November Project 12

This weekend is the fourth Sunday of Advent--I cannot believe that! It's been a busy week, what with The Blizzard, the Sunday School Christmas program, setting up and decorating the tree, baking some cookies, and the preparation for the Choir concert at three services this weekend.

Amazingly, I got a layout finished, for November Project 12. Here was the sketch (Hope it doesn't cut off--if it does, you can see it here):



It was nice, but I needed more photos, so I doubled up the line. Here's what I did (click the photos to make them bigger):




I followed the sketch closely, using my November Studio Calico kit, but I didn't have supplies on hand for all the image types. No brackets, for example. So for the smaller bracket, I traced the empty spot left in my chipboard bracket set from Fancy Pants (I'd already punched out and used them, but the negative space was helpful too). For the bigger one, I traced a piece of Jenni Bowlin bracket paper I had.

I also used some OLD stickers on here, those Making Memories definitions stickers. I found them when I was digging through my sticker stash looking for an October Afternoon label sticker. Before I adhered the MM stickers, I swiped the edges with Stayzon brown ink to make them stand out; to add even more texture, I added stitches and brads.

I loved the flourish vines, but I didn't have anything like that it my stash. I do, however, have a needle and DMC, so I hand-drew some vines, punched holes, and stitched, using two strands of green and one of orange.

The leaves are actually Prima green flowers that I misted with orange and yellow.


I messed up the border zig zag stitching (as usual), but here's a trick: if you tear out bad stitches and rub the back of the holes with your thumb, it covers them up so they're almost invisible. Thanks goodness.

For these leaves: I had about 8-10 more on there, but they looked too busy, so I took some away, which is much nicer now. It reminds me of one of my favorite scrapbooking quotations, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."