A Cozy Little Village

I made a weekend trip to Hopewell Furnace because they were having a quilting bee and I had never really explored the outbuildings in the park. There is a group of ladies who meet regularly and work on quilts. The park incorporates them into the "living village" concept and allows them to work inside one of the buildings that had previously been a boarding house. There is a large room for them to work together on their quilts.

I was starting this visit on the right page of my album because of ending the prior event on the left in the chronological album. I decided that the best use of space was to add an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page to hold the brochure and a few photos. I worked on the layout below first and then wanted this to coordinate. I had an extra laser-cut border and some wood grain paper to put across the bottom to be similar to the borders I made for the next page.

I visited several of the buildings and found lots of vignettes of life when the furnace was a booming business. Since the focus at the furnace was on the work the men did, this side focused on the women and children. How they cooked, learned, and did their own work during the day.

I chose this pin of borders made with the Burlap and Lace papers from one of the 2023 secret boxes (one of my favorites). You'll notice that I switched the orientation to horizontal and put one at the top and one at the bottom to frame my photos. The background paper is wood grain though it may be hard for you to see as it blends into the wood floor where I take my photos! The left side is the back of the 8 1/2 x 11 seen above. I matted the photos with a bit of burlap paper and added a few more stickers to the page to make a cohesive layout.

2018 Convention Part 12--A Prudent Visit

On our way home on Sunday we made one final stop for a stamp--the Prudence Crandall House in Canterbury Connecticut. This home was a school for African-American girls in the pre-Civil War era. You would think in the north that there would be more understanding and tolerance, but there was not. The home was targeted frequently and almost burned to the ground. Prudence was jailed for her efforts as well. However, the students she taught turned out to be some of the educators and reformers who led the charge for the passing of the 14th Amendment.

This layout is based on the pin that I saved. I just used the right side of the layout and used papers from the Welcome Home collection and the Gem Tones collection. Both of those are running out and may need to go into the recycling bin soon.

We toured the home and could see a few original pieces but many more that were period or recreated items. They tried to describe what it looked like while it was a school. It was a nice visit but we soon had to head for home.

This layout is based on the October 4th video from Creative Memories and Noreen Smith. You can catch the full video here. She was demonstrating one of the sketches from the new bonus book 101 Sketches. CM posted a challenge to try all 101 sketches. The layout matched the sketch quite well, so I went to town! I used some of the Welcome Home elements and papers as well as a few stickers from the Art Nouveau collection. There are 3 lines representing borders in the sketch so I used 2 border stickers and a laser-cut border to create the element along the left side. I chose one of the few remaining papers, cut the edges a bit, and mounted it on dark green cardstock. The layout did not take long at all! This was a great page to finish the convention album. Back to my regular adventures next week!

2018 Convention Part 11--Rain Rain Go Away

Sunday morning our club had planned to have a Ranger Talk focusing on the life of Frederick Douglass in New Bedford. Mother Nature had other ideas and due to the rain, the walk was canceled. Instead, we met in the visitor center and looked at the displays while we talked about the life and times of Frederick Douglass. While we did that I also had a chance to complete the junior ranger books for both the New Bedford Whaling and Frederick Douglass in Massachusetts.

For this layout, I turned to an older Virtual Crop sketch from Creative Memories. I turned the sketch 90 degrees so that I could use the 3 photos for the park brochure. There was just one photo of me in my rain poncho in front of the museum so I highlighted that (see the photo below). I wanted to include both of my junior ranger books so I chose to add a large (6x12) Peekaboo pocket. I used a piece of coordinating paper and attached the brochures with photo corners.

The vertical border is from one of the border maker cartridges. I punched 3 borders total--one in ivory as the front piece. I then layered black "shadow" strips to the left and right. To save paper you can also cut one in half and "stretch" it across the item.

2018 Convention Part 10--Food and Fun

During the convention meeting, we had a short break where we served cake and punch. I also had my scrapbook on display so people could look through it (I think it was the 2016 convention from Philadelphia). 

The left page above and the right page below are the 2 sides of one layout which you can see here. Scroll to layout #2. I was making these pages while on vacation so continuing to use the nautical theme even though it's not truly nautical photos because that is all that I had with me. I used some of my Graphic 45 papers from an old line called "By the Sea". I added some CM papers that coordinated so I could get the mix of the blues and the reds. Otherwise, it would look like someone bled all over the pages! I wanted to include the program/Stamp Pad so I needed to use a pocket page. That gave me a little more room on the back to add more dinner photos below.

After the meeting, many of the attendees attended the President's Dinner. We were fortunate this year that one of the superintendents came. As the president, I asked him to join my table, and I enjoyed our dinner and talk.

