50 States Album Part 26--Texas

This was a trip from May 2015 when I went to a surgical technology conference in San Antonio. We also took some time to do additional sightseeing and we drove to the LBJ ranch and the state capitol in Austin.

The inspiration for this layout is from this page. The giant Texas image is perfect to me because EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas! The state name is cut on the Cricut. The background paper is a piece of paper from the Paper Loft. The remaining stickers are from a package of Texas stickers from my stash. The stars are punched from some leftover paper and cardstock.

50-states album part 25--Tennessee

We've had a couple of good trips to Tennessee. This one was the road trip to Mississippi for the NPTC convention. We sort of went backward--we drove to the bottom of the Great Smokies and drove through the park going north, exiting by Pigeon Forge. Then we had to head south again to Mississippi. Still, the park was a lot of fun, even if I about killed myself hiking up Clingman's dome! 😊

This is a fairly simple page, though it was modeled on this page. It helps that Tennessee is a LONG state and so it spreads across the middle nicely. The background paper is just an old piece of CM with pale stripes. The title and state shape I cut on the Cricut. The stickers across the state are from a Junior Ranger sticker album I received as a gift. The journal box is from a sticker pack I bought featuring the park. I had already scrapbooked this trip (see this post) so I was glad to be able to use up more of the stash.

50 States Album part 24--South Dakota

Another layout based on our summer 2017 "Great Western Loop" trip for the National Park Travelers Club convention. These were just 2 of the parks in South Dakota. We also went to the Minuteman Missile complex, Wind Cave and Jewel Cave. But these 2 do say "South Dakota" the most I think. My favorite mental image was in the Badlands and Jim was so intrigued by the structures we had to stop the car so he could go out and touch the rocks to see what it was all about.

The inspiration for this page started with this idea. No, it doesn't really resemble that page. What I took from the initial layout was the rope idea. I started looking for a rope theme and found a paper similar to this one (but a little curvier). Since I was looking for a rope across the page, I cut off a single strand. Since I had ruined the paper I decided to cut out more strands and then started playing with them until I figured out the rope border was really all I needed. The state shape became a mat this time. The Mount Rushmore die-cut in the upper left is a Cricut cut from a cartridge I own called Destinations. The title under our photo at Mount Rushmore is from a sticker pack someone gave me.

50 States Album part 23--South Carolina

Most of my forays into South Carolina were trips to go somewhere else (mostly Atlanta). But one trip was to a conference in Charleston and we took time on our last day to go and see Fort Sumter. This is the first park I distinctly remember picking up a National Parks Passport, looking at it, and then setting it down without buying it. Since we haven't been back in over 10 years, I wish I had gotten my first stamp then! It was February and we were out on the water so it was quite chilly--hence the winter coat!

I struggled with what layout to use. I ended up deciding to base it on one of my ideas for a Civil War theme page (appropriately enough--for Fort Sumter). The brick corners were scraps as is the middle section (it's from the Timeworn Texture pack from Creative Memories). I think the sticker grouping in the bottom right was all I needed for the Civil War theme. The state cut-out in the upper left was a free cut that I found. I liked that it incorporated the shape of the state and the state flag all in one simple cut. The state name was a simple Text Font from Cricut. I've about given up on using sticker letters--I hate having to manufacture letters from leftovers.

50-States Album part 22: Rhode Island

Rhode Island was part of our 2018 National Park Travelers Club convention. While the host park was in Massachusetts, the distance to the other New England states is small enough that we had a bus trip that included several Rhode Island sites and was still back to New Bedford by dinnertime. We saw not only the Roger Williams NM but the state capitol and Tuoro Synagogue--one of the oldest temples in the US.

This layout is based on a blog post from Creative Memories. While the original post was clearly the Golden Gate Bridge, the paper can be used for any suspension bridge. I turned the laser-cut die-cut bridge over so the red wasn't the prominent feature. It helped that we went to Newport as the bridge is a feature of that city. Otherwise, I would have struggled with a theme for the page.
On the upper left is an image of the state I cut on the Cricut. It was a nice change having a striped state and the state flower included. The state name was sort of an accident. The font I chose to cut (also on the Cricut) was very narrow and tore into shreds when I tried to remove it. But looking at the "negative" space I realized with little effort, I could turn THAT into the title!

50-states Album part 21--Home Sweet Home: Pennsylvania

I knew Pennsylvania would be a tricky state to do for me since it is less a "destination". But I've lived all over the state so I wanted to include as much of my history as I could. I ended up including photos of 3 of the houses I've lived in as well as a couple of other notable spots like where I went to school.

The color palette had to be yellow and black of course since I'm a fan of all the Pittsburgh teams. The letters for "HOME" were cut on the Cricut. A look at the "top" level shows my first home and my current home. You can see that there's more underneath and you can see a star in Erie (one of the places I went to school).

Opening the first two flaps you can see highlights of where I visit. Primanti Bros. restaurant is always a favorite stop when in Pittsburgh. On the right is me with the Drexel Dragon on the day I dropped off my dissertation for my doctorate.

In the middle view, you can read more of the journaling and you can see more cities. I found small icons to represent the various locations. The steel mill for Pittsburgh was a good find for me. The pine trees in the Poconos area are a Creative Memories punch.

Lifting the journal box you can see the expanded view of the state and the first home Jim and I bought together in 1994.

The overall idea for this page came from this layout. I like what I've made. I do wish that I could have included more but I think it would have made the state too cluttered. Given all the flaps, it's one of the heaviest pages in the album now.

50 states album part 20--Oregon

The photos here are from my 2013 trip to Portland for my cousin's wedding. I traveled with my Mom and that always is a fun time. In addition to the wedding, we had time to do some sightseeing. We saw a lot of waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge, but Multnomah is truly awesome!

I scraplifted the idea from this layout about the Oregon Trail Museum. We actually did visit that museum on this trip but the photos didn't make the cut for the layout. I chose a lighter background print that coordinates with the cut-out of the state shape. I made the wheels a little bigger as well. The title is cut from the Cricut Destinations cartridge. I stretched it into the large oval and backed it with the same red as the state shape outline. Fairly simple to construct actually.