All the Presidents Men and Women

Today, we finalize the layouts for the President's Dinner at the 2021 NPTC convention. One photo we try to get each year is a group of all the presidents who have served in the organization over the years. This photo is missing John, as he doesn't seem to attend the convention much anymore, but the other five of us were happy to be together again. This is the order in which we served: Mike at the far right, then Nancy, then Roland, then me, and currently, Yvonne. (John would be between Nancy and Roland).

This layout is based on an Original CM sketch. I replaced the block of 3 photos in the center with the 5x7 photo of our group. The papers are from the same collection as my dinner companions' layout in the last blog (Our Moments). I do love that tiled paper! The border is a laser-cut border from the collection. The base is bronze shimmer cardstock, providing a rich tone to the layout. The top word (Friendship) is a laser-cut title. The bottom phrase (Capture the Moment) is a sticker from the original CM collections. This page finishes volume 1 of my convention trip. There were so many photos over the 6 days of my journey that I had to put the rest of the material in another album. The end of the dinner served as a suitable stopping point for this album.

Dinner Companions

Welcome back to the President's Dinner at the 2021 NPTC Convention. I don't have many photos from the event. We began with a cocktail reception and then proceeded to dinner. You can see the menu below. I joined Carl and Marla Raboi, Carl's mom, and her significant other, along with Melania, Nicole, Brian Bailey, and a new member named Allan Randall. We had a great time talking over dinner and were able to get a couple of group shots in before the night came to an end.

For this layout, I chose one of Cheryl Even's Split Coast Stampers sketches. I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the right to align with the direction of my photos. I used the Our Moments collection from Creative Memories because I felt the colors matched the tone of the restaurant — the rich browns and reds are reflected in the wood tones of the walls and columns. I really like the paper with the tiles on it, so I made that the base for the 2 group photos. I used one of the tonal papers for the background and added 2 thin strips of gray for the outline of the square. This way, I didn't have to cover up the gray paper unnecessarily — paper saver! I didn't need much journaling, so I chose one of the mats with a smaller circle in the middle. The gray of the card matches the gray strips, which helps tie the layout together.

The Train Gang

Welcome back to the 2021 NPTC Convention in Washington, DC. This post marks the beginning of a look at the President's Dinner — the traditional meal served after the convention meeting. The dinner was held at a restaurant across town from the hotel, but we were able to ride the Metro to a nearby station. Not everyone was as familiar with Metro, and I found myself leading a large group of club members. I had to turn around periodically to take photos of them behind me. 

This layout is based on one of Meggan and Tessa's Power Hours (May 2025). I pulled more of the red-white-and-blue papers from my stash, but I also borrowed embellishments from the Passport to Adventure pack. That pack had the nice Metro Train sticker and a 'Now Boarding' title. There was also a mat with the title that I liked for this particular layout. I chose to utilize the circular element as a journal box. I have some lined paper that can be cut with the Custom Cutting System. Cutting a slightly larger circle mat is a nice touch. There are three blades in that set — red, green, and blue. Each is about 1/4" difference in width from the pins to the blade, so you can easily create multiple layers. The left border is the same punch (Chevron) that I used on the cannon firing event at Fort Washington. Now it's backed with blue for a much different look!

Lasting Memories Guest Designer Week 4 (Mount Gulian Front to Back)

Hello everyone! I'm guest designing for Lasting Memories throughout September! This is my final entry, but you can review the previous entries from the past few weeks. Each one followed the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories, and I encourage you to join the challenge! Post your version using the link at the bottom of their post.

For this challenge, I moved to my December 2021 trip to the Hudson River Valley. There are numerous vintage houses in the area, and many of them are decorated for the Christmas season. One of the houses I visited is Mount Gulian. This home is over 300 years old. When we arrived, we were early for the tour, so I walked to the back of the house to explore the grounds. Or did I? Interestingly, this house was located on the river, and so the "back" of the house is truly the FRONT. People traveled mainly by river when the house was built, so they arrived on this side of the house. The side I entered, which is NOW the front, was originally the back door. Amazing how things change over time.

This week, our theme is to use plaid paper! When I think of plaid, I typically think of Christmas, so I went through my park-related photos and found this trip to the Hudson River Valley, where we toured old homes decorated for the holidays. I went through my Christmas stash and located some plaid papers. I followed this idea from the CM blog to create the borders at the top of the pages. I picked a few plaid mats to highlight the house and break up the green at the bottom. The large poinsettia was also one of the photo mats, but I fussy cut the image from the middle.

