June is Busting Out All Over!

Ok, I know it's November, but I finished my first of 6 June calendar pages tonight. This weekend, I'll be in a hotel room while my husband is at a conference, so I'm going to craft all weekend. Hopefully I'll get a bunch done. So, I'm going to put all the pieces of this page in my suitcase and finish the other five this weekend.

Let me show you last year's page first. Very simple. I picked paper from a coordinating pack -- the little circles on the squares are actually from patterned paper, not any stickers or stamps or anything, but that could be easily done for those of you who are recreating these. Photos can be placed over the poem, on the big rectangle, or within the little squares.

Here's this year's calendar page. The blue paper is actually hand painted with acrylic paints. It's supposed to look like water, but looks kind of like sky, too. The picture has a dark tint to it because the flip flps are on shiny paper and the flash reflected off of them, so this is with no flash -- just the basement lighting. To make that sun, cut out a circle. Cut it into fourths. Cut one of the fourths into 4 equal pieces to make the rays. Then stagger them behind one of the fourths to make the sun. To make the flip flops, cut out the shape of an 8 (I used the cricut machine and did the "blackout" feature). Then cut two slits near the middle. Thread the ribbon through the slits and wrap around the back. Photos can be placed on the water or next to the flip flops.

Happy Scrapping!

May calendar page finally complete!

So, it's been busy around here. After recuperating from the retreat, my parents came for a visit. Then I had a few days feeling under the weather.

Finally, I've finished the May page. Where's April you ask? I'm saving that one for last. I have an easy page idea and a difficult page idea in mind. I'll decide at the end if I have enough time for the difficult page.

Here's last year's page. I recommended photos placed on the little pots or right over the quote, if they had enough photos to fill that whole space.

Here's this year's page. Photos can be placed around the flowers -- the petals have been left loose on the outside edges so that photos can be tucked under them.

Did you notice at the bottom of my posts now you can rate the pages? Did you like it? love it? gonna try it yourself? Let me know! :)

February Calendar Pages

So here are February's pages!

This is last year's page. One of the black frames is a pocket to insert a photo.

This year's page is a great way to use up some supplies. The "wrapper" on each chocolate is made from brown mulberry paper. Each chocolate has been decorated with either glitterglue or with the foil and rub set I bought a long time ago. There's a great big space on the top left to put a photo. They could also put a little photo over one of the chocolates.

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!