bishop's pumpkin farm

We've gone to Bishop's every fall since 2006, usually more than once (because of school field trips). This year is no exception; we went last Saturday as a family, then on the 21st with Brandon's class (me) and on the 22nd with Olivia's (David & Abbie will go then too). Glad we love it there!

For this layout I used Alison Davis' sketch from August, seen here. You can download a copy easily from her blog. I really didn't make any changes, but it's a very versatile layout.

I used papers from a new company called Echo Park...I just love these colors! As much as I love fall, I always have the hardest time finding paper to use on layouts like this. It's not a "Halloween" layout, bu tthe colors are so bright & beautiful that I don't want the more muted "Thanksgiving" prints either...I'm in Northern California where the leaves barely start turning in November! Everything is still quite green when we go to the pumpkin patch! So anyhow...these papers from Echo Park's "A Walk in the Park" line were perfect! And double sided :)

These vertical strips on the side were cut from a sheet of border strips; the yellow & flower were the border strips, and the blue dots was on the reverse. The flower accent is actually from a sheet of "cards". I cut out the card with a flower on it, trimmed it down a bit & rounded the edges. Something was still missing, so I decided to do a little handstitching with my embroidery floss. The faux stitching was there already, so I just punched holes along that & started stitching.

I added stitching on these accents as well, and then popped them up with foam adhesive. The journal card is from the same sheet of paper as the accents. I didn't even grab that paper for the accents; I got it for the yellow print on the reverse (which I didn't even use!). Glad I grabbed it!

You can see my journaling here, if you care :)

I measure out the size of the journaling card (or strips if I'm using those) when I handwrite my journaling. Then I "sketch it" on a sheet of binder paper. Then I don't have pencil lines to erase on my layout. And, at least for me, I write a little differently with a pencil than a pen.

And last, but not least, my title block. I'm so pleased with how it came out. Again I used one of the cards from the Echo Park paper and added some real stitching on top of the faux stitching. It's a journaling card with a tree. I inked up some chipboard thickers with my Purely Pomegranite ink pad from Stampin' Up (an in color from 2008? it might be in their new color palette as well). Anyhow, I love that color! It's great for fall, and as I inked my letters I remembered that I used the same color on my letters for a Bishop's layout from 2007 :) I wanted to add a subtitle, so I took out some mini-letters from My Little Shoebox. I like the "ransom note" mismatched letter look, so I mix it up a bit. There's enough of each font you could probably match them all if you wanted to.