Coaster Calendar - September, October, November and December

 September's bus comes from the retired Every Little Bit stamp set and fussy cut and adhered to a 1" punched circle.

October's Frankenstein comes from the retired Googly Ghouls stamp set, fussy cut and adorned with some googly eyes.

November's pie is from retired Every Little Bit stamp set, fussy cut and adhered to a punched 1-7/8" circle.

December's tree comes from the Festival of Trees stamp set and punched with the Tree Punch.

This Year's Coaster Calendar

Here's the cover and first four months for this year's "Coaster" calendar. Instead of coasters I use the white tag board backing the comes in the packs of Designer Series Paper. Yes, I save those, too. I have a small space on one of my studio shelves where I store them.
I use that tag board cut to 4"x4" to make the cover and back of the calendar. The month pages are just a piece of 4"x4" card stock.
When I'm making these calendars I pick a pack of DSP that has at least 6 different colors in it and then pull card stock in those six colors. Each monthly page has a small piece (1.5"x4") of DSP glued to the bottom of the cardstock. I usually think about what ribbon I have to trim the pages, too. This calendar is made using the retired Sycamore Street DSP. Then I decide what little stamp, punch or embellishment I can use that goes with that month.
Once you have those things decided the work goes pretty quickly. Since I was making a couple of these for the church's Holiday Fair I stamped and cut everything multiple times and then got busy putting the pages together.
I used my Crop-a-Dile to cut the holes for the rings.

 The numbers were cut using a Big Shot die The back is made the same as the front except I just overlap the ribbon on the inside so it lays flat.

 Snowflakes are from a retired Big Shot die.

 The heart is from two Big Shot dies layered together.Hearts a Flutter and a retired heart Embosslit.

 I fussy cut this shamrock from the retired Got Treats stamp set.

The umbrella comes from the retired Every Little Bit stamp set and is mounted on a punched 1-1/4" scalloped circle that I ran through the Big Shot using the retired Cloudy Day embossing folder.

Christmas Cards!

I decided it was time to play with a few of the stamp sets and new tools in the Holiday Catalog. What fun! Here's the first card design I wanted to share.  

I made this one with Pool Party and Basic Gray card stock first. I wanted to do some more sponging and used the same layout as my Halloween card from last week. But I also wanted to use the new Confetti Stars Punch (135861) with the Holiday Home stamp set (135095 photopolymer) and Homemade Holiday framelits (135857). Get the Holiday Home and Homemade Home bundle (137631) and save 15%. I wasn't happy with the stars punched through the sponged moon and I wanted to try the design in another color combo. 





So, on the second card I punched a circle for the moon instead of sponging around a sticky note circle. The colors in it are Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight card stock. I used Blendabilities (Cherry Cobbler 130995, Old Olive 130999, Smoky Slate 131005 and Crumb Cake 131004) Assortments to color the house on both cards. Basic Gray ink pad was used to stamp the trees, sentiment and sleigh on the top card and Smoky Slate and Pool Party ink were used to sponge the background.  Garden Green was used for the trees on the bottom card. Soft Suede was used for the sleigh and Whisper White for the sentiment. The background sponging was done with Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Garden Green. 

Happy Together!

Okay, it's been a long time since I've posted on this blog. But one of my nieces has challenged me to post some of the cards I've been making.
So, here's today's card:

When Stampin' Up!'s new annual catalog came out earlier this summer I told myself I could not order any more Designer Series Paper until I had used up some of the packs I had. A pack of DSP paper goes a long way when making cards. So, I started to use some of the retired paper I had because I just had to have some of the new patterns in the new catalog. So, many pretty papers and colors.
This was some paper that was pretty but really plain so I pulled out the Chalk Talk framelit and some stamp sets and punches and got busy. (This is a CASE of a card I saw online but I can't find my source.) I will probably add some pearls (119247) to the center of the stamped scallops and the center of the three punched flowers before sending.
Since some of the supplies I used are retired I'll just suggest some current products that could be used to make a similar card.
Linen thread (104199)  to make the loops just like in the photo.
Designer Series Paper:  Park Lane (133694) could be used; pictured is a retired pattern
Card Stock: Night of Navy for card base, Whisper White for base and stamped pieces, Daffodil Delight and Cherry Cobbler
Ink:  Night of Navy for sentiment, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point and Cherry Cobbler for stamped images
Stamp Sets:  I used A Round Array (129090 c or 129087 w) for the Daffodil center on the large blue shape, A Dozen Thoughts (131059 c or 131056 w) for the sentiment, Other sets I used are retired (Vintage Labels and Mixed Medley for the blue and cherry scallops and Perfect Plaid for the design above the sentiment) Current sets that could be used: Polka-Dot Pieces (129708 c, 129705 w),  Daydream Medallions (126467 c, 131976 w) and coordinating Floral Frames framelits (127012) or switch the scallops to stars and use Be the Star stamp set (135734 c, 135731 w) and coordinating Stars framelits (133723) and for the design above the sentiment Work of Art (134114 c, 134111 w) or Draw the Line (133659 photopolymer)
Punches: 7/8" scallop circle (129404), 1-1/4" scallop circle (127811), 1-3/4" scallop circle (119854), Boho Blossoms (119858)
Big Shot (113439), Magnetic Platform (130658) and Chalk Talk Framelits (129983)