Madness in the Desert Part 30--Well, Well, Well

After leaving Walnut Canyon, we headed south toward Tucson. Along the way, we stopped for a delicious meal (I had elk meatloaf!) and then we drove to Montezuma Well. This is a part of Montezuma's Castle but we are going there after our stop here. Jim did not get out of the car here. With the heat and altitude sickness, he just sat in the air conditioning. I did not want to stay too long but I wanted to explore the park so I walked the loop from the visitor center around the lake and through the scrub brush. Like Walnut Canyon to the north, the local inhabitants eked out a living by housing themselves in caves along the cliffs. Clearly, this was a fortunate spot as there was a decent water source. They were able to create a canal system to irrigate crops. As late as the 1800s, settlers still gravitated to this site to use the dwellings and canal system.

The inspiration for this layout came from a photo I pinned. Instead of making spirals from dot stickers, I chose to cut them from an older paper pack from CM. I've used this pack previously as it has a nature theme to it. I prefer the botanical papers and didn't really know what to do with all the dark brown. I started by punching the argyle borders for the outside edges of the layout. The zig-zag and the spirals were brown-on-brown patterns that I fussy cut. A few other botanical borders gave a little more definition to the page. 

Lasting Memories Post 1--Wild Life

Hello all! I'm serving as a Guest Designer for Lasting Memories all through October! I'll be posting an extra layout each Sunday at noon for the next 4 weeks. Each is following the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories and I hope you join the challenge! Post your version through the link at the bottom of their post.

This post is part of my Albuquerque trip in October 2019. I chose one of the less popular trails at Petroglyph National Monument as I wanted some solitude as I explored. There were few others on the trail but I did come across some interesting wildlife, including the coyote featured in the camera below. 

For Sunday, October 6th, the challenge is LM #722 - Pumpkins - use at least 50% orange and include something round. This layout is based on a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. You can watch the video of her layout here. It's a pretty straightforward cut, but I did make some adjustments. Knowing that one of the paper blocks would be 4x6, I substituted the one from the printed paper with a mat I had from the matching collection. The page that I cut is the one on the far left--it's a page from the Mellow Meadows pack and is a photographic paper. I thought the thin stalks (wheat?) would match the scant vegetation of the trail I walked. I also used a laser cut title over the base cardstock where another mat was to go (Upper Right). I had thought about stretching it across the photos and the decorative mat in the middle but I decided I wanted it to be all one color. I added a coordinating journal box to keep the orange "count" up on the page. Do you think I made it to 50%? 

Madness in the Desert Part 29--Gardens in the Desert

 There was more to see than just the cliff dwellings. I enjoyed seeing the different plants along the nature trail as well as an old foundation from a "pit house". This was the original dwelling spot (recreated now) for the Puebloans of the area. They would migrate down to the cliffs later. They lived in this area for over 800 years.

This layout is a project recipe. I acquired the paper and instructions when someone signed on as a consultant under me. It was a total surprise as I didn't even know the person. So I enjoyed putting the kit together and I liked how it matched the tones of the desert life.

Madness in the Desert Part 28--Cliff Notes

After the Ranger Talk, we wandered the park for a bit. There is an overlook where you can see to the bottom of the canyon. The park brochure shows one of the housing areas along the cliff face. You can see more on the bottom layout. This page shows a better view of the depth of the canyon. We are standing on the rim.

I thought I had followed a sketch for this layout but could not find a copy if I did. I had also been posting on the Scrapbook.com forums and I entered this in the monthly "Use Your Scraps" challenge. You can see that the bottom border is a series of 1/2" strips left over from many different collections. So long as the tone of the papers matches, you don't need to use the same packs (though if you have remnants of a collection this is a good way to use those up). At the top of the page is a paper border from one of the outdoor collections (Adventure I think). I punched the middle paper with a "knock-out" style border maker cartridge for extra interest. This type of punch leaves a "hole" that shows the bottom layer for contrast.

With Jim still a little tired, we skipped walking down to the cliff dwellings but you can see them from across the canyon on a very nice nature trail. On this page, you get a better sense of the scale of the houses compared to the cliff's height! I cannot imagine walking up and down that cliff every day to either work in the canyon or above it.

This layout is from the CM Virtual Crop in April 2019. I know the circles are from an old outdoor pack. I'm not sure where the base paper came from. I used a laser-cut border to create a middle-of-the-page divider.

Madness in the Desert Part 27--Move It

We got to the area where the ranger talk was to take place, but all the picnic tables seemed to be in direct sun, so we moved a couple. It turns out the quickest way to get people to volunteer is for me to grab a corner of a table. Many of the guys jumped up to help move the tables so everyone was more comfortable. (And luckily someone snagged a photo!) The ranger gave a great overview of the site. It's one of the best parts of going to a park site. 

This is a 1-2-3 layout from Noreen Smith and you can watch the video of her cuts and layout here. I liked the space for 4x4 photos but since I only had 2, I was able to fill the middle with a decorative box! The papers are from CM's Adventure pack. I liked the mountain background for the main pattern. Given that my cuts are a little different, I might have used some scrap paper to fill in the left and right sides of the layout. And that's a GREAT way to use your stash! The embellishments on here are not all from CM. The punched arrow border is one of the BMC punches. The chair, the picnic table, and the letters for the title all come from Paper Loft's camping collections. I think there is a scrap from my Club Scrap papers in the 4x4 decorative box as well. One of the 4x6 photos was replaced with a journal box made from a 4x6 piece of arrowhead paper from the Eastern National collection and a journal box from the Club Scrap stash. Didn't it all come together well though, considering it's 3 separate manufacturers?

Madness in the Desert Part 26--A Little Nutty

Sunday morning the club scheduled a Ranger Talk at the third of our host parks--Walnut Canyon. There was a bit of a line to get in that morning but we still had time to stop, along with several of our friends in the club, and get our sign photo. Jim braved the drive out (not much choice as we checked out of the hotel) and joined the group. I'm not sure he was feeling 100% just yet.

I made this layout during one of my Scrapbook Retreat weekends. I always provide a sketch challenge for the attendees, and this year it was directions to make this layout. The base page is a calendar page from CM. There is a 7x6 square grid pre-printed on the page. The directions provided the measurements for the blocks. You trim both the photos and the scrap pieces to the given measurements to assemble what looks like a mosaic. There are blank spots above and below so I added some sticker borders to fill the space. A few extra decorative stickers rounded out the page. I think this is the same pattern I used for the Great Western Loop title page and you can see the directions here.

Madness in the Desert part 25--The President's Dinner

After the meeting, we cleared the room and in the fastest turnover I've ever seen, we had dinner at large round tables in the same space. And as I recall, it was one of the best dinners I've ever had. I've had a lot of large gathering meals (either on these trips or at work) and I know how hard it is to get mass quantities of food correct. They deserved my 5-star rating :)

Not much happened at the dinner other than talking among friends. We never have enough time to do that at our conventions.

This is the back side of the Fast to Fabulous page. There were no mat openings, just that lovely large white block on the right. All I had to do was add a journal box and a couple of Cricut cuts (the title of course, but also the steak dinner with utensils).