By the time I got to the back of the pocket page, I was running out of scraps! I ended up trimming this blue gingham into 2 rectangles with a small gap between them since it would not cover the entire surface of the cardstock. The note cards I used for journaling were from a pack that I won in a different Graphic 45 contest.

2018 Convention Part 9--the Meeting

It's time to talk about the convention meeting! We gathered in the auditorium of the Whaling Museum. Registration was just outside under the whale bones. As people came in they got a name tag, ribbons designating the region in which you live, and the number of parks visited if over 100. Other ribbons exist for new members, charter members, and those attending their first convention. It makes for a great icebreaker when meeting new people.

This layout is based on challenge 8 from the September World-wide Virtual Crop. I surprised myself by being able to trim all of the photos to 4x4 blocks without losing any of the details of the image. I trimmed a mat card (bottom right) to fill in the last spot. I had hoped for a journal card there but nothing looked right so I journaled under a photo. The vertical photo in the sketch was replaced with a slightly larger block to accommodate the name badges for me and my husband. The row across the middle is comprised of small blocks punched from a variety of mat cards and scrap paper, all with nautical themes. It was a great way to use up scraps.

One of the highlights of the convention meeting is awarding club members. On the left page, we awarded those who completed "Platinum" status--that's visiting all of the national parks in the country by the date of their last visit. A few people have had to extend their quest as a new park was announced before getting to what they had hoped was their last park. There are over 400 park units (including not only the BIG national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite, but battlefields such as Gettysburg, seashores, historic homes, and monuments). It is definitely an achievement! 

On the right page, we presented David Kroese (Cardinal Dave) with the Dennis Bandley Award. This was named in honor of one of the charter member's husbands who was always helpful to other club members. Dave had posted a humorous anecdote in the forums about meeting a mountain lion. When another club member realized that Dave was going to get the award he wanted to also present him with a stuffed mountain lion. It was a great addition to the event!

This layout is Challenge 7 from the CM Virtual Crop. The papers and stickers are from an older National Scrapbook Day pack. I've bought extra of the paper over the years to make all the borders in the original kit but decided against the borders later. Now I'm just using the papers to finish beach pages or party pages based on the colors and decor. I chose the pink/coral background based on the shirts we wore at the convention (the North Atlantic ink color is sort of yellow/orange). The brown banners across the top are stickers from the kit.

Bonus post--What Sharp Teeth You Have

Hello all! I'm cropping this weekend and took time to post for the Lasting Memories Challenge #675--Thankful for Die Cuts. This layout is part of a long vacation I took in September 2018. I am on an air boat ride in the Everglades and in addition to the great landscapes and flowers, we saw lots of Alligators! You can see in the bottom right photo how close they came to the boat! You'll see more of this trip in a few months.

I based this sketch on an October 2023 CM Virtual Crop challenge. I'm using up an older pack of CM papers and embellishments called Cool Serenity. I loved the die-cut leaves in the pack and it was a great match for the edge circles in the sketch. The border across the middle of the pages is one of the Border Maker cartridges. I thought the grass journal card matched even though it's probably supposed to be more for sports and front yards. In this context it certainly matches the sea grass.

2018 Convention Part 8--Arty Facts

Before we get to tonight's layout, I wanted to let you know that soon there will be MORE of my blog to enjoy. I have so many layouts made and waiting to be shared that I'm going to add a Tuesday drop each week. And you never know when I'll be participating in a challenge that will give even more bonus posts! Hope you are enjoying this! Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts about the blog.

And now back to our convention trip!

The museum has the most impressive display of scrimshaw. There are cases and cases of everything from decorated busks (used to go inside corsets) to cane toppers and even the musical instrument fret! Amazing what you can do with bones and teeth. I think I could have stood in there for hours just looking at all the items but we had to keep moving to get to the convention setup.

This layout is based on one of the Virtual Crop challenges from September 2023. Scroll to Sketch #5 to see the design. I used some texture pages for the 11" square. Although it's oyster shells, I thought the pattern resembled the scrimshaw. Using a dark background and another lighter tonal paper to sandwich the shells helped to keep the paper from overwhelming the layout. I used a light gray to punch the rope borders and added just 2 clusters of stickers and word art. The tonal paper was light enough that I could journal right on the page.

The last stops on the tour included some period clothing. I love this dress! The museum details who wore it and how the dress changed as it moved through the hands of several family members. We also had a chance to step onto the balcony to see the harbor. Imagine that it was filled with whaling ships as it would have been in the 1800s!

This layout used the same virtual crop, but this time was Sketch #10. While the sketch calls for banners of 9 and 3 inches, you won't get any space between the 2 parts. That's why I trimmed them to 11". To ensure that all of your banners match, stack the papers and cut them all at once. I flipped the pages so that my vertical photos were on the left. This is a very versatile sketch. You could use all vertical or all horizontal--just duplicate the layout suggestion for that side.