I've been making calendars for family and friends for several years. For some odd reason, January comes as a complete surprise and finds me in a state of panic about the calendars. A normal person would plan ahead, and maybe even do something crazy like make pages throughout the year to avoid the last minute frenzy. What fun would that be? So much better to be down to the wire, hoping for twelve brilliant ideas, perfectly executed. What could go wrong?
It's pitiful to admit this, but for the past couple of years I've had the calendars start with February, rather than do what everyone else does and start the year in January. Sneaky, huh ? This gives me another month to get my act together . To be fair, I do end the calendar with January, so everyone gets a twelve month calendar, but a bit off. Honestly, it would be so much easier if Christmas didn't come in December. Maybe I could get the calendars done on time if it weren't for the Christmas frenzy in November and December, just when I should be doing calendar pages.
I have a New Year's Resolutions that doesn't rise to the level of "Please let me be perfect this year", but that will mean I may not need to put on an addition to the house . I'm going to attempt to only shop my stash - no new supplies unless I've run out of something or need something for a specific project. No hoarding stuff , no buying stuff because I saw something new that everyone else thinks is the best thing ever. I do know that this means I'll most likely only be buying ink, ink pads and adhesives. Pretty sure I won't run out of much else. (Fortunately I have an artistic granddaughter who loves new art supplies, so it's not like I won't be buying some fun stuff).
So the calendar pages had to be made with stuff I have . In addition to having too much stuff, I also have this notion that I need to "save" things for some future, yet undetermined, perfect project. No more - now if it works in a current project, it gets used in a current project .
The calendars are out to the printers and I don't want to take away all the surprise, but here is one of my favorite pages:
The image was from an advertisement for a magazine. I love the man's expression as he watches the woman laughing. I've been using some artist papers from some of the Somerset magazines as backgrounds. There's nothing more intimidating than a blank piece of white paper, so the ready made background makes a good place to start. I swiped some gesso over this one to tone down the color a bit. Seems like most of the artist papers are too bright or busy for my taste, but a bit of gesso works magic. Then I added a wide piece of ribbon and a narrower piece of vintage linen tape. A big Seven Gypsy's tag and a tea tag pick up the red and green in the wide ribbon. I've started edging pieces with some color to frame the piece - this one with a red Gelato crayon.
Now, if I had any sense, I'd be starting on next year's calendars.
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