The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Mr Cardmaker is a Calendar Guy

No, no pin up pics of me.  I know you're disappointed.  Your breakfast will thank me for being allowed to remain in your stomach, trust me.  =)

I made a couple of calendars!  Early last Spring, I went to a craft show, and hit the Stamps of Life booth, where I picked up a couple of stamp sets, including Calendar to Build.  I thought this was a cute font, and I liked all the little things you could play with to really liven up a calendar.

Well, as much as I like this stamp, the calendar was TOUGH to work with.  You're supposed to be able to shift the days back and forth to make the month start when it should.  That DOES work, but only in months with 31 days.  30 day months (or 28/29 day February) really fouls you up.  I worked like a fool trying to line stuff up for hours until I finally decided to just cut the stamp up.  Muuuuuch easier! 


 Anyway, here's what I came up with--

I used white card stock from Staples for this project.  I found nice, smooth heavy weight card stock on the shelf there, and it has been a good staple card stock for me.  I cut it to 3"x 3 1/4", just large enough to hold the calendar.  I did all my numbers stamping first, starting with the easy 31 day months, then making myself cuckoo with the 30 and 28 day months.  I won't go into all the machinations that I went through, but suffice to say it was not so much fun.
I then went back and added the days header over the numbers, and the month headers above that.  It took me a while to decide to do the year and the flourish and little architectural stamping, but it all looked kind of naked.  The flourish is from PTI Menorah Medley  and the architectural stamp is from Stampendous' Tiled Quad Cube.

After getting all of that done (WHEW!), I gathered them together, and held them tightly at the top.  I laid down a big fat bead of hot-melt glue, and then dipped the tops into it, making sure I hit all the surface of the edges with glue.  I then let that cool, and trimmed off any extra with my snips.  It looked kind of messy still, so I added a strip of my patterned paper to the top to make it look nicer.

Here's a more face-on view--

Originally, I had this great idea to bind them all together with brads.  I even pierced some holes with my paper piercer to get started.  However, my lettering in several of the months was too high on the card stock to make that work.  Wop, wop... Of course, I already had hole in my January, so I added the brads and twine anyway.  Unfortunately, it will be gone once January gets ripped off.  Oh well.  This is a prototype, and it's going to DP Charlie, and he won't mind.  Good lesson learned!
ALSO-- I am worried about what will happen in February when it's time to rip off that first sheet.  Will the hot-melt glue be too strong to tear, and mess up the whole thing??  Maybe some of you know a better glue to use, or can tell me everything's gonna be okay?  I will tell Charlie to use scissors, just to be sure, I guess.

Oh, the brads are from Michael's, and the twine is from We R Memory Keepers.  The ink is Iced Spruce Distress Ink.  I also used Ranger Archival black ink, and Memento London Fog ink on the leaves.

The background is a 4"x 4" piece of Pink Paisley DP, with a stamped die cut from PTI, the Harvest Berries set. It's mounted on TWO pieces of GinaK Designs 120# white card stock.  I placed one of the pieces in my Scor-pal, and scored about halfway up the center.  I then cut from about an inch to one side of the score line to the top of the score line to create a stand for the calendar.  It stood a bit too ramrod straight up and down for my taste, so I snipped just a teeny tiny sliver off of the bottom of the "foot" so it would lean back a bit.
That looks like this--


See that little line at the top of the foot there?  That's where I assembled the front onto the backing without looking at where things were.  That's why there's TWO pieces of card stock at the back. (dumb, dumb, dumb...)  Actually, I like how sturdy it is with the two pieces.  I recommend that.

I also made another one.  This is the first one, actually.  It looks like this--

This is made with My Mind's Eye paper, and I hand inked the purple.  The numbers dies are from PTI.

So, I am glad I worked out all, well, most, ok, several of my problems with these guys.
I found a free print out of a 2014 calendar online, so I can try more, and save them for next year.  If I do one or two a month, I'll have gifts or something to sell somewhere.  These are pretty time consuming, even with all the adjustments I made.  We'll see how it goes.

PS--I just read on a blog somewhere that not having a good supplies list was a real bummer for readers.  You'll notice I linked to most everything I used on these projects.  There has to be a better way to do this, as well, I think.  Today, I went and looked up each and every one of these items and made a link to them. (Ouch!)
Who has a better idea about this?  Is a supplies list even important to you??  Let me know your thoughts, please.

Thanks for stopping by today!
All Best-
Richard

7 comments:

  1. Genius, pure brilliance is this calendar! The sleek and modern design with an edge of sassy flair, LOVE that!! Dignified and gorgeous and fitting for any room anywhere.
    As for the deets on the makes, no, not essential to me at all. I find it rather dry to read personally, but I enjoy highlighting an image or a freebie if included. More fun to read the inspiration of the card.
    Just my two pennies...
    me xx

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  2. I'm with Lisa M.
    It's fine to link stuff up, but I NEVER have anything you people make anything with, so I just fake it!
    I like links if they're to the inspiration or something, otherwise......just put in what you made them with....if we're on here, we can GOOGLE!
    Great calendars by the way.....sorry to hear they were painful, but just think If you make one a month, they should get easier, or maybe you should get an assembly line going Like doing all Januarys one month....see where I'm going with this!?

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  3. Personally as long as there is a list of what products were used I can do the research myself or improvise with other supplies. I love all your projects, gives me great ideas and inspiration!!

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  4. Hahaha, I really was looking for the pin up. LOL. I thought maybe you entered some kind of modeling contest for a calendar pin up. Oh well.
    So, anyway, great calendars. I was just thinking that I should have made some for gifts and one for myself.
    Your blog post are very instructive and entertaining. I love reading and sense that you have a fantastic sense of humor.
    I think your LABELS is enough unless you end up on a DT for one of the companies. Keep up the fantastic work and I am sure you will be chosen for a DT position soon.
    Have a great day and let us know what happens when February comes around and you have to remove that January calender. LOL

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  5. Your calendars are great! Would like to have been a mouse in the corner watching you try to move those dates around...lol. End result is wonderful, and I love your 'signature' on the back! What fun :) As for the linking, I'm getting more selective about what I link...don't link everything anymore! Good luck figuring that one out :) Have a great evening, calendar guy!

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  6. Whatevs. I'm sure you are a pin up somewhere. HAHAHAHA! :) These look fantastic! I really like them!

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  7. So here is my story. I was on another blog and noticed your enthusiastic comment. So I think to myself, let me just come see his place. I find this post and am in love with your stamp on the back!!!! Did you come up with the sentiment yourself? Then I read the post and being an introspective blogger wonder if I should link up using inlinz or something, but its so much more work, I just started using a watermark too. I figure if someone is desperate to know what I am using they will email me. Ps. I must have you join Casadia! I can email you with info if you have no idea what I am talking about

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