Mama's Little Helper

Hello all! Today's blog is about a page featuring a National Park puzzle that I received as a birthday present in the summer of 2021. We decided to set up a large table in the living room to have space to assemble it whenever we had time to work on it. Our cat, Murphy, was always on hand to help us out! She is quite the supervisor. The finished puzzle was glued and framed for my scrapbook room.

This layout is based on one of the Creative Memories Virtual Crop sketches from July 2025 (scroll to Sketch #1). I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the right to fit the layout of my photos, then swapped the circle for the puzzle punch pieces. I chose to use the "Set Up Camp" pack because it is a lighthearted layout, and I wanted the bright, 'campy' feel of the papers. Assembling this is not as complicated as it appears. I punched the puzzle pieces from two different patterns, and layered them on cardstock (with a dark brown paper between for contrast). Then just cut one of the borders in half with the 12" trimmer and spread to the top and bottom (or left and right sides) of the page! I made sure to highlight the cat with arrows in each photo, using just a few other enamel stickers as embellishments. The puzzle pieces are visually busy, so it doesn't need clusters of larger stickers. 

A General Layout

Folks, we have reached the last entry for the 2021 NPTC convention! The Night Tour on golf carts came to a close by driving past the White House and then on to Pershing Park. This is the site of one of the newer memorials dedicated to World War I. The statue of General Pershing had been there, making it the perfect spot to add more material and rename the memorial. You can see the intended look in the photo on the far right. However, the monument isn't quite done! That's a canvas rendering of what the statue will look like. Since I took this photo, the project has been completed, and you will see the results in a future blog post.

I based this layout on an old Project Recipe from Creative Memories called Mix and Match. This is the older of the 2 Mix-and-match collections (2017). I used papers from the "Called to Serve" collection, as well as the back side of a Scrapbook Customs DC page with a map of the National Mall area. I liked the concept of the sketch with mirrored border punches, so I chose a patriotic version with the Flag Banner punch. It mimics the canvas's reflection in the memorial photo.

After the tour, the golf carts returned us to our hotel. It was late and I went right to sleep! It had been a long day. On Monday morning, I had a leisurely breakfast, then packed and headed to Union Station to catch my train back home.

For this layout, I modified an idea posted on the CM blog for creating travel borders (see the 2nd border on the page). The example focused on the Scenic Route travel pack, which I have used up. But the concept of the Passport to Adventure used here is very similar, and there was a lovely premade layered border with a train and a station. I followed all the other directions for the layers. After adding the embellishments, I wanted to point toward our next convention, so I fussy-cut an image of the St. Louis Arch from an Eastern National paper and added the small numbers for the following year.

I hope you enjoyed the journey through DC. Next time, we'll look at some unique park experiences closer to home!

Reflections of Lincoln

Happy Halloween, everyone! It's so perfect that we continue our nighttime tour of the Washington, DC National Mall in 2021. Our golf carts took us right up to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I loved capturing the images with the night glow from the lights and the remnants of the sunset. This may be the first time I've understood why the reflecting pool is such an essential part of the National Mall. And then I walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If you've not been here at night, it's quite a moving experience--even more so than a daytime trip. 

Similar to the page in my last blog, I had another sheet of black paper with pre-printed photos around the edge. I had initially planned to use those side by side on a two-page layout, but the pre-printed images were arranged along the right-hand side of each page, so I couldn't achieve the desired symmetry. That's when I decided to separate the papers. 

This paper also featured the statue of Lincoln from the memorial; however, the page was quite crowded, and I wanted more space for the photos and unigrid. I took the thin white title strip off at the top, then I cut the page in half and spread it across two pages. I layered each of the 6x11 pieces onto black cardstock so the background consistency carried across the pages. That gave me all the room I needed for my own photos (anything that is a 4x6 or 6x4 photo is mine — everything else was pre-printed), as well as the unigrid from the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. To be consistent with the pre-printed photos, I matted all of my photos with white cardstock. I reattached the title strip on the right page. To give me a bit more symmetry, I cut a piece of white cardstock to the same width and found some pertinent stickers to fill in the space on the left page.

Around the Mall

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC convention. In this blog post, we cover a little more ground on our Golf Cart Night Tour. As the sun set, our driver took us to some of the more iconic areas, as well as the new Eisenhower Memorial (since we had just been there the previous week, no one disembarked the carts!). The Jefferson Memorial was visible from the MLK Memorial across the Tidal Basin just before we boarded the carts. On the right page, the Capitol was glowing as the sun set. As we came past the Grant Memorial, the sun was even lower in the sky. This is when the illumination of the memorials begins, as you can see with the Washington Monument.

With this layout, I started on the right page. The photos with the white border are pre-printed on the page along with the Washington, DC title. Since the images were centered at the bottom and right, the paper worked best on the right side of the layout. I liked that the page had a black background because it represented the nighttime tour. To fill in the left side of the layout, I pulled a new set of Advisor-only papers and embellishments called "Everybody Smile". It combines the summer's patriotic holidays with backyard barbecues and family reunion gatherings. The layout is part of the project guide, which is available with the papers if you earn the kit from me. I added the white mats to keep the photos from disappearing into the background. The journal box is from the Eastern National Scrapbook kit. While we didn't have fireworks, it was a nod to the nighttime experience.

