Scrapbook Layout: Star Party

This year we stopped on the way home from our Christmas trip to visit McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains for one of their Star Parties.  It was really wonderful and a perfect night for it, if cold.   I learned a lot, so I am hoping the kids did too.  And it was fun!  I would absolutely recommend it if you can get there.  It's not particularly expensive ($12 adults/$8 kids), but you do need to get a hotel room nearby because it ends late and is way out in the middle of the desert. James planned it near the new moon, and that was a good idea too.  Even just the tiny sliver of moon was blinding to our dark-adjusted eyes until it set, early in the evening.  The demonstrators did a presentation, telling a little about the observatory and showing us the constellations. They had laser pointers that made a super-long visible beam so that they could really point to each star!  That made a big difference - knowing to what exactly they were pointing.  And looking through the telescopes was very cool.  We saw the clouds on the surface of Jupiter!

When I started writing down what I'd like to tell about the visit, I surprised myself by writing two pages.  It wasn't that is was so momentous, but just that I was interested in telling the little information like how we saw the Orion Nebula and how we bundled the kids up by putting their jammies under their clothes and how one of the demonstrators took a special interest in Sammy and explained everything again just to him.  I decided to just make it a double page spread and instead of narrowing down what I wanted to say, and to write very tiny!

My pictures were not awesome - one is a mostly dark shot of us inside one of the telescope domes.  You can't really see anything but I used it because it evokes a memory for me.  My other photo is a blurry shot of the boys drinking their hot chocolate but I love the Star Date Cafe sign in the background.  The two photos of the Indian Lodge, the hotel within the state park where we stayed, are not bad, and I included them to show a little of the beauty of the mountain desert (and that I was there too, even though I'm not in any of the other photos!)

I started the layout with plain, navy blue cardstock and flicked some Mr. Huey Opaque White mist on it.  I worked the main page around a piece of paper with a splattered pattern I had made some time ago and never used. It started with a piece of very glossy cardstock, then I dripped ink (from re-inkers) on it and blew the ink around with my heat tool while drying/heat-setting it. Pretty, but also odd, so it was sitting around unused. It had a fantastical-space-nebula feel to it so I wanted to use it for this page.  I also wanted to use one of the stickers we each wore that were the "ticket" to the star party.  I covered it with Glossy Accents. Although it didn't turn out quite as smooth as I would have liked, it's still thick and glossy and I like it.  The only hitch with it was that the color was a neon yellow-orange and very hard to match!  I found a couple of items that were close and called that good, including a little paper sack from a museum gift store.  It was from another science museum but it has a similar memory-feel to me.  I layered it with the nebula paper and a piece of packaging - a pretty, geometric-patterned background card from the new gloves I received for Christmas and wore to the Star Party.

I spent forEVER rearranging that stack of layers with my photos and a part of the observatory brochure.  It was very difficult to get it balanced with the layers showing, the nebula showing and not give the feeling of trapped white space (meaning a blank unconnected space in between elements).  It still has a little of that feeling but I like it anyway :).  I mitigated it a little by using a strip of navy washi tape and a punch paper circle at the top of the photos to connect it to the title, which is made of silver foil Thickers.

The embellishment clusters were the most fun part of the layout!  I used a very old set of die cut frame/squares and inked them a little darker with Stampin' Up! Midnight Muse.  I used some yellow-orange paper to punch out gears (and the circles out of the middle of the gears), with the SU! gears punch (love that punch!!).  I finished each area with silver dots, little silver glitter stars, and some dots of Stickles. OH, and the stars!  Those are Heidi Swapp sequin stars.  I've had them a while, but aren't they a perfect color match?

I do want to ask some people about white spray mist.  I love the way that stuff looks, but I don't find that it dries properly.  Advice, anyone?  Even if i try heat setting it, it smears in the page protector later.

Scrapbook Layout: City Museum

Here is the layout I made about our visit to the City Museum in St. Louis.  We had SUCH a great time there.  I wanted to do a layout about the fun but also try to capture the kind of weird, fun, dark aesthetic they have.  I started by putting a black vignette on all the photos, then used a dark background and added inking, stamping and splattering.

