Blog Archives
2015: Indianapolis 500 Museum Tour
Another experience that we like to take our exchange students to is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. We normally just take the short bus tour around the track and look at the museum, but they were running a special for a behind the scenes tour and I thought that it would be fun to do that.
For the first spread I used background paper that looked like tire treads and one of vintage cars. The left hand page has two brochures that are not mounted to the page, but instead sit inside the plastic page protector. It also has a sticker from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The right hand page has pictures from the track and the pagoda. We got to sit in the press boxes, and stand in the winners box as part of the behind the scenes tour.
This second spread is a mix of several things. Between our museum tour and the behind the scenes tour we had to go get lunch, and our exchange student, Henry, really want to go to a White Castle! Interestingly enough, all of our exchange students wanted to do this, but after going once, they never asked to go back again. So on the top right hand page we have a picture of Henry outside of White Castle and a burger box behind it. The right hand page has pictures of Henry outside of the Museum and also pointing to the last German winner of the Indy 500.
The left hand page has the paper from the pin that we had to wear on the behind the scenes tour (I carefully took the pin apart so that I could save the paper), a picture of Henry inside a mock car from the museum, and the brochure for the behind the scenes tour.
We have been to this location a couple of times so I wanted to share some of the previous scrapbook pages that I have made for this location:
Europe Vacation 2015:Midsommer Eve 2
This is the second page of our adventure at Disagarden on Midsommer Eve. This spread includes a map and program from the day. I bordered the program in pink and set it inside the plastic protector sheet so that it can be removed so that you can read all of the entries on the map page which is attached to the background paper.
On the right hand side of the spread are two sets of flowers that we collected on that day and carefully pressed in a book I was reading during the trip. When we returned home I used a laminating machine to carefully press them to card stock, and then mounted card stock onto a pink background paper. The laminating machine curled the card stock and so I used brads to affix the flower card stock to the page background paper.
While I realize that this page may not be quite as exciting as others, and also does not include any pictures, I wanted to highlight a unique form of ephemera that can be collected and included on scrapbook pages.
Europe Vacation 2015: Gustavianum 2
This spread is the second of our visit to the Gustavianum. This page show cases the Anatomical theatre which was built over 100 years before the American Revolution!
Wikipedia shares that “an anatomical theatre was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities. The theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, where students or other observers could stand and get a good view of the dissection almost from above and unencumbered by the spectators in the rows in front.”
The left hand page shows pictures from the anatomical theatre including two that show how steep the rows are. It was quite a chore to get up and down the steps. In the center of these pictures is the round brown entrance sticker that we had to wear while in the museum, which you will see on the two other pages from this event. (See Spread 1, Spread 3).
The right hand page also includes one of these stickers, along with exhibits from the museum. I really enjoy the bottom right hand picture when my son seems to be bonding with the skeleton of a gorilla.
Europe Vacation 2015: Gustavianum 1
On the fourth day of our vacation to Sweden we visited the Gustavianum museum.
Wikipedia shares that the “Gustavianum is the former main building of Uppsala University, built 1622–1625. The name Gustavianum comes from Gustavus Adolphus who in the 1620s donated money for its construction… Since 1997 it has functioned as the home for Uppsala University’s museum – Museum Gustavianum. Under the cupola is the theatrum anatomicum, the second oldest in the world added to the building in the mid 17th century by Olaus Rudbeck, professor of medicine and amateur architect, among other things.
The Museum Gustavianum includes exhibitions of objects from the university collections of Classical, Egyptian and Nordic antiquities, as well as an exhibition on the history of science and the history of Uppsala University. The Augsburg art cabinet, the best preserved of the Kunstschränke made by Philipp Hainhofer, which was given to Gustavus Adolphus in 1632 by the City of Augsburg, is on display in the Museum Gustavianum.”
Since this building is almost 400 years old I wanted to create an antique theme for the series of spreads. The left hand page includes some pictures on the way to the museum and a brochure that is mounted to the outside of the plastic protector sheet so that it can be opened by the viewer.
The right hand page has two very thin pocket strips to hold two more brochures from the museum. I wanted to put all of these brochures in the scrapbook since there was so much to see in the museum that I couldn’t do it justice with just my pictures. The squares on the strips are brads that are punched all the way through that background paper to help create stability for the brochures so that they don’t tip.
The brown circle is actually the ticket sticker that we had to wear while we were in the museum. There are three spreads for this location, and I have placed one of these stickers on each of the three spreads as a clue that they all belong together. (See Spread 2, and Spread 3).
