Blog Archives
2015: Football
It seems like I scrapbook a lot of football pages! Today’s blog features 4 spreads that I made for our exchange student, Henry for the Fall 2015 football season. The above spread features the official team photograph and other photographs that I took myself on media day. The school colors are blue and gold, and you will see that reflected throughout these four spreads. I found the Golden Eagles sticker at a local print shop in the “clearance” section which was awesome. I think that they are meant to be car window stickers, but I thought that it would work nicely on this page. Be careful if putting a sticker like this on a page – because it will be impossible to re-position it if you don’t get it in the right spot.
This spread features pictures from games and from after the games. The bottom right hand photograph was taken after the last game played on our home field and is kind of sad seeing Henry looking out over a field that he has played on for the last time. The background for this page is football field lines, with end borders made of pigskin. I carefully cut the “82” out of a page of athletic numbers to add to the border.
The above spread is from the athletic awards program. I used blue and gold for the theme of the page. On the left hand page the program is carefully threaded around a gold strip so that the program can be removed to be viewed by the reader. On the right hand side I put a “O” for the letter jacket. Henry did not earn his letter until after the swim season, but I thought that it would be nice to have hear. On the right hand page I also created a pocket for the other documents from the season to go into so that they can be removed to view.
This last spread contains ephemera from the season. The left hand page has all of the stickers from Henry’s football helmet. I wrote some tips on how to preserve these that you can read HERE. The right had page has some of my tickets from watching the game, as well as a collection of all of the programs from the games. I did not affix these to the page, but rather just set them into the plastic protector page so that they can be removed to read.
2013: Fairmount Historical Museum and Garfield
2013: Fairmount Historical Museum and Garfield
This is the second spread of our trip to the Fairmount Historical museum. The first spread focused on James Dean. This one focuses on Fairmount’s other famous resident – this one is still currently alive – Jim Davis – the creator of Garfield!
I used an orange background paper to highlight Garfield’s color, and the left hand page contains a folder pocket that holds several brochures and documents about Fairmount, James Dean and Garfield. On top of this folder pocket are two copies of the same brochure so that you can read both sides. You will noticed that I used torn paper to create borders on this page and tie it into the right hand page.
Tip: Making a pocket in a scrapbook page: I created the pocket by using my straight line cutter to cut a line across the middle ten inches of the twelve inch page – leaving about one inch on each side of the page that is still connected. I then turn the page over and put a piece of tape over the inch that is left connected on both sides – this helps to strengthen the paper so that it does not tear. I then used a piece of cardstock that is about 11 1/2 inches wide and tape it to the back of the page completely sealing the border so that the brochures will not fall out.
The right hand page focuses on Garfield. I had fun with this page. The Garfield sticker which is on the page is from the 1980’s and I purchased in on Ebay still on the original backing. I peeled it off the backing and put it right in my scrapbook! The larger Garfield I made myself and am actually pretty proud of it. The eyes were done on white cardstock and then glued on to the rest of the face which I hand drew on orange cardstock and then cut out. I then used black markers to strengthen the pencil drawing and an orange marker to add coloring and depth to the cartoon.
2013: James Dean
2013: James Dean
We knew that Luca was a big fan of James Dean even before he arrived, so we knew that we would have to make a stop at James Dean’s birthplace and grave site – both of which are not too far from our house.
I must apologize for the picture being out of focus – I didn’t realize that it was out of focus until just now – and now the scrapbook is in Germany :(.
On the left hand page are pictures of Luca at James Dean’s Birthplace. It is now a parking lot as the building was in very bad shape. Here is what Wikipedia says about James Dean’s birthplace and early life:
“Dean was born at the Seven Gables apartment house at the corner of 4th Street and McClure Street in Marion, Indiana,[5] the son of Winton Dean (January 17, 1907 – February 21, 1995) and Mildred Wilson (September 15, 1910 – July 14, 1940). Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician, Dean and his family moved to Santa Monica, California. He was enrolled at Brentwood Public School in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, but transferred soon afterward to the McKinley Elementary school.[6] The family spent several years there, and by all accounts, young Dean was very close to his mother. According to Michael DeAngelis, she was “the only person capable of understanding him”.[7] In 1938, she was suddenly struck with acute stomach pains and began to lose weight quickly. She died of uterine cancer when Dean was nine years old.[6] Unable to care for his son, Dean’s father sent him to live with his sister Ortense and her husband Marcus Winslow on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana,[8] where he was raised in a Quaker household”
The right hand page has pictures from the Fairmount Historical Museum which houses the James Dean Museum, as well as a picture of James Dean’s grave. Visiting the grave site is an interesting experience compared to visiting the Rose Hill Cemetary in California where many famous actors are buried. In Fairmount you almost drive over the grave as you are looking for it, and the way to find it is to look for a gravestone that has lipstick lip impressions on it and cigarettes left on it. People still leave James cigarettes and the ladies like to kiss the stone!