There is quite a bit of stamping on the background but it's really subtle - you may not be able to see it here.  For example, there is some text stamped on the purple background paper that is barely visible in the bottom photo.  Even the chipboard flourishes are inked and stamped.  In the future I may try to make that more pronounced but I don't know.  Sometimes you don't really see an element but it still adding something.  The splatters are a combination of white misting spray and diamond Stickles.  There is also one small star punched out of glitter paper using the mini star punch from the Stampin' Up holiday mini-punch pack.

One funny thing is that green polka-dot paper.  It is out of one of the first scrapbook paper packs I bought when I started scrapbooking and I was pretty sure I would never use it again.  For some reason it called me back to combine it with that great, current Basic Grey paper that is used for the background.  

I'm not sure if I really captured the weird/dark, but that's ok!  I may go back and add something, but I'm still not sure what (ideas??). 

The St. Louis City Museum

I've saved the best for last!! This is the last of my Big Road Trip posts but I think it's the coolest!  I may have told everyone I know how amazing the City Museum is but I have to say it again!  This is another St. Louis attraction we attended two years ago, though it seems I didn't blog about it at the time.  I'm not sure why, unless it was just too much to show and say!

"Museum" is a bit of a misnomer.  There is very little in the way of display or (traditional) education - instead, it is all about exploration.  The place is a huge, amazing piece of art-for-climbing. Most of it is made out of old junk and found/recycled items.  It has very little in common with the playscapes we usually see - I find current playscapes to be so safe as to have lost any sense of adventure.  Of course, no one wants their kid hurt - I know I don't, so I get it.  But on the other hand I just love that this place is so much more raw.  There is a real sense of adventure being there (even for an adult!).

Much of it is also really beautiful.  There is a whole area of sparkly feathers and mosaic, another area of cave tunnels that wrap back on themselves, a ten story slide, two rusted out airplanes welded into wire tunnels high in the air, a medieval seeming tower, a mini-train and lots of places to climb.

We followed the children through man tiny, dark, narrow, short and/or wire holes and tunnels - so much so that my quads were sore for three days!  Last time, two years ago, Sammy was scared of all the tunnels and slides and spent almost the entire day on the mini-train.  This year he was AWESOME!  He and Zack followed each other through every area, up and down and over and through.  It was super to see him having as much fun as Zack had.

We had SUCH a good time!  Thanks to those who have actually made it through all these posts!  I need to post something crafty or foodie next, I guess.  We'll see!

 

St. Louis Zoo

Ok, while it's true that we particularly enjoy going to zoos, this may be one of the best zoos anywhere!   It being FREE is pretty impressive.  We loved it two years ago and we loved it again!! They have some new areas open that are really beautifully done.  We liked the little education/involvement areas they added throughout the new spaces.  

It was also really fun how many baby animals they had!  There were baby and "teenage" elephants, baby monkeys, baby penguins, baby sting rays and lots more!  The baby elephant was my favorite, and watching the teenage elephant swimming.

This time we remembered to use the train to move around the zoo and it was really fun and workable that way.  We would get off at a station, do all the habitats in that area, then get back on and go to the next area.  

One recommendation is to get the Safari Pass.  Although the zoo is free the train does cost $5 for one time to each station (whether or not you get on and off).  If you instead get the Safari Pass for $10, it allows unlimited train rides, carousel rides ($3), petting the sting rays and sharks ($3), and several other things!  We really liked being able to ride the train without "using up" each section, and I don't think we would have paid for the carousel or the sting rays without it. 

Petting the sting rays was especially awesome! We haven't gone to Sea World where they may have something like this so I'd never tried it.  It was a bit magical to have the sting rays swimming right up and under your hand on their own.  They are very soft and velvety!  Zack and I were both really into it.  James tried it once and was done.  Sammy would have liked to but kept getting scared.  The bench that you lean on was too high for him and the moving animals were too startling.  Still, he did touch one once! 

