Perpetual Calendar and another peek

I got this idea several years ago on some blog—I think. If you read this whoever you are, thank you for the idea.  Any way I tucked it away in my idea book—the one in my head and pulled it out to make this calendar.  I don’t know why I gave it the oriental look but the paper really pleased me.  Anyway it’s a great idea that could be adapted to many different styles and colors.  I’ve made a couple over the years but this one is going to a good friend who needs a calendar on her desk!  Enjoy.

The font is Base Camp and the bamboo stamp is a Hero Arts stamp that I bought especially for this project. I stamped the image on the month pages and then stamped and heat embossed the main image which I then cut out and glued to the page.  I inked all the edges and used my Bind it All to pull it all together.  It measures 9X6 3/4”.  The two main pages are stiff enough to use as a stand for the calendar. 

The day flips are 1x5”, month flips are 4x5, numbers are 2x3”.  Of course you could make them however long you want. 

That’s my project for the day.  I’m still working on that little Valentine’s project and I’m going to leave you another little peek. 

Sweet Treats Page 4

It’s another page from my daughter’s Christmas album, and I’ve also been working on a scrapbook page for one of grandsons who has a birthday in December.  I have two grandsons born in December only 5 days apart, and they are both sweeter than sweet.  I’ll share that page later on. 

Who doesn’t bake during the holidays and I know my daughter does some, so I included this page to record some of those treats or the moments made while making them.  This is one page I did quite a while ago. 

I welded the cupcakes together with Design Studio and they are cut from Hello Kitty. I used some white stickles to make them and the title look iced.  The title is from Base Camp and I am sure that I cut it at 1” on this page and on every other page.  The snowflake is from Accent Essentials on page 44 and the flower is also from Accent Essentials.  I added the button for extra texture and interest. 

I carried on with lots of faux stitching and inking and here it is with a gold gel pen and ink.

Can I just say that these tags are some of my favorites.  As a matter of fact the tags in this project are the best part as far as I’m concerned. 

How cute is that!  And I got that tag from I don’t remember where!  But I like it! 

These, like the others, can hold journaling on one side and a picture on the other. Those snowflake embellishments are from a huge bag of Christmas buttons and embellies from several years ago, and I added a green rhinestone to the center.  It really snazzed these tags up! 

Oh, Christmas is getting close and I am not getting any closer to getting my long list done. I’d better get to crackin’! 

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

I don’t know about all of you, but I am having trouble getting my very long to-do list done!  That usually means my expectations are getting too great for me to meet.  It’s Christmas and I usually push to get more done than usual. 

But there’s really only one important thing to remember at this time of year though we are tempted to get caught up in the secular celebration and forget that Christmas really belongs to believers who want to celebrate their Savior’s birth.  I made this banner to help me remember.  And though I’ve spent every spare moment I’ve had for the past two days to finish it, I have used that time thinking about the place I’ve prepared in my heart for the baby who would come to die for my sins and to redeem me! 

Even though the project isn’t complicated, it did take time to do faux stitching on all the pieces.  I also had to photograph it in two sections because it is way too long.   I will add this banner to the garland that goes along the top of the bannister in my living room.  It’ll look grand there! I promise to take pictures when I get it up. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

The pennant and its shadow are cut from Sports Mania and are cut at 5”, and the scalloped circle and its shadow are cut are 4 1/2”. and are from Accent Essentials.   The snowflake is from A Child’s Year and it and its shadow are cut at 4”. The letters are from Winter Woodlands at 3 1/2”.  I also used Base Camp for the welded phrase “is the”.  Of course I used  my Gypsy to weld the phrase and to plan the banner.  

The paper is a great mish mash of stuff from my stash.  The pennant patterned paper is one of my all time favs and several years ago I bought about 10 sheets to use for one scrapbook.  That scrapbook didn’t come to be, but I’ve enjoyed that paper like crazy!  I think it is K&Company.  I also used several sheets of Karen Foster.  Love it too.  The cardstock is all from Core’dinations.  The ribbon is some I’ve had forever.  I am so glad I’ve been making quite a dent in my paper and ribbon stash! I am all about using what I have.

