Madness in the Desert Part 8--Below the Rim

Knowing we had a train to catch, we knew we'd never climb down to the Phantom ranch but we wanted to go INTO the canyon a little bit so we started down the Bright Angel Trail. We got a selfie with our heads below the rim. We went as far as the first tunnel and then returned. Given the heat of the day, that was the right choice. I would still like to get to Phantom Ranch someday though!

This layout is based on another Club Scrap kit, this one is their Remix kit (offered several years after the initial launch). Scroll to pages 7 and 8. One thing I realized was that I would have to be OK with using the theme of National Parks without having a visit to the specific national park on the paper. Since the design paper had a mix of them, it didn't really matter that one said Yellowstone and we were at the Grand Canyon. It gave the right tone to the layout. It has quite a simple layout, just some decorative elements on the top left and bottom right and then a thin border element. The rest is all matted photos! 

Madness in the Desert Part 7--Go West

After stopping at Verkamps for stamps 😁, we continued to walk along the trail west of the village. Though there is a bus that will take you farther, we decided to just see how much we could walk on our own (though being mindful of needing to be back to catch the return trip!) To get an idea of how far we walked, you can see in the photo with Jim that it has an arrow pointing to the El Tovar hotel on the horizon. That's where we were dropped off!

This layout uses Club Scrap's National Park Lite kit (look at layout pages 1 and 2). I waited to add the mats so I was able to put my photos on in a way that worked for my trip, such as putting the journal box on the left page. The camera embellishment is a vinyl sticker that I picked up on the trip.

Madness in the Desert Part 6--Speechless

We had been to the Grand Canyon before, but the first glimpse you get still takes your breath away. Our first glimpse was as the train pulled into the station. We were delivered to the western side of the south rim and we didn't go too far from that area. But every few feet seems like another world. The photos simply do not do it justice. You have to go there to see it.

I made this layout using red cardstock and the Kit 14 dies from Photo Dies. The nice part of the dies is that it cuts that frame for your photos when you cut the mat. That makes it much easier than using a stencil template (like the Lea France ones) to create the same effect. The right page worked much better for my layout as it is the most symmetrical, but the left page fits in just fine. The center block on the right page is from the Eastern National scrapbook kit. The other 2 are stickers and memorabilia from the trip. I also had a Club Scrap sticker left from their National Parks kit which I squeezed into the left side layout.

Madness in the Desert part 5--All Aboard

We got in line to board. Our group had tickets for the same car near the front of the train. We didn't fill the car so I do feel bad for those non-NPTC members who joined us! We got a little raucous. 

This layout is based on a pin I saved. This is all cut on the Cricut. I had planned on a giant oval track but when I changed to a 2-page spread, I cut it in half and used it on the top and bottom of each page. I did like the train title. I also cut the railroad crossing sign for the bottom right. The newspaper title is from one of their newsletters. I chose to cut it up and use selected portions of it on my pages. I did mount it in a sleeve to protect the photos. You'll see more of it in another post. 

While on the train we had some visitors. First, a roving musician sang some songs and invited us to join in. Also, the sheriff came through to ensure we were safe from the "bandits". Our poor cabin steward (in the white shirt bottom left) didn't know what to do with us. On a normal trip when no one knows anyone else in the car it can be quiet. We were so loud she had to shout to get our attention and tell us what to do when pulling into the Grand Canyon station. 

This layout is based on another pin I saved featuring some older Creative Memories products. It's one of the most simple pages but it works quite well. I chose 2 colors of cardstock to match the photos--light blue and brown. Each item is matted and then clipped with the corner-rounder. It's a tool I used to use quite often but now is only pulled out on a special occasion.

Bonus post--Fort Washington

I am playing along with Lasting Memories today so here's a bonus post as I join their "WINTER" games. 