We thought we would stay til about 2pm and then go back to let the boys nap but the kids were super and we ended up staying until after 7pm!  It was an unusually mild day, not too sunny, and we just kept going.  Good times!

 

St. Louis Arch

We had so much fun at the Arch last year that we had to go back!  And once again Zack took a really cool picture! His is one top one, looking up with the clouds reflected in the arch surface.

Even having seen it before, it is an impressing structure and great to visit.  See the scale with James and the boys at the base of it in the last picture?  Huge!  Sammy was young enough not to remember these places so it was particularly exciting for him.  I'm sure we'll be back again when we get the chance!

Family Reunion 2012

The main (or at least instigating) destination of our big road trip was our family reunion in McCormick's Creek State Park outside Indianapolis, Indiana. We spent three days there with about 60 relatives of my husband's father.  It was a really nice time!  We meet at that location because there is a full service hotel in the state park, making it a pretty setting that also has all the conveniences needed for that number of people.  In addition there is a branch of the family that is local to that area who is really generous to have the whole group out for a dinner at their house.  

One fun thing that has been added recently is a family talent show.  This year Zack and his Uncle Bill did the Abbott and Costello routine, "Who's on First" - it was pretty amusing!  They wrapped it up with Sammy singing" Take Me Out to the Ballgame", so there was cute factor too!  

The best thing (well, the quilting part was great too, but I will tell you about that tomorrow!) was that the kids really formed and renewed relationships with their cousins (technically, second cousins once removed, I think).  It was so neat to see the next generation remembering each other and playing together! 

We wrapped the whole thing up with time of singing hymns and a brief candlelight moment in memory of family members.  Quite a lovely and special time - we are looking forward to doing it again in two years!

Ballgame - The Cincinnati Reds vs. the St. Louis Cardinals

Our next stop was Cincinnati for a baseball game.  We really wanted to see a ball game on our trip but the Rangers were out of town and we couldn't get good tickets to see the Cardinals-Cubs game in St. Louis so we decided to make Zack happy and see a Cincinnati game in the Great American Ballpark.  He is, inexplicably, a big Reds fan.  Although we do like both the Reds and the Cardinals, we had to root root root for the home team so we were all Reds fans! 

It was a beautiful night (a bit hot) and a really great game - fast moving (not always the case in baseball!) and very exciting.  The Reds won in the end to sweep the series and we all had a great time!!

Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory

Since we took a more easterly route this year, we decided to visit Louisville to see the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum.  This is where they make baseball bats for everyone from Walmart through Major League Baseball.  

As you may remember, the boys are absolutely obsessed with baseball so this was right up our alley.  There is a little movie (included with the tour), you can hold game-used bats from some of the famous players and you can bat at the batting cages ($1).  You can even choose your bat based on the specs of historical and current players.  James and Zack batted in the batting cages and then I had to go bat too.  I was pleased that I actually hit the ball a few times and was not completely embarrassed!    We all liked the Factory Tour where we got to see bats being made for various groups and for individual major leaguers.  I am always interested in factories and even though it is a small operation, they turn out LOTS of bats!  And everyone gets a free mini-bat at the end of the tour - an extremely exciting souvenir for the boys!

One really nice thing is that it is all indoors so it's a good thing to schedule in the heat of the day or do when it's pouring (as it was when we visited). 

Mammoth Cave in Kentucky

Our first adventure was the Historic Tour of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  It was a really neat tour, covering 2 miles of tunnels in the cave.  I recommend it if you are ok with that amount of walking!  It was pretty narrow, short and steep in places, but that made for more cave-excitement.  

Our tour guide was really personable and funny and talked about different aspects of the cave formations and the history of the cave and the area as we went through.  The area was beautiful and green.  The air was VERY humid and then became chill as we approached the mouth of the cave.  We were surprised at how cold it was, even though we read about the temperatures on the website!  I had intended to bring sweatshirts for the boys and then had forgotten, but they kept themselves warm enough by being their usual "energetic" (ahem) selves.  