Now for some close ups!

Christmas Blocks

Several months ago Karlee over on Karlee Krafts made some blocks with letters that spelled words on them, and I’ve wanted to do my version ever since.  I wanted blocks that were about 2” but couldn’t find any.  I finally settled on some that are 1 1/2”.  They turned out quite nice. 

I have to apologize though because I was in such a big hurry to get them on my blog that a few hadn’t dried all the way.  However, you get the idea, right! 

I started with the following supplies:

6- 1 1/2” wooden blocks

Glossy Mod Podge

3 sheets of cardstock: 1 green, 1 red, 1 black

1 sheet of DCWV gold from the Glitter stack

1 sheet of patterned paper

Tools

1 paint brush

Xacto knife

Sand paper. 

Cricut Expression

Base Camp Cartridge

Storybook Cartridge

Paper trimmer

To begin I cut 18 1 1/2” squares of red and 18 1 1/2” squares of green card stock, and 36 1 1/4” squares of the patterned paper.

I generously applied the Mod Podge to the blocks, stuck a square of cardstock onto the painted side and generously applied Mod Podge to the top of the cardstock too. 

I did this until all sides of all blocks were covered, and then I allowed them to dry.

Next I followed the same process to add the patterned paper to all sides allowing the blocks to dry before continuing.

This what they looked like at this point. Also at this point I used my Xacto knife to trim excess paper and did a little light sanding.

Knowing I had a least two more coats of Mod Podge to go, I decided to use my gold ink pad and ran it around the edges and lightly across the flat surfaces to add some depth of color and glimmer.

At this time I loaded the gold Glitter paper from DCWV into the Expression and cut all my letters at 1.2” as well as the swirly embellishment to fill the empty squares. Then I loaded the black cardstock and cut the shadows.

I decided to spell these words:

Noel

Angels

Manger

Advent

Merry

Jesus

I glued the letters to the shadows, and I was ready to start adding them to the blocks.

I followed the same process as before, painting Mod Podge on the surface of the block, applying the Mod podge to the back of the letter, and mod Podge on the whole surface. 

Since I was so close to being done, I got in a bit of a hurry since I wanted to get this on my blog tonight.  I intended to spray the blocks with Glimmer Mist Gold., so I went ahead and did it even though there were a few letters and swirls that were not finished.  Still they turned out very nice.

Now pictures for the whole set.

 

It’s really hard to see in the photos but the Glimmer Mist and the gold stamp pad gave the blocks a very glitzy look.

Giving Thanks

Today is Veteran's Day, and I for one am grateful for all those families who make the sacrifices that come when a family member joins one of our armed forces and serves our country.  It is a huge sacrifice and one without which we couldn’t enjoy the freedoms we now have.  Thank you, all of you, who served and those who endure long periods of time without your loved ones and who sometimes endure the loss of that loved one.  Thanks YOU!

What are you thankful for?  That’s the question I asked myself when I started this project. I wanted to create a project that put all those things I hold dear together and expressed my feelings.  My husband jumped in when he saw what I was doing and added his own thoughts.  It turned out great except for the couple of words that I got crooked and I didn’t catch it until it was too late to change it. 

For this project you’ll need:

One sheet of solid colored card stock

One sheet of background paper

one small scrap of contrasting paper

One 12x12 artist canvas

Paint to cover the edges of the canvas

Mod Podge

Glue

Tools:

Gypsy

Several Cricut Font Cartridges.

paint brush

craft knife

This project started with my Gypsy and really was pretty easy because of the Gypsy.  I used just about every font I have, and I threw in a few graphics in to fill some holes and to add interest to the canvas. 

Before I cut the words out, I took my 12x12 canvas and painted the edges with black paint.  It took at 3 coats to sufficiently cover the canvas.  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this process as well as all the other steps.  After the sides dried, I liberally painted the canvas with Mod Podge and added a sheet of paper on top of the canvas from the Old World stack from DCWV and then liberally spread a coat of Mod Podge over the paper. 