In October 2019 I participated in the Maryland Lighthouse Challenge. One of those is not only a lighthouse but a National Park Unit! This light was placed near the fort in the 1800s and while nominally under the jurisdiction of the US Coast Guard, the keepers were required to abide by the direction of the Fort's military commanders. There never were any battles so other than ensuring competence and compliance I think they had little to worry about. The lighthouse is still working but instead of the large Fresnel lens, it now boasts a small but powerful LED light (very common today). Because the structure is less important, it has been neglected and is in very poor condition sadly. The most interesting part of the lighthouse is the large triangle with the number 80 inside. This was the identification marker so ship captains could locate their position by the color and markers along the Potomac River.

To meet the challenge, I needed to use items beginning with the letters in Winter on my layout. I used:

Woodgrain paper (one of the background sheets)

Inked edges (around the triangle I made on the vellum)

Navy (the other background sheet)

Tag and triangle (tag on the upper right page and triangle on the lower right page)

Enamel embellishments (there are stars and a fish on the tag)

Ripped paper (I ripped the small scrap under the triangle I made)

I typically am daunted by the word challenges but it is a fun way to ensure you have a variety of elements on the paper. If you participate, let me know what you used for your letters! Need some help? I did and I used this handy guide that you'll see as a link in the challenge page. I based the layout on this sketch I saved. The background is papers from Creative Memories as well as Club Scrap. By welding the 2 halves on each side I only needed one sheet of each. I had made the tag at the Creative Memories convention when Serene Waters was launched. The border across the middle (mirrored triangles) is punched on a coordinating collection called Summer Nights. That was a secret box collection and it's great that it works so well as it expands my ability to use the collection components like mats and stickers.

Madness in the Desert Part 4--How the West was Fun

 Our first event with the club was on Thursday. They had arranged a train ride from a nearby town up to the Grand Canyon. Though Jim and I had been there before, it seemed like it would be a great event so we bought tickets. We arrived early as I was tasked with handing out tickets to people as they arrived. We still had time to catch a bit of a Western cowboy show held near the train depot.It was very tongue in cheek but just because it's geared for children, don't think the adults didn't enjoy it as well! 

I based this layout on the pin that I saved. I doubled the layout for the 2-page spread. The wood papers were trimmed so that the scrapbook pages provided a natural border around them. The papers and stickers mostly came from the Dakota papers in the Close to My Heart kit but I added a few mats in blue bandana design.

After the show, it was time to board the train. But as we moved toward the train my eye was caught by the fun tombstones and the face cut-out characters. Those are some of my favorite photo ops and I insisted on stopping and getting some photos. I mean, how can you pass up the chance to be the engineer from Schoolhouse Rock?!?

This layout is basically wallpaper as the printed sheets didn't need much additional work. Don't look too closely though or you'll see that they weren't QUITE 12x12 and there are some gaps in the middle. The only other addition is a journal box I've had in my stash for a while. It seemed a great place to put something that colorful. The title was of course cut on the Cricut to preserve my sanity.

Madness in the Desert Part 3--Embrace the Rainbow

At the convention, it is tradition to wear convention shirts on certain days (typically you wear the current year on Saturday for the meeting, the prior year's on Friday, The year before that on Thursday, and so forth). Obviously, only some people do it but enough do that we can easily identify our group! The 2 years of shirts I highlighted don't really give you the essence of how colorful we can be (each shirt is colored according to the ink in the Passport Stamp for that region). I think these shirts are from New Bedford (orange for the North Atlantic) and Mount Rushmore (yellow for Rocky Mountain). Wait until you see the 2021 convention where we had a TRUE rainbow shirt event. 

This album layout is a little different. Instead of focusing on chronological visits, I combined some photos into one layout to look at their theme. This is one of those pages. Creative Memories had recently released the rainbow border maker cartridge so I punched 7 colors to create the stacked rainbow border on the right. That makes a very thick element, but I think it's worth it! I also chose to use some sticker letters in my stash. It's always frustrating to have to "manufacture" letters when you run out of vowels or other common letters.  That's why I appreciate the Cricut so much---I can cut as many "e"s as I need at once!