And the Winner Is...

Today, the blog continues its look at the 2021 NPTC convention. You'll remember that I posted my Saturday morning adventure as one of the Lasting Memories challenge posts back on September 7th. I stopped in Chinatown for a quick bite and then attended the convention meeting. Our meetings always feature a welcome from the superintendent and a speaker about one of the park units. Recognize the ranger on the right-hand page? He was one of the featured speakers at the Frederick Douglass bus trip event. And not only did he speak today, but we awarded him with the NPTC Flat Hat Award. This is the first time we have been able to present the Award at the convention. Usually, we hold a ceremony later in the year at the ranger's host park.

The Award is given each year by asking our members to nominate a ranger who has made an extra effort to ensure the satisfaction of our guests, or who has provided an outstanding presentation. The club has a committee to review the nominations, and then one (or one group) is chosen and announced at the convention. You can see the list of prior winners here. You may be lucky enough to see them in your own NPS travels!

The other awards being given out are to the members who completed their platinum status within the past year. You can see Jennifer Baxter, Cheryl, and Mike Carver (remember their last park, Eisenhower, which was featured at the start of this convention tale). There is also a large photo of all the current platinum members present at the meeting.

This layout is loosely based on Cheryl Even's Sketch #51. This is an excellent sketch if you have a lot of horizontal photos. So long as you get everything to 4" tall, you can arrange the pictures in 2 rows along the page, leaving some gaps for the background paper to show through. The argyle paper is a very old CM paper from my stash. I trimmed it to 8x12 to layer the photos. That left 2" above and 2" below for borders and journaling. The 2 borders below the pictures are laser-cut borders from the US of Yay pack. The "border" across the top was just from punching multiple ribbons with one of the CM punches. I had some small red letter and number stickers to spell out the title across the center of the ribbons. A few firework stickers to celebrate the accomplishments, and the page was done!

Rainbow Shirts Revisited

Today, we are finishing our visit to Glen Echo Park for the 2021 NPTC convention picnic. Before the convention started, I posted a request that people wear their 2020 Virtual Convention shirt to the picnic. This isn't terribly unusual — we typically wear the prior year's shirts on Fridays. But my request included a participation request that everyone get in rainbow order, so I could get a group photo. I was thrilled at how many people came over for the photo. Just outside of our picnic area was a set of risers. I'm not sure why they were there, but they were the perfect way to bring everyone together for the photo. 

I created this layout based on this idea from the CM Blog. I wanted something a little fancier than a plain white background, so I decided to create one. The small squares are made with a CM Border Maker punch and then adhered diagonally across the page. It was a LOT of punching, but it was worth the effort. In addition to this are the diamond shapes created with the CM Custom Cutting System. Since that filled the space with so much color, I journaled on some of the plain white Write Strips. 

Lasting Memories Guest Designer Week 3 (Francis Scott Key Memorial Park)

Hello everyone! I'm guest designing for Lasting Memories throughout September! I'll be sharing an extra layout every Sunday at noon for the next 2 weeks (and I encourage you to go back to review the last 2 weeks). Each one follows the weekly challenge posted at Lasting Memories, and I encourage you to join the challenge! Post your version using the link at the bottom of their post.

For this post, we are jumping ahead in the NPTC convention again. On Monday, we had a 2nd bus tour, and one of the stops was the Old Stone House in Georgetown. Though managed by the Rock Creek Park unit, the land isn't technically part of that park. However, nearby is Francis Scott Key Memorial Park, which IS. It was located close by where our bus was parked, so when we were done at the house, one of the Rangers walked us back to the bus, stopping at the park long enough for a few photos. 

This week, the Lasting Moments challenge is to use floral paper. I turned to CM's Spring Medley pack. The background floral paper had been used previously, and all that remained was a 1" wide frame. I found a piece of blush cardstock that matched the tone of the stones in the photos and trimmed that to 11". I found a sketch that I had saved and used it to finish filling in the elements. The green leafy print is also from Spring Medley. It's 6" x 9". I trimmed the statue's close-up photo to 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" and then matted it on a piece of blue paper from the collection. A few stickers and a journal box finished the layout.