Some More of Moore's Creek

I'm continuing my July 2021 beach trip. Or should I say concluding it? I made my way back home after a fun week at the beach (with no National Park sites). We had vacationed in Oak Island, NC, and driving to Moore's Creek was not far. I've been here a few times, so it was mostly a re-stamp exercise, but I spent an hour walking around the trail. You'll see those photos next week. To start, here's the sign and my sign selfie!

I based this layout on a sketch I saved on Pinterest. I used the Creative Memories collection called Passport to Adventure. It's still available if you want to recreate this layout (and if you do, please post a photo or link in the comments below!) I liked the green paper as I thought those arrows could be imagined as trees in the sign's background. I used the compass punch and the stickers from the pack to create the border along the left. I found many of the little postage stamp embellishments that matched the layout and clustered them around the main focal points.

Finally We Meet the Captain

I kept heading south after seeing the concrete ships. My next destination was First Landing State Park near Virginia Beach. As the name suggests, this is where the original colonists landed in 1607. These settlers would eventually migrate a bit further south to Jamestown. Today, there is a lovely beach next to the Chesapeake Bay, and while I had to pay to enter the park, it was a great little break. And finally, the sun was out! Near the beach are the signs that detail the landing and the connection to Captain John Smith. You can read the stories if you zoom in on the photo. From there, I drove to the Oak Island area for my week with my sister, but we'll pick up my travels to National Parks on the way home!

This layout was also created for the CM March 2025 Virtual Crop. Scroll to Sketch #3. I looked through my papers and was happy that the dark blue background had the same tones as the brightly toned wood papers. Those papers were made about 20 years apart! The dark blue is from the Old CM Primary paper packs. The bright boards are from an advisor-only pack. The background papers have a sand pattern, though it's less visible. I scoured my stash for the rest of the embellishments. The seagulls were from one collection, the title stickers another, and the "Picture Perfect" from yet another kit! Luckily, it all came together nicely. For some fun, I drew a stitched border around the dark blue paper.

Who Knew Concrete Floats?

My next stop on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake Trail was to Kiptopeke State Park in Virginia. You can get to this boat launch area if you drive through the park. Yes, John Smith came through here (his maps were quite detailed, so he likely sailed every inch of the shore). But I don't think he saw these concrete ships. I never knew you could make ships from concrete AND that they could float! However, this became a popular solution during WWII when metal was needed for planes. After the war, they were no longer needed, so they sunk them here to create a breakwater. Birds and other wildlife use them for protection and for fishing. Humans can fish here as well. The weather was terrible during my stop, so it was a brief photo stop, and then I kept driving south.

I created this layout from the CM Virtual Crop in March. Scroll to sketch #2. You can see that I doubled the sketch and turned them 90 degrees so that the paper strips made left and right borders. I used papers from CM's Shiplap (an advisor-only collection) and some scraps from some other neutral-toned papers. Not only does it match the grey skies, it feeds into the "concrete" concept. I didn't use many embellishments. I found a couple of borders that filled the gap between photos and scraps. Then, a few arrows and other small word stickers completed the layout.

The Inside Story

I took a guided tour of the house. Here, you can see both the main floor and the upstairs bedrooms. Some lovely objects were on display, such as the purse and fan used by the lady of the house. In the dining room, the table was set for a fancy dinner. Yes, they did have pineapples, though they were rare in the 1700s. It denoted a family with money who could afford to import them. 

This is another layout from the CM March Virtual Crop. Scroll to layout #4. I chose papers from the Gem Tones collection (a previous secret box offering). I have been using this for historic homes for a while and am getting close to the end (truthfully, I had to create multiple strips of the base papers and layer them on a base of white cardstock). That's why the banner on the right is from a secret box in 2023 called Sweet Blossom. It's not a perfect match, but the tones were close, and I liked the floral stickers in the kit (they were made to be stacked). Since I needed 4 borders, I used 2 matching stickers for the top and 2 similar ones for the bottom (both from the Gem Tones collection). 

