2011 Calendar Blog Hop

Happy week between Christmas and New Year 2011 and Welcome to the Calendar Blog Hop!  If you arrived here from Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady, then you are on the right track.  The complete list of participating blogs is below.  Be sure you visit all of them because The Grand Prize Blog Candy is a brand-new Designer’s Calendar Cartridge, donated by Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity!  In order to be eligible to win, you need to leave a comment on each and every stop on the hop, along with a way for her to contact you.  She will choose a winner by random.org on the 31^st and announce it on her blog, as well as contacting the winner personally.

The month I chose is November.  Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart for many personal reasons. It has been a pivotal time in our lives many times.  Someday I plan to write a book called Thanksgiving Through Tears.  I truly am thankful for the life God has given me with all of its ups and downs. My layout page is entitled "gratitude" and will hold a photo of my sons. There's so much gratitude in my heart with the sons God entrusted to my husband and me.  All supplies and stamps used are from Close To My Heart. 

The base page is Vineyard Berry cardstock that I stamped with several leaves from the Flourished Blessings stamp set with Chocolate Ink.  You might not see it well in the photo but it just leaves a nice tone on tone pattern to the cardstock.  The patterned papers are from the beautiful collection Olivia.  I cut the leaves out with the Cricut Designers Calendar cartridge also with the Olivia papers.  I embossed the title box and the quote using  stamps from the "A Little Thanks" stamp set and Versamark ink with gold embossing powder.  I rubbed the edges of the box in Versamark and embossing powder as well then heat set it for the finishing touch.  The 2 gold brads are from CTMH as well.  I roughed up the edges of the mat, sentiment box and the leaves with the edges of scissors after wetting the paper a bit.  Then I scrunched up the mat and leaves and straightened them back out to adhere to the page.  The edges of the page are inked with chocolate.


After making several calendars for gifts using the Designers Calendar cartridge, I learned a great use for the Cricut markers.  It saves so much time to draw the outlines of the grid and the lettering using the markers instead of cutting and gluing.  I used Copic E31 Brick marker to fill in the lettering.  Easy Peasy! You can "print" out several calendar pages in a hurry this way.  I stamped the numbers using the Chocolate Font Stamps in chocolate ink.  The leaves are from two different sets-Flourished Blessings and Timeless.  The words are from Timeless as well.  For the variegated look of the leaves, I stamped first in Terracotta ink and stamped the first inking on a scrap paper, I then rolled the edges of the stamp around the chocolate ink pad.  Love the faded fall leaves this way!  Finally I chose to mark the 2 major holidays (Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day) with leaves and a CTMH Mocha Pearl.  


I really enjoyed this project and think it took me more time to type up the instructions than to actually do it!
Now then, you are in for a huge treat because my extremely talented friend Colleen at www.scrappycol.blogspot.com has also created a delightful November layout and calendar page.  In fact, hers is bound to outshine mine by a mile!  Happy hopping and a blessed New Year!

1. January and April: Celeste at Touched by a Butterfly at   http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/

2.  January and September:  Jessica at  Overjoyed Scrapper  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  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  www.queenbeesmusings.blogspot.com **YOU ARE HERE**
 18. November and December : Col at Col's Creative Corner at www.scrappycol.blogspot.com
19. December: Deb at Tidbit's Place  http://tidbitsplace.blogspot.com