September Calendar

Today is September 1st, and I'm feeling a little more back on track.  Maybe.  I might make a firmer decision tomorrow.  Maybe.  A really good step in this direction is I finally have our September calendar done.  I didn't do one for July because we weren't home and I was just too far behind to do one for August.

In addition, I knew all the FABULOUS new product Kate ordered at CHA, and I wanted to be able to use a bunch of it for my September Calendar.

I used my new Graphic45 Steampunk Debutante paper.  OH GOSH!!!!  This paper is one of my top 5 designer papers ever.  I used so much of my 8x8 pad for this project.  In the pad, there is a paper with a butterfly border and a very cool image in the center.  The image didn't really work with what I wanted to do for my project, so I cut a black cardstock mat to cover it and mount my own work on.  Isn't that butterfly frame brilliant?!!!  It's definitely a favourite feature for September.

I painted chipboard hearts with crackle paint, one with aged bronze and the other with brushed pewter.  I added a little character with adirondack alcohol ink. 

I used a Zva rhinestone flourish to blingify to the sentiment, and a couple of little butterflies for a touch of whimsy.  I used a piece of lightweight vellum over the brightly coloured rose pattern paper.  Love it!

My family is happy with me because we have a calendar again, just in time for school, and I hope this sentiment will go a little way to offer inspiration to my kids as they start a new academic year.


stamps; vintage labels 5, words of wisdom (waltzingmouse stamps)
paper; steampunk debutante (graphic45), raven (bazzill), lightweight vellum (paper accents)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; labels 5 nesties (spellbinders), crochet lace (may arts), black crepe ribbon (creative impressions), rhinestone flourish (zva), fleur de lis punch, diamond scallop punch (ek success), butterfly trio punch (martha stewart), black rhinestones (heidi swapp), pewter butterfly (unknown), chipboard hearts (bazzill), brushed pewter, aged bronze crackle paint (ranger)

June Calendar

I am so much more on top of things this month than last!  I doubt I can express how much this makes me happy.  And able to sleep at night and not grumpy around my family.  I just hate it when I'm like that.  I need to make a few life changes for things to fully come into balance, but I feel like I'm starting to tackle it head on.

I am done our June portion of my calendar;

I had a mess on my stamping desk about 2 weeks ago when my design team package arrived from Kate at i {heart} papers.  I had my Blossomwood pad open (love this paper!!!) and I happened to have these Petaloo yellow flowers there and out spilled this little mouse with sunflower by Stampavie and a package of gorgeous brown Zva rhinestone flourishes.  Oh good golly, it looked like inspired perfection to me!!!  There were some other amazing goodies in there that I'll share shortly.  Anyhoo, I kept arranging these elements into a card in my head, but nothing was fitting the way I wanted because this mouse image is larger than the layout in my head would accommodate with the large flourish and this very large brown eyed susan print paper.  It occurred to me that I needed a larger project for all these larger elements.

THEN I realized that I hadn't done my calendar for June yet, and while this isn't quite what I wanted for June, I was too excited about the whole thing to keep it for another month.  I have started collecting Tombow markers and playing around with them because I was inspired by Kim Teasdale and the amazing things she does with them when she colours images.  I'm definitely not as masterful as she is with these markers, but I don't think this is bad for a first try with them.

If you missed the rest of our calendar that I'm creating and want to take a peek, there is a link for it.

Yup, I'm almost on top of things right now!  Happy hump day - the weekend is in sight!

stamps; mouse with sunflower (stampavie - IHP)
paper; blossomwood (K&Co), raven, brown, sunshine (bazzill), 140lb watercolour paper 
ink; black memento ink (tsukineko)
accessories; ribbon (bazzill), large dew drops (the robin's nest), rhinestone flourish (zva), flower (petaloo), daisy edge punch (martha stewart), stickles (ranger), tombow markers

May Calendar

It's almost mid May. Does anyone else feel like you are riding on the back of a rocket and you are holding on for dear life?!!! I can't believe how quickly the year is going by. I hadn't done our May calendar yet, and had the BRILLIANT (if I do say so myself) idea to recycle a card for this month. As it turns out, I only recycled an image that I really love from this card that I did *gasp* 3 years ago! It has always been a fave, but when I pulled it out I decided it looked a little dated and needed some sprucing up so I didn't use the card in its entirety.

Here's what I came up with;


I must admit, I still love the colouring on this dragonfly image. I took it off the original card by dismounting the image and cutting off the original framing layers because they just didn't go very well with the new paper I chose for this layout from Linen Closet by DCWV. I am very pleased with how well the colours in this image and the over stamped flourishes co-ordinate with this paper collection. It gives the image a softer look than the original mounting, which is what I was after to begin with.



I simply adore this image! I didn't realize I'd had it for as long as I have. I think I need to pull out some of my older stamps and give them a go!!!



