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)

CC252

Well, all the antiques were assessed this morning. If we sell all the antiques at the price we are asking, we will break even with the cost of the assessment! Oy Vey!!! It needed to be done though for transparency sake in probate. AND we are closing in on 10 000lbs to the dump! I'm sure we'll surpass it tomorrow when the discards from this morning's assessment are taken away.

THe colour challenge in Splitcoast this week is Bermuda Celery Hunters. Betty is coming up with some amazing colour combos, and this one really grabbed me. I really love Karen Stolper's images for American Art Stamps and the image I used here is Bouquet. I coloured the image with prismacolors and gamsol. The shading around the edge is done with copic markers. The golden glow (cute, eh?!) around the image was done with shimmers paintz - I used Sunny here.

The sentiment is from Our Daily Bread Designs, Grow in Grace. I stamped it with black ink and used a fancy tag nestability die to cut it out. The chrysanthemum looking white layer behind the image was made using the large scallop octagonal nestability die, cut twice and layered. It's a very cool effect that I will have to use a smaller image later to show the effect better.

Have a marvellous day!

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)

CC242 Hanging Ornaments

Today's colour challenge on SCS is Krafty Black Melons! Good golly Miss Molly!!!

I'm still on the sick side of life, but I'm not drippy yet today, so I decided to get another Christmas card out of the way and the colour challenge gave me an opportunity to do a more non-traditional Christmas card. I have some non- traditional people on my list, so this will be going to one of them.

This image is an American Art stamp called Hanging Ornaments. I love these stamps, and they are 30% off the website right now! If you are from Canada (EH!) and want to order, you need to call or email your order because their shipping thingie isn't working and so Canada isn't on the list of countries they ship to. Then, a very nice, young sounding lady will call for your payment. Easy peasy!

I coloured this image with markers and my trusty tombow blender pen. I used copics to create that pink glow around the ornaments. The ornaments were made glossy and dimensional with a little diamond glaze squeezed on them.

Enjoy your week, and thanks for popping by!

stamps; hanging ornaments (american art stamps), christmas expressions (CHF)
paper; communique (graphic 45), raven (bazzill), taupe cardstock (core'dinations), melon mambo, very vanilla (SU!)
ink; black soot, tea dye, brushed corduroy distress inks (ranger)
accessories; diamond glaze 9judikins), beetle black brads (bazzill), black ribbon (offray), button (basic grey), markers and blender pen (tombow), copic markers

OCC New In Colour Challenge

Stampin’ Up! has five NEW in-colors - Rich Razzleberrry, Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Bermuda Bay & Soft Suede. Today's challenge is to make a card showcasing your favourite new in colour colour combination! If necessary, substitute for colors that are similar - we can't wait to see what you come up with!!

There is no time limit on our challenges - feel free to participate whenever you are able. To play along, upload your creation to your blog or gallery, then leave us a comment on the OCC blog linking to your project so we can check it out. If you upload to SCS, remember to use keyword: OCCC.


Here's my card for this colour challenge;


As I said yesterday, I got my first new stuff order from SU! this week. I'm know, I'm a little slow on the boat, but I've been a little busy. What can I say? It has all arrived in the nick of time to save my patootie though, and now I can get ready for my hostess clubs for the fall.

I have always loved pink, purple and orange together. Yikes, eh? When my DS was born, his older sisters had to share a room. One loves pink, one loves purple. The catch is that they really dislike the other's favourite colour. So, I sponge painted their walls pink and purple, but there needed to be a tie in colour, so I used pumpkin orange. It looked AWESOME!!!! My girls loved it and I've been taken with those colours ever since. I think I should take note of these colours together if God thinks they are so nice that He regularly paints the sky with them!

Here's a little whimsical inspiration for this card thanks to the inspiration challenge on SCS.

The only new in colour I didn't use on this card was Bermuda Bay. I'm not much more thrilled with Bermuda Bay than Taken with Teal, and I already used that this week! ;) The strongest colours on this card are Melon, Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Dusty Durango with a little soft suede and crushed curry thrown in. When these colours first came out, I wasn't so sure about them, but I really liked the Razzleberry Lemonade paper, so I figured they would grow on me. We are still in the growing process...

Check out the other stunning projects from the rest of the OCC DT to get your creative juices flowing...

stamps; watering (american art stamps), times new roman lower case 15pt (just rite), itty bitty backgrounds (SU!)
paper; rich razzleberry, melon mambo, dusty durango, razzleberry lemonade (SU!), cold press watercolour paper
ink; rich razzleberry, melon mambo, dusty durango,crushed curry, soft suede reinkers (SU!), jet black staz on (tsukineko)
accessories; cb emboss folder with love (provo), dusty durango dotted ribbon, scallop border punch (SU!), weekend retreat dew drops (the robin's nest)