Vintage Leaves -- 2017 Desktop Calendar

01/26/2017

Hi There!

Every year I make a desktop calendar for friends and family as a Christmas present. Last January I shared the 2016 desktop calendar with my Stamp Club members and they asked that I design a 2017 calendar for them to make near the end of the year. This is the calendar that we made at the November Stamp Club meetings and I decided that I would also use this design for the calendars I would gift for Christmas. Unfortunately, time constraints prevented me from completing the calendars in time for Christmas. I know that there were many who were disappointed that they did not receive their calendar at the family Christmas party. Sigh...

Today I [finally] finished making and shipping the calendars for family and friends so I decided to share the calendar with you.

To begin, layer the Whisper White cardstock layers centered on top of one another using a bit of repositionable adhesive between each layer. The Vintage Leaves stamp set was used for this project and the largest leaf was stamped first using Pear Pizzazz ink with Crumb Cake ink added to the edges of the image using the Rock & Roll technique. To do this, gently roll the edge of the Pear Pizzazz inked stamp image onto the Crumb Cake ink pad and then stamp the image onto the cardstock. Be sure to clean the stamp between each inking. This first leaf image was stamped three times in a triangular pattern.

The next largest leaf was stamped second using Old Olive ink with Soft Suede ink added to the edges of the image using the Rock & Roll technique, stamping the leaf three times in a triangular pattern. The next leaf is the larger of the two smaller leaves which was stamped three times in a triangular pattern using Always Artichoke ink. The smallest leaf was stamped three times in a triangular pattern using Cajun Craze ink.

There are five (5) leaf images in the Vintage Leaves stamp set. So far the two largest and the two smallest leaves were used to create the background. The middle sized leaf was used to stamp on the mini tear off calendar. I found these calendars through Taylored Expressions. The image was inked with Pear Pizzazz ink, stamped off onto scrap paper, and then stamped on each page of the calendar -- reinking and stamping off for each page of the calendar AND changing the orientation of the stamp image on each page of the calendar. The calendar comes mounted on a piece of chip board, so with the added weight and the tear off action each month, Tear & Tape adhesive was used to adhere the chip board to a slightly larger piece of Soft Suede cardstock.

The stamped background stack of cardstock was carefully pulled apart and each piece mounted on a slightly larger piece of Soft Suede cardstock.

The three pieces were adhered, centered on top of each other, matching the stamped images. The background piece was inserted into the calendar case (I purchase the cases in bulk from Calendar Case) and the tear away calendar adhered at the center of the background using Tear & Tape adhesive with the bottom edge of the tear away calendar resting on top of the lip of the case base.

There are times when I need a background for a project and just don't have the background stamp, textured impresssions embossing folder, or designer series paper that will work. That's when I look for stamp sets like Vintage Leaves where I can use Versamark or a specific palette of colors to create just the background required.

Calendar measurements --

Whisper White: 7" x 4", 6" x 3", 5" x 2"; Soft Suede: 7-1/4" x 4-1/4", 6-1/4" x 3-1/4", 5-1/4" x 2-1/4", 2-1/2" x 3-1/4"

Supplies I used to make this calendar --

Stamps: Vintage Leaves; Inks: Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede; Cardstock: Soft Suede, Whisper White; Adhesives: Fast Fuse, Tear & Tape; Tools: Stampin' Trimmer; Other: Landscape calendar case (http://www.calendar-case.com/proddetail.php?prod=CC-LS), Mini Tear Off calendar (https://www.tayloredexpressions.com/supplies/calendars.html)