As if there wasn't enough glitter on these patterned papers, I decided this little corner of the layout needed a little blingification. I cut out some JAC paper (double sided adhesive paper) with a nestie butterfly die, and sprinkled some glitter on the exposed adhesive with the nesite die acting as a stencil. *DIVINE DETAIL!!!*

While I was pawing through my card stash, I found a few more that I will re-card by mounting them on this 8 1/2"x 8 1/2" calendar that I am gifting to my family, month by month. Here are the previous months of my calendar if you would like to take a boo;

January
February
March
April

stamps; flourishes (rhonna farrer), dragonfly legend (stampers anon)
paper; linen closet (DCWV), raven, walnut creme (bazzill)
ink; cool caribbean, bashful blue, almost amythest, garden green, certainly celery, old olive(SU! reinkers)
accessories; pearl ex (jacquard), page pebble, brads (making memories), chipboard (K&Co), ribbon (offray), charms (blue moon beads), glitter (art institute pee wee kits), butterfly 2 shapeabilities, bigs scallop petite borderabilities (spellbinders), rhinestones (heidi swapp)

April Calendar

Happy April! I got my April Calendar done in a timely manner this month. Yay!!! I do really work at staying on top of deadlines but it doesn't always go in my favour! *grin* So, just to refresh, here are links to January, February and March. And now for a full shot of April;



I love the way this calendar is holding up. By now, my calendar has been taped around the hanging hole and the year has hardly begun! This year, it still looks awesome and I think it'll hold up beautifully until the end of the year. The picture portion of the calendar is 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" and will fit in a shadowbox style frame that I have from Ikea once I remove it from the calendar as the new month starts.



I had to re glue the Tim Holtz corners once, and I suspect I'll need to again before the year is out. I used Tombow metal glue, and it just hasn't been holding the corners the way I thought it would. I think this is a small complaint over all, and I'll have the opportunity to experiment with some other adhesives. Any suggestions?



I think April is my favourite calendar image so far. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I used my cricut stone script cartridge to cut out 'delight'. I must say I like this font/cartridge far more than I thought I would! To reinforce the sentiment, I included a cute definition of the word. That little portion covered up a booboo as well - When I took the cap off one of my copics, the ink flew off the nib and splattered my image. I nearly cried because I was only adding the last couple of touches and had already put in some serious colouring time. I used my colourless blender to disperse the smaller splats, but there was one really big one that wouldn't fade! {insert embellishment opportunity} I decided that would be the perfect place for the definition.



I coloured the image with a base layer of copic markers and all the shading and texture is added using prismacolours. The red balloon really pops against the layers of this calendar image because I wanted the joy of this simple childhood pleasure to be the focal point and for all other elements to support this thought.

This card, by Amy Sheffer, was my inspiration for my layout.

Thanks so much for popping by today. It always means so much to me when you leave your comments and thoughts for me.

stamps; define your life (SU!), Cody's balloon (mo manning - digi stamp)
paper; origins (basic grey), coconut swirl, blackberry swirl (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accesories; big scallop squares, square, labels 6, petite ovals nesties, jumbo scallop borderabilities (spellbinders), beetle black brads (bazzill), rhinestones (basic grey), stone script cricut cartridge (provo), copic markers, prismacolours

March Calendar

Yes, I know it is one full week into March and I'm just showing this now. *snort* I've been on the ball for everything except this one project. I'm getting April started tomorrow, by the way.

I got a new paper pad from K&Co - Carolyn Gavin Greenhouse - I'm in love. It's an 8.5"x8.5" pad which is perfect for this project since all the image pages for my calendar are 8.5"x8.5". This doesn't have all the pretty spring colours I had planned on, but really, when I saw this paper, my heart pitty patted! There are some pretty coloured floral prints in this pad, but this abstract foliage paper just grabbed me. Okay, done gushing!!!

I used Bouquet by American Art Stamps for my main image - I just love this line of stamps by Karen Stolper. I coloured it with prismacolours and sponged the edges to give it a little depth.

The sentiment is from Anna Wight's Whipper Snapper set, Blooming Expressions, cutting it out with Ribbon Tag Trio 2. I used a small-ish background stamp on the main image, but I don't know where it is from.

Yup, March is done like dinner, and I'm off to tackle April!

stamps; bouquet (american art stamps), blooming expressions (whipper snapper)
paper; Carolyn Gavin Greenhouse (K&Co), saguaro, brown (bazzill)
ink; espresso adirondack, tea dye, antique linen, vintage photo, walnut stain distress ink (ranger)
accessories; ribbon tag trio 2 (spellbinders), aged copper brads, buttons (making memories), flowers (making memories, prima, bazzill), dew drops (the robin's nest), jute twine (Alexx Kesh), branch punch (MS)

February Calendar - A little mousy

I sat down this week and got our February calendar done. I knew I was on a tight time line with the end of the month looming, and I had it all planned in my head, so it came together quite quickly. I am really enjoying this year long project!


