All Aboard!

I next stopped at the visitor center and had the place nearly to myself. Much different than the grand opening! It's a fairly small museum but with a lot of 3D components like the sheds or the boat, you see below. I had not realized that not only did she usher enslaved people north, but she also served as a spy and scout for the Union Army during the Civil War. 

The inspiration for this layout came from this pin that I saved. It uses the 4 squares as the base. The pin reminded me to use some "scruffy" paper for the heritage feel. When I cut my squares I wasn't quite as even as I had hoped, so to hide the flaws, I added the strips to the bottom of the pages (that is Washi tape). The black and white of the Washi tape mimic the coloring of the postcard and the unigrid and helps give balance to the page. Not much in the way of decoration--just one-word sticker.

What's in Store?

My journey continued into Maryland, my destination the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad NHP. I had been to the area when that site opened its visitor center (and you can see that post here). My first stop was at the Bucktown Village Store. This is the site where Harriet was hit by a small weight when she was a young child. That event caused a life-long problem with headaches but is also credited with giving her visions. I had not called ahead so I was happy to find the site open. In fact, the people who man the store were awaiting someone who HAD made a reservation. They never showed up so I benefitted by getting a private store tour. I enjoyed this visit much more as there were no crowds and I could ask questions to my heart's content. I gave them a good-sized donation for the privilege. If you are in the area, don't miss this stop!

For this layout I wanted to use the large General Store cut that I made on the Cricut. The yellow is layered on top and the windows and doors are outlined in black ink to provide some depth. I wanted yellow based on the color of the building but also blue because of the interior. I found a nice sheet of yellow textured paper and a weathered wood paper with a blue tint. By cutting them both at 6" and "welding" them with a strip of cardstock along the seam in the back, I was able to generate 2 pages for the background. The little heart embellishment is an old stencil that I inked. There are a few word blocks from the Paper Loft that completed the layout.

Bay Window

My next set of park visits occurred when I went on vacation with Jim's family in September 2019. We had returned to the Rehoboth Beach area and I took a day to drive west toward the Chesapeake Bay. I drove to the small town of Vienna, MD where the Nanticoke River Discovery Center had a stamp (of course) and a small display of Captain John Smith and his travels. I also visited the nearby waterfront to get a look at the water. It was late morning but a beautiful day to be outside. 

The trail follows the historic route taken by John Smith (yes, the one that married Pocohantas) and his crew in the summer of 1608. He is credited with mapping much of the East Coast and those detailed records, published in England, were the impetus for many to migrate to the New World. In essence, he might more rightfully be considered the man who Discovered America!

This sketch is based on the June 2024 Virtual Crop from Creative Memories (scroll to sketch #2). You can see that I doubled the sketch to reach 2 pages. The paper is from Creative Memories' Serene Water collection. The coordinating cardstock colors include orange. While that is a color I don't use much, it gives the perfect POP to the middle square. As you can see in the directions, there are 4 strips of 3" decorative paper underneath. This type of sketch is a great way to use scraps if you have them. 

Madness in the Desert Part 36--How to Visit a Park That Isn't There

This is our final entry in the Madness in the Desert album! You remember that last week we talked about Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Near here is another National Park Unit called Hohokam Pima National Monument. Now that particular unit is not available to visit. The village had been excavated and explored, but the Native Tribe asked the area to be covered over. As the NPS says: "Though authorized to become a monument, it is not a designated site. There are no signs, facilities, roads, cancellation stamps, brochures, features, displays, or other markers in place. The grounds are on Native American land and not open for visits."

This is often a bone of contention for our NPTC club members. To provide a way to "count" this park, the club has 2 suggestions (technically a member can count a visit as they deem fit). The first suggestion is the Huhugam Heritage Center in Chandler, AZ. While Jim and I were nearby, it was, at that time, closed for renovations. The original, and still valid method we chose, was to visit Casa Grande. The museum here has a few displays about Pima life and culture, so we have both added Hohokam Pima to our list of completed units. Have you checked this park off on your list? Let me know in the comments below.

I scraplifted this idea from Scrapbook.com. I was getting close to the album's end so I had many scraps available. I layered several in orange and yellow tones on the page. The top border includes some fussy-cut items from a fairly old piece of CM paper. It's supposed to be a fall theme but I've always thought it worked well for Native American designs. I used some punches and other scraps to make the window and the sun designs.

