Graphic 45's Time to Flourish Perpetual Calendar

{click on any photo to make it larger}

Hello and Happy Friday! I'm thrilled it's the weekend because I am in the process of remodeling my craft room. Yay!!! My hubby and I will be splashing paint on the walls and hopefully in the next two weeks my new flooring will be installed and I can begin to put the room back together. I'll be sure to take photos along the way and I'll post the before and after here as well as on Instagram. 

For now I have a project to share that was so much fun to create. It was a gift for my sister and BIL. In January of 2016 I made a perpetual calendar that I created for myself using inspiration in this post by Annette Green. My sister loved it but she never got around to making one so I decided to use the scraps I had leftover from G45's Time to Flourish collection and gift them with one for Christmas. The photo above shows the calendar as it is displayed and the extra calendar month cards are stored neatly inside the decorative box which I also made and I'll share more on that in a minute. Guess I should note that Annette used Time to Flourish for her project and that my sister is a fellow paper crafter. ;)

For the decoration of the box I used images from G45's Botanicabella collection - butterflies, flowers which were die cut and postage stamps as Annette did. I added some additional fussy cut images on the back right of the box and applied Ranger's Glossy Accents to each of the butterflies for some shine. The hardware hinges were die cut using a Sizzix Alterations die by Tim Holtz and the metal key lock is by The Paper Studio I believe. Gem centers were added to the tattered florals, also a die by Tim Holtz, and metal label pulls hold the month cards in place. The stands were made from cardstock and you can see how to construct those in Annette' tutorial (link below).

I had to use paper and images that were larger than my original calendar for the month cards but it worked out. I simply chose the same image and if something did not fit then I altered it. All of the edges on this project were inked with gathered twigs distress ink by Ranger. If I am completely honest it pained me to cut into this beautiful paper and on the small month cards I did lose a lot of the design. However, I have resolved to use what I have and not hoard it because it really is doing no one any good at all to do that. My craft room becomes cluttered and I cheat someone out of something they will enjoy. I can't tell you how many times already they have thanked me for their calendar. So my advice is to start cutting that paper up and use it. :)

The biggest change you can see is on the large month cards (larger images) but I followed Annette's layout as closely as possible to keep the design similar to hers.

{the pansy flower stamp is from G45's Children's Hour-March}

I was happy that I could use what I had left of my Time to Flourish paper to create another perpetual calendar. Even though there are slight changes they honestly don't stand out because I followed Annette's design so closely. It's just another interpretation forced out of necessity. :) This is a beautiful paper collection and if you're looking to create a calendar project I highly recommend it! 

I'll quickly note that I did not use the G45 box that Annette used in her You Tube tutorial and that you will need to note a dimension change that she updated in the description box. I found the G45 box is too tight of a fit to remove the monthly cards easily and for my sister's box I made one using a cutting file from The Cutting Cafe - Book Box Set 2. I had the option of increasing the size working with a SVG and it allows for easier access to the stored cards. I also printed the 2018 calendars from The Cutting Cafe's 2018 Calendar Printable Set. You can easily trim the months using your paper trimmer and round the corners, if you prefer, like I did.  

Thanks for your visit today and I hope you gain some inspiration here as I did from G45's Annette Green. When I originally shared my calendar Annette was sweet to comment and thank me for sharing her tutorial. I believe in giving credit where credit is due so please click her link and visit her original post and YT tutorial. If you visit her blog you'll also see that she has continued to offer her own yearly mini calendars for free download and they are here.

Take care and have a great weekend,

Lisa xx

C for Clean or D for Distress at ABC Christmas Challenge

Our February challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge is live and this month we want to see

C for Clean

or

D for Distress

on your Christmas themed projects. Our sponsor is Lawn Fawn and I used two stamp sets by them on my Clean card above. The trees are from the Joy to the Woods stamp set and the rabbits and stars are from the Upon a Star set. 

My first card is a CAS style card with no embellishments just stamping and coloring. The background was created with blueprint distress oxide ink and the sentiment is from My Favorite Things - Clearly Sentimental About Christmas stamp set. For the next card I used another stamp set by MFT - Sophisticated Snowflakes. 

My second card is D for Distress and I used distress oxide inks to create my background. First I stamped the snowflakes with Versamark ink then embossed with WOW's Sparkling Snow embossing glitter. The embossing resists the ink and allowed me to blend faded jeans and chipped sapphire distress oxide inks over the background. A soft cloth rubbed gently over the snowflakes restored their pristine image. I fussy cut a fishtail banner and stamped a sentiment from Verve's Holiday Treats set in black tie ink by Ranger. 

To see more inspiration visit the challenge blog to see what my design team mates created for you. You have until the 28th of February to play along with this challenge.

Good Luck!

Lisa xx

XOXO Word Shaped Card

Hello and Welcome!

I'm here to share a card I designed for The Cutting Cafe using the XOXO Word Shaped Card. I love how it turned out and I hope the recipient will as well. :) With Valentine's Day approaching soon you'll want to check out the DT post featuring word shaped cards on the 7th for more inspiration.

 

Here's another example by Regina Easter of how she used this cutting file to create a shaker card.

  It's so cute!!!

The file includes sentiments and all of the hearts and arrow you see on both cards. It's such a versatile set and to see more Valentine themed word shaped cards visit here. 

The design team blog post will go live on Wednesday so be sure to visit. If you leave a comment you'll be automatically entered in a drawing to win 3 FREE SETS of your choice. Regina will announce the winner on the 21st of February. Best of luck!

I'll be back Wednesday with a Christmas themed design team post for ABC Christmas Challenge. 

See you then,

Lisa xx