Tag Archives: Perpetual Birthday Calendar

Perpetual Birthday Calendar Improved!

I bought a Perpetual Birthday Calendar and started working on it last year but what with my Spanish trips and then starting my new job I didn’t quite finish it. A couple of weeks ago, I offered a class to make the project and hilariously two of the attendees had last minute birthday related surprises that meant that they couldn’t make it. We rescheduled to a Sunday afternoon and spent a happy time playing with the kit. I had already done 9 of the months but although everyone followed my January sheet, by February they were choosing other coloured hearts (included in the kit) and by March they were off doing completely their own thing. It was really fun. Encouraged by the group, I started making a few additions to my previously “completed” months as well as finishing the missing three months which I’ve posted recently. And yes, as per our “rule” of whether it was a good stamping time, we ended up with glitter on our faces.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar project kit

I was going to say that there were quite a few additions to these half dozen months, but on reflection I find that all but three of the nine that I’d already completed had something added! I posted about December recently so nothing has changed there, but for November, I added the N which I first dabbed onto the mossy meadow ink pad. I then put the sticker over the banner and used the clear Wink of Stella to give it some glimmer and shine. I felt that August was a little plain so I added the clear Wink of Stella to the blackberry bliss butterfly and then a few of the sequins that came in the kit. Yes. I used sequins!

I jazzed up July a little by adding some of the stars that I cut out of silver glimmer paper with the confetti stars punch – it was easy since they’d already been cut out for December. April is one of the months that was left unchanged. For March, after seeing what James did, sequins had to be added to my March page.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar project kit

I blogged about September and October recently since they were two of the unfinished pages. June and January haven’t been altered from their original state but who knows what might happen when we get together for the others to complete their calendars!

February had the clear Wink of Stella added to the heart – this new sparkly brush pen was a huge hit at the class, I can see why it’s currently on back order. May has had significant change – it felt as if there has been something missing on this page for a long time but I couldn’t decide what to add. I tried all sorts of shapes and even ribbon but nothing worked. In fact I only realised what I wanted this morning and finished it just before taking the photos. I cased my own idea with the double layer of flower cut out using the Botanical Builder Framelits dies where the bottom is melon mambo and then using the It’s My Party enamel dots as the centre of the flower. It’s extremely fortuitous that I used melon mambo on May because the enamel dots only come in three colours – mint macaron, crushed curry and melon mambo.

So there’s my new and improved Perpetual Birthday Calendar. I hope it inspires you to order the project kit and stamp set and gather a few friends and make your own calendars. The kit and stamp set together are only $40 (and of course you only need one stamp set between you) which puts you very close to a Sale-a-bration freebie. And very close to a whole load of fun!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Perpetual Birthday Calendar – December

Here’s the final month in my perpetual birthday calendar. For this one, I wanted to emphasize snow – and the snow flurry punch and some silver glimmer paper helped me do that.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar

I started by stamping December in night of navy and then added the December images from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamp set in night of navy and marina mist. I cut out a number of snowflakes using the snow flurry punch and decided that the larger one looked best – I used fast fuse to firmly adhere the heavy silver glimmer paper. It still needed a little more sparkle so I grabbed the confetti stars punch and punched out little stars. I fixed these on with the multipurpose glue which worked okay after it was really dry. Until that point, it seemed to be easy to knock them off.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar

Most of my class didn’t get this far – other  priorities like making dinner and ferrying children around interfered. I suppose that 5 hours for the total calendar speaks to how much fun we were having – and how many trips to the cookie rack were incorporated into the fun. The up side is that we’ll have another class to finish off soon although the later months aren’t really needed quite yet.

