Road Trip: States Collage

I had created these states collage pages back when I finished up our Road Trip album, but I wasn't sure how much I liked them after I finished them. Since the papers were printed with graphics and the state names, I couldn't really overlay patterned papers like I usually do, so I decided to just use a bunch of photos from on the road in each state and do a collage. I tried to include the highways we drove, any roadside attractions or things we saw, and also photos of us in the car.

I still like the idea of a collage for each state, but if I could do them over again I might do them a little differently. I do like the pages and I'm glad I have a collage for each state, but this is a good example that sometimes ideas don't turn out exactly like what you had in mind, and not every scrapbook page that you make will turn out awesome. And that's okay. This was just one idea and next time I will try something a little different.

Road Trip Series #2: Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The second stop on our road trip was Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. We left Jamestown and had a few hour drive to get there. We had been on the road for about 13 hours when we arrived and were ready for another break from the highway, so we spent about 2 hours in the park. We hit the visitor center first and then did a scenic drive through the park to view wildlife.

(click on the layouts for a larger view)

We saw tons of bison and prairie dogs here, and it was our first experience with bison on the road. It is a beautiful park with really unique landscapes. 

For the layouts, I kept them fairly simple with earth-toned paper and and a few travel-themed embellishments. I just wanted it to have an earthy and natural feel.

I forgot to pick up a park map when we were there (gasp!) so I didn't include it in the layout. I know...I missed one of my own self-proclaimed critical elements for scrapbooking! Chalk it up to very little sleep, being awake since 3am, 13 hours in a very enclosed vehicle, and this being our first national park - we had to buy passport books, get stamps, get a junior ranger book, get patches, and figure out what to see and how to get there. So I missed the map, it happens. I think I must have had one in the park, but it never made it home. Even without it, I'm still happy with the layouts.

Next road trip stop - ghost towns! 
Well, it was actually Glacier, but we're skipping that since that is not in this album...you can see those layouts in the Gallery.

Road Trip Series #1: Jamestown, North Dakota

With some of my larger projects now complete, I'm finally catching up on some of the smaller ones. With just a few layouts left from our road trip last summer, I thought it was time to finish up the layouts for the rest of the national parks and roadside attractions we stopped at along the way.

So we're going on a virtual road trip! There will be 5 stops along the way. Our first is Jamestown, North Dakota.

We planned to stop here for an extended lunch, and after 9 hours in the car that morning we needed to stretch our legs for a bit. While in town we visited the World's Largest Buffalo Statue and Jamestown Frontier Village.

(click on the layouts for a larger view)

For these layouts, I used a travel theme kit from Paper Studios. The pictures were pretty fun and colorful and lent themselves to a nice, colorful layout.

The buffalo statue and the village were pretty fun roadside attractions and worth stopping for. The kids really liked the village and probably would have stayed longer if we would have let them. But we needed to get back on the road - there was more to see that afternoon!

Next Stop - Theodore Roosevelt National Park.