Meeting George Washington

Now that I've moved to Bucks County I am taking advantage of some events that I never did before. On December 19th every year Valley Forge recreates the march in of the Continental Army in 1777. That was the year they used the "off-season" to learn to become an army. I arrived a little later than I had planned thanks to traffic and work but I was in time to hear Washington give a speech and then to get a selfie with him! I also met one of his aides--James Madison! A little surreal but nice!

I based this layout on Challenge 3 from the April 2023 CM Virtual Crop. I pulled papers from the Winds of Winter paper pack (CM 2017). I liked the starkness of the pages and the brown tones (unusual in a winter collection) matched the historic look of the photos. I traded the 2 vertical photos on the right page for the program/brochure from the evening. With a decorative cover, it works both as a photo and memorabilia. I mounted that with photo corners.

I spent some time in the visitor center (that's where the stamps are after all) and saw a few of the displays. Mostly I hurried out to see GW. I also hiked out to the Muhlenberg huts. They were all filled with reenactors and period displays. Some of it was geared toward children but I found quite a bit for myself as well, such as the camp physician.

For the left page, I used Challenge 2 in the same virtual crop as above. For this page, I used Winter Woods--still the winter theme but this pack has that nice cut-log paper that is perfect for these cabins. I was able to trim my photos to small squares--it actually improved them by giving the viewer a focus. I substituted a decorative card for one photo and turned another into a journal box. On the right page, I used a Power Hour layout from Meggan Jacks. Her technique of folding the paper so that you have a punch running through the middle of the page was unique. This page continues with the Winter Woods papers and embellishments again, trading one photo spot for a journaling box.

My last page focuses on the outdoor experience. I feel bad for the "soldiers" who had the job of guarding the fire and talking about setting up the camp. It was a very cold night and I believe they most resembled the soldiers from 1777. 

For this page I dug back to the Virtual Crop from November 2022. This is a very simple sketch. I used just one sheet of paper and cut the square from the middle. When you flip it over and replace it, you have a two-tone paper for your photos. I wish there was more contrast in the 2 sides but you can tell it is slightly different. I used some embellishments from "Frost" (another older CM line). The darker photos stand out nicely on the medium-tone paper though.

Special Photos, Special Food

I wanted to show the Custers one of my favorite places, and it turns out they had never been to the Portrait Gallery in the Second National Bank building. The miniatures (bottom of left page) are some of my favorite pieces). We also listened to a Ranger talk about the statues and the Peale paintings.

This layout is based on the October 2022 sketch from a CM Virtual Crop. I liked the gold tone of the frames in the portraits so I used the Silver and Gold collection from CM--very versatile. You can use it for New Year's, Weddings, Anniversaries, or historic photos! I chose 2 rows of border stickers for the dividing line between the cardstock and the paper. The title "Old Photographs" worked so well here, though it was part of a heritage pack from Paper Loft. I had a few fleur de lis stickers that I scattered around as well. Probably could have managed those better, but the pages are done!

After our tour, we met up for dinner at City Tavern. Not only is it part of the NPS but Sierra had recently been in a baking competition where one of the judges was Chef Staib who runs the restaurant. I thought it only fair that she judge his food! We all enjoyed our meals.

This layout is based on a pin I saved on Pinterest. Now that I know more about Kiwi Lane, I likely would not have saved this sketch. Kiwi Lane products require you to trace and cut out your papers. I find that repulsive when there are so many better tools available. I used the CM 12" Decorative Trimmer to make the wavy segments in the middle of the page. The papers are from the Tonal Collections. Each quarter CM launches a set of 3 tonal paper packs with coordinating stickers. It is a great way to either add paper to a coordinating kit or to make pages without true "Themes". 

