Blog Archives
2015: St Louis Science Center
As part of our Thanksgiving vacation we went to the St Louis Science Center. I misread the time that they opened so we ended up getting there an hour early! The St Louis Science Center is a massive complex that will engage your family all day long. It is free to enter, but there is always a special exhibit that you can pay more to enter, and tickets to the Omnimax theater as well. We were able to see the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! travelling exhibit which was pretty fun to interact with.
I chose “sciency” background papers and borders for this project – diamond stamp, graph paper, and geometric shapes. I put the program on the left hand page on top of the plastic page protector so that it could be opened for the viewer to read. On the right hand page I made a pocket out of triangles for the brochures to go in, so that they could be taken out to read. I did this by using a long strip of adhesive tabs along the bottom and the side of the triangle to assure that the brochures did not fall through. As is my usual habit, the ticket to the event was added to the page to remind the viewer of the date that we had this amazing experience.
2014: St Louis City Museum
2014: St Louis City Museum
One of the things that I believe you must see in St Louis is the St Louis City Museum. It is a crazy artist community that has been using architectural salvage (and other junk) to build a multistory playground for kids and adults. The youngest child will have a great time, and even adults will enjoy crawling through the secret tunnels and sliding down a ten story slide within the building. For kids and teens this is probably a more amazing experience than the Arch.
Since the City Museum is all about re-purposing unusable things I decided that this scrapbook page should mimic the theme. For the left hand side I used a cog themed background paper and then covered it with a wire mesh that I bought at a craft store (this was not easy to manipulate at all! – I had to make sure that the sharp ends of the wire would not poke through the plastic protector sheet. I then used a piece of leather cut from an old wallet that I had to serve as the backing for the photo which was affixed through the wire and background paper using brads.
On the right hand page I used various scrap papers from other projects to border the photographs, as well as the parking stub, entrance bracelet, and a piece of material that the boys found on the floor in one of the tunnels. While this spread looks a little confusing and disorganized, I believe that it perfectly imitates the exciting mysterious nature of the City Museum.
2014: Anheuser-Busch Tour
2014: Anheuser-Busch Tour
During our Spring Break trip to the St Louis area I wanted to do something that I had never done before – visit the Anheuser-Busch Factory Tour. I should be clear that I don’t drink alcohol and am not endorsing drinking alcohol. But Luca, being from Germany, I knew would be interested in this tour, and I wanted to see the Clydesdales.
Tour Tips:
- Arrive early as tours can fill up quickly, and later tours tend to be much larger, and it is harder to hear the tour guide.
- Be aware that at two points in the tour they will provide alcohol to the tour members. During the tour a sample is offered, and at the end of the tour drink cards are given for people to make their own selection. The drink cards can also be exchanged for a soda drink for the kids, or for teetotalers like me :).
For this spread I had to use red to match the colors of the Ahneuser-Busch company! I mounted the photos that I took on a black background, as well as the framed picture that was taken of us on the tour. I also included on the page: a coaster from the sampling room, bottle bookmark bought in the gift store, a promotional brochure, the Budweiser logo from the store bag (mounted on black cardstock), and a piece of Beechwood that my son picked up off the floor of the brewing rooms which is used to increase the action of the yeast in the brewing process. I used the black stripes to help break up the single tone red of the page, and to make the page more visually appealing.
2014: St Louis Gateway Arch
2014: St Louis Gateway Arch
For Spring Break 2014 we visited Southern Illinois and St Louis. One of the must see sights in St Louis is the St Louis Arch, and I made sure that we were able to get tickets to get Luca to the top. In order to create the Arch on this page I used my Gypsy to create two partial ellipses to be cut out by my Cricut Machine. I then cut the arch so that it would fit across both pages in the spread. I used a corner cutter to round the pictures to match the flowing lines of the Arch. I also included a token and brochure that we picked up at the Arch.
2014: St Louis Gateway Arch 2
For this second spread of the Arch I used the remaining paper from the Arch cutout from the first spread. I mounted this page on top of a full sheet of black paper, and I moved the inside part of the page to the left a little to add perspective to the Arch and the page. I place our tickets and a pull out postcard of the Arch on the left hand page. For the photographs on the right hand page I put them on top of a think black border to bring the two pages together, and also rounded the edges of the photographs. I found the laser cut of the Arch on Ebay.
Visitor Tips: Get to the Arch early and buy your tickets to ride to the top right away. During busy seasons you could wait several hours to get on the trams, or they might even run out of time slots.
2013: St Louis City Museum
2013: St Louis City Museum
As part of our last week celebration we went to the St Louis City Museum. The museum is basically a collection of architectural salvage from 19th century buildings as well as seemingly endless miles of tunnels, passages, and bridges made from salvaged items. One could easily spend all day at the City Museum and never find all of the hidden corners. There are outdoor attractions, and indoor caves to explore. It is well worth the admission price.
The City Museum occupies the former International Shoe Company building. Tennessee Williams worked at this factory for a while and became depressed with the monotonous work. A co-worker at the International Shoe Company became the the inspirational for character Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar named Desire“.
I purchased the City Museum laser cut in the top right hand corner in a local scrapbook store, and the patch in the top left hand corner was purchased at the museum gift shop. Per my usual tradition, I made sure that the entrance arm bands also made it onto the page. You have to purchase an additional arm band to go to the rooftop, but again, I believe that it is worth the extra price.
Notice on the left hand page that I had to cut one of the pictures down to fit it on the page under the armbands. Don’t be afraid to cut pictures to make them fit, just be careful so that you don’t make an incorrect cut. “Measure twice and cut once!”
2013: St Louis Cardinals Game
2013: Cardinals Baseball
For our last week together before our exchange student went home to Sweden, we took a family trip together to the St Louis area. The trip centered around going to a Cardinal’s baseball game, and I bought the most expensive seats I have ever purchased for a baseball game. I usually sit in the nose bleeds or the bleachers. But for this special occasion I decided to sit on left field in better seats.
We arrived early to be able to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Laclede’s Landing, and then we took the Metro to the game. We arrived before the gates were open, but enjoyed the gift shop and walking around the stadium looking at the statues and the other sites. We had an incredible time at the game. It is nice to know that we saw the Cardinal’s at the beginning of their latest World Series Championship Season 🙂 !
I used baseball themed background paper and placed an assortment of pictures and ephemera from the day. My favorite picture is the bottom one on the left hand page where you can see the St Louis Arch from the Stadium. I wanted to take this picture, because I have a picture from the top of the Arch looking at the Stadium from earlier in the year –> St Louis Arch scrapbook page.
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Related articles
- World Series: Fresh-faced Cards vs bearded Bosox (news.yahoo.com)
- Tom Verducci: The Cardinals are going to the World Series again. Get used to it (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
