You Sunk My Battle Road!

Welcome back to the blog. We're continuing my trip home from the beach in July 2021. After leaving the Jackson Death Site, I headed to the main visitor center for Fredericksburg Battlefield. A trail leading from the parking lot takes you on a short walk through much of the battlefield sites. It's called the "Sunken Road" and you can see from the photo below that it's at the bottom of a hill. The trail eventually climbs the hill as well, but you'll see that next time. One of the first stops is the outline of a house that stood during the battle. The lady of the house stayed in the building (or so the story goes) through the battle and would even go out and tend to the casualties, giving water and dressing wounds (or at least she did for the Confederate soldiers). 

I used the Project Recipe made for the Archivers collection several years ago for this layout. I don't have more of that pack, but the Our Moments papers filled in perfectly. In the original design, that large rectangle on the left page was a waterfall of photos, but for me, it was the perfect place for a unigrid. I liked adding the brown cardstock but found it too dark for the unigrid, so I added a mat of light brown houndstooth to help it stand out. That semicircle was a remnant in the pack, and it just felt right, so I added it! 

When is a Shrine Not a Shrine?

We return to my trip home from the beach in July 2021. My next stop was to a place I had seen markers for during the 25 years or so that I had traveled with Jim's family to the beach, but had never stopped. It had always said "Jackson Shrine," and I assumed it was some small statue to him--I never realized it was part of the National Park System. This is technically part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park.

This is where Andrew "Stonewall" Jackson died from injuries sustained in battle at Chancellorsville. Ironically, he was shot by Confederate soldiers who mistook his scouting party for a group of Union Soldiers. He was wounded in the arm and hand, and of course, in the 1800s, infection was the real enemy. His arm was amputated, but he eventually died from pneumonia and never made it farther from the field than this building (an office on a plantation). What I like most about this site is that it has changed names to the Jackson Death Site, and the focus of interpretation includes Jackson's time here as well as the story of the Chandler family and the enslaved people living on the plantation. So yes, it's worth a stop!

While the basis of this layout is from a pin I saved (with the left and right sides switched), I am also playing along with Lasting Memories. Challenge #750 is one of this month's tic-tac-toe boards. I chose the bottom row of circle, two patterned papers, and a die-cut border. The papers I chose are from Creative Memories' "Memoirs Memories" pack from 2019, with embellishments from the Our Moments collection (2022). Some other embellishments are from the stash, including the circle, which was mounted on foam squares. There are a few more circles in the enamel dots strewn across the pages.. The laser-cut border on the right was strung on a border sticker. The matching border sticker is along the left page to help tie the colors together.

Don't Forget the Women

This is the last entry for Moore's Creek, but more entries are coming about my drive home from the beach in July 2021. Along the tour route are a variety of memorials, many of which I hadn't seen on my last trip, as I had to cut my tour short. Today, I lingered and took in the various statues. The ones that stood out to me included those for the women of the Cape Fear area and the Patriot Monument. The monument to Mary Slocum is probably not a true story (about having a premonition and riding through the night to save her husband). But the sentiment of a statue for women is unique, and I appreciate the effort. They also serve, those who stand and wait.

The Patriot Monument, also called the Grady Monument, is a sandstone obelisk placed on the battlefield in 1857 in honor of the first North Carolinian to give his life on a contested battlefield for American Independence, John Grady. The monument with the thistle is for the loyalists. Though they fought for Britain, their presence here steered the sentiment that led to the passage of the Halifax Resolves—North Carolina's vote for Independence.

My first note here is to thank my mom for the paper. I was scrapping at her house, and as I had a minimal amount of decorative paper packs with me, I rooted through her stash for something suitable for this page. I chose a piece of paper from the Bold and Slate pack, an Advisor-only paper pack (my customers earn those through purchasing products, and she had earned this set). I liked this paper because of the handwriting design on one side. The journal box is from a very old pack from CM called Archivers. I layered it on a darker mat to differentiate it from that handwriting paper.

To create the design, I turned to one of Noreen Smith's 1-2-3 layouts (December 2016). In the original sketch, the right side had 3 horizontal photos, but it was simple enough to turn that 90 degrees to allow for more of my vertical photos. As I take more pictures with my cell phone, I have more vertical photos. Do you have that same problem? If so, keep a copy of this sketch as it's the perfect way to highlight them. The paper and 6 photos will cover the cardstock, so you can use any color that you want to use up.

Highlander vs. Highlander

Today, we return to my visit to Moore's Creek on my journey home from the beach. I walked the 3/4 mile loop, listening to the audio tour. They highlighted the canon (there were 2 small ones integral to the battle) and the swamp. But the major battle was at the bridge. And if you've read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, you will recognize that this is where Jamie and Ian (Highlander Scots) fought for the American Colonials, facing their Scottish compatriots fighting for the British. Of course, I was enchanted by this location and took several photos. 

This layout is based on one of Cheryl Even's sketches. I originally started with 2 white bases (a rarity for me), but as I built the right-side page, I realized there would be too much bright white showing. I traded the cardstock for gray patterned paper from the Passport to Adventure kit. You'll also recognize the green strips from that pack, as they are part of the scrap from the prior blog post. A few other scraps of paper provided more variety in the layout. I am rather proud of myself for using the small passport frame. On one journal card was an image resembling the passport stamps that Eastern National provides. I punched that out and added it to the photo window, then covered the "tickets" sprouting from that frame with the National Park sticker. And voila--the embodiment of the National Parks Passport! The Adventure sticker and the 2 stickers on the left page are from one of the Scrapbook Custom sticker sheets. There is always a sheet specific to the park and then a generic one you can use for any park (as I've done here).

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.