2009: Holiday World 3
2009: Holiday World 3
My son was afraid of roller coasters and refused to go on them, which is disappointing if you are at a park with a lot of them. My friend Adam offered my son $20 if he would ride a roller coaster with him, which my son did, and then decided that he loved roller coasters! We could hardly get him off them at that point. In fact I think he rode The Voyage six times in a row!
I made this spread specifically to celebrate that my son now would ride roller coasters. If you look carefully at the pictures on the right hand page you will see that they represent 5 of 6 different trips. I had fun placing these pictures in the curve of the track so that you could get a feel for the motion of the ride.
The ride name plates came from ephemera that I purchased at the park gift shop.
2009: Holiday World 2
2009: Holiday World 2
I will start by sharing that I don’t know how I feel about this page – I like it in some regards, and feel that it looks amateurish in some ways as well. I decided to share it with you here so that you can see the development in my techniques over the past 7 years.
This spread showcases two rides at Holiday World – the Revolution and Pilgrim’s plunge. Revolution is in the Fourth of July area of Holiday World and is a ride that spins around and presses its riders up against the walls. I cannot ride this ride because I get very motion sick, but my son rode.
Pilgrim’s plunge was the tallest water ride in the world at one time and had just opened up this summer, we were some of the first people to ride on it. Unfortunately I just heard that they closed it down because it had too many problems with delays and the lines were very long.
I decided that I was going to try and tie these two pages together by hand painting the background myself. If you look at the right hand page you will see the steel girders of the Pilgrim’s plunge and then follow the ride down to the bottom of the left hand page where you see the large splash from the ride hitting the water. This splash sprays over the red, white, and blue of the spinning revolution.
I hand tore the borders to the pictures from background paper, but I am not sure that I like this unkept look and I am not sure that I would do it again. I also feel like if I was doing this over again that I would do something different with the girders on the right hand side.
2009: Holiday World
2009: Holiday World
The next step of our Summer 2009 vacation was to visit Holiday World in Southern Indiana. While this park is older it is truly a hidden gem – besides having several number 1 rated roller coasters and water rides, they have free parking, free suntan lotion, and free unlimited soda. We love this park and have been there several times.
On the first day we arrived at the park early, which if you have been following me for a while, you know is a strategy of mine when visiting events and attractions. We saw Pat Koch, the matriarch of the owner family, sweeping up trash outside the gates to the park! She let us take a picture with her – we felt like we had just met Walt Disney!
The park is divided into “Holiday zones” with each area themed as a unique holiday. Holiday world is located in Santa Claus, Indiana, so naturally the original theme of the park is Christmas! – which is refreshing in the heat of Indiana summers.
These two pages showcases the themes of Christmas and Thanksgiving. I used an ornate corner cutter to corner cut the pictures and the picture borders. Since the two pages look so different in color scheme I felt that this was important to bring the two pages together.
2008: Mississinewa 1812
2008: Mississinewa 1812
We discovered soon upon moving to Indiana that there was an event held every October near the Mississinewa River called Mississinewa 1812.
All of our new found friends kept talking about it, so I knew that we needed to go and check it out.
Wikipedia explains the Battle of Mississenwa as “an expedition ordered by William Henry Harrison against Miami Indian villages in response to the attacks on Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison in the Indiana Territory.”
When we arrived we discovered that much of the reenacting was not a reenactment of the Battle of 1812, as much as a display of the different kind of troops from various areas and Nations that were involved in the Battle of 1812 all around the country. This didn’t matter too much to us as the whole experience was informing, exciting, and delicious!
For this spread I selected background pages suggested by the tan in the bag on the left hand page, and patterns that I felt fit the period. On the right hand page you can see that I created an edge border with rough burlap. (See note at bottom of page).
