The Homestead

As I mentioned in the last blog, our trail led to an old homestead. Little remained except the family cemetery. Kristen was fascinated by the little stones. It looks like many of them have been replaced with modern grave markers. Still, the markers that simply say "Mother" and "Father" can be moving in their own way. Jim helped the photo process by clearing the fallen leaves off all the stones.

This layout uses papers from CM's old " Cottage " palette. It was one of my favorite packs, especially as the stickers had a vintage feel. I started the page creation with the borders at the top. I had created those from an idea sheet CM produced simultaneously with the palette. At that time, CM used pages that were NOT true 12x12. They were 12" long but only about 11 1/2" wide. That made it a bit tricky to use with non-CM materials ("contraband") as you would have to trim all of the pages. However, CM eventually joined the standard sizing and now makes everything in true 12x12 size. But that means these papers don't fit! They are about 1/2" short. I've used multiple techniques to overcome that, including sacrificing a second piece of paper to fill the gap or only using the paper as a mat. For this layout, I trimmed the orange papers to create rectangles but intentionally left some of the white cardstock showing behind the paper and the borders. Luckily, I'm almost done using these papers, so I won't have to be so creative soon!

Decisions, Decisions

We found a place where the trail was split as we walked along. We weren't prepared for that, so we stood there contemplating. Ultimately, we decided to head to the right. It is supposed to be a loop. If that's true, we should have been able to return to this point. We never found evidence of a loop, though. You'll see in the next post that we came across an old homestead and then retraced our steps back to this point.

This is the third laser-cut page. I love the little owl hidden in the trees. You don't even see him until you place a small circle behind him (yellow would work well here, too). I felt lucky to have this pack with me as I assembled these at my 2024 Croptoberfest event. It helped speed up the process of completing the album.

Oh, Christmas Tree

As we walked the trail, Jim came across a tiny evergreen that reminded us of the Charlie Brown tree from the Peanuts Christmas cartoon. Apparently, when Jim was a boy, he tried to get his family to choose something similar for the family tree, and, well, no one forgets something like that! So I made him pause for a couple of photos--one a close-up so you could see the branches against his pants.

This is another page from the Creative Memories 2023 Croptoberfest pack. It's one of the laser-cut pages mounted on decorative paper, contrasting nicely with the blue plaid and the cut-out areas. The three circles at the top are places where smaller photos could go. Since I had nothing for those, I filled each with punched shapes and embellishments. Since the pages had been completed, these were a breeze to assemble!

Burn Baby Burn

After leaving the visitor center, we felt like hiking in the woods. The ranger's information pointed us to a nearby trail called Burnwood Trail. It was an easy hike through old-growth trees (though we also found some new growth). The trailhead was nearby, so we chose to hike before eating lunch.

This layout was created from the Creative Memories 2023 Croptoberfest collection. Here's a sample of the materials.

Creative Memories offers packages with extra paper and laser-cut frames along with an instruction booklet to create additional pages. I put them together for my customers so they can see the finished products and so that I can warn them of any typos or places to pay special attention when cutting. And that's why there is a little tear on the frame on the left page. I had used repositionable adhesive, but it has gotten stronger over time. After a year, it ripped as I tried to edge my photo underneath. OOPS!

Gorge-ous!

By the fall, I was getting worn out and needed to escape. Still, where do you go with a pandemic raging, no cure, and no vaccine? Well, the middle of West Virginia sounded remote enough to be safe, and the possibility of seeing the changing leaves was enough of a draw to get us out of our house. In fact, Jim's sister also needed a break and joined us. We rented a cabin near New River Gorge National Scenic River (well--it was at the time; now it's a National Park!) On our first day after travel, we headed to the visitor center to get our bearings and, of course, my stamps.

You may recall this post from last summer—it was the last of my guest designer spots. The post provides details on the layout.

To better view the bridge, follow the boardwalk behind the visitor center. It is 178 steps down (and back up!) It was much more crowded than I thought it would be for a mid-week October visit. Then again, it was near Columbus Day, so many people had the same idea. So, that meant masks as we did the walk.

I wanted to use the paper from Scrapbook Customs featuring the bridge photo. I made that the left side of a layout. The right side is the 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page where I added the information sheet on the bridge. I folded it to see the best of the highlights. I matted our photos so they would pop from the page.

For the final pages on the boardwalk trail, I turned to a set of pages I had made at one of the Paper Loft classes at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. I carefully restructured the left page to retain many of the original elements but trimmed it to 8 1/2 x 11 to fit the pocket page. I felt rather proud of myself for figuring that out!

The Last Supper

During the early part of the pandemic, restaurants were forced to close as they were natural places where the virus could spread. Many found ways to serve take-out (including take-out bar service) to help cover some expenses. City Tavern asked people to purchase gift cards during that time to have funds to continue operating. I love that restaurant and its chef, so I ordered a $50 card. I was happily surprised to receive the card with a handwritten Thank You note from the chef!

In September 2020, there was some ability to reopen the establishments by utilizing open-air seating. Jim and I used our gift card and went to Philly one evening for dinner. I enjoyed it very much, especially as we hadn't had a chance to dine out in months. It was a nice treat that I didn't have to cook. Sadly, just a few months after our visit, City Tavern announced they would have to close permanently. It was one of the saddest days of the pandemic for me.

I completed this layout as part of Tammy McEwen's End-of-Year challenge. I originally finished this during the April 2024 CM Virtual Crop (scroll to sketch #4). For this version, I used papers from the Silver and Gold packs, including a newer part of the "Enchanted Memories" line that was part of the winter 2024 releases (bonus paper you could only get from your consultant). I found a couple of embellishments with scrolls and Old English fonts. That pulled out the 18th-century vibe with our pewter cups!

Meeting Virtually Everywhere

On Saturday, I donned my new convention shirt. We had a special one produced with a logo indicating the virtual convention, and everyone was to order it in the color of their home region. I live in the Mid-Atlantic, so I got a light blue shirt. On the same weekend, I attended a virtual crop and worked on pages from a previous convention. Therefore, my submission to the forum for that day included both the shirt and the scrapbook pages. Later in the afternoon, I joined the convention meeting. We had several speakers, door prizes, and trivia.

This page is based on one of the CM December 2024 sketches (scroll to sketch #1). Like my Junior Ranger page, I used the "Leave Nothing Behind" kit and augmented that with "Set Up Camp." The 2 collections have similar patterns and color profiles, so it is easy to mix and match the 2. I created the circles for the banners by punching with the CM Circle punch. I was short by one green circle. It did not matter as I found a sticker I could put in its place. The other circle embellishments fit into the paper circles very nicely.

By the way, if you want to see the full layout that I'm holding in the photo, check out this post from January 2021, where it was featured!