PaperFections

4-Inch Chipboard Coaster Calendar Instructions

I've had several requests as to how my 4-inch chipboard coaster calendars are constructed, so I thought some more photos might help! For prettier blog photos last year, I usually just showed each month on the 4-inch pieces of patterned papers, not adhered to the 4-inch chipboard ... sorry for the confusion! I used my 3-inch downloadable calendars for this project, die cut with either Spellbinders Labels One die #4 or Labels 8 die #3 (shown on the right calendar page below. Die numbers start with the smallest die): Here's what the full year's calendar looks like, sitting open on a desk: Here's what the calendar looks like lying open flat: Here's what the "book spine" looks like. Be sure to keep your ribbon spacing the same on each month. Here you can see how I've attached my 2" ribbon strips to the back of the patterned paper (more abour ribbon below): Here's what the calendar looks like fully open: Hopefully you can see by the photo above that my left red December cardinal page is attached to the previous month's chipboard piece and the right side of the December patterned paper page would be attached to the next month's... Read more →

January & 2011 Calendars!

Here they are, finally -- my 2011 downloadable calendars! I decided to offer a different shape & size this year, in addition to the smaller 3" and larger 4" grid calendars I've offered in the past. There is one slight change this year and I hope those of you that use my calendars for gifts, selling the calendars you make at craft shows and for personal projects will understand: I'm charging $2.50 for each type of downloadable calendar this year. You'll receive all 12 months of the particular size of calendar you purchase in a file that I will email you in PDF form and then it's yours to print as many times as you'd like, on any type of paper you wish. I'll accept PayPal checking account transfers or a mailed check/cash/money order (file will be emailed to you upon receipt of your cash or money order, or upon your check clearing my bank). I hope you understand the time and energy that goes into creating these downloads and won't mind the slight fee for my efforts! All of this information and the calendar downloads will be included on my Download Page, as well as additional ordering information. Now,... Read more →

Scrap-Mart Holiday Blog Hop!

Welcome to the First Annual Scrap-Mart.com Blog Hop! I was honored to be asked to participate in this first ever event! I've had the pleasure of meeting the owners of Scrap-Mart at local scrapbooking conventions and CHA Consumer Shows and I can tell you they are the sweetest, kindest people! So look for them at your next local scrapbooking convention or you can shop with them online anytime -- they stock one of the best online stores around, including some of my very favorite products! If you are just joining the hop, please go to the Scrap-Mart blog to start from the beginning. There are 31 blogs participating in the hop and you will find some great prizes along the way. You must comment on THAT blog post to be eligible to win that prize. There are also some Grand Prizes posted on the Scrap-Mart blog. You must comment on EVERY blog throughout the hop to be eligible for the Grand Prizes. Comments will remain open until midnight CST on Sunday, December 5th. Winners will be chosen at random for each individual prize and will be announced on the Scrap-Mart blog on Friday, December 10. You may only win once.... Read more →

November Calendar

Well I'm a little earlier this month with my calendar! :D Many of you have asked when I'll have my 2011 calendars available and I seriously hope to accomplish that over the Thanksgiving school break ... so hang in there, please! I'm so glad you all are enjoying them! I'll be sure to announce it here on my blog when they are available. You can find the 2010 calendars on my Download page, HERE. This month my sweet friend, Melanie Muenchinger, sent me her fabulous new stamp set, A Year of Borders, to play with ... how perfect they will be on my calendars!! Melanie said she had a stamp set that my Copics would love and boy, she wasn't joking!! I stamped her leaf & acorn image (1 of 6 different seasonal borders in the set) into Inchie Arts ivory Inchie Squares and colored them with these Copic markers and Gold Atyou Spica Glitter Pen: To stamp on the Inchie squares, I just lined up 4 Inchies in a row with repositionable adhesive and then stamped the 5-inch long border across them. After coloring the border, I disassembled and sponged each square with Memento Desert Sand ink. I used... Read more →

October Calendar

I finally found time to make my October calendar, full of falling leaves -- I know, the month is a third over already! You can find all the details over at Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom today -- I hope you'll join me there for a few tips & tricks with your Copic markers! Speaking of Copics -- I've updated my Copic Info page with all the remaining Certification classes for this year. Quite a few of you asked when I will have my calendar downloads (like the one I used here) upadated with the 2011 calendars -- I hope to have that done by the end of this month and will announce it here on my blog when they are available. I'm so glad so many of you have enjoyed these! Meanwhile on this Columbus Day holiday, I get to have parent-teacher conferences this afternoon. I hope you enjoy your day! Read more →

