Rolodex Calendar

Good morning. As I sit here, my Christmas music is playing, and I’m thinking about my holiday baking. My tree is up, and my house is decorated. Now I’m ready for Christmas. Obviously, my mom’s co-workers are not even close to being ready; every day my mom yells out “__ days to Christmas,” as she watches my Christmas tree countdown in the right side bar. Her friend’s are threatening to throw her out of the department–LOL.
My rolodex calendar was made at a workshop at Lasting Impressions. Isn’t it cute? Cathy Heslop, the instructor, comes up with some really neat projects. I’m going to make another rolodex, at home, and will substitute the Jolee Boutique stickers for rubber stamped images to achieve a more artsy feel.
The fun thing about this calendar is that each month was mounted with clear photo corners, so they can be replaced each year. On the back side of the file card there is another calendar which allows those important dates to be documented. With five nephews, two nieces, two children and four step-children, I need to keep important dates in one convenient place.

Left or Right Brained?

I am definately right brained. By clicking here you can find out what side of your brain you use. I have read so many responses to this, on one of my yahoo groups, and people are amazed that they see the figure moving in the opposite direction as their friend or partner. Something I find very interesting, is that I can make this figure switch directions by concentrating hard. I’m curious to find out how many of you can make the figure switch directions.

Tutorial Tuesday - Distressing With Acrylic Paint

How many of you have more than one or two bottles of paint hanging around? Did you know you can use them for your cards? Not only did I have paint lying around, but I had used vintage cards from my last trip to Pete’s, my junkyard man. The minute I saw them, I knew I wanted to turn them into usable cards, and this tutorial was a great place to start. Distressing with acrylic paints are so fun, and a great way to get that shabby chic look with ease.

Supplies:

Collage material (ie. old greeting cards)
Acrylic paint
Ink pads
Rubber stamps
Paint brush

Swipe ink pads along cardstock in various directions.

With watered down acrylic paint, brush paint over complete background.

Glue collage items on background, and stamp images.

Continue adding collage pieces until satisfied. Once you added all your images, take a stiff, dry brush, and lightly cover areas of your cardstock. When you dip your brush into the paint, pat it on a paper towel to take most of the paint off. This is called “dry brushing.” Dry brushing is a wonderful, and easy, way to distress.

Another option is to just dry brush over patterned paper, and then distress the edges with an ink pad.

When your card is dry you are free to add embellishments.

This example uses a stamped image rather than collage materials.

Check out my Girlfriend’s Etsy Shop

Yahoo, Kim Hutchinson’s Estsy shop is now open for business. Today she has a lovely collage piece for sale and you can see it here. Kim, I wish you all the success in the world girlfriend. Congratulations.

Christmas Countdown

Wowzers! Did you see that Christmas tree count down on the right side bar? Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, please put a elf in a Christmas hat. Not right? Well, I need an elf right now to help me through the last few weeks of preparation. Okay, I know. Christmas comes on December 25th every single year. What I can’t understand is why I leave the most important items for the last minute. Perhaps I work better under pressure. Are you the same way? Is there anyone out there that prepares earlier than me? I am proud to say I had all my Christmas cards made by May. Why? I was busy preparing cards for my sisters and mom, as one of their birthday presents. The cards in the photo are just one style I did for my mom. Or, I think I did. Come to think of it, I don’t think I was pleased with them, and made a whole batch of better cards. Yah, there I go again. It’s got to be better cards. Better presents. Better cookies. Better looking (well, I haven’t lost the weight this year so there is no “better” in that department). That said, I better get working on a better tutorial for tomorrow….