Studio Calico November at last

Wow! It's Halloween week, which means I've had my hands full with little kids and costumes and parties and egg carton bats (thanks for the idea Laura), and soccer snack and toddlers with attitude, an urge to purge kid toys, and a whole host of other excuses that have kept me from my blog. ACK! But here I am, with my November layouts from Studio Calico to share.

For the first time ever, I created a layout the same day I took the photos, and I used 8 pictures, and made a two-pager.





I knew I wanted to use the pumpkins in a row, just like they are displayed on the stamp package. At first I was going to do a different fall themed layout, but after we went to the pumpkin patch, I decided I had to scrap those photos immediately. We had a lot of fun that afternoon and I didn't want the good feeling to end. Plus there was a halfway decent photo of both myself and my hubby. All of us on a layout. Perfect!

If you take a close look at the stitching you will notice I did not use my sewing machine. I didn't use a needle to hand stitch. Those are Hambly stitch rubons, and I am IN. LOVE. Really. The color is so vivid, they went down like buttah, and I just love the different stitch styles so I used a few different strips on this layout. I like the homespun detail it adds. I HAVE to get more of these too. You shall see more rubons from me!



I had a story to tell with this layout. Payton has this thing where she trots around on all fours and you have to listen for a "neigh neigh neigh?" or a "meow" to know what animal she is that day, and she often will not answer you, except with the above, if she is in character and you want to speak to her. Actually, I take that back. She will talk to mommy, which is Morgan, but she won't talk to me, lol. It's actually quite amusing. Morgan never used to play make-believe like this so it's been a fun experience.

The design on this layout is really quite simple. I did hand stitch three different rows for texture, but there isn't a lot of wow to this one.





In an effort to amp it up a little bit and add some texture, I punched some circles and inked the edges, and then layered them at the top.

The photos are black and white because the top left photo was taken with my camera when I first picked it up and the setting were all wrong, so it was quite grainy when I made an attempt to fix it in photoshop, so I changed them all to black and white because I really liked the composition and overall photo and wanted to use it. Like Tim Gunn from Project Runway would say..... I made it work! (I'm watching it right now, lol).


This is the first layout I made this month and it came together really quickly. My DT package this month was delayed so I was twiddling my thumbs a little bit, but the weekend before it arrived I was also sick, so really didn't feel like doing anything besides lay around with my kids. Morgan kept bugging me for a scarf, so at the last minute I made some scarves for my girls and it wasn't until my kit arrived that I realized how well planned it was, if I had thought about planning it, lol.

The little Maya Road houses were made to sit next to the trees, and I covered them with mist which is my favorite way to use Mist. It's much faster and clean looking to use Maya Mist than to paint or ink them, I think. I used orange and brown for these houses. I then layered a piece of veneer that I trimmed with my rotary trimmer, and a strip of that yummy May Arts ribbon for a base to ground my houses and trees.

3 and a Half was all about the journaling. At first I thought I had written too much and would have to make the font too small to appreciate, but then I had a reality check and reminded myself that this is what scrapbooking is all about, preserving my memories, and I didn't want to cut anything I had to say, so I made it work. I really adore this photo of Payton, I'll probably scrap it again, and thought this look really described her at this age so I had to use it.



I thought the floral OA paper was really pretty and girly and childlike and perfect to use for this subject, so I had to add it as the main background. I also really wanted to showcase more than the use of kraft as a background, so I added that dark brown woodgrain pattern that Cosmo Cricket has perfected.

After I was finished with my layouts I did a quick card that I think I will create over and over again, thanks to Studio Calico and the new stamps, the sewing machine and the {handmade with love} sentiment. I guarantee this idea will be used over and over again, and I'm considering it as the design for some Christmas gift sets.




With that I'll leave you with our pumpkins. The girls each drew the face on their jack, Payton was on the left, and lucky for them, the pumpkins were forgiving and our tools were sharp so we were able to bring them to life. :)


Have a great day! Davinie