Calendar projects

Last year, I made calendars as gifts for family members. They seemed to be the perfect thing. No "junk" that would clutter people's homes, not a huge amount of money spent (I used up a lot of items in my stash that I needed to clear out), a handmade item that doesn't need to be a major addition to someone's decor. Just a wall calendar. But it was set up to be a Scrapbook, too. Anyone who wanted to add photos could slide the pages into a 12x12 album, and ta-da! -- a finished album.



This year, I've had many scrapping friends tell me they're thinking about making calendars, too, and would I be willing to share what I've done.



So, I'm going to post my calendar pages here on the blog, one month at a time. I'll show both last year's example, and this year's example.



In my designs, I try to set up the page so that it can be "just a calendar," but also have room to add photos if they choose. I make 6 of these, so it's a long, complicated process. I think I'm getting better at it this year.



So here's January from last year. I suggested that photos could be placed over the poem (automatic photo matting) or above the poem or above the little tags.






Now here's this year's calendar. The hat is actually a pocket -- the photo can slide right behind the hatband. Or a photo could be placed on the cheek of the snowman.

Lots of people ask where I get my ideas for these. I really try to make my calendar pages more of a "paper piecing art" than a scrapbook layout, so I look at Ebay for paper piecings (search the premade pages and sort by highest to lowest price -- you'll find the really good ones) or greeting card fronts work well. This calendar page's inspiration was actually from a garden flag.

Hope you enjoyed the January editions. I'll be posting more sooon because I finished through march at the retreat -- but I've got to run and pick up my husband now.

If you're looking for a great group that does paper piecings, check out this blog: http://www.candysweetpapertreats.com/ They do amazing paper piecings and auction them on Ebay. I got some great ideas from them for the October page. If you're a blogger, check out their contest, too! Great prizes for adding a link to their blog!

BTW -- the retreat was EXCELLENT!! What a great group of women! They did some amazing work, and were so much fun to spend time with. I hope to see a few of them here on the blog, since they wanted to see the rest of the months that I didn't finish yet, too! I'll post more and add pictures in the next couple days.

Happy Scrapping!