I’ll do a round up with pictures of all the months in one place soon – and will also show the changes that I made to a few of the months during the class.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Perpetual Birthday Calendar – October

As I mentioned yesterday, on Sunday I finished off my Perpetual Birthday Calendar with some friends. The October stamp is differing sizes of circles and I decided to use one of my favourite colour combinations – lost lagoon, pear pizzazz and pool party.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar

I started by stamping the month in lost lagoon and then added the circles first in pear pizzazz, then pool party and finally some lost lagoon. The lost lagoon star out of the kit just didn’t work for me and I hit upon pulling a piece of lost lagoon and white from the now retired Moonlight DSP stack since it was already out to make banners for March for those of the class copying what I’d done last year. I then coloured an O using the Stampin’ Write marker in pear pizzazz – I did this, rather than pat it onto an inkpad so that it wouldn’t get too dark. Once it was dry, I stuck it onto the banner. It needed a little something else so I went over the O with the clear wink of Stella. It adds the perfect finishing touch.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar close up

For $16 (plus postage and tax) it’s a really affordable kit – although you need the stamp set ($24) too if you want to follow the directions. Of course you could use another set if you had one for the months and decorate differently. An afternoon (or two) with friends making these kits is really fun, I recommend it. And if there are just two of you, the two kits plus the stamp set would be enough to get a Sale-a-bration freebie, always a good thing!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Perpetual Birthday Calendar

Yesterday I had a card class in which we played with the Perpetual Birthday Calendar kit – it was originally scheduled for Friday evening but due to a couple of unexpected birthdays, we moved it. The irony of this was not lost on us! As usual, we had a great time, glitter appeared on faces and clothing which has become our measure of a successful crafting time. I had done most of my calendar ahead of time so that I was available to help some of my more novice crafters but I had three months to go. We started with January because it’s the first year, but in retrospect we should’ve started with March since January and February aren’t terribly useful at the moment. But we’ll finish our other months soon (apart from Nicole who finished her entire calendar yesterday afternoon). Here’s my September page.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar

I first stamped the September in rich razzleberry and the leaves (both from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamp set) in pear pizzazz and mossy meadow. I used the two greens to cut out a leaf using the botanical builder framelits dies and glued them down. For the S, I cut out a rough square around the S and then pressed it onto the rich razzleberry ink pad. Once it had dried, I added that on top of my leaves.

We learned a few things during this class. It takes a long time to do the calendar because everyone has their own ideas and takes time to think about each month. Jacquie decided my beach like colours for March were better for August and switched. She also, along with James, wanted raindrop shapes for April – and they found what they could use in the Flower Fair framelets set. There was a lot more glitter and sequins on other people’s calendars than on mine  (although some of my pages had sequins added to them yesterday). The Wink of Stella clear pen was very popular for adding a little sparkle here and there. All in all, our calendars were all different although we used the same colours as each other for each month – the colour choice is the hardest part apparently. And this has set us up for birthday card classes so that we can actually have the cards available to send!

It fits in beautifully with Shannon West’s movement, the one to actually send real cards. Her #Imbringbirthdaysback stamp is back in stock and only $12. Mine arrives in a couple of days and it will be adorning my envelopes from now on.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Acorny Thank You

Firstly I’d like to thank the team at CAS Colours and Sketches for choosing my card last week as one of the winners. It’s definitely an honour to win since CAS is my favourite type of card.

I wasn’t going to get the Acorny Thank You set; it seemed a bit limited and why would I want acorns? But I’ve seen a few samples and decided one late night (a few glasses of wine may have been involved) to get the set and the matching punch. And I love them! They arrived yesterday and seemed perfect for the sketch challenge this week at CAS Colours & Sketches.

Stampin' Up! Acorny Thank You and Perpetual Birthday Calendar

The sketch that inspired this card is:

I looked through the (retired) colour coach for ideas and was happy to find the suggested combination of sahara sand, early espresso and my favourite pear pizzazz. I stamped a couple of images in early espresso on sahara sand and punched them out using my new punch and then made an acorn topper with another stamp and pear pizzazz. This was also punched out and then adhered to the acorn with snail. I then cut a template using one of the circle framelits (actually this was my second go, the first was too small) and used that to stamp the leaves in pear pizzazz from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamp set in a circle. I glued the first acorn on and then popped up the second one using stampin’ dimensionals. I cut a square piece of early espresso an 1/8 inch bigger than the sahara sand to give me a thin mat and then glued that to a pear pizzazz card base.

See you tomorrow,

Liz