I cut the words from a sheet of black Core’dinations paper and then left them on the mat until I was ready to glue them on.

When the canvas and paper was dry, I trimmed the edges of the paper that over lapped the edges of the canvas, and sanded off the rough edges.  This meant that I had to go back and touch up the black paint on the edges, but I didn’t do that at this point. I began gluing the words on the canvas using the negative images left in the paper as a guide.  I actually laid the 12x12 negative image of the words on the canvas and began gluing the words on according to the outlines of the words.  I did cut one of the graphics in a deep autumn orange to give a little pop of color and to add interest.

Once all the words and graphics were glued on and dry, I went back and repainted the edges pulling some of the paint onto the edges of the paper.  I like the look this added to the canvas.  Sorry for the glare on this picture.  Pulling the black paint onto the top of the canvas covered the edges of the paper which has a white core. 

At this point it was time for a top coat of Mod Podge, and I was careful to make paint brush strokes as though there were actual paint strokes on the canvas. 

And I was done.  I hung it on my family room wall to show you my work. 

One more look:

That crooked “friends” is really bugging me!  Oh, well!  I like how it turned over all. 

My final words for you all today are be thankful for the freedoms we have and the people who have made it possible.!

Future Baseball Star

Yeah!  I am going crazy scrapping my youngest grandson’s photos. I really like how this LO turned out.  I love the colors and paper in this LO.  I hope you like it too. 

The background paper is from ummmm . . . Autumn Leaves and the patterned paper is from We R Memory Keepers.  I love this patterned paper and brought several sheets a few years ago when I did a album for my husband for Father’s day.  It reminds me of a man’s tie.  Just love it. The card stock comes from my usual sources—Bazzill and Coordinations.  Also, see the woven net on the LO.  I’ve had that forever and I pulled it out and knew it would be perfect for this LO.  So nice. 

I used Base Camp for the words “Future” and “Star” and the Baseball word art comes from the Sports Mania Cart.  I used the black out feature on my Gypsy to get rid of rest of the cut.  The stars are all from George and Basic Shapes cut at various sizes and the swirls are several different ones welded with my Gypsy and are from Ashlyn’s Alphabet.  I journaled at the top and bottom of the LO because I thought it would make the best use of space on the LO.

I blew up the photo on the title page on my scanner and reprinted it as n 8 X10 and then trimmed it down. Then I scanned the smaller photos as pairs and printed 2 of them per regular 4 x 6 photo sheet.  I used my 2” square punch to trim them to size.  I also used some little star buttons I had in my stash to add some interest to the page and mix things up. 

Tomorrow’s Friday and I have another project to share with you. 

A Tiny Banner

Tiny things fascinate me. How did that guy write the whole Declaration of Independence on the head of a pin? Yes, I think about those things. It’s crazy being inside my head.

Any how every year I try to find new ways to celebrate my husband’s birthday, and this year I came up with the idea to make a banner that I could hang in his car. This little banner is the result of my labors. He loved getting in his car on the morning of his birthday and finding this banner hanging from his visor.

This is the banner that caused my head long plunge into banner mania.

It’s only about 2 feet long and the tags are only 1” wide. And those pinwheel rosettes? They’re ba---ck. They are barely 1” across and were tedious to fold and put together, but my man is worth it.

Once again I have to apologize for the photography. I really could not get a good photo of this banner no matter what I did.

I used Coredinations card stock again. I love that stuff. It cuts like a dream on my Expression and is so easy to work with. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby from their fabric department. Instead of hot gluing them to the ribbon, I used staples which I thought gave it a slightly industrial/manly look. I used A Child’s Year for the tags and Base Camp for the lettering. Besides the rosettes which I love to use and hate to make, it was a pretty quick banner.

Here’s a close up and then I’ll let you go:

Darn! I wish I could get a better picture.