Indian Craft Room's ICRC25

Posting again after a looong break.

I have been busy making stuff, though I have been too distracted to post the pics. Blame it on my baby starting to crawl! Nowadays I seem to spend half my day (and part of the night!) chasing after him!

Anyways, I decided to make an entry for the Indian Craft Room's ICRC25 challenge at the last minute. The challenge was interesting. Make a calender, with a recycled element.

Hmm...

I always like recycling. I believe it cuts down on the crafting costs and also makes you more innovative. You tend to look at everything with an eye for reusing it in some way. I also truly believe that crafting need not be expensive. You can create lovely stuff from the simplest of materials.

I started with an old magazine for a paint company that my husband had passed on to me some time back. It had some amazing graphics and beautiful, glossy pages. I also had an extra date pad after I finished making the calenders for the Swapcraft swap.

So here is what I came up with...

The calender size is 5½ x 4½ inches. The pattern paper is recycled from the magazine. I also used some pale pink handmade paper and a small piece of plain green computer paper.

I invested in a Bigshot die cutting machine around Diwali. Must say I am very happy with my investment. One of the things I have been experimenting is teabag folding, which I have always wanted to do it. And having the Bigshot makes cutting all those small circles so much easier!

I cut out several circles and started fiddling around with the folds. Since most of them had the lovely neon pink on one side and shades of brown and beige on the other, I decided to go with a fold which would show both sides of the paper.

I finally came up with this fold on my own. Atleast, I haven't come across it anywhere else on the net. 

I ran the pink handmade paper through Itsy Bitsy's embossing folder - Leaves. The leaves and stem were hand cut from plain green paper. I used the same paper as the base for the calender.

The pattern paper was cut into a large circle. I glued it to the pink paper and trimmed off the sides and stuck one of the scraps at the bottom. I covered the top part of the date pad with a scrap of the same pattern paper, to cover the stapler pin. The months are perforated at the top and can simply be torn away.

After I finished assembling the calender, I felt it was missing something. So I added stitching lines in neon pink around the pattern paper.

I mounted the whole thing on a piece of thick file card and added a stand to keep the calender upright.

So thats it. My little desk calender is ready! I think it will end up sitting on my husband's desk. Or else I will make another one for him in a different colour combo and gift this to a friend.

Hope you liked this little calender of mine. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Love,
Nan