I had this house mouse stamp and knew I wanted to plan February around it. All the designer papers used for this month are from the Juliette line by SEI. The 8 1/2"x 8 1/2" base for this month is again, mounted on the base I made originally for the calendar. Here is the January image post that will be retired tonight to make way for this new cutie patootie pair.


I stamped the image with black soot distress ink and coloured it with a combination of prismacolors and copic markers. Now, about that bowl... I accidently used Tim Holtz crackle accents instead of glossy accents. Note to self; READ LABELS!!! I love the idea of this look, but next time I will also stamp the image in an ink that isn't water soluble. :( The distress ink ran and gave the bowl a bit of a pewter look. This isn't what I intended, but I can live with it because it ended up looking kinda cool - like some depression era pressed glass.



When the i {heart} papers design team did a calendar hop last month, one of the girls did a very clever thing layering snowflakes and hearts. I said I'd case it, and here it is! I ended up too lazy (snort) to cut snowflakes out with my cricut, so I used a few spare felt ones I had laying around. The heart on top is from Basic Grey chip board. I painted the heart with brushed pewter crackle paint from ranger and then applied some alcohol ink to it. The result is stunning!!! Kate has some of the BG chipboard in stock - on sale. And the snowflakes she has would look amazing done this way! I think there's also some picket fence crackle paint coming out or another white? I know there is rock candy crackle paint now, and by adding a drop of reinker to a little bit of it poured out on a plastic surface gives the chipboard a very cool looking transparent colour effect like it's coated with glass.

I used some ZVA crystal flourishes to give that corner a snow flake blustery feel. A few pink rhinestones on the snowflakes and hearts finish the pretty bling for this month. I cut the 'be mine' sentiment with my cricut using the opposites attract cartridge, welding the letters together - I just haven't got over that feature!!!

So, what to do for March?!!!

stamps; Lovin Mouseful (house mouse)
paper; juliette (SEI), cardstock (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; crystal flourishes (zva), chipboard (basic grey), brushed pewter distress paint, alcohol ink, crackle accents (ranger), felt snowflakes, border punch (SU!), ribbon (offray), heart charms (blue moon beads), prismacolours, copic markers

Our new Calendar

I think I have a brilliant idea for a calendar for our house this year. It took about a week for me to get the idea worked out in my head, but I'm thrilled with the results. I couldn't figure out how to make the calendar light enough so it would hang all year with the kinds of images I wanted to put on it. Then, after a week, I realized that if I used these Tim Holtz metal corners and left them a little bit open, I can slip the new month and image into the corners after I remove the old month. By doing this, I save a pile of paper too, because I have this calendar base and I don't have to have a base for every month - KWIM?



For Christmas, my DH gave me Provocraft's Design Studio for my cricut so I will use my cricut more. I used the weld function from this program to create the joined word, January. I LOVE THAT FEATURE!!!!! It's what I've always wanted, but couldn't do. I created the icicles on the word with Rock Candy stickles. I had to apply 2 coats of it because the first dried thin. The numbers are stamped using Just Rite curlz font.



I'm quite pleased with the way this turned out. Sorry the lighting is such a high yellow - I took the picture hanging on the wall in my kitchen instead of under my beloved OTT lighting. My DD said that she always thinks of January as blue, so I incorporated that into my design. I got inspiration for this layout from this card by Michelle Giraud.



When I saw what Michelle did with this image, Perfect Snowflake, I fell in love with it. It's a marvelous image. I coloured it with prismacolors and gamsol. The snowflake is very glitzy irl because I used glitter to highlight it and some patina stickles on the round points.



I used 2 pieces of memory glass for this sentiment. I stamped a snowflake using opaque white staz on on the back piece of glass. On the front piece, I stamped the sentiment using black stazon. I didn't have any silver memory glass frames, so I took one of the aged copper ones I had and coloured it using a silver zig painty pen.

Month by month I'll reveal the next image for my calendar, and I hope you'll stick with me through this LONG project. I'm really looking forward to creating this calendar in a leisurely way all year long. Each of the large images is 8 1/2" square and it's quite a stretch for me since I'm more accustomed to 6x6" and standard size cards. Emphasis on cards. I love the jumbo brad I put for the hole at the top as it relieves my big beef with calendars tearing as the months are changed so that by the end of the year, they won't stay on the nail in the wall anymore.

Happy New Year everyone, and I'll see you on Saturday for the OCC challenge!!! Stay warm.

stamps; perfect snowflake (american art stamps), let it snow (impression obsession), serene snowflakes (SU!)
paper; kraft (paper accents), black tie, green apple (bazzill), skate shoppe (basic grey)
ink; vintage linen, tea dye, balck soot distress ink (ranger), opaque white, jet black staz on (tsukineko)
accessories; corners, memory glass & frame (tim holz), pewter jumbo brad, white satin ribbon, soft sky ribbon, felt snowflakes (SU!), stickles (ranger), border punch (fiskars)