I placed the program for the day inside of the page which I purchased from a vendor at the event. We also purchased a small bag of candy at the event and that candy bag made it onto the right hand page. The “Mississinewa 1812” over that bag is a picture that I took of the entrance sign that I carefully cut down to size.
I used a corner cutter to cut the corners of all of the pictures, and I think that this added interest to the page.
Note – Saving Scraps: The burlap border edge was left over from the San Diego Zoo project. I used the burlap to serve as a border for the photographs in that project. I always save all scrap pieces from projects because I never know if I will be able to use them perfectly in another project.
Another Visit to Mississinewa 1812 in 2012 with our exchange student resulted in this spread – 2012: Mississinewa 1812.
Related articles
- Five Medals, Tecumseh’s War and the War of 1812 (iusboverseas.wordpress.com)
- When nature calls the battle must wait (Today in Pictures) (al.com)
2008: Holiday World
2008: Holiday World
One of the hidden treasures that we discovered in the MidWest is Holiday World. While it is not a Disneyland or a Universal Studios, it is a pretty amazing theme park.
Holiday World and Splashing Safari are located in Santa Claus, Indiana. Holiday World offers free parking, free soda fountain drinks and free suntan lotion, and for what I consider to be a low price – less than $40 per person per day.
I actually won tickets to go to Holiday world a few days after we arrived in the MidWest and we met my sister and her family there. We spent one day together and then my son and I stayed an extra day (we got 4 tickets!). Haklf way through the second day we started to get tired so we decided that we would get a quick bite to eat and then leave the park. While we were eating a big storm started to descend on the park and they announced that they were going to close the park for safety reasons and gave everyone free tickets to come back during the next season! So we got four more free tickets and enjoyed a trip back there the next summer. It is this kind of customer service that impresses me about this park. When I share the pages from our second trip to Holiday World I will share a great story about Pat Koch, the matriarch of the family that owns Holiday World.
Anyway, enough about the story around the experience – lets look at the page. For the background pages I tore the dotted sheet into three pieces. I used two to create borders for the left hand page, and then used the larger piece to put in the middle of the right hand page – which ties the two pages in this spread together nicely.
I also want to point out the border at the top and the bottom. The top border was created using decorative thread which I pushed through eyelets made with my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite Punch. I also used the punch to place eyelets in the bottom border ribbon to hold it in place as well.
2012: Mississinewa 1812
2012: Mississinewa 1812
Mississinewa 1812 is a local historical event that takes place each year in October. There are hundreds of reenactors that come to show life in the 1800’s – hunting, war, cooking, making items. We took Jonathan to experience the American history at the event. I will admit that I am not really sure what the event commemorates because the reenactors seem to be from different battles and places, but it is still a lot of fun to watch everything that is going on, and to eat some good old fashioned kettle corn.
I used some brown felted paper to create accents on this page as well as some burlap tags that I purchased at my local art store. I used my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite Punch to add brads to help hold the burlap tags on as well as to add interest. I was able to affix the program and map from the event to the outside of the plastic protector so that they viewer could look through it.
Note: See the scrapbook of an earlier visit to Mississinewa 1812 in 2008.
Related articles
- The War of 1812 in Southern Maryland (jeffersonpatterson.wordpress.com)
2012: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
2012: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Jonathan, our Exchange Student, races go-karts in Sweden. One of the things that excited him the most about being in Indiana (ok – maybe the only thing) was that we were near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and he wanted to go to the Indy 500. Since the Indy 500 was at the end of his time with us (Memorial Day Weekend) I knew that we needed to take him to the Speedway early on. You don’t want to try and visit the Hall of Fame Museum on Race Day! So – we took a trip to Indy during the first month that he was with us. We had opportunity to take a bus trip on the 2.5 mile track and get pictures from the track.
For this spread I used Brick photograph paper as the Speedway is affectionately known as the brick yard. It was originally made out of all brick and the finish line still has the bricks. I made sure to get our tickets as well as the brochure from the museum onto the page along with our pictures.
Design Tip: Look at the right hand page – I had 4 pictures that were different orientations and sizes and I had a difficult time fitting them all on the page. So – I picked a middle point and centered each photograph into that space. This allows for the pictures to look balanced on the page.
Related articles
- Tony Kanaan finally wins Indy 500, ends heartbreak (fresnobee.com)
- 2013 Indianapolis 500: My Introduction To IndyCar (rumors.automobilemag.com)
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway – History of American Motorsports (automobilemag.com)