Benjamin Franklin with the Family

My next stop at a National Park site took me down the road to Philadelphia. Now that I live close, and my niece is looking at a college here, it has become a convenient meeting spot for the family. Lisa and Jason dropped Sierra (the niece) off at the college to visit with a friend. Meanwhile, we sipped coffee and then I took them to some of my favorite sites in the National Park Service. First up--the Ben Franklin Museum. Because it was Veteran's Day, there are no fees so we could roam the museum as we liked.

This layout is based on an Even More Scrapping sketch. I chose some fall-themed papers, though the brown tones match the historical components nicely. The green tags were sitting on my desk so they were added more for convenience than decoration ☺. I did not have a lot of embellishments for this one but I did add one of the Scrapbook Customs' "National Park Adventure" title stickers. That one is on each package of park-themed stickers and I have a great many packs of stickers!

Our next stop was to the Franklin Print shop where we watched the ranger creating a printed page (many more were hanging up to dry). While I've seen this process many times, it is always a nice diversion. And given the chill of the day, it was nice to be indoors!

This layout is based on one I saved on Pinterest. I used 2 papers from my Heritage collection. I thought the newsprint was a perfect page but since I had only one piece I needed to cut it up into four 3" strips. I cut the other paper in half and sandwiched it between the newsprint. To cover the seams, I added several pairs of border strips from the extras I had in the Tonal collections from CM. The title is from a family tree cut-apart pack from Paper Loft. I'm sure it was to be used on a page with wills or family bibles but it was PERFECT for these historic newspapers!

Farewell to Dayton

 I made 2 more stops in Dayton--the Carillon Historical Park and Huffman Prairie Flying Field. At Carillon is another bicycle shop owned by the Wright Brothers but it shows the transformation they made to use it to create airplanes. The park is quite large and includes many different displays of Dayton's history. I made more pages that didn't involve the Wright Brothers as I found some of the other items interesting as well.

This layout was created for the CM Virtual Crop in February 2023. Scroll down to challenge #4 for the sketch. The paper is from the Mystery Box that was revealed that weekend. The collection is called Burlap and Lace and it has some great papers and embellishments for working on heritage-type photos. I substituted the brochure for the 4x6 photo on the left page and a 6x4 photo for 2 4x4 photos as well. Remember that you should make the layouts work for you. Don't feel compelled to shoehorn your photos into a layout that will be unflattering.

In addition to the displays of how they created airplanes (including their own wind tunnel), there is one of the original Wright Flyers in a special environmentally controlled room. The brothers might have learned that flight was possible down in North Carolina, but here in Ohio is where they learned how to control the aircraft-even arranging one of the first pilot training programs. 

This is a Club Scrap kit called Industrial Evolution. If you scroll down to layouts 5 and 6 you will see the pages without photos. Because I had more horizontal photos, I carefully peeled off the left page photo mats (I made the pages and stored them as shown) and turned them. I placed them in a way to hide any rips in the paper and I think they look fine in that configuration. I used one of the photo spots as a journaling box on the right. Pre-made pages do help me complete albums quickly!

My final visit was to Huffman Prairie Field. There is a visitor center with more exhibits (more of a future vision of flying than historical) and there is a monument to the Wright Brothers out front. As I completed my visit, my husband called and indicated he was done with his visit to the Air Force Museum so I picked him up and had dinner. I have a few pages of the planes he saw. You can stop by to see those if you like.

I made this layout for a Sketches In Thyme monthly challenge (March 2023). They are now based on Facebook and it's a private group, but if you join you'll be able to see the sketches. They post 4 new sketches each month and between that and another group I joined, I'm kept busy! I only had 2 photos of the statue (because everything else was pretty much a bare field) and I thought this layout brought out the solemnity of the moment. The paper is Starlight which was the first mystery box that CM sold. I fussy-cut the stars from one of the cut-apart boxes and then used the original CM tag punch for the 2 tags. I mounted the quote on a piece of white cardstock so that it was visible on the darker strip of blue. I'm pretty proud of this layout.

