My 2010 Coaster Calendar

This is a project near and dear to me, I love making calendars! I also love this paper and this shade of blue. I don't have the energy to make a different picture for every month so I tried to choose a stamp that would go pretty much all year for this one. Last year I used brads to hold the calendar pages on and they were horrible to tear off each month so this year I used a "library?" clip. I adhered it in such a way that I can get the whole clip off if need be - nothing is going to hold my monthly pages hostage this year!

The stamp is from Stampavie called Ruffles Birdwatching. CUTE! I had to make the image a little smaller to fit my 4 x 4 coaster and it cut off the chickies so I cut them out and put them on pop-dots on the bottom mat of the image. The fence is on pop-dots too which gives it nice dimension. I worked hard on the flowers let me tell you! I must have punched 30 flowers out of kraft, bayou blue, soft sky, baja breeze, the designer paper your see etc. and tried myriads of combinations until I found what I liked the most. That took a long time, actually this took probably 4 hours to make! Decisions slow me down :) Then I wet them and crumpled them to give them a more textured look then straightened them back out and adhered the final flowers in layers. I also put faux pearls in the center of the flowers. The butterflies are punched twice so there is a "shadow" underneath, I think that gives it a nice look. I wanted the calendar page or right side of this to be plain and simple so it wouldn't over power the cute image on the left. I just die cut the bird and sponged the edges, used some branches to give it something to sit on and then put a little flower in the lower corner. Then it happened. I went too far LOL! I just got these adorable heart charms and just had to find a way to fit it on this. I "hung" it from the back over the top so it wouldn't be in the way of the calendar and I am thinking it doesn't go real well but for now I am keeping it :) Thanks for reading my long explanation today!