PaperFections

JustRite Day 4 - November Calendar

It's almost here ... can you believe November is right around the corner? Today over at the JustRite blog, I'm sharing my November desk/scrapbook calendar page -- I hope you'll join me! Read more →

September Calendar

In all the hub-ub of the first of the month, the holiday, and still getting acclimated to school day routines, I totally forgot to share my September calendar! Actually, I thought I had already made it but when I flipped my calendar stand over to the next month, I discovered I had made TWO October calendars and had nothing for September! YOU never do anything like that, do you?!! :D So here's what I came up with: I thought Papertrey's new Autumn Abundance set would work great for this month, and since the sunflowers have been in full bloom around here lately, I thought this beautiful image would be perfect! This image was SO much fun to color! I stamped the vase of sunflowers with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto Papertrey's Vintage Cream cardstock and colored with these Copic markers & Spica glitter pens (gold, olive & chocolate): I really hope you can see all the sparkle in the photo -- it really brings these beautiful flowers to life! I printed my calendar (download available from my Download Page) in green and brown, to match the papers and colored stamp image. I used Sally Lynn's Copic Digital Color Chart to... Read more →

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek-Day 2

Today's sneak peeks are of two different new Taylored Expressions stamp sets that will be released tomorrow (Sept 5) AND a new Halloween Key Ingredients kit that includes Basic Grey's cute new Eerie paper and all this ==> (click for a larger view). There will be two different Halloween bundles available, one for each of these Halloween stamp sets the Baker's Dozen are previewing for you today (kits are the same, except for the stamp sets). You'll be able to see the new stamp sets in their entirety on the Taylored Expressions blog tomorrow! I chose to make my 6-inch calendar for October. As you can see, it hangs in this wonderful Frame Your Imagination wooden stand that I stained to match my desk: I computer generated the calendar myself and then die cut it, but you could also use some of Taylored Expressions' dated calendar inserts. Keep in mind that my calendars can always be used as a scrapbook page, just by replacing the calendar with a photo -- just to give you some additional ideas! After die cutting the calendar, I stamped the spider web with Versamark Champagne Dazzle ink (hopefully you can see that in this photo... Read more →

WSC91: August Calendar

Just in time for August tomorrow, here's my monthly 6-inch calendar. I can't believe how quickly the summer has flown by and school will be starting here in just 3 weeks (yay ... did I say that out loud?!!). Beate is back with this Weekend's Sketch Challenge #91 and this is my sample. You can find the sketch and Beate's sample over at her blog today. For an accent to this page (atop the rose Prima flower), I chose Karen Lockhart's English Daisy stamp and stamped it onto an Inchie Arts White Inchie Square, then colored it with these Copic markers to match the patterned paper: E31, E25, B000, BG72, BG75, R83, R39 and accented the flowers with Copic's new Blossom Spica Glitter Pen. I thought the stamped flowers looked a lot like the ones in the patterned paper. I also lightly stamped the English Daisy stamp along the bottom of the bracket journal paper in a light Desert Sand ink. I printed my own calendar onto the journal paper. I hope you'll check out the samples these talented ladies created with this sketch and play along with us this weekend: Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, and sweet Lori. Have a wonderful... Read more →

JustRite July Calendar: New Set Preview!

Happy Independance Day to all my fellow Americans! Yes, I'm just a tad bit late posting my July calendar -- sorry about that! But I was waiting on something new and very special (keep on reading!) If you are a regular reader here, you know how much I love making (and using!) my desk calendars each month. They are 6-inches square and hang on THIS wooden display stand on my desk (available from Taylored Expressions -- I stained it to match my desk). You can find a Photo Album of all my calendars over in my right sidebar. I decided upon this 6-inch format because my intent is to then use these monthly calendar pages in a photo album, along with a coordinating 6-inch scrapbook page of a favorite photo of my girls or our family for the month ... a nice, commemorative album for the entire year! So if you may not be interested in calendars, keep in mind that the calendar portion of my pages can always be substituted for a photo and used as a scrapbook page. JustRite's new Calendar Stamp Set (pictured above) is great for either calendars OR scrapbooking, I think, and I've been highly... Read more →

WSC83: Cherry June Calendar

Happy Friday, All! Sorry I'm running a bit late with my sketch challenge today -- we had first grade graduation and awards this morning. (Sigh), they grow up too quick, don't they? And it seems my camera is in need of a cleaning, as I've been spending way too much time Photoshopping out a bunch of little random dots on my photos -- ugh! So anyway, here we are, finally . . . I needed my 6-inch June calendar, and this lovely new October Afternoon Cherry Hill paper arrived in my mailbox just yesterday, so that was totally the inspiration for me today. Isn't it yummy?!! I thought Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty Cherries would be a perfect accent, so I stamped them onto white cardstock, punched them out and adhered them to Inchie Arts Black Inchie Squares -- that set the tone for my black accents. The cherries were colored with these Copic markers: R332, R35, R37, YG03, YG17 and accented with my custom lighter BG000, to match the cherry paper. Speaking of those Copics, be sure to enter my Copic giveaway two posts below this one (Thursday's) ... The Copic Designers are helping Marianne Walker (Copic's Product Specialist) celebrate... Read more →

WSC79: May Calendar & New Lockharts!