"Modern" Miracles

 The kitchen area had several "new" items (by early 20th-century standards). I did not get a photo of the telephone but you can see the hot water heater and indoor sink. Dunbar's mom was a widow and took in laundry to earn money. She had some larger wash items on the enclosed porch behind the kitchen. 

This layout is from the same class as last week (both of these layouts are). This one uses papers from the Gemtones collection--one of the mystery boxes. You'll notice that there are not a lot of papers on this layout, just the triangle art we made in class and some punched circles. It's a reminder that you don't need a lot to enhance a page. All you really need are photos and journaling. That's scrapbooking!

These are the final 2 pages of the Dunbar house and feature the upstairs--Dunbar's bedroom and typewriter and the bathroom. There are several more rooms but as they were devoted more to his mother I decided not to scrapbook them. You can see another hot water heater for the bath here.

The papers on this layout are from Graphic 45--a kit I want to use up called Olde Curiosity Shop. There is a paper in there with flying pigs and I don't know if I'll ever get to use that one. They have a lot of busy prints but by choosing wisely and cutting them I was able to mix 3 of them on this layout. The typewriter die cut is from the old CM Archivers line. You'll see that I matted all of the photos on this layout. I don't always do that but I wanted them to stand out from the patterned papers.

A Poet's House

My next stop in Dayton is the Dunbar House. This house is run by the NPS but has nothing to do with the Wright Brothers or aviation (well, he did go to school with Orville and Wilbur but that's as close as it comes). He is known as one of the first African-American poets and is highly regarded for his ability to understand the lived experience of African-Americans and express them in prose. The tour starts in the visitor center but quickly traverses the distance to the house next door. One of the most striking features of the house is the use of wallpaper EVERYWHERE--even on the ceilings. 

This layout is based on a 1-2-3 sketch from Noreen Smith. I taught the class where we put a bunch of these together. Let me know if you want to join us for the next one! The background is just Spargo CM pages. The paper is a sheet from the Literary Romance pack--appropriate since he's a poet, right? I thought the floral side matched the wallpaper of the parlor and the wood side gave it an "anchor" for the pages. The stickers are from a pack I bought years ago at a Current outlet center. Not sure Current even sells scrapbook items any longer but these definitely worked with the era of this house.

The tour continued into the dining room. We could peek into the pantry from the dining room but we got a better view from the kitchen. There are areas where you cannot walk so that they can preserve the original floors so getting the right angles is tricky. Notice there is more wallpaper here!

This layout is based on a sketch I saved to Pinterest. I wanted to use up scraps from my Earthy papers (and yet there are still MORE in the package!) All of those are 1" x 11" strips and then the ends are covered with a punched border. I think the black paper really sets off the edges. It also sort of matches one of the wallpapers in the photos! I did use a few embellishments from the Earthy line to finish up the page.

...Must come down...

Attached to the visitor center in Dayton is a museum devoted to parachutes. I liked the tactile part where you could compare nylon and silk chute materials. 

I based this layout on an older Virtual Crop challenge that I saved. I didn't need to focus on Covid like the blog suggested, I just followed the sketch--though I did flip it upside down and left to right. The background paper includes a sheet of a fabric textile--while neither nylon nor silk, I thought it went well with the fabric concept and matched the tone of the photos/brochures. A few embellishments from my stash rounded out the page.

Inside the exhibits are a variety of informative panels and samples of parachute packing tools. The most important thing is to have a properly packed chute if you want to get to the ground in one piece. They included ejector seats as part of the display as they are attached to parachutes as well.

I made this layout as part of a class. It was a great layout for a lot of horizontal photos. I used papers from an Australia-themed pack as well as Travelog from a few years ago. I filled in a couple of the blank spaces with mats. The bottom left is an envelope, I just chose not to add anything to the inside. The mat in the upper right is probably a formation found in Australia but the color worked with the photo next to it so without proper context, it's just another journal mat!