12th Day of Christmas

calendar and card box

was so excited when Michelle asked me to be apart of the Christmas Extravaganza, I immediately set to work thinking up ideas and over time the ideas just grew and grew, in the end I had I just tell myself to calm down and go with just a few things.

with my projects I have used nothing but scraps and old products. The reason for this is simple, the more of my scraps and old stash I use the more new goodness I can buy from Michelle. I am very good at buying new stuff and not using it so I set myself a challenge to use nothing but scraps and old product (over 6 months old) for this project. I now challenge you all to do the same and then we can all shop with Michelle guilt free.

my main idea is a calendar and card box. The idea came about from my own unorganised life, I was at work one day and looked at the calendar and realised that it was friends birthday in a few days and I didn't have a card and there was no time to make one. I thought I would be a great idea to have a heap of cards on hand for these times of panic, so evolved the matching calendar and card box.

for this project you will need:

a clip board - mine is a 6.5x6.5 Bella clipboard that I already had in my stash.
a box suitable for altering and holding cards - I have used a wooden box I picked up for $5 at The Reject Shop
3 co ordinating papers - I have used create paper Lillian rangehttp://scrapbookdivas.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3742
white card stock http://scrapbookdivas.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72_75_90&products_id=1484
paint I have used white as I was wanting a shabby chic look
letters - I have used thickers latte
prima flowers
ribbon
bling and pearls- I have use Kaiser http://scrapbookdivas.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=808_683&products_id=2807
butterflies - I have used the Martha Stewart punch
fiskars boarder punches
a computer - to create the calendar

how to:

this was a rather easy project to create.

start by painting the clipboard and the box - for me it took 3 coats to get the coverage I wanted so this was the most time consuming part of the project. I left it an hour between coats to allow the paint to fully dry and not get all clumpy by applying the next coat while the coat before had not dried.
while waiting for paint to dry open a word document and search for a calendar template. I used the standard template and then just moved the columns and adjusted the font size till I had the size I wanted, there was a lot of trial and error involved in this. Print off 12 months worth on white cardstock
once the paint is on and dry cut strips of PP to the desired width. I cut the green one 3 inches by 6.5 inches and when used a fiskars punch to punch out a decorative boarder, which I then stuck 9.5cm from the top of the clipboard.
the floral print is 2.5 inches by 6.5 inches and is placed over the top of the green paper leaving a small boarder top and bottom
using the pink PP cut it to size to make a suitable back ground for your calendar, I cut mine out using a die cut in my cuttlebug. now I did not stick this down, rather I have used the clip to hold it and the calendar in place, this way it is easy to remove each month as it passes and also this calendar can be used for more than one year.
now decorate to you liking. I have place ribbon along the middle of the floral print PP. put a flower on the left hand side and tied a bow to place in the centre of the flower. then used bling to decorate around the flower. I have then used thickers to spell out "date" which I have then decorated with a few pearls
my clipboard has a magnetic square on the back so it can be put on the fridge on the side of a filing cabinet at work etc.

this is the calendar done!!!!!!!!




the box is made in much the same fashion

paint the box, following the same process as painting the clip board
I then decorated the box the be very similar to the calendar, I did this because I plan to give this set away as a Xmas gift and thought having them match would be a nice touch. It is entirely up to you of you would like yours to match

the box is full of cards I have made from scraps. I am a big 8.5x12 scrapbooker so I tend to have a lot of strips of brazil left over. I used these strips to make all of the cards in the box, some I just folded in half for a normal size card and some I cut in half to make 2 pint size cards. try making a card with scraps after each LO, you will be surprised how quickly you will use up your stash and build a good supply of cards to have on hand. I tend to keep my cards simple but it up to you how extravagant you wish to get with your cards.

hope you have enjoyed this project and I look forward to seeing what you create.