Happy Father's Day

Today's it's Father's Day in most of the world, but not in Australia. That doesn't mean that I didn't have to get crafty, as it's still Father's Day for my dad. Of course I made him a card.

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics | Patterned Paper: October Afternooon Weathervane | Button: Basic Grey | Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers | Label Die: Spellbinder Nestabilities | Ribbon: Vandoros | Border Punch: EK Success | Marker: ZIG Brown

Since I made a calendar for my mum for Mother's Day, I thought it would be nice to make a calendar for my dad too. It is on a smaller scale, as I used a display stand from Maya Road, but I still used the same calendar template, and simply shrunk it down. I also omitted the name of the month and year.

The display stand comes with 12 tabbed chipboard pages. I added the front myself from some left over chipboard.

Supplies: Display Stand: Maya Road | Cardstock: Bazzill Basics | Patterned Paper: October Afternoon 'Weathervane' | Border Punch: EK Success | Star Punch: Fiskars + Sizzix | Buttons: Basic Grey | Clear Stamps: Autumn Leaves | Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 | Ink: Ranger's Distress Ink (Antique Linen) + Palette (Ripe Avocado + Aqua Mist) + Staz'On (Timber Brown)| Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts + October Afternoon 'Weathervane' | Marker: ZIG (Brown)

I always love how it works out perfectly for all the months, as each grandchild is on the month they celebrate their birthday and the leftover months equates to exactly the right amount for each to have two pictures and one of the siblings. I possibly could have done with one more for a picture of the five of them together as those occasions are quite rare being 10,000 Miles apart.

I wish all the dads a very happy Father's Day. Did any of you create a keepsake for this special occasion? Enjoy your Sunday.

Happy Mother's Day

Today it's Mother's Day, so to all mums out there - with the exception of the UK, as they had their's on March 14th - Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's Day present for my mum didn't make it there on time, but I'll still post it here today anyway. That way she knows what what to look forward to. When I showed you the sneak peek in a previous post, my mum had already guessed it is calendar. I've already made her two calendars before, but they are different every time, it's practical and it has newer updated pictures of her grandchildren. And what grandmother doesn't want new pictures of her grandchildren.

I got the idea how to display the calendar from browsing the internet, hunting for this:

While looking at all different stores that supply them - none of which in Australia by the way - I got the inspiration for the size to use (I tried to find it again, but couldn't).

A calendar seems a long and drawn out process, but once you decide on size and layout it's just a matter of copying. I decided to make the pages for each month 6 inches wide and 8 inches tall. Since I'd intended to already make the calendar for Christmas and never managed to, I made it a 18 month calendar starting from July 2010.

Firstly I created a canvas in Photoshop of the finished size. I then typed all the months by using a new layer for each month, each name of the month and both years. To be able to print each month individually you need to only select the layers you want to print. Next I printed all the months and rounded the bottom corners. Step two was to decide how to use the patterned papers and the pictures. It looks as if there isn't that much patterned paper on each month, but it's amazing how much you need to make one of those flowers.

I cannot display it with the display stand, as I couldn't find it. Ingrid was so kind to arrange one for me in Holland.  But I did hang one of the months on a barbecue skewer balanced in between two chairs so you get a the idea.

And here's what the whole calendar looks like:


























Supplies: Display Stand: 7Gypsies | Cardstock: Bazzill Basics | Patterned Paper: October Afternoon 'Fly a Kite' | Brads | Clear Stamp: Papertrey Ink 'Year of Flowers: Violets', Fancy Pants | Ink: Staz'On (timber brown), VersaColor, Palette | Border Punch: EK Success (embossed scallop) | Photoshop CS3 | Fonts: Avenir, Chopin Script

Of course I made her a card as well.

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics | Patterned Paper + Die-Cuts: October Afternoon 'Fly a Kite' + 'Thrift Shop' | Border Punch: EK Success 'Embossed Scallop' | Ribbon: Paperchase | Tag: from clothing | Buttons | Clear Stamp: Papertrey Ink 'Delightful Dahlia' | Ink: Staz'On (timber brown)

Would anyone be interested in a downloadable calendar file, or a tutorial on how to build it from scratch? I have no clue how to this right now, but if anyone would find it useful I could look into it.

Enjoy!

2009 Calendar

In my post on January 6th I mentioned that I finished my 2009 Calendar project. My mum received it on Tuesday, but I just haven't had a chance to edit the pictures yet and post them. This was a project I started very early, but then lost interest after I did three months. As it was a gift, I had to finish it, and especially since 2009 had already started I had to get a move on. Well here it is:






Supplies: Bazzill cardstock | Sassafras PP | Autumn Leaves, Heidi swapp and 7Gypsies clear stamps | EK Success flower punches | Autumn Leaves buttons | Stampin' Up ink (chocolate and turquoise) | American Crafts vinyl alphabet stickers | Spotlight ribbon

I used Adobe Illustrator to make the calendar months and printed it directly on the cardstock, already trimmed to 6"x6" squares. I then punched the holes with my Bind-it-all machine, so I knew what margin to leave on the top. I then stamped a swirl in the bottom with VersaMark ink. Next I adhered the picture, added a strip of patterned paper on the right and put a border on top. I stamped the names of the months and the swirls for the flowers and added a two layer flower using punches and a button. Initially I had both the flowers on pop dots, but I removed those, as the calendar was getting too fat and started to topple over. I did the cover last and matched it to the other pages by using the same elements.

The past week I've been really busy making cards, but not much I can share. Today, I did make a card for one of David's friends, who is celebrating his birthday today and with whom he was going out for dinner tonight. So, I made a card for him. Unfortunately I can only show you a detailed view image, as I seem to have deleted to frontal shot.



Supplies: Bazzill cardstock | Crate Paper PP | Hemp tie | Ellison Design Stars #2 die | VersaColor Ink 'pinecone' | Stampin' Up rubber stamps | SEI button

Lastly sweet Nancy gave me an award on Wednesday. Thank you so much, Nancy. I'm supposed to pass it onto 8 others, but I have to disappoint you. If you're reading this, consider yourself the lucky recipient.



I wish you all a fantastic weekend and thank you for your sweet comments.