the studio calico october kit debuted last night. i worked w/ the main kit and all three addons - i just couldn't resist any of them. my very fave was pep rally, though - especially the journaling stamp. LOVE.

(yellow cardstock, woodgrain circles, blue floral, hopscotch, and yellow / red striped pp are all from the main kit, the stripes that i used as the scallop border and the definition paper is from pep rally, as is the journaling stamp. the letters, brads, and jenni bowlin memo book are from fall festival, and the tree stamp is from science fair. i used lemon maya mist, peeled paint distress ink, and fiskars XL and L round n round squeeze punches & the scallop sentiment border punch.)
this was the first page i made with the ki. i've had this photo waiting to be scrapped for over a year and when i saw this woodgrain paper, i knew the colors were a perfect match. i originally paired it with blue cardstock, but when i decided to do the misted background i switched to yellow - i knew i could get a mellower tone on tone affect w/ the yellow mist over the light yellow cardstock. my fiskars XL circle punch was just nearly the same size as the circles on the paper, so i used it to make my masks.

i tacked them down with a tiny bit of temporary adhesive, and made sure to line them up with the design on the patterned paper.

then i took off the patterned paper and misted away. i added back the woodgrain circle pp, then added the photo, title, and all the other little bits and bobs.

(orange cardstock, red test bubbles, bright stripes pp, happy stamp and the yellow circle under the button are from the main kit. the monsters, borderm ribbon and red circles & bling are from pep rally. the green stripe is from science fair (i think) as is the button and aqua scallop border sticker. i used a fiskars M round n round squeeze punch for the circles.)
this was page number two. i've been dying to scrap this pics of sam from his 2nd birthday, and those sass monsters are a perfect match. =) i hand cut and stitched teh title, and stitched the circles and added bling to create my own accents. i also added some stitching to the striped ribbon.

(woodgrain alpha, red borders, envelope and blue & "a" pp are from the main kit. the definition pp and journaling stamp arefrom pep rally, jenni bowlin star stickers are from fall festival and the little letters are from science fair. the background is misted w/ turquoise maya mist and i used broken china distress ink for the journaling stamp)
this is another page idea that i've held for a long time. i just wasn't sure how i wanted to scrap it. there's so much to say about this photo - it was taken at the end of alex's first day of second grade - which was his first day back at school after being homeschooled for kindergarten and first. but i wanted to say it to HIM - so the envelope was perfect. i can write all those thoughts and tuck them away.

(map and red test paper pp are from the main kit, bling, you are here and journaling lines stamp & orange scallop ribbon are pep rally, brads and jenni bowlin memo book are from fall festival. i misted the velvet ribbon with orange maya mist to make the color a bit deeper, and i used spiced marmalade distress ink for the journaling lines stamp.)
this page gave me FITS. the title technique was inspired by the first photo in this blog post at design*sponge. the letters were hand cut from the background - but i left the bottoms attached, and then folded each one back and attached with foam adhesive. i backed it with the red patterned paper to make it pop a bit. that part came easily, it was the rest of the page that didn't. after much shoving and rearranging, i ended up with this, and i'm happy with it.

(orange ribbon and ledger paper are from the main kit, as are the sequins - i took apart one of the prima centers. corrugated letters, orange sticker, owl rubon and glitter border are from fall festival, the pearls and green flower pp is from pep rally, the tree stamp, little letters and flower - i cut the petals into hearts - are from science fair. the letters in "fall", the journaling paper, and the hearts all got a bit of gold maya mist, as did the background - but it's hard to see in the photos.)
i went back and forth on this page. i couldn't decide how many photos i wanted to use. if i wanted them all to be small, or to do a focal photo with smaller ones. did i want to do one page or two. i finally started flipping through my inspiration book and came across this :

and it all fell into place from there. the top left and bottom right photos are pop dotted to give it a bit of dimension.

(everything's from the main kit. i also used orange, green, pink, turquoise, blue and lemon mists and broken china & peeled paint distress ink. the punches are martha stewart)
the last page, which went together rather quickly. i had come across this photo on decor8 and loved the color samples. i was going to do something similar with paint, and then decided mist would be easier. i punched a circle in a scrap piece of pp and used it for a mask, and then stamped over my misted background. my photo was nothing to write home about - a crazy backlit photo snapped through the windshield of my car - but it just reminded me of the feeling that i get every time i turn into my neighborhood. a little pse and a faux poloraid frame and it was good to go. =) the butterfly was the last touch to the page - i was going for a bit of an "inspiration board" feeling w/ the bits and layers and the crazy misting, and i liked how it looked hanging from the staples.
well, there ya go. if you have any questions about anything i did on these pages, leave me a comment and i'll try to answer them. =)