is another of the 101 sketches from the CM book (page 11). The papers come from the Vitamin Sea pack but the title came from an older travel kit (I think Scenic Route). Because I ended the airboat tour on the left side, I only had the right-side page to kick off this part of the trip. That title (a laser-cut border) was the perfect way to transition to the tram tour. The Vitamin Sea border pack had the top border which matched well. The rest of the embellishments are from that pack as well. I punched a circle to offset the leaf on the top border.

Alligator Alley part 2

Our airboat tour included quite a few alligators as well as some really interesting landscape photo ops! I do have to wonder why the alligators (who should have been sleeping in the sun) came close to the boat. While they didn't feed the alligators during our trip, I do have to wonder if they do so later to encourage them to come closer. Still, the results could be negative if they decided to gnaw on someone's hand on the railing as in the bottom right photo!

If this layout looks familiar, it's because I featured it a few weeks ago as a bonus post. Refer to this page to get the details on the layout.

After returning to the dock I decided to indulge in a bit of fun photography. This was me posing in front of a green screen. I wasn't really sure what it would look like until it was done but I simply HAD to have it. 

This layout is based on a VERY OLD CM virtual crop challenge (2017!). You can see the original post here. I continued my use of the Cool Serenity papers. The large square is the light-colored paper. I did the math to figure out the best width for the contrasting dark stripes. I loved that one of the stickers was supposed to refer to a vacation as a getaway. However, the spacing turned it into the perfect caption for my faux photo. I mounted that sticker on darker paper so that it didn't blend into the background too much. The alligator sticker and plant leaves are puffy stickers from a newer CM pack Zoo Too. Although newer, the colors matched well. Don't be afraid to mix collections!

Air Powered

 It was time to get our tour started. The fan is powerful but also very loud, so there isn't much narration of the area while we fly along the water. Periodically though, our captain would stop the boat and talk a bit about what we were seeing.

This layout is based on a Sketch and Scrap posting. I liked that they had more than 2 photos included, though you see that i added a 4th (it's really their business card). I used a rather old CM kit called Cool Serenity. There was little left when I began these pages and you'll see it on a few more layouts in this trip. It's not quite time to recycle the remnants but it's getting close! The title and the 3 items clustered at the top are all die-cut embellishments from the kit. The grassy-looking sticker under the title is from a different pack but I thought it worked well with the photo of the boat's wake.