Rocking MLK

We are approaching the end of the 2021 NPTC convention in DC. In the last blog, we concluded the bus tour with a visit to the Old Stone House in Georgetown. The bus dropped us off at the hotel, and then my group made a mad dash for the Tidal Basin. We had signed up for the last Golf Cart Night Tour and needed to be at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial for our Ranger talk. Although I've visited this monument several times, I always find something new. This time, I found a medallion set in the concrete, indicating that the time capsule buried there is to be opened on the 50th anniversary of the memorial. That's August 28, 2061, for anyone who wants to put it on their calendar (I'll be 92, so I'll see you there!)

This layout is based on two different pins. First, I chose this sketch (which I flipped left-to-right). I saw the large title border and chose this pin from CM. I had to click through to this page to get the directions for creating the sunburst effect. To boil it down, you cut 2 strips of paper. One piece is cut into strips diagonally, but reassembled on the other strip so that it still appears to be a solid piece of paper. I recommend a lot of repositionable adhesive on the back. Then, simply pull off every other strip and discard it. Trim the edges for a clean edge or layer a border along the edge.

Once that border was completed, I finished the layout with more scraps of red, white, and blue. The Land of the Free title block is from Eastern National. The "Let Freedom Ring" is a vellum accent from Old CM. I used an old CM star punch to make layered blue and red stars to "emerge" from the starburst design. That flowed into the smaller blue and red stars on the left page, almost as if they were getting smaller the further they got from the border. 

After the Ranger talk ended, we boarded our golf carts.

You might remember this layout from my stint as a Lasting Memories Guest Designer in September. You can click here to read all about this layout.

Stone Age

Today's blog entry marks the final stop on the Monday bus tour at the 2021 NPTC Convention in DC. The early part of the day included a visit to the National Arboretum and Lincoln Cottage. Since none of that is officially related to the National Park Service, I did not include those pages in the blog (but feel free to visit me sometime to see them!)

We stopped at the Old Stone House in Georgetown. You may recall that I mentioned this house in my Week 3 'Lasting Memories' challenge post, which can be found here. This site is handled by the Rock Creek Park portion of the National Park Service. Built in 1766, this house is the oldest structure on its original foundation within the Washington, DC area. It's a relatively small structure, but you can see that inside is the original fireplace, complete with a scarred wood mantle. Interestingly, the house was not preserved simply because of its age. For over 200 years, a misconception that George Washington used this as his headquarters when traveling helped spur the community to maintain the structure. After the government bought it, historic excavations and research on maps of the area concluded that this was never a tavern, and George Washington never stayed here. However, since it had become a historically preserved site, it was now saved for its own history.  

This layout was made during a Paper Loft class at the Lancaster CKC scrapbooking convention. The overall yellow tones of the stones and my shirt helped pull everything together. Paper Loft intentionally creates pleasing palettes to help create a layout with interest (read--multiple patterns) that do not conflict or cause too much discordance on the page. I wasn't sure how much journaling space I would need, so rather than try to cram it all into a small journal box, I wrote out my journaling on CM's Write Strips. Then I can adhere them to the page and trim the lines as I lay out the strips. The house embellishment on the bottom right comes from the Eastern National scrapbook kit.

An Eye Opening Experience

Folks, I'm happy to say that this is post #600 in my blog! Thanks so much for sticking with me through the years!

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC Convention and my travels through DC. In the last blog, we visited the site of Abraham Lincoln's death. After leaving the theater, I had planned to visit the African American Civil War Museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for renovations, and as of the posting of this blog, it still is. The latest estimate of reopening is November 2025! Since I couldn't see the museum, I wanted to stop at the memorial just across the street from the entrance. There were 2 National Park Rangers who provided an excellent background on the statue and the creation of the memorial. 

The statue in the middle is made "in the round," and additional photos of the other sections are in a peekaboo pocket on top. What made my jaw drop were the silver surround panels. It's rather hard to see in the photos, even in my close-up shots, but each panel is inscribed with the names of African American soldiers from the Civil War. There are more than 200,000 soldiers listed! I had no idea the number was that high. I just turned in circles, goggling at the sheer volume of people documented here. If you view the page in person, you will notice that I have focused on a close-up panel of the 54th Massachusetts, as it is the company most familiar to me due to the movie "Glory." 

I based this layout on a sketch that CM had provided in July 2023. You can see an image of it here, but I don't have a link to the actual document. I have a PDF, though, so if you'd like a copy, please email me and I'll send you the layout. I chose this layout because I had boxed myself into a corner with the last Ford's Theater page. I did not have enough content for a two-page spread of the Peterson House, so I created just the left side of the layout. That left an empty page on the right. I really wanted to use all my photos for this layout and create a 2-page spread of the monument, but I couldn't think of anything else to fill the right-side page and move forward. So I put all the photos on the desk and mulled over them for a bit. 

The first thing I did was trim them down to see how small I could make them. Then I evaluated each photo to see if it would contribute to the story. I didn't really need 6 pictures of the wall of names. I chose a horizontal photo that showcases the immensity of the memorial, and then added two close-up images in a peekaboo pocket on top (which you don't see here). I had trimmed one photo to a relatively small size, which also provided more space for journaling. Once I found the layout, I assembled the pages fairly quickly. This uses the Secret Box "Great Times" paper and embellishments. The sticker in the bottom right corner is from the Eastern National scrapbook kit.