Lasting Memories Post 4--Falling For You

Hello all! I'm serving as a Guest Designer for Lasting Memories all through October! I've been posting an extra layout each Sunday at noon for the past 4 weeks. Each follows 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.

For the final installment, we hop into 2020 and my first visit to New River Gorge (which was a National River when we visited but is now a National Park!) Covid was still sweeping the nation but I badly needed a getaway from work. However, where do you go where you can stay away from people? How about a cabin in the middle of West Virginia? So, Jim, I, and his sister Kristen journeyed down for a few days of relaxation and "leaf peeping". On our first morning there we headed to the visitor center. Since no one could go inside, the ranger was under the porch area. We got a few ideas for hikes and then went to the overlook behind the center to see the famous bridge spanning the river.

This week's Challenge is LM #725 - Costumes - dress up your layout by adding something sparkly! I chose Sketch #4 from Creative Memories' Virtual Crop this month. The paper is from a 2019 pack called Harvest Delight. It was not the pack I thought I would use. With the challenge of using something sparkly (admittedly NOT something I use a lot), I thought about Hello Autumn from 2020. However, when I pulled that pack I realized I had already used the foiled elements! So I dug through the box of Fall items and found this one. The sketch calls for a 10" piece of paper in the center but I only had 1 full sheet left. I decided that I would use the 4-squares technique in a smaller way. I cut 10" white cardstock (actually the title pages for some other packs I had used) and layered the 5" squares to ensure there were no gaps. Then I used the foiled leaves wherever you see hexagons on the sketch. I was able to trim one photo to a 4x4" square and then trim a journal box to the same size. That fills in for the horizontal 6x4 photo on the right page. All that is left from the pack now is one long strip of white designer paper, stickers, and a few mat cards. I kept those together for now but may decide to donate them the next time I empty my "purge" box.

Madness in the Desert Part 35--The Big House

After watching the movie and exploring the exhibits in the visitor center, we ventured outside (into the heat again) to see the structure. Though it has stood for many years, the NPS is working on protecting it, hence the canopy over the top to protect it a bit from rain and to decrease erosion.

I had thought that I followed a border sketch to create the border across the top of the page. Perhaps I just followed my instincts! The base is plain yellow. The next layer is a strip of the same paper that is featured across the bottom. On top of that are 2 rectangles of blue/orange paper that you've seen on some other pages. The title letters are from a set of 2 punches my mother and I bought at a scrapbook yardsale. I have to say, it looked like a good idea at the time but they were actually rather difficult to use to create the few letters I needed. However, they WERE the right size!

This has been a tourist site much longer than it has been in the National Park Service, and consequently, there is some defacement. Though as that happened in the 1700s and 1800s even that, in some sense, is historic.

This is ALMOST wallpaper. It's 2 pieces of 6x12 paper. The burst at the top reminded me of sunrise/sunset. That set the mood for the sienna tone across the bottom. I wish I had let more of the landscape show. I used a few photo corner stickers on the upper right photo. They do NOT help adhere the photo to the page. They just give that old-fashioned look. Do you like putting stickers on your photos? CM materials are safe for photos so it won't do them any harm.

Madness in the Desert Part 34--In Ruins

On the morning after our Saguaro visit, I dropped Jim off at the Air Museum for a 2nd day of exploring (I was spared that, and had planned a trip to Coronado). However, I barely made it out of the parking lot when my phone rang. The thunderstorm of the night before knocked out power to the museum and closed it for the day. We had already checked out of the hotel, so it made sense that we meander our way to Phoenix where we would fly out the next morning. So we visited the Western National bookstore north of Tucson and then decided on Casa Grande so I would still get another new National Park unit. 

If you have even a smattering of Spanish (as I do, and to which my sister Lisa will attest), you know that this translates to Big House. The people lived in the area over 4000 years ago and the origins of this building remain a mystery. There are hints that it might have been a celestial observatory but it might have been a storehouse or religious site. Additional walls create a surrounding plaza where trade and crafts such as pottery making likely happened.

I had trouble fitting in all that I wanted to on this page, so I chose a 12x6 peekaboo pocket to add the brochure and (as you can see below) a couple of extra photos.

This layout is based on a sketch from my Scrap Your Stash class with Noreen Smith in 2020. The base page is a sheet with a mild yellow tone and I then added a couple of strips of coordinating paper from the CM "Shades of Yellow" paper pack. Luckily, I had a few stickers that matched the items in the photos, so it was a simple layout.