September Wildflower Calendar

How did September slip up on us? Or at least me! I usually think of sunflowers when I think of September -- there are usually quite a few fields of them around my house this time of year. So I thought Gina K Design's new Wild at Heart stamp set by my friend, Melanie Muenchinger, would make a good sunflower'ish background paper and embellishment for my September calendar: I started by stamping Melanie's wildflower background stamp with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto Gina K's Pure Luxury Heavy Base Weight Ivory cardstock and then just like black framed wildflower card I made, I colored the negative space of the stamped image (where the ivory cardstock shows through) with Copic markers YR23, Y15, YG03, and YG63. I love the "chalkboard" effect of using this stamp this way! The base of this calendar is 4-inch chipboard coasters. I cut my 3-inch downloadable calendar with Spellbinders Labels Eight die and airbrushed it while the cardstock was still in the die with Copic E33. I used October Afternoon's Brown Tiny Type alpha stickers to spell out the "Sept" month. One of the flowers from the background stamp was cut out and popped up to embellish... Read more →

August Calendar

Since I was so late with my July calendar, I wanted to get a head start on August's since I'll be at the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) show all next week. I can't believe July is almost over -- the summer is just flying by! I decided to take up Gina K's challenge to use a technique from one of her Stamp TV videos and make something with it. Since I've had some Spellbinders Impressabilities templates for a while but still haven't used them yet, I chose to follow Gina's Letterpress with Impressabilities tutorial -- she made it look so easy! So here's my project: I used the Sea Scape Impressabilities on kraft cardstock and inked the template with Sahara VersaMagic Chalk Ink before embossing it -- I love how it turned out! I cut the shell paper to fit a 4"x4" chipboard coaster (left) and used the remainder on the bottom of the right page of my calendar. Of course, I also colored the beautiful hibiscus flower images (from Theresa Momber's Aloha stamp set by Gina K Designs). You can see one of Gina's Stamp TV videos on how she colored some Lilies with Copics here. I stamped... Read more →

Groovy July Calendar

Yes, I know it's a little late in the month to just be posting my July calendar, but we left on vacation the last week of June and didn't return until this week! It was driving me crazy not to have it so as soon as I had a little spare time, I got to creating! This cute new Lockhart Stamp Comapny Web Lawn Chair image arrived just before I went on vacation and I knew I wanted to use it -- it's perfect for summer, isn't it? I stamped it onto an Inchie Arts Ivory Twinchie Square (measures 2-inches) with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored it with these Copic markers: Orange Copic Atyou Spica Glitter Pen accents the Tim Holt Vintage Marketplace Alphabet letters (sorry I didn't get a better photo of those for you) and Silver Spica was used for the metal frame of the chair. I rounded the corners of the Twinchie Square with WRM Crop-a-Dile Corner Chomper (1/4-inch side). My free blank 3-inch downloadable calendar can be found on the Download page of my blog HERE. To create the background for my 4-inch chipboard coaster calendar, I got some inspiration from Stamp TV's color challenge... Read more →

June Beach Calendar

I bet you all thought I forgot about my June calendar, didn't you?!! I was just super busy with end-of-school year activities with my girls, working a local trade show, having guests in town and teaching a Copic Certification class ... whew! So I finally got time to make it ... using one of my favorite Lockhart beach stamps, some great Martha Stewart punches and of course, my Copics! You can find all the details for my calendar today over at the CLASSroom. Speaking of Copics and Certification ... I've updated my Copic Info page with details of more upcoming classes. If one is not showing close to you, please feel free to email Copic and give them a suggestion of where you'd like to see a class held. Happy summer! Read more →

My Favorite Things-May Calendar

I think you all know one of my favorite things to make are my monthly calendars. Well, this month I'm combining my May calendar with another one of my favorite things ... a brand new darling Jolinne Sweet Spring stamp set from My Favorite Things! :D Sweet Jolinne was stamped onto Neenah Natural White cardstock with Memento Rich Cocoa ink (I like to use a softer color than black when coloring with lighter colors) and colored with these Copic markers: Her dress was paper pieced from October Afternoon's new Thrift Shop paper. My downloadable calendar was die cut with Spellbinders Labels Six die and the edges sponged with Antique Linen Distress ink. The other side of my 4-inch coaster calendar was covered with more of the Thrift Shop paper -- a musical sheet featuring a "Merry Merry May Day" song! I hope you'll visit the My Favorite Things' blog today, where I'm honored to be a Fabulous Friend! I have another adorable Jolinne project over there for you ... just perfect for little girls who love to collect and store tiny treasures (I think I know a few of those)!! I hope you have a wonderful May Day this Saturday!... Read more →

JustRite Blog Hop Day 3 & Copic Projects!

