Calendars for the holidays are a gift giving tradition! I like to make mine personal and unique and avoid the kittens and movie characters you can find at the mall. This desktop calendar truly IS the gift that keeps on giving as every month the recipient will turn a new beautiful page. This little calendar stands up on its own frame and doesn’t take much time at all if you work in stages. I cut all my main papers at once, then chose the calendar cards to match the month in some way (pink and red in February for example), then chose the banner die cuts to match, and then added the smaller details.
Fancy Pants Designs products:
The Good Life: 12x12 papers
The Good Life: Sticker Fundamentals
The Good Life: Banner Die Cuts
The Good Life: Tape Stickers
The Good Life: Layered Stickers
The Good Life: Mingled Brads
The Good Life: Chipboard Frames
Artist Edition: Number Stencil Cards
Artist Edition: Calendar Cards
Other Supplies:
bare chipboard, 2 book rings, black pen, ribbon, a small amount of washi tape or other tape
For the stand:
1. Cut two 4.5 x 6.5 pieces and one 4.5 x 2.5 piece of lightweight chipboard.
2. Cover them with patterned paper that is 5.5 x 7.5 for the larger pieces and 5.5 x 3.5 for the smaller piece. Trim the corners. Fold the edges over and adhere so one side is completely covered in paper.
3. Cut two lengths of ribbon approximately 12” each. You are going to sandwich them in between the chipboard and the paper that covers them in the next few steps.
4. Cut one 4.5 x 6.5 pieces to cover the other side of one of the larger chipboards. This will become the back of your calendar.
5. Cut a 4.5 x 2.5 piece to cover the other side of the small chipboard. This will become the bottom of your calendar. Adhere one ribbon from the bottom as the picture shows.
6. Use a length of tape (washi looks great!) to adhere the back and bottom chipboard pieces together, leaving a very small gap so they can bend.
7. Cover the other side of the front chipboard piece with a 4.5 x 6.5 piece of the Laughter black chevron print, adhering one ribbon from the bottom as we did before. This will become the front of your calendar.
For the cover:
1. Back the grey polka dotted chipboard frame with the red side of the Tokens paper and outline in black pen.
2. Outline the “2013” numbers with black pen and add to the bottom of the frame.
3. Add a brad to the center of the layered flower and adhere it above the numbers.
4. Add the stickers as shown.
For the pages
:
Again, I suggest cutting your pieces first and working from smaller and smaller scraps before assembling them all.
1. Outline each 4.5 x 6.5 page in black pen
2. Cut a 4.5 x 3 piece to coordinate with the page and border punch both sides. Adhere to the lower half.
3. Outline a die cut banner in black pen and adhere as shown in the photos (I cut some of them in half to “lengthen” them).
4. Add an Artist Edition calendar page on top of the banner. (write dates with black pen if desired)
5. Add a 4.5 x ½” strip of coordinating paper on top of the calendar page
6. Mat a sticker phrase and add it to the bottom of the page.
7. Use letter stickers to spell out the month on coordinating paper and trim it in a banner shape. Add it to the strip at the top.
To Assemble:
1. Punch two holes near the top of your cover. Use these to measure hole placement for all the pages and the back cover and punch those as well.
2. Stack the calendar back, pages in the correct order, and then the cover and thread them on to the book rings.
Tie the two pieces of ribbon in a bow to stand the calendar with the cover facing out. When it is time to use the calendar the front cover is turned over and you can again tie the ribbons in a bow in the back and it will stand to show the calendar pages.
