Shopi love any gift that can allow me to get creative. and, one of my best peeps gave me one of the best gifts ever for my b-day this year. the 2012 paper source diy calendar. i’m telling you…this peep knows me, knows i love me some paper source and knows that i could not let this absolutely blank canvas of a calendar go untouched this year.
here’s a quick premise of the calendar (in case you haven’t gone to the link yet): there’s 12 cards with dates for each month. each card is a blank canvas for you to stamp, sticker, cut, draw, mark, paint, whatever.
admittedly, i didn’t get to touch this calendar until this weekend. (i’m so sorry, p-dot…it wasn’t for a lack of trying!) but i managed to get a friday night where it was just me and my little one, and we spent some quality mom and son time crafting.
i started with february (again, i’m a slacker and didn’t get january done. if i had, there would have been birthday cakes and wedding dresses). february always gets me in a pink and red mood (even more than i usually am). i immediately went for this great stamp i have from paper source of a mum. and i just happened to have a red stamp pad to give february a little pop.
the mum stamp
but i couldn’t just go with a simple rubber stamp. i had to get more toys out. embossing powder and my embossing heat gun. these are the toys that never come out (frankly because i never really have time to use them…except for last friday night).
embossing heat gun and powder
note: for those of you who aren’t familiar with embossing powder and an embossing heat gun, here’s the reader’s digest version. you use these to give your stamped pieces some dimension and texture. after stamping your stamp on your piece, you immediately coat the area with embossing powder (which looks like a very fine sugar…think applying it like you would glitter…go heavy and then you can tap any extra off into your container.) the powder adheres to the stamped area and you then get out your embossing heat gun – think of it as a small hair dryer. turn on the heat gun and you run it along the area where your powder is. the powder + heat gives your stamped area a deeper color with raised dimension. pretty cool stuff.
so, i took on the next three months on friday night…february, march and april. march has a green (of course) celtic-feeling stamp (again with embossing…stamp was from michaels) and april is all about the little man’s birthday (happy birthday stamp from paper source).
i love, love, love that i have this amazing calendar for my creative space. that i can personalize each month to something that i hold special and near and dear to my heart.