We tried to take pictures but it was really difficult to get good shots (here are some if you want to see more) in the darkness of the cave.  The pathway was lit, but dimly.  There were some very large rooms plus areas we had to scoot sideways through or duck down for quite some length.  At one point they turned off all the lights to show the darkness of the cave, then lit just a kerosene lantern to show what early explorers would have had to see by.  We crossed The Bottomless Pit and heard about how the first explorer of the area crossed on a beam he rested across it, rather than on the steel bridge we had! 

The boys really enjoyed it, though it was a little long for Sammy who said it was "too many walking".  But really, it was fine for him until the very end. If you have the chance, give it half a day or more.  

If you do, one last note - we went to the first tour of the day, buying our tickets online ahead of time to be sure we could go at the time that worked for our schedule.  We were glad we did because the tour sold out, but that was also the downside: it was a HUGE group.  The next tour was much smaller.  We would have preferred a smaller tour because the group had to rush in many places to make up for the backup that would form in the narrow/steep places.  I think a smaller tour would have let us go at a more even pace and see more.

Back from our Big Summer Roadtrip!

Road Trip Stats:
2675 miles
11 days
11 states
7 hotels
8 museums and attractions
12 quilts
923 pictures

We've been gone on a rather long road trip!  Just as we did two years ago, we went to a family reunion outside Indianapolis, but we also went to Louisville, Cincinnati and St. Louis.  Quite the tour of the midwest!

Check back for several posts about various events and attractions!

Mini-Book: BEACH

I wanted to make a really simple little book from our trip and I wanted it finished the week we came back. Sound unlikely?  Well, I did it!  It was fun and came together soooo quickly!  Now I have a casual little booklet that the kids are enjoying looking at and I've carried around to a couple of people to show about our trip.

How could it possibly be fast, you ask?  Especially since we came back with over 500 pictures (from two cameras) and I loved lots of them!  I really did have to simplify in order to make the goal of a quick mini book practical.

Here are a few things I used to make it happen:

1. Since I usually spend some time during the trip itself enjoying looking at my photos, I put that time to work and started choosing favorites during the trip.  That way after we got home I could finish narrowing down pretty quickly.  I chose 54 pictures to print so I obviously didn't narrow that much!  Since the book design is so simple, having that many pictures wasn't a problem.
2. I cropped all of my pictures in portrait (up and down).  This was my first instinct, but then because there were a few that wouldn't work that way I rethought and rethought it before I came back around to it again.  The whole book would have been even faster if I had just accepted this idea to start with.  Luckily, in the struggle I found a couple of helpful things to do to make it easier.  I hope to post soon with more about that.  But however it is managed, having all the pics in the same orientation made the book come together very quickly.
3. I wrote the story right on the pictures before I even printed them.  I used Picasa (a free program from Google) but lots of programs have a text tool.  I chose a cute font and added all my text in white over the darkest corner of the photo.  I only wrote on 23 of the photos, since a lot of them were just fun pics of the kids playing.  I included a couple of stories - like Sammy's fear of the sand - by using brief comments over a couple of photos (see below). 
4. I printed the photos with a white border to add a double-matted look with a single matting. I love my Costco's print lab - cheap, fast and good quality (not all Costco's calibrate their printers as often... you'll have to check out yours) and the white border doesn't add to the $.13/print cost.
5. I used nothing but plain black cardstock and a ribbon for the book.  I cut 8.5x11" cardstock into 5.5x6.5 pieces, getting two out of each sheet.  I scored each sheet just short of 1" from the edge, glued photos front and back, punched two holes and tied the whole lot together with a ribbon.  It took less than an hour, with interruptions from Sammy, to put it together. 

Didn't it turn out pretty?  One thing, though, it isn't the most robust.  It's just cardstock so it won't last forever.  I could easily make it tougher by adding some chipboard covers but I'm ok with it as it is - it's fun and most of all, it's DONE!