Today is the final day of JustRite Stampers' March Mega Blog Hop. You can find the list of participating designers' blogs over at the JustRite Inspiration blog today and start out on your way to a LOT of inspiration! I also have this project posted there, with all the details -- It's my April 4-inch coaster calendar, using my downloadable 3-inch calendar template and gorgeous new Webster's Pages Petite Papers-Life's Portrait. JustRite's beautiful hydrangea was stamped onto patterned Webster's Pages paper and then colored with Copic markers: I love stamping on coordinating patterned papers -- that way, you are assured your image will coordinate nicely with the rest of your project and your Copics will do a great job of covering up some of the patterns of the paper, which gives a great look (click on the photo for a closer view)! I've been busy this week making up for lost time last week (Spring Break) and also have this project posted today over at Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom: I hope you'll join me there to see how I made this home decor item out of Maya Road chipboard albums AND get some great tips for using Tattered Angels Glimmer... Read more →

March Calendar

I bet you all thought I forgot about my March calendar? I've just been busy but it's been bothering me the last few days that I don't have my desk calendar to look at, so I took a quick few minutes to put this together: This is the same kind of 4-inch coaster calendar that I started last month -- I just added to the back of February and will continue this little "book" through the year. I thought this green Basic Grey Origins paper would be perfect for the Luck 'O the Irish month! And what goes better with green than some sweet daisies! Karen Lockhart's Daisy Cupcake was stamped onto Inchie Arts Inchie + Ivory Square with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then colored with these Copic markers: Copic's Lemon Spica Glitter Pen accents the daisy centers. White gel pen was used to make the daisies pop against the ivory Inchie Square. The Inchie + Square was inked with Antique Linen Distress ink and popped up with foam tape and layered onto a Labels Thirteen die cut. This was the first time I had inked the edges of an Inchie Square and was very pleased with the pretty,... Read more →

February JustRite Calendar

Finally, my February calendar is done . . . I've been lost without it! I think this year I'm going to make a smaller version and use some 4-inch coasters I've had forever. This smaller version will take up a little less space on my desk than my previous 6-inch version (we can all use extra space, now can't we?!!) and will be a little easier to mail off to Grandma, too! The printed calendar I created is sized to fit Spellbinders Labels One die #4 perfectly (I'm sure it will fit any number of other shapes, too) and is available for download on my Tutorials & Downloads page HERE. You can find all the details on how I created it over at the JustRite Inspiration blog today, as I made it for the JustRite Friday Challenge 004: Crafty Calendars! So create your calendar and enter it for a chance to win a $50 JustRite gift certificate! Remember, you still have until 10pm CST tonight to enter for the chance to win a set of Copic Spica glitter pens (on THIS post), like the ones I used to color this cute JustRite floral heart! Read more →

Happy New Year!

Can you believe January and the New Year are almost here?!! My January calendar is posted over on the JustRite blog today -- I hope you'll visit it over there! :D Sorry I haven't been posting much lately during the holidays ... kids have been home from school, hubby is taking this last week off work and we've actually been enjoying some snow here in Texas (unusual for us)! I had a fabulous box of Copic goodness arrive last week and I haven't even had time to unpack it yet! Hopefully I'll find the time to do that this week and USE them!! I'll be back on Thursday (New Year's Eve) with my 6th day addition to Ellen Hutson's 12 Days of Christmas, so I hope you'll check back in then! Read more →

Taylored Expressions December Calendar

Here's my December 6-inch calendar page a little early! I adore this sweet bird image from Taylored Expressions' Wings of Joy stamp set, so I paired it with Cosmo Cricket's cute mitten and hat paper that compliment it perfectly! It was stamped directly onto Taylored Expressions' Calendar page. Did you know Taylored Expressions' 2010 calendar is all ready to go and available as a download for you now? So you can choose what cardstock (or patterned paper?) to print it on! You can find it here. The calendar prints out 6-inches square -- I just trimmed it down a little so I could place it on the piece of patterned paper. I colored the image with these Copic markers: I cut a Spellbinders snowflake out of Prism Intense Pink (available in Taylored Expressions' Christmas Key Ingredients Kit) and white cardstocks, stacked them together on foam tape and then glitterfied it! A Zva crystal adorns the center. A piece of red-stitched pink ribbon (again, from the Christmas Key Ingredients Kit) and tiny pink snowflakes made with a Martha Stewart edger punch finishes it off! Thanks for visiting today ... Are YOU looking forward to December?!! Supplies -- Stamps: Taylored Expressions Wings... Read more →