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

Lucky Me, Lucky Me!!!

A while ago, I did a posting or two about all the lovely things my buddy AJ Otto sent me to play with.  Paying it forward, she said.  Well, I have been graced to have not one, but TWO benefactors this week!!!  I got two majorly stuffed priority mail envelopes on Wednesday, and found them chock-a-block filled will stamps and papers and ribbons.....Enough to keep this newbie busy for weeks and weeks!

Who are these most generous ladies?  Well, as far as I can tell, they probably know one another, but I doubt each of them knew the other's movements.  They are Ms Emily Giovanni and Ms Michelle Woerner, both of whom I have come into with through StampTV.  They have both been so kind and encouraging and generous of spirit, and now they have been really generous with their supplies too! 

Emily sent me SEVEN GinaK Designs stamp sets.  I don't even know where to begin.  Then she also slid in some beautiful grosgrain ribbons to play with, too....Lots of it, in several colors.  Wow.  Lucky Me!

Then, in envelope #2, there were two out-of-this-world DP collections, a big bag of really beautiful buttons, more stamps, more ribbon (did I mention I am a nut about ribbon?), and a BoBunny cardmaking kit. (This I got merely a glimpse of, because my partner grabbed it and announced HE was going to make some cards now. Yours Truly has a birthday in a couple of weeks, you see...)  SO many beautiful things.....Again, Lucky Me!!!

And the CARDS!!!!  They each sent with all of these magnificent playthings, GORGEOUS cards, of their own making, of course.  That may have been the best part!! 

Well, I cannot thank these ladies enough.  I just can't.  However, they should be watching their mail; my feeble attempts are on their way.

SO, with my new toys, I made this!

This was made from a sketch from CPS, and I think I will enter the contest this week with it. 
The downlow on the supplies:
Cardstock: GinaK Designs, DCWV
DP:PinkPaisley
Ink: Ink it Up, plum and walnut
Dies: Spellbinders, labels four, grommet tags
Stamps: GinaK Designs, All Occasions Greetings
Embellishments: ribbons, buttons, brads

I used the inks to highlight the edges of almost all the cardstock and paper with a direct to paper technique.
The triangles are popped up with foam squares, as is the tag.  I used teeny tiny strips of paper to make the stitching on the buttons, and applied them to the card front with glue dots.

The papers are from Michelle, and the ribbon is from Emily.  Merci, Ladies!!
Am I lucky, or WHAT?  Maybe they should call me Lucky Breaks, instead of Richard Breaks.  That would be catchy, right?  Or is it Kitschy?  Yeah, maybe the latter....

Thanks for stopping by! 
All Best-
Lucky
Richard