Washington DC, our nation's capital, is a great place to visit because it's a cosmopolitan city, filled with famous sites, history, great museums, and great restaurants. There are so many photo opportunities combined with as many educational opportunities. Make sure that your Washington DC scrapbook pages capture everything you learned in addition to the things you saw.

Most visits to Washington DC include a walk (or several) down the National Mall. Any walk down the Mall includes sights of the Capitol at one end and the Washington Monument at the other. Both of these buildings are easy to photograph. Some people choose to hold their hands up such that in the photo they look like they are holding up the monument.  Of course, there are many other famous sites which can be seen and photographed from the National Mall, including the White House, the presidential memorials, the World War II memorial, and the buildings of the Smithsonian. Personally, I think photos from the National Mall look great on a red, white, and blue layout.

Photographs inside the buildings of the mall can be trickier. I always find museums to be particularly difficult places to photographs. However, combining the photos you are able take with journaling can lead to scrapbook layouts that bring back the important memories of the visit. On our visit, we spent a lot of time at the National Air and Space Museum. In addition to learning about space, we learned the history of the space race. Educationally, this combined well with many of the historical sites we had seen out on the Mall. In my layout about the museum, I chose to journal about these lessons.

It is very easy to give a patriotic theme to your Washington DC layouts. There are many patriotic-themed scrapbook supplies to choose from.

If you are looking for some interesting layout titles, here are a few suggestions from songs and movies:

• Land of the Free (and the Home of the Brave)
• America the Beautiful
• One Nation, Under God
• Patriot Games
• Night at the Museum

The Rest of the City

Not all visits to Washington DC focus around the National Mall and Smithsonian museums. If the highlights of your visit include restaurants, the zoo, or business meetings, then those places should be the focus of your layouts. Even if you are not an American, a visit to Washington DC can be quite interesting and educational. However, non-Americans may choose a different approach to scrapbooking this world capital.

Of course, if something completely crazy happens, then make a layout about that.

Regardless of whether or not you stick to traditional subjects and red, white, and blue, don't forget to post your Washington DC layouts here in the Scrapjazz gallery.