Same Old Story

Happy Valentine's Day to all! I hope you LOVE my layout 😁💕😊 

After leaving the woods, we found ourselves at the edge of the plantation. We could see the canon and many signs regarding the Civil War battle fought here. I was surprised not only that the battle took place (I'd never heard of Carnifex Ferry before our trip) but also that it secured the division of the states to create West Virginia! There must also be other factors, but it's undoubtedly part of the story.

This page is part of a kit I got as a visit to a scrapbook store during the Buggies and Buds Shop Hop. This was a fun activity that my mom and I often did. At the end of September through Columbus Day, a small group of stores in Central Pennsylvania connected and hosted an event where we would travel from store to store getting our book stamped (guess why I enjoyed it). Along the way, we got "Make and Take" kits, usually greeting card kits but occasionally scrapbook layouts. This had been a 2-page layout, but I used the other side of the design previously. I liked the old wagon here as a 'tip of the hat' to the Civil War era.

There's a Fungus Among Us

After leaving the falls overlook, we continued the trail. The foliage was lovely, and since we weren't hurrying, we could stop and look around. The yellow diamond is the blaze for this trail. You can see in one photo below that we were amidst some very tall trees (that's Jim compared to the tree heights). And then I came across that stump that was just COVERED in mushrooms! 

This layout is from the Creative Memories 2022 Croptoberfest collection. And believe it or not, you can STILL order it! Check out this link. Below are the sample layouts that the Project Recipe kit makes. You can see that I rearranged where I wanted my photos on the pages (this layout is at the bottom of the 2 samples). When I help people create the pages, we always stop before attaching the photo mats. That way, when you are ready to use them, you can adjust the layouts to your photos. But since the tree had mushrooms and the layout had mushrooms--it's almost like they were meant to happen together!

Bonus Post--Happy Horizontals

Hello all! I'm posting a bonus entry tonight for a layout I just completed. You'll see more about this trip in a few weeks. In May 2021, I made a trip to Kansas, and one of my visits was to Nicodemus. This historic site commemorates the community founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. It became a rich cultural settlement with banks, schools, theater, all surrounded by a prosperous farming community. Though there were many of these founded, this one is the only one still inhabited. The population is quite small--less than 50 people remain. But they have a reunion once a year, and the descendants all return to celebrate the town.

I created this layout using a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. It was from a package I purchased, so I cannot post the sketch, but it did create the horizontal paper strips you see that match the Lasting Memories challenge for this week. The papers are from the Botanical Bliss collection; most have a floral or butterfly print. But I loved this distressed wood with the green dot print on the reverse. I also used a darker background from the same paper pack with a small detail that might be wheat. There were no embellishments with that paper, so I dug through my stash and found a few laser-cut pieces that would provide a little more color to a fairly light page.

Falling For You

As promised, here are the photos of the Pillow Rocks Overlook. That's the Gauley River, and it's as close as we'll get to it on this trip. We picked the perfect time to visit—look at the leaf color in the photos. We stood here just looking for quite a while before completing the trail. Those rocks don't look like pillows, though. Someone has a vivid imagination!

The left side of this page was made with one of the Advisor Only paper packs. Advisors also receive project recipes to use the papers. While I rarely follow those ideas, I made this one-page layout. When I pulled the photos, I replicated another page on the right side. Unfortunately, I had little of the paper pack remaining. I dug through my stash and found some comparable papers for the background. I didn't find enough to do ALL the leaves I needed (those are one of the CM punches). The top border on the right page is a little different. But the border stickers create a tone for the layout that works.

By Gauley

On our second vacation day, we headed to Carnifex Ferry State Park. As it was October and too cold to do an activity on the Gauley River, I settled for seeing it flow through the park. Kris had a problem with her socks, so I took a couple of photos of her, readjusting them before we started hiking 😀. I added the overlook sign here, but you'll see the pictures in the next blog post.

This layout is based on one of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 layouts. I finally found a way to see her blog (the links you find on her YouTube videos are all broken). So check out the link to the layout here and a link to the YouTube video. I bookmarked one of her pages to go back and find the directions and her hints and tips. You can search at the top of the page for a specific month or collection. This layout uses paper from the "Leave Nothing Behind" collection. I used 3x4 photos on the right side of the design instead of 4x6, so I got a little more white space on the right side, but I'm OK with that. 

I bought an Echo Park "Stateside" collection, and on the reverse of the West Virginia paper is that small map in the middle of the 6x4 photos. I was happy to find that the river and the park were on that portion of the map, so I highlighted them with a yellow marker and then cut a round enamel circle so that you could see both sections.

A Walk in the Woods

After lunch, we decided to hike a different trail and drove to the Bridge Trail. We would have seen another view of the big bridge if we had completed it. However, as we reached the top of the hill, the footing seemed a bit tougher than we were prepared for, so we turned around and headed back to the car.

This sketch is based on one of the CM 101 layout sketches (page 32). I used more Paper Loft papers. The trees are a border punch. It amazes me that layering one over a photo doesn't detract from the image.

Let's Have a Picnic

After our walk, we had lunch. We had packed a cooler with sandwiches, chips, and snacks. There was a picnic pavilion near the trailhead, and we dug in! Hiking really builds an appetite! The other photo is of a bar we passed (closed, of course). It was food-related, so I added it to the picnic page.😀 Note the bag of trail mix in front of me. I made that at home and brought it with us (homemade granola, too). One of the ingredients was dried apple. I chose a bag at the store that wasn't crispy, and Jim declared it to be too much like styrofoam to eat, so I had to pick those pieces out and eat them myself.

This page is based on a sketch from the CM Worldwide Virtual Crop (Scroll to sketch #3). I used papers from the Paper Loft. Since I only had a couple of photos, I replaced two of the photo spots with large embellishments from the Paper Loft cut-apart cards.