2011 Calendar Blog Hop

Welcome to another great Blog Hop sponsored by Karel at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity. If you have arrived from the always fabulous Belinda's blog, then you are on the right track. Here is the list of wonderful crafters just in case you may have missed anything!

1. January and April: Celeste at Touched by a Butterfly at http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/
2. January and September: Jessica at Overjoyed Scrapper http://www.overjoyedscrapper.blogspot.com/
3. February: Christel at Scrappin' Sista http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com/
4. February and March: Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity  http://karelj.blogspot.com/
5. March and July: Diane at Crafting This Moment http://www.craftingthismoment.blogspot.com/
6. April: Bonnie at A Scrap Above http://ascrapabove.blogspot.com/  
7. May: Michelle at Peanut Butter and Jelly Designs http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com/
8. May: Natalie at Timeless Legacy Designs http://timelesslegacydesigns.blogspot.com/
9. June: Lisa at Lisa's Paper Butterflies http://lisaspaperbutterflies.blogspot.com/
10. June: Jamie at Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My! http://jamieisacraftymomma.blogspot.com/
11. July: Summer and Jennifer at Cricut Diaries http://cricutdiaries.blogspot.com/
12. August: Denise at Starlight Scrapper http://starlightscrapper.blogspot.com/
13. August: Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/
14. September: Deb at If It's Groovy http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/
15. October: Rebecca at Creations with Becka http://www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com/
16 . October: Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/
17. November: Belinda at Queen Bee's Musings http://www.queenbeesmusings.blogspot.com/
18. November and December : Col at Col's Creative Corner at http://www.scrappycol.blogspot.com/ you are here!
19. December: Deb at Tidbit's Place http://tidbitsplace.blogspot.com/

Don't forget in order to win the awesome grand prize Cricut Designer Calendar Cartridge that Karel is giving away as a grand prize, you will need to visit and leave a comment at all the stops on the way. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to visit all the stops, the hop is from today until December 30th! Don't forget to leave a way for Karel to contact you! She will choose a winner by random.org on the 31st and announce it on her blog as well as contacting the winner personally! I can't wait to see all the calendar pages that are going to be shown for this hop. I already have two months down on my calendar!

Here are my pages

I had the pleasure of creating calendar pages for November and December. For both months, I took 12x12 paper and adhered it to chipboard for extra sturdiness. I will break down each month

This was so much fun to create. To make a calendar set like this you will need a Cricut Machine and the Thanksgiving Seasonal Cartridge. Here are the other supplies I used:

12x12 paper

8 1/2 x 11 paper

Martha Stewart Glitter (Fire Opal and Golden Beryl)

Distress Inks (Scattered Straw and Wild Honey)

Adhesive (Zig Pen, Xyron Machine, and Scor Tape)

Stickles

Computer to print the Days of the Week

I-Rock

Cricut Cartridges (Thanksgiving, Blackletter, Gypsy Wanderings and Independence Day)

I have been on a self imposed paper ban, so I dug through my stash and found a piece of paper that I got when my LSS closed, and it's called Acorn Harvest by Kathy Griffiths for Provo Craft. Yep, Provo Craft. I never knew Provocraft produced paper. Then again, I am still new to paper crafting, it's only been about three years since I started. I cut my 8 1/2 x 11 paper to 6 1/2 x 9 1/2. I created the calendar grid and printed out the days of the week. I cut them and inked them with Wild Honey Distress Ink. I adhered them to to a strip of orange paper that I cut to make a header on the calendar.

I then cut 30 leave shadows at 1x1 and inked them with the Distress Ink. I also inked the paper that used for my dates area. I found some number stickers in my sticker stash, so I used those for the dates. For Veteran's Day, I cut a 1 inch I Love the USA from the Independence Day Cart. For Thanksgiving, I cut a 1 inch Turkey from the Thanksgiving Cart. I love black Friday, so I cut a couple of shopping bags off a Lily Of The Valley Stamp that was left over from Christmas cards, and added some twine to look like handles. I colored them with Copics. I marked my son's birthday with a party sticker. One thing to note:
I loved the pumpkin on the paper and didn't want to lose it to the dates grid, so I took a craft knife and carved the top of the pumpkin and slid the calendar grid under it.

I cut my photo mats to 3x5 size. I am crazy about glitter, but I really hate gluing glitter, so I cheat, all the time... I used my Xyron, ran anything I was glittering through it so that the side that would be facing up would have adhesive, and glittered to my hearts content. Here are a couple of shots showing the process.

I did the same thing for the picture mats and the Count You Blessing Phrase. I used an I-Rock to adhere some bling on the picture mats and the Count Your Blessings title. It's so hard to see in pictures, but they look so nice. I cut a Pilgrim Silhouette and a leaf corner from the Thanksgiving Cart. I used SEI Velvet paper for the Pilgrim head and the leaf.

Materials for December Pages:

Cricut Cartridges (Joys Of The Season, Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art, Celebrate With A Flourish, and Wrap It Up

12x12 paper

8 1/2 x 11 paper

Martha Stewart Bird Sticker

Distress Ink (Pine Needles and Fired Brick)

Ribbon

Viva Decor Pens (Gold and Silver)

I followed a similar idea for my calendar grid as I used for November, except I made the grid slightly bigger. It is 8 x 10 1/2. I cut 1 inch Christmas ornaments with my Cricut to use as my Day markers. I inked the ornaments and used my Viva Decor Pens to add the gold and silver at the top of the ornaments. I used more of the number stickers to mark the days. The paper for the ornaments is by Anna Griffin.  

Does anyone remember when swapping "inchies" was all the rage on the Circut MB? Well, I finally used a couple from my stash to highlight Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New year's Eve and my Mom's Birthday. Belinda might recognize one of the inchies.....

I just wanted to mention the background paper for this month is by Bo Bunny. I have been hoarding it for the longest time, and it was just perfect for this page. I cut the word December and the year using the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art Cartridge. The mats will hold 4x6 pictures, and the ribbon isn't adhered, so the pictures will slide right under it. The lovely Poinsettias are from the Wrap It Up Cartridge. I cut the reindeer at 2.50 x 2.75. Merry Christmas is from Celebrate With A Flourish.

One last hint. I have a tough time keeping my rulers straight when I am drawing grids. In order to keep the date grid looking nice, I used my paper cutter as my straight edge. I marked where the lines would start, then placed the dot on the out side of my paper cutter and drew my lines.

I hope you enjoyed my calendar pages. I am giving away some blog candy. I am always in need of Cricut blades, so I will be drawing a name using random.org on New Year's Eve to give a pack of blades to. That's not all, I will also be giving a set of stamps to the winner. Just leave me a comment and a way to reach you! I will get a picture up of the blog candy before the hop is over. Thanks for stopping by today! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or whatever Holiday you celebrate! Happy New Year to all my fellow crafters! I am looking forward to creating some fun new projects this New Year!

From here, you are heading to Deb at Tidbit's Place blog. I know you will be impressed by her creations! She is quite talented!

Happy Crafting!

Col