Here's my Weekend Sketch Challenge #79 May calendar, along with a brand new Lockhart stamp being released today, made just for me ... Rose of Sharon, LOL! I honestly didn't know what the name of this flower/stamp was when I started coloring it last night! You can find the sketch challenge, hosted by Jenn, on her blog this morning. I colored my focal image with these Copic markers: YG06, YG13, YG17, RV13, RV17, R39, C3, C7, shadowed with W1 and airbrushed the background with G40. Machine stitching with black thread and buttons accents the top of my 6" x 6" calendar page. There are a total of 15 new Lockhart images being released today: 7 full-sized, 2 Itty Bitty and 6 sentiments! I hope you'll check out the other sketch samplers today, to see what they came up with: Cambria, Charmaine, Laurie, Lori and Mary Jo ... I'm off to do that now! Be sure to check back here on Sunday, for that Spring Fling challenge between all of us over at the CLASSroom! Have a wonderful weekend! Supplies: New Lockhart stamps, Martha Stewart Zig Zag Edger Punch, Spellbinders Classic Circle & Petite Scalloped Circle Nestabilities dies, Copic markers and... Read more →

WSC72-April Showers

Since I was a little too late to try and get a March calendar made, I figured I would skip ahead to April! This is my usual 6-inch square calendar page that hangs in THIS stand. Jenn is hosting this week's Weekend Sketch Challenge -- you can find the sketch and her sample at her blog this morning. As soon as I saw the layout, I thought it would be perfect for my calendar! I used a Webster's Pages' Mini Calendar Journaling Cards and stamped the dates with JustRite's Medium & Large Numbers made for the C-45 Monogram Stamper, but on the new little 1-3/16" Wood Stamper that will be available next month. The other layered papers are from Making Memories Chloe's Closet 6-inch designer papers and spiral journaling book (found at Michael's). The chipboard letters are Maya Road's Noah alphabet - I just colored them with the same Night Sky chalk ink and then sprinkled them with transparent glitter while the ink was still wet. The new Lockhart Itty Bitty Umbrella was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto Neenah Classic Cream cardstock and punched out with Martha Stewart's supposedly 1-inch scalloped punch -- it's actually 7/8 of an... Read more →

February 2009 Calendar

I apologize in advance for this long post -- I have a lot of details to share with you! Here's my February calendar for 2009 -- I'm quite proud that I actually got it done by the first day of the month! You may recall THIS sweet cupcake February calendar I made for my girls . . . but this one will sit on MY desk! That's why I stained the Frame Your Imagination Vertical Stand brown -- to match my crafting/computer desk. This stand holds 6-inch scrapbook page protectors, that my calendar fits into. You may ask, why so much work for "just" a calendar? It's always my intent to re-use my calendars toward the end of the year and put them into a 6-inch brag book, along with a corresponding scrap page of a special photo of my family from that month. (Pssst -- I'm only one year behind right now, LOL!). I guess I should go ahead and make that corresponding blank page now while all the supplies are out, right? I hope to find time to do that this year and share each one with you. I discovered these great Webster's Pages Mini Calendar Journaling Cards... Read more →

Taylored Expressions Stamp a Sweet Impression Release

Today's the day -- you can finally purchase these darlingTaylored Expressions Stamp a Sweet Impression stamp sets the Baker's Dozen Design Team has been showing you for the last two days for all of your calendar needs AND they make terrific cards throughout the year, too! Also available is the Valentine set, Love is Sweet, and a great sentiment set I haven't shown you yet, A Year of Sentiments. I know I will reach for this set quite often throughout the year -- it covers just about any holiday, celebration or gift-giving occasion. Taylor will have previews of all the products, along with some special bundle pricing on her blog, so please check there or at the Taylored Expressions Store for complete images of all the products. Since it's the first day of January, I decided to make my January calendar and since these calendars go together so quickly and easily, I also did my February calendar! Here's January 2009, using A Year of Sweets 1 set: I selectively inked the stamp with Memento Dew Dropsin Tuxedo Black (Cuppie) and Summer Sky (snow & snowflakes) and stamped directly on the 6x6 dated calendar page. This cardstock works very well with... Read more →

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek!

