Back To School: American History

What was your favorite school subject? Has your favorite subject changed since then? When I was very little, even before I knew what history really was, I loved old stories and I was drawn to different time eras. I remember looking through my great grandma's photos and asking her questions about who the people were, digging through her cabinets (she would get so mad and tell me to stop prowling!) and looking at her old Christmas cards somehow knowing they were different and more special than what we have today, hanging a star on her door and pretending we were on the set of an old black and white movie while sitting at her antique dresser and smelling her perfume, and wishing I could go back in time to be a trombone player during The Roaring 20's in New Orleans. I've always loved history.

Over the past couple of years I've been more drawn to history than ever. I've read so many books about the Civil War, fiction and non fiction and more recently the War of 1812. My new interest in the War of 1812 began when we visited Boston, a city I chose for the historical sites, for vacation this year and toured the U.S.S. Constitution. The sentence fragment :) in the middle of my layout says, "To place myself where so many of the stories had taken place in my books, like going back in time." Did you know that during the War of 1812 the invading British marched to our nation's capitol and burned the White House? History is fascinating. The War of 1812 consisted of many naval battles and the U.S.S. Constitution, launched in 1797,  fought gloriously for her country defeating the enemy in all three of her battles during the 1812 -1814 war and victorious in 33 engagements between 1798 and 1854.

A few notes about the layout: I typed the text in a 12 x 12 Photoshop Elements file. I typed the three different sections in three different layers so I could rotate them around the page as needed. I printed the 12 x 12 paper on my large format printer. Next I designed the top part of my cut title using the Silhouette software, making sure to keep the words inside the boundaries of my text in Photoshop (gotta have your grid on in both programs). Then I took the kraft paper with printed text and ran that through the Silhouette to create the negative title area at the top. The banners and scrolls were also cut with Silhouette. I used a total symmetrical design as you can see, a design principle I've been loving lately!

Do you have a favorite time era? Have you scrapped about it? Have you scrapped about the history of the places you've traveled? Have you scrapped about the important historical events that have occurred in your country?

Supplies:
Red/Black Extension IV - Accessory Sheet
Red/Black Extension IV - Multiplication
Wren Paper - Blueprint
Wren Paper - Wheatgrass
Red letter stickers, red and black star stickers, and red/cream seal stickers coming soon!