Europe Vacation 2015: Skansen 2
This is the second spread of our trip to Skansen, and it is dedicated to the animals of the zoo. Notice that the background paper for the two pages mimics each other. The paper that I used for the background on the left hand page, I used for the borders on the right hand page and visa versa. both sets of paper came out of a “safari” pack, which I know is not very Swedish, but it did work wonderfully for these pictures of animals at the various zoo on the property.
If you look carefully at the bottom left hand picture you will see that the bear is looking at something shiny. It is a cell phone! Someone dropped it in the cage and the bear was getting a kick out of playing with it. Someone kept calling it which kept his attention. We never did see it rescued, but my guess is that it got scratched up quite a bit! We also saw reindeer (which was something I hoped to see in Sweden), and some very brave squirrels. We enjoyed the lemurs, but only my son enjoyed the snakes!
Europe Vacation 2015: Skansen 1
After we visited the Vasa Museum, we walked over to Skansen. The Skansen’s website shares that “Skansen was founded by Artur Hazelius in 1891. It is the world’s oldest open-air museum and is situated on the island of Djurgården within the city limits of Stockholm.”
We found it to be a mix of historical museum, living history museum, zoo, and children’s entertainment. We were only able to spend a little time at Skansen, but I am sure that it could be a full day event, as we only saw some of the parts of the facility.
I chose orange as the theme color her to match the “tram” ticket, brochure, and my son’s sweatshirt. The left hand page serves as a holder for the Skansen brochures. The black and white paper is the bag from the Skansen Museum store, and the orange ticket is for the children’s tram that we rode on to get a quicker tour of the facility so that we did not have to walk as much. I used a rotary cutter to cut the slit in the black and white bag to slip the brochures in.
The right hand page has a picture of my very yummy lunch, my son trying out stilts, and a cool picture of an old log home juxtaposed with Stockholm’s modern TV tower.
Europe Vacation 2015: Vasa Museum 2
This is the second page from our visit to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. It contains only ephemera from the trip since my photographs are all on page 1. I did this primarily because I did not have very many good pictures from the museum, since it was so dark, and I had a lot of ephemera. The museum has a wonderful museum store with many things to buy.
On the left hand page is a laser wooden ship and a large postcard of the whole ship – this was nice to find since it was difficult to get good pictures. The right hand page contains another postcard of the intricate carvings on the back of the ship as well as a book of stamps (closed), the rubber bracelet, and part of the paper bag from the museum shop.
Europe Vacation 2015: Vasa Museum 1
As part of our day in Stockholm we visited the Vasa Museum – which is often touted as the number one thing to do in Stockholm, and frankly, I can see why. Wikipedia shares that “The Vasa Museum (Swedish: Vasamuseet) is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official web site, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia.” Everything about this museum is fantastic – from the ship itself, to the architecture of the building housing the ship, to the interactive and engaging exhibits in the museum.
The Museum is fairly dark, to help protect the ship from sunlight and the building is cool, also to protect the ship. Since the museum was dark many of my pictures did not turn out very well. I chose a brown theme for this page as a homage to the wooden ship. On the left hand side of the spread are two pictures from outside of the museum, as well as the Museum brochure, which is affixed to the outside of the plastic protector sheet so that the reader can open it to read it. On the right hand page are pictures of the tall ship – I apologize that they are so dark, and a rare picture of me within the spread. I tend to be the one taking pictures, and am not often in them. The “Vasa” title is made with cork letters that I purchased at a craft store.
Europe Vacation 2015: Gamla Uppsala Museum
The next stop on this busy day was a trip to the original center of Uppsala, now known as Gamla Uppsala. We stopped first at the Gamla Uppsala Museum which shared the Viking history of the area. Since there were very few English signs in the museum Levi did not see the suggested age range for the Viking dress up area for kids!
I selected orange to be the basis for the spread for two reasons: 1. the orange at the top of the museum brochure, and 2. Levi’s orange sweatshirt which seemed to dominate the pictures on this spread. I chose a muted orange background paper, and the created a border of a thin bright orange and a thicker darker orange. This helps to bring out the brighter oranges in the pictures without being too bring on the eye.
On the left hand page where I placed the Museum brochure I used a quadruple border to help balance the space on the page. The brochure is affixed to the outside of the plastic page protector so that it can be easily opened and viewer by the reader.
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.