You can color me happy -- I was ecstatic when I learned Taylored Expressions would be carrying some unique calendar products this year! Any of you who are regular readers here at my blog know how much I love my monthly calendars! My project today showcases the Frame Your Imagination vertical wood stand and coordinating 6x6 calendar inserts. The calendar inserts and Frame Your Imagination stands were designed to be used with the Calendar Cuppie stamps but the possibilities are only limited by your imagination! There is also a perpetual birthday calendar option (links to those projects are shown at the bottom of this post). The wood frame is beautifully crafted, very sturdy, sanded smooth, and left to be finished with a coat of paint or paper in the color of your choice. This stand will be for my young girls, so I started with a coat of pink paint and then used papers from the new Valentine Key Ingredients kit to cover it, using ModPodge. There are many different patterns on the double-sided papers in the Valentine kit to choose from -- I chose some of the more generic ones with many colors that I thought would work well... Read more →

JustRite August Calendar

Here's my August calendar, finally. I was in a shabby-chic mood, so that's where the browns & distressing came in. I loved the soft green & blue in this beautiful Webster's Pages paper (Pear Blossom from the Classical Garden collection). My friend Cindy at StarLitStudio will be carrying these papers in a few weeks, so watch for it! The fabulous distressed copper brads I used here are also from her store: After distressing the edges, I mounted the paper to a 6-inch square piece of Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip cardstock that I cut the left edge with Spellbinders' new Victorian Pierceabilities die (available in September). The blue lined paper is the reverse side of this pattern -- I ran a strip of it under my calendar page and used it to cut that cute tiny butterfly. She's from the Flying Beauties Spellbinders die set. The circle sentiment I created myself with my JustRite Classic Wood Stamper (large 1-5/8"). "Classic" just means it's the round wood block instead of the Self Inking Stamper. Originally I intended to ink the round border in a different color than the letters, so that's why I chose the wood block. Obviously, along the way I... Read more →

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #22: July Calendar

I was bouncing in my chair Monday when I received an email from Taylor telling me I won her Cupcake Sketch Challenge from last Friday! That means I get to join her regular Cupcake Girls and be the Featured Cupcake Sampler on her blog this week, by providing a sample for her sketch. Thanks so much, Taylor, I'm very honored! Since June is coming to an end and I remembered I hadn't made my July calendar page yet (if you are new here, you can read about my calendar pages and holder here and view all of them in the Calendar Photo Album over in the right sidebar of my blog), I decided to use the sketch for that and it worked perfectly! So don't be afraid to join along in a sketch challenge and use it for something other than just a card! And remember, you don't have to use a cupcake image to play along in Taylor's Cupcake Fridays -- it WAS my intent to do so today, but then I got the idea for this 6" x 6" calendar page: I flipped the embellishment part of the sketch to be over on the bottom right instead of... Read more →

DDA Challenge: Who-Hoo June Calendar

The 20th of the month brings another Splitcoast Dirty Dozen Design Team/Alumni Challenge. This month's challenge was this: Challenge Focus: Owls. If you don't have an owl image you may use any flighted fowl to play. Required Element: Texture. You may interpret this any way you like Restricted Element: No crystals/rhinestones or dew drop type embellishments. Since I hadn't inked this darling Pretty Birds set by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms yet, this was the perfect opportunity to use her sweet little owl from this set for my monthly calendar 6x6 page: Printed paper is from BasicGrey's Sugared 6x6 pad. I had cut the Spellbinders Nestabilities Petite Scalloped Circle from the sheet for this project and loved the pattern so much, I hated for the whole sheet to go to waste so I used the negative space and layered another negative cut of Prism Razzleberry Light behind it for a mat. The corners of the paper were cut with Stampin' Up's Ticket Corner punch. These are layered onto a base of Stampin' Up's Old Olive cardstock. Sweet little owl was stamped onto Cryogen White shimmer cardstock with Ranger's Adirondack Espresso ink and colored with these Copic markers: Owl is... Read more →

WSC45: May Calendar

For Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge today, I decided to do my monthly 6" x 6" calendar page. <== There is Beate's sketch . . . and here's my calendar: Our wedding anniversary is in May, so that made me think of this adorable Tart of Hearts stamp by Karen Lockhart. I stamped the hearts onto my computer-generated calendar (more on that below) which was printed on Cryogen White shimmer cardstock and colored them with Copic markers, accented with pink Copic Spica glitter pen: *Note: The greens here are softer and lighter in person -- my camera and lighting were giving me fits this morning! Copic colors used: R81, R85, YG01, YG25, Y21. The calendar measures 3.75" x 2.5", is matted with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Rectangle cut from Prism Frosted Yellow cardstock, and is popped up on dimensionals. Pink ribbon is Stampin' Up's taffeta. The "May" alpha dot stickers were included in the 8x8 pack of Making Memories Garden Party paper I finally found at Target . . . I adored it when I first saw Michelle use it and was happy to finally find it! I machine stitched the dotted paper to a 6-inch base of Prism Baby Pink,... Read more →