On the Hook

My last stop on the Lighthouse Challenge is at the Sandy Hook Lighthouse in a part of Gateway National Recreation Area. This park has additional sites in New York. This part of the unit includes the lighthouse, lots of beach areas, and the remains of a military installation. On this visit (and, like McArthur, I shall return) I only visited the lighthouse.

This layout is based on a sketch from the CM 101 sketches book (page 10). The essence of the sketch calls for a large die cut or cluster group in the upper right corner. What I really liked about the sketch is that the left side included a vertical photo and a square photo. I substituted the unigrid in that place. It does call for a border around the background paper, so I gutted the background cardstock and then layered a slightly trimmed wood texture paper on top. I struggled a little with embellishments as I was nearly out of lighthouse stickers. With the red strip of paper under the unigrid, I decided to add some blue embellishments. I now keep a "rainbow" binder which separates small embellishments without other themes by color. I turned to the blue page and found all the blue stars and the little laser-cut banner and that seemed a perfect fit. One of the few remaining lighthouse embellishments I DID have, was added to the side of the journal box to give it a little more interest. I suppose on my "to-do" list should be creating more of those embellishments on my Cricut.

The Last Stamp Standing

My next park visit happened in October 2018 when I decided to participate in the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge. This event happens every year on the 2nd weekend in October. The challenge involves visiting 13 different lighthouses and life-saving stations in New Jersey over 2 days. Most of those buildings have nothing to do with the National Park Service (except the last one which I'll show you next week). The lighthouses start along the Delaware River (a fact I hadn't known before starting the challenge) and along the way, the route gets very close to Fort Mott which is a stamping point for the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail. However, as their website will tell you: "Since September 30, 2011, as a result of a sunset clause, the National Park Service is no longer the legislative authority to be involved in the management of the Trail. At this time there is no single authority responsible for the management of the trail, although there are legislative efforts to reinstate the NPS as the legislative authority."

While the rest of the sites have relinquished their Passport Stamp, the Fort has not (and as of 2023, still hasn't!) So I decided to make a little detour and visit the Fort, get my stamp, and then finish the lighthouses.

I worked on this album while at a crop. Planning to attend a crop means figuring out what papers to take without taking my entire crop room. I knew that this fort was on the tour so I took military pages. Yet when I got to this layout I didn't really feel the military essence (also it was a single right-hand page given the prior layout). I had also brought my "Fall" themed papers with me and this paper and embellishments are from that group, specifically from the Harvest Delight CM papers (circa 2019).  The layout is loosely based on a sketch or rather one of a series of sketches from Creative Memories. Noreen Smith developed a set of formulas. By cutting one pack of paper (generally 12 double-sided pages for CM) as the formula indicates, you can create an entire album by arranging the strips in various ways. I didn't need to do all of the cuts, I just figured out which strips were used and what the widths were.

The Fort hosts a small museum detailing life during its active years. The large gun below is the correct size but is actually painted on the wall. A few buildings are remaining and some batteries are falling down. As I wanted to keep moving to the lighthouses I didn't spend too much time on site here.

This was a fairly easy layout as it is technically the "Wallpaper" technique. I bought those 2 papers at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. The yellow house was blending a bit into the tan background so I matted them on black cardstock. I added a few stickers from the new CM sticker pack "Called to Serve" to add a little more eye movement around the page but this one came together quickly.

Gone Fishing

As I was walking along the water, I crossed the bridge and saw the egret on the rocks. I took a few more photos and turned around to see that it had jumped up to the top of the bridge! And then, as I watched, it dipped its head into the fisherman's bait bucket and helped himself to lunch! You just never know what you will see in the parks!

I made this layout for an end-of-year challenge group I joined from Tammy McEwen. She put together a series of sketches from the CM blog throughout the year that totaled 23 pages (plus a bonus). I made this during her challenge but you can see the original here (scroll to sketch #7). I had used this one previously but when you change the papers, and put it in a different album, it doesn't really matter. Don't believe me? Check out this post that I made a few months ago. It's the 2nd layout on the page and uses the exact same sketch but with an older NSD pack. This time I used Tropic Time papers. The fish borders come from the Serene Waters pack. My only wish is that they had reversed the coloring so that it would match in the middle instead of starting over on the right page. The title sticker is from the Scrapbook Customs sticker pack.

