Woodgrain cardstock

There's a new(ish) product that Studio Calico has recently started selling (actually they had a piece in one of their previous kits) that I bought several pieces of and that's cardstock that is pressed like woodgrain. Not only do I like the impression, but it's really thick and really white and I like using white as my base page nowadays! It really makes whatever you place on it pop! I used it on both of the layouts above. Most everything else is from the July Studio Calico kit with a little stash thrown in.

The top layout - A Beautiful Mess - has a photo of my scrap desk as I'm working and creating!! Several elements on this layout were ideas for different layouts that didn't work and I put to the side to use for different projects!! I stamped several circle border images on my cardstock and I was actually going to use this piece for the bottom (Wipe-out) layout, but it was too busy for those beach photos!  The chevron cut pieces across the middle were also leftovers from a previous layout that I tried to use it on but didn't look good on so I just saved the pieces and discovered that they went well with my stamped cardstock piece!! That just goes to show you shouldn't be afraid to try new looks or techniques - if they don't work on the original project, you can always find a way to incorporate them into another project!! There were several small embellishments in our kits this month, so I liked the look of filling in some of the stamped circles with them. I did a little layering under the photo, using a scrap from a previous month's kit with the pp from the July kit and some doilies. I added some doilies to the corners and put my journaling in a hidden pocket (the vellum envelope under the photo) and called it done!!

The bottom Layout - Wipe-out - has photos of my son using his skimboard one summer while we were visiting Ship Island off the Mississippi coast. I went with a mainly monochromatic theme on white so my pictures would really stand out! I have several packages of the October Afternoon diecut pieces so I just picked out all the aqua pieces and layered them around my photos. I used a little washi tape to create a type of frame above and below the photos. The layout needed some dimension, so I used some flair buttons and also popped a piece of diecut off the page with a pop dot. I love the chipboard letters that I used - they are the Studio Calico naked chipboard Thickers and I used some of my Prima chalk ink to color them. Lastly, I splotched some black and turquoise Mister Huey across my page.

You should run to the SC shop and get some of that very cool woodgrain paper - you won't be sorry!! :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!! :)