Perpetual Calendar

It's almost 2010 and a great time to make calendars for gifts or for your own use. Pictured is a perpetual calendar I made for a recent gift exchange. Once you decide what paper you want to use, it's pretty easy to make.

Stampin' Up! Materials:

* Designer Series Paper ("DSP")
* Various Punches (For the sample, I used the 1 1/4" Circle, Small Tag, Curly Label, 1 1/4" Square, and Scallop Square for the date blocks; Scallop Circle, Large Tag, and 1 3/8" Square to mat some of the shapes; Trio Flower and Boho Blossoms for additional embellishments. The Word Window punch was used to create the day labels across the top.)
* My Digital Studio ("MDS")
* Thick Window Sheets
* Adhesives

Other Supplies:

* 12" x 12" scrapbook page frame
* Heavy Duty Adhesive-Backed 5/8" Velcro Circles
* Dry Erase Marker

Instructions:

For the sample, I started with a 12" x 12" sheet of Soft Suede Patterns DSP (I used the grid design to make it easier to line up the shapes into rows and columns). Then I found a bunch of fairly light colored DSP and started punching shapes. I then punched mats for the tags, circles, and squares from Whisper White just to give it a little contrast. All of the shapes for the days are attached with SNAIL Adhesive.

Once the days were laid out, I used MDS to create the day and month labels. (NOTE: You could use any word processing or publishing program to create the labels, but I wanted to use coordinating Stampin' Up! colors which are available in MDS.) I punched the day labels with the Word Window Punch and lined them up at the head of each column. I then inserted the sheet into the frame.

For the month labels, I used Paper Snips to cut around the month and then added one of the shapes punched from DSP under the first letter of each month. I then matted each month with a coordinating piece of cardstock, and added punched flowers to fancy 'em up a bit. On the back of each month label I used Sticky Strip to adhere a 5/8" strip of Thick Window Sheet (you also could use clear packaging cut into strips) to add stability, and then adhered the prickly side of a Velcro circle to the center of the strip.

On the front of the frame, I added the fuzzy side of the Velcro circle to the glass at the top so the month labels could be changed easily. On the back of the frame (see second photo), I added 11 more fuzzy circles to hold the extra months.

Finally, I added the prickly side of two Velcro dots to the Dry Erase Marker (one near the bottom of the marker and one on the lid), and attached the fuzzy side to the side of the frame. The marker is used to write numbers and any other notations directly onto the glass; when the next month comes around, all you need to do is erase the numbers and write in the new ones.

NOTE: The easiest way to adhere the Velcro circles to the frame is to first attach the prickly side to whatever you're going to attach, and then attach the fuzzy side to the prickly side. Then just attach the piece to the frame. This way you will make sure the two sides of the velcro will line up properly.

I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did. Watch for more projects coming soon.

Cathy ;D