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.

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!