Its That Time of Year Again! January 5 x 7 Calender

Its that time of year again...calender making time that is! I love to make my own calenders, that way I can personalize them to my taste! Last year I used my 'Bind-It-All' to make my calenders. It was a more traditional desk top calender where the pages flipped over once the month was over. But I like to keep my calender on my kitchen window sill and my beautiful pages kept getting splashed with water and ruined. So this year I found this cute little amazing acrylic frame at Walmart for only $1.00! Yes, you heard me right, only $1.00! They are shaped like an easel so they stand on their own. They come in many different sizes, but I purchased a 5 x 7 for this project. You can only fit one page in at a time, so I will just pre-make all my monthly pages and keep them safe and secure in a zip-loc baggy until its time to change them.

To make this calender, first you need to download a printable calender. I got mine from the resource section on Splitcoaststampers.com. You can find it here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=383876 I cut my base layer of pine green 5 x 7. I cut my second layer a tad smaller in white, then I stamped the images from the retired Stampin Up! set "Its Snow Time" and colored them with my copic markers and added stickles. Did you notice the coloring of my snowmen? Now, I'm NOT an artist, but I picked up a great tip from the blog "I Like Markers." The artist who writes that blog works for Copic Markers, and everyday she teaches people like me, who are not artists, how to color with the markers. One of her posts dealt with the subject of how to color white (like snow), other than just leaving the space white. Her tutorial showed how to use shades of grey to shadow parts of the snow. So I used my Warm Grey #1 marker to 'shadow' portions of the snowmen. Not bad for a first attempt! LOL! I then finished my image by adding blue chalk with a cotton ball to look like the sky.

After I was done coloring, I adhered my calender to a piece of red cardstock and then attached that to the white cardstock and my first page of the calender year was completed.

Tomorrow I'll be showing you a 4 x 6 upright Scripture Calender! Every page will have a different scripture and scene. This is perfect for memorizing scripture because with my bad memory, I NEED a whole month to memorize one verse! LOL! Plus, it gives plenty of time to think about that verse and what it really means to you.

I also plan on showing pictures of a 4 x 6 horizontal 'Picture' calender. This project will feature a favorite personal photograph every month.

I will post them one month at a time as I make them, and hopefully they will be done before the start of the new calender year. And don't worry, I still plan on posting pictures of my cards and scrapbooking pages for those of you who really aren't interested in a making a calender. God's blessings to you all! Amy