Bonus Post--Broccoli For Breakfast

 Hi all! I am playing along with Lasting Memories today. To fulfill the challenge, I created this page that is part of my July 2021 beach trip with my sister. (You just saw the first post Friday night.) It wasn't a stop at a national park, but a breakfast that I had with one of my NPTC friends, Deb. I was staying close to her house, which she noticed when I posted my location on Facebook. The next morning, we met at the Cracker Barrel located next to my hotel. She surprised me most by ordering a side of broccoli for breakfast! I had to take a photo of it, and of course scrapbook it! 

Lasting Memories is having a series of sketch challenges this month (MY FAVORITE!) I realized this combination of photos would work well with challenge #747. I had purchased the Cracker Barrel paper from a vendor at the Lancaster Scrapbook Convention. I originally planned to use it for a Thanksgiving dinner with Jim's family, but somehow that never materialized. But it became an excellent base for this layout. I used scraps from my stash for the yellow and brown rectangles. I did trim some green paper for the photo mat. I wanted a touch of green to highlight the broccoli. Some of the stickers came from that same pack, but the brunch stickers came from a sheet I got for Christmas. The little broccoli stickers on the plate at the bottom left were from a VERY old CM family reunion sticker pack. To complete the layout, I punched out a few trees from a scrap of paper with leaves on it. It gave me a two-toned effect, resulting in what looks like broccoli spears. I tucked them at the top of the layout to keep the green moving around the layout.

Hitting the Trail

My next adventure was in July 2021. My sister and her husband invited me to spend a week at the beach in Oak Island, North Carolina. I agreed, and on July 2nd, I started heading south. My first few stops concentrated on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. I've visited several locations on this trail before. You can find information about the trail on the NPS page here. You can click the label at the bottom to find more entries related to this trail on my blog.

So what does Ker Place have to do with the good Captain? Likely nothing. 😀This house is the main location for the local historical society, making it a convenient place to store a stamp (which, to be honest, I had to hunt for through the kitchen to get my ink). A sign near the waterfront (about a mile away) references the Trail. As his travels were in the 1600s and this house was built in the late 1700s, the Ker Family never saw the expedition. However, I will regale you with my scrapbook pages because I got the stamp here.

This layout was created for the March CM Virtual Crop (scroll to sketch #1). I was in a hotel room in Washington, D.C., but I had brought my scrapbook supplies with me in two cases. The papers I chose came from the Our Moments collection. I did not include a photo of the facing page. I added an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket for a brochure about this house (front) and 2 other photos (an interesting piece of carved wood in the basement and a mastodon tooth the owners had found and was on display). But these 3 photos summed up the entirety of the visit (though there is another post with the lovely interiors). 

What a Block House

My last entry for Fort Larned is this blockhouse. Initially, it was meant to be a defensive position (which begs the question of why there is no fort wall if you thought you needed a defensive position). That's why there are slit holes in the top of the building. However, since they realized that wasn't necessary, they changed it to the prison building. You can still see the shackles attached to the floor below. The door on the floor originally went to a well, and tunnels were used to go to the other buildings. That was closed off, and it became solitary confinement. Yep, spend a night in the hole!

This layout is based on a sketch I saved. I initially found it on the gallery at Scrapbook.com. To create this page, I used a piece of brick background paper (which resembles the building). I then took a piece of brown texture paper (I think it's supposed to be leather) and cut a large circle. I cut the circle to place part of it in the upper left and the other in the lower right. I then trimmed off any overhanging paper to create some photo bases. I found some scraps in grunge style along with a border sticker of the rope and stars (a nice Wild West sheriff feel?) to create the banners. The journal box is a sticker that originally had a phrase at the bottom saying "for being too cute". Clearly, I did not need that! I trimmed the bottom and purposefully roughed the bottom edge to match the top. I put that on some lined paper for a little journal box.