Monday 12 October 2009

Granny's Birthday Calendar - January 2010 Photos.


Finally I have uploaded & edited the first "lot" of calendar photos - January 2010. There are quite a number of them, but I like that. I love to see everything when I am studying all your blogs, so I'm guessing you're the same...So here you have the front cover, using older Basic Grey Paper {love this paper...} & used the same print for the back too. The scallop sticker at the top is My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie {love those stickers too...have used them tons of times...and bought them over & over}. That nyummy clear accent is a Maya Road Sheer from one of my Cocoa Daisy kits & the alphas are American Crafts Thickers, shiny & felt.

A close-up of my accent on the bottom-right of the front cover. The brad is from Making Memories

Inside the front cover there is an extra double-page spread before the months start - and always being one to fill up every inch of space when packing, etc I decided to cover the plain white paper with this beautiful lined paper by Basic Grey, so that Granny could write some notes on it if she wished. {Perhaps addresses, etc...}

The alphas are American Crafts Thickers once again...rubber ones. (All Thickers so far are from my Cocoa Daisy kits). The pod-shaped strip underneath the title is from Crate Paper.

Here's a close-up! The holes were already punched in the top of every page but obviously I had to repunch them once I had covered them in paper.

And here is the bottom-half of the double-page spread - left blank.

And here is January's layout at last! Her darling son...I went to town with the inking on the quotes I typed out...leaving them clean would be too clinical for me. The bottom sticker strip is My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie again.

And a close-up of the main accent, where I used a coupla store bought flowers with one of my crocheted ones on top, a brad (can't remember who from but think it is Basic Grey!) & some dyed skeleton leaves available locally.

Another of my crocheted flowers (yes I did get them all made but never sold any as the ladies making them gave me constant problems) with a glittered Making Memories flower on top (pink) & a Making Memories brown chipboard flower on top of that, all secured with an S.E.I. brad.

On every layout I used one of these circular Urban Lily accents, to give the album some continuity.

And here is another shot of the finished page, taken in the outside boma at Granny's home in Botswana.

And now for some close-up shots of the actual "date" page...

I mixed it up a bit to give it the "artsy" look. I hand-wrote some of the numbers & used various number stickers for the rest. The chipboard ones are from Sassafras Lass & very funky.

I also used some American Crafts "badges" & some cool Dream Street coloured rub-ons.

I used my favourite Adornit {Carolee's Creations} & Making Memories mini-alphas for noting the occasions to remember.

All in all I enjoyed making this but it was rather over-ambitious! It was really akin to making an entire 12 x 12 album...

I will keep posting until I have shown you all the months of the year {maybe there will be some other posts in between for variety's sake...} I've always wanted to make a calendar & never done it so now it's done! Only I didn't get to keep it!

Definitely not doing another one at the moment as I have a heap of scrapping I'd like to plough through...but who knows, maybe I'll do one for me before the year is out...



7 comments:

tania said...

you did a great job, it seems really hard work though, i also need to make one, mm one i have had it for ages!!thanks for your lovely comment on my blog, i appreciate it.

Desire Fourie said...

Oh wow Helen. I just love this truly beautiful and personalised calendar. Gran is going to treasure this with her life. Can't wait to see other months.
Hugs
Desire

Lynette Jacobs said...

What a wonderful gift...to use throughout a whole year. Very beautiful:)

somebody who needs to love herself said...

thanks Helen for all the close ups I was studying each one of them. It looks like a lot of fun to do this. love all the mixtures of accents and embellishments. Love it.

Sandra said...

Wow, you have done a lot! Am sure the giftee will be rapt with it too :)

Ella Swan said...

Thanks for all your kind words...we all seem to have one of these "ready to decorate" calendars lying around. I did this as a 70th birthday gift - which I thought was ideal really, as from 70 onward I don't think one wants to continue accumulating stuff & photos are precious to everyone {& at that age it is not so easy to remember dates!}She can actually use it forever as the dates remain the same. It was fun to make!

Michelle Ramsay said...

I have gone arse about face and read from the top post down - he he. Your calendar is absolutely stunning and your Gran is certainly going to treasure it. Always nice to see a project come to an end, but remember the fun had in making it. Even more special will be the reaction when your Gran opens it. Well done Helen - stunning.