You know you're too caught up in crafting when you start letting your products dictate your projects instead of the other way around. After I got this beautiful 7 Gypsies stamp set of month titles, I decided to put together a quick and easy birthday calendar to keep track of important dates throughout the year.
I found this Conrad Ring Book from Creative Imaginations at my local scrapbook store, thinking its 6 chipboard pages would be just right for a 12-month calendar. Then, I chose papers from My Mind's Eye new Stella and Rose collection for each month, took it all home, and went to work.
Instructions:
1. Use a paper trimmer to cut patterned papers to the size of the chipboard pages, and round the corners with a corner rounder.
2. Punch holes in the top of the pages to match the holes in the chipboard pages. (If you use a Crop-a-Dile, you can punch all the pages at once.)
3. Stamp month titles on the top of each page with black ink.
4. Format lists of date numbers in word processor and print on printable transparencies. You'll need 7 lists of 31, 4 lists of 30, and 1 list of 29 for February (to go ahead and factor in the leap year). Trim apart the lists and attach to the patterned paper pages with staples. (You could avoid the stapled look by printing right on the pages, fussing with a clear adhesive, or trying to hide the adhesive with embellishments, but I was going for quick and easy.)
5. Adhere the patterned paper pages to the chipboard pages. Sand the edges if paper hangs off the sides. Assemble the pages and secure them with jump rings. I assembled mine so that January through June all face forward, and you can turn the whole calendar around to flip July through December.
6. Write in all your important dates!
I had to scour Facebook to collect a bunch of birthdays I didn't already know, and I still need to do a little detective work to find the rest, but once I'm done, I'll no longer have to rely on my memory (or my husband's) to be prepared for family events.
I'll probably eventually embellish this a little. I'm sure I'll at least tie some ribbons on the jump rings in between the pages. But for now, I like the simplicity. The stamps and papers feel ornate enough as they are.
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