Landlubber

My next stop is to Biscayne National Park. I was a little later arriving than I had hoped so I missed all of the boat tours that show off the park. Biscayne is about 99% water with just a tiny bit of land for a visitor center. I did what I could to explore that land but I will definitely have to come back to see some more.

In my quest to use up the Cool Serenity papers, I chose to use 2 borders I had made a while ago. Each border consists of a punched wave border, a contrasting lime green strip, and a 4x6 homemade mat with decorations from the kit. They did a nice job framing my photos of the entrance and compass. I added 2 Biscayne-specific stickers. On the left mat, I added a small shield sticker for the park. On the right, I added the map of the park from the Scrapbook Customs sticker page. I had a bit of the lime green paper left so I added the strips to balance the pages (right side of the left page and a small piece under the top photo on the right page).

Taking the Chance

My last stop of the day was to try the auto loop suggested by the ranger. It is a great way to get into the middle of the park and see the trees and more wildlife. After a few miles though, the road changes to dirt, and then it started to rain. I was in a rental (not all that different from the die cut!) and a little nervous about getting mired in a place with poor cellular reception. So soon after I passed the "Last Chance" I decided it was prudent to turn around. I made it through less than 1/2 of the loop. I suppose I'll have to revisit and see the other half someday. I'll rent an SUV next time.

As I was contemplating what papers to use, I found the die cut of the car and I knew that between that and the last chance sign I needed some red in the papers. I chose an old "Thank You" kit from Creative Memories that had a red, tropical theme. You may remember this technique--I trimmed the papers to 6" x 6" squares and put 4 on a page. The paper was originally 7" x 7" so not a lot of waste here. If your cuts are a little uneven, feel free to hide the center with photos or embellishments. The stickers were part of the same kit. While I didn't really have enough left to make symmetrical placements, I was able to make some focal points to draw the eyes.

Pretty Big

I made it to the Oasis Visitor Center just as it was closing. Luckily the ranger there was happy to see me. Not only did I have time to get stamps, we had a chat about what I could see before dusk. I love rangers who are enthusiastic about their jobs and want to help visitors. Before I got on the auto loop she recommended, I drove to the other side of the park to see the Nathaniel P. Reed Visitor Center. The photos below are all taken there. I loved the statues of the animals (the lizard is real). A sobering information sign did indicate that we are in danger of losing these precious habitats due to climate change. The photo that says "lift" gives a close-up view of the signs showing how much water they got from a hurricane and how much further the waters will rise due to climate change unless we can reverse our track. 

The papers and embellishments are from the Vitamin Sea pack. The design may be one of my own. I thought it was a 1-2-3, except that the pink/coral papers are both 6" strips, so that takes the whole page. I turned the right side so that instead of having the pink facing each other in the middle, there was some contrast. That gave me a space to put 1/2 of the laser-cut border. Hindsight--I think the other half should be on the left page under the water. what do you think? 

Going Postal

Big Cypress National Preserve is located fairly close to the Shark Valley area of the Everglades National Park. I had heard about this post office, so I watched for it as I drove. It is the smallest post office in the United States. It was closed when I drove by but I did stop for a quick shot of the building and the sign. You can see that the mail cart is too big to store inside! It was an interesting diversion as I traveled and since it sits between the 2 national park units, I'm including it here. Let me know if you've been here in the comments!

This layout is based on a sketch. Interestingly, I found it in 2 places. Sketch N Scrap has a Facebook challenge group and posts "throwback" challenges monthly. This was posted as a throwback challenge in November 2023. However, I had pinned the sketch from its original offering in 2017. I used some paper from Creative Memories "Travel Log" pack (released in 2019). I wanted a tropical feel but in muted tones and this paper worked perfectly. There are lots of ways to do a fold-over technique. I like this one that uses just a hint of the other side with its brilliant floral pattern. I tried to turn the journal box into a postcard by applying the "first class" sticker in the stamp spot of the card. I also chose to add postal touches to the 2 tags tucked into the fold. After I took this photo I did find 2 stickers that were better than my hand-drawn attempt (which I admit is backward) so I like the page even more!