Tour the National Parks

Wow! Time sure does fly!

Between deadlines, not feeling well, starting up a business, teaching and working on projects I cannot share right now, I have not only neglected my blog, but I forgot to share the mini book I made for my mother in law on Mother’s Day!

My mother in law loves to travel and she enjoys visiting National Parks all over the country. So, I thought it would be fun for her to have a book that listed all of them so she could record when she visited.

The process took a little longer than I anticipated, since I couldn’t find a list of all of the parks online. So, I went through the National Park Service’s website and copied each state’s parks into a Word document. That ended up being 500+ pages long!

So, I deleted photos and descriptions and formatted all of the text, which took me down to around 200+ pages.

Obviously, I was not creating a book that long, so I deleted all of the National Monuments, Historic Trails, National Lakeshores and other things included and focused only on National Parks. Then my book was a manageable 13 pages long and I could cope with that!

Then, I went through and grouped each of the parks by the area they were located in. So, all of the parks in the Pacific Northwest were together and those in New England were together, etc.

My final lists looked like this …

I then went through and created an index page with a tab on it for each section. I used a variety of stamps and quotes with a travel theme to decorate each one. Here are a few examples:

 

Most of the stamps I used were from Studio 490 (Wendy Vecchi) or Tim Holtz. They both have great sayings and the images were perfect.

On this one, I also included a die cut tag from Tim Holtz.

Each index page lists the states that are included in that section.

I covered the insides of the cover with map paper from My Little Yellow Bicycle. the index pages, cover and accents were all made with a very old line of paper that I love from Cloud 9.

I used the Cinch to bind the book and then added ribbon to the bindings.

Here is the cover again.

It turned out great and she loved it.

Should you decide to make a similar book, I am more than happy to send you the Word document I created. Just drop me a line with your e-mail address.

 

 

 

Summer craft idea for kids

Kids are notorious for picking up things when they travel — especially if they go to the beach. They want to bring home all of those cool rocks, seashells, sea glass and other treasures found in the sand.

Really, I can’t blame them, since I like to bring them home, too, but once you get home, you never quite know what to do with them.

Until now …

Consider taking some of those beach treasures and creating a frame to help you remember your vacation.

This one began as plain wooden frame I picked up for less than $3 at Jo-Ann’s.

I painted it with a Ranger Adirondack Paint Dabber and then added strips of paper to each side, overlapping them in the corner. I suppose you could also trace the frame and cut out the paper, but this is much easier. I attached the paper with Memory Glue Dots, because they are super thin.

Then, I cut out the sign using a QuicKutz (Lifestyle Crafts) die, added some ink, journaling and a few brads and then attached it with Memory Glue Dots.

For the rocks, I used a couple of Craft Glue Dots, which are super strong.

Next I added a couple of rub-ons (both the paper and rub-ons are from Cloud 9).

The chipboard banner and letters are from Maya Road. I painted them with Paint Dabbers and then Diamond Glaze because I wanted them to shine. I used Removeable Glue Dots to hold the small pieces in place on my craft mat while I painted. Once dry, I used Micro Glue Dots to adhere the letters to the banner and Craft Glue Dots to attach the banner to the twine and then to the frame.

The entire project took just a few minutes and could easily be adapted to the age of the child and the craft supplies on hand.

Have fun!

This post was created while serving on the Glue Dots Design Team.