Coaster Calendar - May, June, July and August

May's flower is punched card stock using the Boho Blossoms punch and topped with a button from a retired assortment. 

June's butterflies are cut using the Big Shot Beautiful Wings embosslit.

July's stars are punched and topped with a rhinestone.

August's ice cream cone was stamped using the retired Sock Monkey Accessories stamp set and colored with Blendabilities markers.

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.

Notebooks and Pens

These cute little notebooks and pens are some of the items I've made to donate to the church's Holiday Fair. I used the Confetti Celebration Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up! and some of the washi tape I had in my stash. You take the Pentel pens apart and roll a little piece of DSP and stuff it into the barrel before putting the pen back together. The little composition notebooks were found at Walgreen's. I'm hoping people will think they make great stocking stuffers or little gifts for office mates. I tied them up with ribbon from my stash... I'm trying to get rid of all my non- Stampin' Up! ribbon. We like to use it to tie up all our gifts and packages.
The little cello bags are recycled. When I get new stamping accessories they usually come in cello bags. So I carefully remove the product and have a bag hanging in my studio closet where I store them. When I make a gift or these type of items I can usually find a cello bag that is the right size. My family will be saying it's a "Aunt Nina" thing!

All Occasion Card from Work of Art

Here's one of the calendar pages I made and then decided not to use. So, I turned it into a card. The flourish comes from the Everything Eleanor stamp set. I added a few rhinestones when I decided to make it into a card. The interior is left blank. We use a lot of all occasion/blank cards in our house, There always seems to be some occasion that we need to acknowledge or someone who needs a little encouragement.

Work of Art Calendar-October, November December

And the final three months!

For October I just hand drew the ghost and pumpkin faces with a black marker. November's leaf comes from the French Foliage stamp set (retired). The bow loops on December's wreath were made by inking just the edges of the Work of Art heart stamp. Then I hand drew the bow tails and the holy berries. It's hard to tell here that I used two shades of green to make the wreath. I used Pear Pizzazz and Wild Wasabi. I think next time I will pick a darker green than the Wild Wasabi. And yes, I need to make another one. This one went to one of our churches Fall Festival Silent Auction.  The other church has a Holiday Festival later this month. So, it's back to the stamping table!

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday.

Work of Art-July, August & September

July's page was lots of happy accidents. I saw a similar design with punched stars but since I wanted my calenar to stay flat I was restricted from adding any layers. So, I heat embossed some stars with white embossing powder. My star image came from the Perfect Pennants stamp set. Then I stamped the red and blue images using the stamps from Work of Art. I didn't think about needing to wait for the blue to dry completely before wiping it off the stars. So I got a smudged blue background, which I decided I liked. Happy accidents. Then when I put the calendar together I realized the image would be turned 45 degrees from my original thinking. Luckily I like it this way!
Can you tell August is Popsicles? This was the one image I wasn't real sure about. I did create another image but decided it wasn't as whimsical as I wanted, so it is being turned into a card (maybe you'll see it next week).
September's red apple is made using several of the different shapes from the Work of Art stamp set. It's much easier than you'd think. The face on the caterpillar is hand drawn. The body is just stamping off with the little circle stamp in the Work of Art set.
Come back tomorrow for the final three pages!

Work of Art Calendar-April, May & June

Yellow tulips for April, a sailboat for May and a slice of watermelon for June. The flag on the sailboat comes from the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set. I just drew the seeds on the watermelon using a black marker, otherwise all the images were created using the Work of Art stamps. It's a fun, fun set!