Hi everyone, I’m feeling really excited today, as I have finally completed the last outstanding page on my Lavinia 2025 calendar - November. As regular visitors to my blog will know, I started work on this calendar in October last year, and by the time the New Year rolled round I had completed 5 of the 12 pages, though not in order (I completed them as the fancy took me!) Anyway I have been gradually tackling the rest since then, and at last it is finished!
I wanted to make a late autumnal scene: originally I intended to do a stag in an autumnal forest but somehow I just couldn’t visualise it, so I decided to make a scene instead featuring Gus the gorgeous owl, partly because my husband loves owls - so here it is.
I cut a piece of card 19.5cm x 14.5cm and stamped Gus, then masked his feet and stamped the vine branch. I masked both owl and tree and also used a circle mask, then blended Sahara and Russet Orange Elements inks over the background. I removed the masks then coloured Gus and the branch with Zig pens. I stamped some background autumn wording over the sun, cedar branches hanging in the top corner, toadstools in the bottom right corner and fallen leaves, which I also coloured with my Zigs. I added a little bird sitting on the branch then added white Posca highlights and edged the whole scene with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to add some depth, before attaching the finished panel onto my calendar page. Finally I decided to take a chance and add some Glossy Accents to Gus’s eyes, as my Glossy Accents has weirdly gone a bit discoloured - luckily he didn’t end up looking like he’d got cataracts!
Stamps: Lavinia Gus, Vine Branch, Elfin Cap Cluster, Cedar, Oak Leaf Flourish, Bird Collection, Slender Mushrooms Mini, Winter Spice;
Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Sahara, Russet Orange); Tim Holtz Distress ink (Vintage Photo); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Pinecone, Sand Dune); Kuretake Zig Clean Color Watercolour pens; Sakura Stardust pen (yellow); Posca pen (white); Glossy Accents.
Challenges I would like to enter:
Classic Design Challenge #9 2025 - Anything Goes with option Trees and/or Leaves (3rd entry)
Country View Crafts FB Challenge (October) - Heavenly Bodies
Craft Rocket #130 - Autumn/Hallowe’en
Crafty Catz #702 - Anything Goes
Creative Moments #275 - Things With Wings
Daisy Chain #101 - Autumn and/or Hallowe’en
Fab ‘n’ Funky #623 - Colours of Autumn - TOP 3
Four Seasons (October) - Anything Goes Fall
Girlz Rebel #45 - Mushrooms
Let’s Craft and Create #224 - Things With Wings
Mix It Up #79 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)
Outlawz Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone (October) - Anything but a Card
Papercraft #122 - Amazing Autumn (2nd entry)
Simon Says (Wednesday) - Bright and Colourful
Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything Fall
Triple B (October) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms
Unicorn #114 - Autumn and/or Hallowe’en
Word Art Wednesday #720/721 - Anything Goes
Now that I have finally completed this mega project, I thought I’d like to have a little recap of the whole calendar in date (rather than creation) order - if you click on the links they will take you to my original posts with full details of how I made each page.
November (this post)
This has been the biggest crafting project I have ever done by a country mile - I reckon over the year it has probably taken 40+ hours. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, though I thought after all that effort I couldn’t commit to doing it again for 2026. However I was lucky enough to win a challenge prize from Country View Crafts, so guess what I picked?? I just couldn’t help myself, and my 2026 calendar dropped through the letterbox on Monday! cycle begins again ….
Take care, and thanks for visiting.
Hugs,
19 comments:
Absolutely beautiful stamped scenes and love the fabulous Owl.
Carol x
Thank you for joining us at Love to Craft
Carol DT x
Wow, this is definitely a worthwhile project! So gorgeous...every month is beautiful. Loving November with the owl, leaves and words across the moon! Although, looking ahead to December is quite a treat! Thanks for sharing with us at The Outlawz AG in a Card Free Zone. Katrina
Oh wow!! This is an awesome project and I love everything about it.
I am also a fan of Lavinia but I don't have many stamps yet...
Lia xx
Gorgeous is the right description! Not only for the magnificent Gus but for the whole calendar! Fabulous work Pauline, wish I'd made it!
xx
Wow, this is absolutely stunningly beautiful, each month is certainly frameable, beautiful!
Thank you for joining our challenge at Triple B, The Four Seasons and The Sisterhood of Crafters!
Diane TB , TFS Co-Owner and TSH DT
{Nellies Nest}
{Triple B}
FABULOUS! Every month of your calendar is AMAZING! Well done my friend! Thanks so much for joining in the fun at the Sisterhood of Crafters, Four Seasons & Triple B challenges! Good Luck and we hope you’ll come back often.
Darlene
DAR’S CRAFTY CREATIONS
Sisterhood of Crafters Owner
Four Seasons Co-Owner
Triple B Co-Owner
A really great choice of stamps for your final calendar page and a beautiful scene created. It was lovely to see the pictures of all the months together - a huge task to undertake and I'm sure you will enjoy doing the pages for another one next year. Look forward to seeing them as they come along.
Your new page looks absolutely stunning! Great choice using Gus, I don't have that stamp but need to move him onto my wishlist after seeing this.
Thank you for also sharing each of the pages you made, so nice to see them all together. I tried to pick a favorite but it's really hard. Such great work on each one! Looking forward to your new calendar work!
PS: So great to see you at the Four Seasons challenge too!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful Calendar at FnF- definitely worth a second visit!
x
Another beautiful page for your calendar.
Lovely to see each page on this post too.
GOOD LUCK making different scenes for next year! xxx
Great to see Gus again Pauline here at Love to Craft. How lovely to see all your calendar months in one place too - I've also got this calendar but I didn't use all Lavinia stamps for mine - it's been great fun creating so I may well do another one next year too.
Beautiful work, Pauline! I really love Gus the owl and the details are just wonderful too. I really enjoyed seeing all of your other calendar pages too. You’ve certainly put a lot of hard work into that project. Thanks so much for playing along with us at Word Art Wednesday. We always appreciate you!
Your November owl scene is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful creation in our latest challenge at Let's Craft and Create. Cheryl W, DT
Congratulations on completing your calendar and doesn't it look fabulous. Thanks for sharing all the images together. You should be very proud f it.Good luch with next years xx
Prachtige uil
GOSH! What a beautiful calendar? A real labour of love, every month just looks fab
Kathyk
Another fantastic job, this project is so beautiful. Love it! Thanks for playing our challenge at Love to Craft Challenge, Leanne DT Member/LTCC
Gus looks great! All the other elements that you put in this design, join to make this a great calendar page! Thank you for sharing it with us in the Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone Challenge at the Outlawz Challenges. Shirley M.
Lovely to see the whole calendar and the scene with Gus is fabulous. Well don on completing.
Avril xx
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