Calendar Basics Revisited...
October 31, 2011
Hello November.
It's the 1st of November, and the 1st always means it's time for the Papertrey Ink Sr Team challenge. This month we are focusing on the Calendar Basics stamp set along with all of the coordinating calendar products offered by Papertrey Ink.
For my project today, I decided to create a calendar/planner. If you read my blog, you've probably seen my posts about my craft room re-do. I've been doing lots of changing and reorganizing. One of the things I did was to mount a large white board calendar on my wall. But this left me needing a monthly calendar to put on my desk to keep track of dates further out than the current month. So it was perfect timing when Nichole challenged us to revisit the Calendar products!
To create my calendar I started out with the Large Calendar pages. These are 8 1/2" x 11, but I trimmed then down slightly so there were no borders around the printed calendar portion. For the cover, I actually used a calendar page that I had on hand from the 2011 pack that I never got the chance to use. Since I knew I wouldn't be using it to create an actual calendar I figured I might as well put it to good use as my cover page. I diecut the year out of pretty patterend papers from Crate's Random collection using the By the Numbers dies.
Here is a shot of one of the inside pages. I used the Front & Center die to create a pocket on the top portion of each page. I trimmed down the height of the Front & Center die so that it would fit nicely at the top of the page.
I thought the pockets would be a great place to keep little notes that I've jotted down, receipts, etc. I created lined cards using the Library Card stamp and stuck one inside each pocket.
I finished of the bottom edge of the pocket with the Photo Finish dies on which I stamped the month. I also tucked a Parisian Doily diecut behind the strip. The larger ovarl behind the strip that acts as kind of a mat is actualy the oval cut-out from the Front & Center die. I cut it in half and tucked the pieces above and below the Photo Finish strip. I thought it gave a nice finishing touch without the extra work of diecutting another piece.
I have a few quick step-by-step shots that show you how I constructed the pockets in case you're interested in creating something like this for yourself.
I started by trimming down some brown paper bags. When using the Front & Center die to create gift bags, you'll use the bottom portion. For my project today, I'm using the top portion -- the part you would normally throw away. (Maybe something to keep in mind if you've been making gift bags using it -- keep those bag tops! And in this case, keep the bottoms -- you can use them later for gift bags!)
Then I adhered one side of the bag to the backside of my Front & Center die, which I had already trimmed down slightly to fit at the top of my calendar page.
Next I adhered the backside of the bag to my calendar page.
Lastly, I stitched across the bottom edge, catching both the diecut and the bag in the stitching to create a pocket.
When all of my pages were finished, I used my Bind-it-All (love that machine!) to give them a spiral binding. It's thick enough that it stands up on it's own, which was a nice surprise that I hadn't really planned on. And then of course I had to add a pretty pen to it as well. I just used some scraps and adhered them to one of my favorite pens and tied it to the binding with some baker's twine.
Pretty easy peasy and lots of fun! This project did take me awhile...there was a lot of diecutting to do! But it was fun and I'm excited to put it to use. It looks so pretty sitting on my desk. I actually made it a 14 month calendar and started it with November of this year, since I had a pack of 2011 calendar sheets. I thought I might as well be able to use it right away! I've already filled it up with lots of notes and dates.
Now be sure to hop around to the other Sr Team members to see what they've created with the Papertrey Calendar line of products! And if you look closely at that Sr Team list, you might notice something a bit different! Congrats to Maile who has been promoted to Sr Team. Michelle (*sniff*) is stepping back a bit and will no longer be participating as a Sr Team member. Thankfully she'll still be around to do some release projects though!!
Lisa Johnson
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Nichole Heady
Maile Belles
Have a great day!
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