Don't Chicken Out

In May 2019 I headed to National Harbor (just south of DC) to attend an AST conference. As I wasn't a delegate, I had large blocks of time where I didn't have to be in a lecture, so I took the opportunity to visit some new locations. One stop was the Oxon Hill Farm which is part of the National Capital Parks management system. This working farm teaches about the history of farming and provides an opportunity to get into the country for those who live in the city. When I visited there was a group of school children on site already. Because they had just one ranger, the visitor center (the large red building below) was not open when I arrived. So I chose to wait on the porch. But I was CLOSELY watched by the chickens who were not sure I should be sitting there. I never realized chickens could be guard animals!

This is Sketch #2 from the May 2024 CM Virtual Crop. I chose the "On The Farm" kit from last year to create my layout. The base is Kelly Green cardstock. I chose 3 papers to layer on top--the white chicken wire just because there were chickens involved, the red because the tonal print is chickens and the yellow for a pop of a different color. The chickens are all stickers from the pack, but the title has 2 die cuts attached. This kit was so popular when it came out that the bonus embellishments sold out within a few hours and I missed them. So I bought the digital kit and used my Cricut to print then cut the objects. You can't tell the difference!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

These are the wind chimes that had recently been installed. They call it the Tower of Voices and eventually, there will be one chime for each member of the flight. When I visited there were just 8 bells so that they could study how they moved in different weather conditions. I would like to go back when it is completed. I could hear the chimes but it was quite soft. I was surprised that I could go inside the bottom of the tower and take a photo of the bells above me.

This layout is based on another of the NSD Virtual Crop sketches. Scroll to Sketch #5 (the Bonus Sketch). I had trouble deciding on what paper to use but eventually realized that this paper from Wanderlust would work. I mounted the paper on black cardstock. You can see a lot more of my black cardstock than called for in the sketch. I made it a bit larger because of how I had to cut the paper (the border was pre-printed but I cut it off and then turned the paper into a square and mounted it on the black cardstock). I gutted the black cardstock and used it to mat 2 of the photos. I had another black mat handy so all photos would stand out.

I was thinking about how to add the memorabilia to the pages. I was out of 8 1/2 x 11 pockets, but I did have some sticky memorabilia pockets. I decided to attach one to the inside back cover of the album and tucked my Junior Ranger book and the Unigrid inside. I don't think I'll have a problem with them falling out as I store my albums vertically.

Photographic Memory

My trip ended with a visit to Flight 93 NM. I stopped by as they have a new item--the Tower of Voices. You'll see that in the next post. Since I've been here several times I decided to complete the Junior Ranger book. I didn't follow the trail, just looked at the memorial materials near the visitor center.

I've had this background paper on hand for a while now. I originally bought it to highlight the Walk 93 I did with my sister but used different papers for that one. So when I was planning out the album I pulled these 2 photo pages and they ended up being a good base for my trip this time. The papers are from Forevermore Scrapbook in York PA. We would always go there during the Buggies and Buds Shop Hop. They had several floors of wonderful products. But even better, they had a large inventory of photo pages like this covering many national park sites and lighthouses. I struggled a bit with creating this layout. I re-watched a video from Noreen Smith on working with photo pages and she said that you either wanted to make the photos similar to the background or wildly different. I chose similar ones but matted them to stand out from the paper. I also took her advice of adding a border to the bottom of the page. I didn't need many embellishments for my scrapbook page, but I added a grassy journal box and a plane that I thought added to the pages.

A New Hope

My last park of the day was also a new park for me. Hopewell Culture (not to be confused with Hopewell Furnace) is a site that preserves ancient Native American burial mounds. It's similar to my visit to Effigy Mounds but with fewer trees around, the mounds are much easier to identify. Even if they do still just look like grass-covered mounds. I started at the visitor center to watch the movie (as I had missed this at Effigy Mounds I really wanted to understand the site). Afterward, I had plenty of time to view the mounds. There are 6 local sites. I chose to only do the Mounds Group near the visitor center. If I return I'll have plenty more new mounds to look at.

This is another layout I made on National Scrapbook Day. Scroll to Sketch #1 to see the layout design. I looked through my Spring paper stash and found a pack called "Ladybugs" (a promotional kit from 2023). I liked the brown paper with the swirled design as it reminded me of the interior diagrams of the mounds. The newest packs of CM paper all have coordinating cardstock colors on the front page, but that started AFTER this had been released. As it wasn't a standard pack, there wasn't a "postcard" available (one of the CM Advisors had created a cheat sheet for us for all the paper packs so we could offer cardstock to our customers). However, I found a post about making borders and cards with this pack, giving me references to cardstock that would coordinate. That's how I ended up with Kelly Green for the base! The kit had no embellishments, so I used one scrap of paper to create the border on the left. I used some VERY old CM Shortcuts for the border across the middle. Both had images that reminded me of "mounds". Because I used Kelly Green cardstock, I realized that the Kelly Green tonal pack would also work, so I used some of the stickers that matched the tonal pack and a matching journal box. 

The Fabric of Time

After touring the home, I drove to a local museum that was holding a special exhibit. They had asked quilters to create pieces commemorating the life of Charles Young. The creations were fantastic and covered all periods of his life. I was surprised to see that one quilter even focused on his wife. The medal you see below was also on display. It was presented from the country of Liberia (where he later died) to honor his work on civil rights.

I recently watched one of the Fast and Fun episodes that Noreen Smith hosts for Creative Memories. In it, she showed a technique for creating the edges of this layout and showed how it could be made as a 1-page or 2-page layout. I chose the 2-page layout as the design was perfect for a page about quilts. I continued using the Our Moments paper. Believe it or not, this layout is from just one sheet of double-sided paper!

Home of the Brave

My second park of the day was a new park for me--Charles Young Buffalo Soldier NM. This site specifically commemorates the life of Charles Young. The house is the boyhood home of Charles and his family. By the time it reached the hands of the NPS though, it had been used as a college fraternity house. Though open for several years, the house still has a modern feel to it and they were waiting to get some additional funding to restore the original look of the home. In the meantime, there is a short movie on the life of Colonel Young and lots of posters about his struggle. He was the 3rd African American to enter West Point and one of the panels that stood out to me was the magazine front showing his brutal treatment there. Nonetheless, he graduated and served his country well. By the time of his death, he was the highest-ranking African American in the US military.

I created this sketch for National Scrapbook Day (which is the first Saturday of May each year). Creative Memories held a virtual crop and one of the ways to participate was to create the bonus NSD sketches. I chose to use Our Moments paper and embellishments for this layout instead of the NSD papers. I think both would have worked but I had already chosen the papers before I saw the challenge post. Scroll to sketch #3 to see the sketch I chose.

Exploring the Outdoors

As I mentioned in the last post, I didn't tour the house. I did get a couple of shots of the outside and of course, I had to get a selfie with the sign. That summed up this visit. You'll see why I chose such a short stop. I would visit 3 National Park units in one day. Next stop--Charles Young Buffalo Soldier.

This layout is based on a sketch from the March 24 Virtual Crop. I used papers that I had also used on another layout during the crop I was at when I created this. The base cardstock is Mustard Yellow as it was the closest I could find to the house color. You see that there are red accents on the house, so I chose red from Paper Loft. The torn piece at the bottom is also from Paper Loft. I had torn the top and bottom for the other layout so I had a middle section with 2 tears. It was shorter than called for in the sketch, but I just mounted it a bit further up on the page and allowed the photos to bleed down onto the cardstock. the title stickers and enamel dots came from my stash (CM) but seemed to match well. The journaling is on the left page (last post).