Calendar Day: Feeling Patriotic?

What comes to your mind when you think of the word patriotic?  The flag, right?  That's what I thought when I made my calendar for July, the month we in America celebrate the birth of our nation's freedom from tyranny, our Independence Day.  I feel very grateful to live in America, and my calendar shows it!

I used my own calendar grid I created in Make The Cut a while back.  On the top where the striped paper is, I added the words "Land of the free because of the brave" to it, to make it a little more interesting, and because I firmly believe it.  This country is great because of the people who sacrificed and who still sacrifice everything for our freedom!  This calendar puts that thought in the forefront of my mind.

Everything except for the fonts and the overlay of the Declaration of Independence (which are from Lettering Delights) is from Carina Gardner's Americana collection, that I purchased at the One Buck Wednesday sale at Snap Click Supply Co.  Gotta love that sale!

Are you feeling slightly more patriotic after looking at this calendar?  I know I am! 

Here's what I used:
Make The Cut!*
Photoshop
Americana Collection by Carina Gardner
Pride and Freedom Overlay
LD Abe Lincoln
LD Remington Portable

Hope you have a very patriotic Independence Day!

Make something red, white and blue and Have A Crafty Day!
*I'm an affiliate for Make The Cut! because I LOVE it!

Happy Mother's Day!

You deserve it, Moms!

To all of the mothers out there, have a very Happy Mother's Day!  For all the work you do that goes without much reward, you deserve a day of pampering and rest!  I should know, because I'm a mother to four children, and my husband is a fifth child.  Not only that but we've got our puppy Molly, who is like having an additional toddler who doesn't understand English in the house!

Okay, now that I've got that out of my system, I thought I'd share a card I made for my mother, who, to put it mildly, went through a lot during her child raising years.  She's now fortunate enough to live by herself in a wonderful adult community where she has plenty of friends, but she tells me she doesn't like living alone (want to trade places Mom?).  Unfortunately she lives quite a distance from me making it difficult to see her regularly.  So I sent her this card for Mother's Day and hopefully she'll enjoy it although it's not the same as a visit in person.

You deserve it, Mom!

I didn't embellish this card at all since I had to mail it and I didn't want to worry about damaging the card.  I think the bright paper from the Tangerine stack by DCWV makes up for it.  The card is a step card from the Cards For Moms SVG Kit from SVGCuts.com.  It was fast and easy to put together, and if you have a stack of coordinating papers it doesn't matter which ones you choose, they'll look great together.

A long while back my mom gave me some old photos to scan and save to a disc for her.  Can't say I've finished that project yet, there are a lot of photos to scan, but I thought I'd include some in her card just to give her a blast from the past.  Here's what I did with two photos of her on Mother's Day in 1973:

That was a looong time ago!

Yep, that's my mom having a nice dinner out with, what, wait a minute, all of the kids???  Mom, what were you thinking???   All I can say is I hope I didn't send her a bad memory or anything!

For this 4x6 layout I used several supplies from SnapClick Supply Co. (formerly JessicaSprague.com) by Meredith Fenwick, Carina Gardner, and Samantha Walker.

I hope all of the Moms out there are enjoying their day!

Have a Crafty Mother's Day!

Calendar Day: Finally Spring!

Alas, Spring has sprung!  Today was absolutely beautiful.  I've been enjoying the sunshine with my puppy Molly who still has way more energy than I do!  

Believe it or not I actually had my April calendar finished before today.  Not that I've never done that before, but with my sluggish creativity I'm a bit surprised I pulled it off.  Will the world won't end if I don't get my calendar done?  No.  But it was a challenge I gave myself about 3 years ago to create a calendar every month,  and somehow I've managed to do it for much longer than I thought I ever would!  So, without further ado, here's my April 2014 calendar:

 

I love the Spring colors and those Gerber daisies from the Sproutlets Mega Collection by Carina Gardner.  They really cheer me up and make me excited for the warmer weather.  I purchased this collection during the One Buck Wednesday sale at JessicaSprague.com for a dollar.  If you haven't checked that weekly sale out you really should.  There are some great deals to be had on digital papers and elements.  

By the way, you don't have to be a digital scrapper to use digital papers and elements, but you do need software, a printer, and some good white cardstock to use them for physical paper projects.  For software I use Silhouette Studio DE for print and cut projects, and when I'm doing a digital layout I use Photoshop.  To print I use my Epson Stylus Photo 1400 printer that I've had for several years and I love it.  For my calendars I print on regular smooth white cardstock, but if I'm making a print and cut card or 3D project, I use American Crafts white cardstock.  I love the look of the texture with the printing, especially on a card, and it cuts very well in both my Cougar and Cameo.  I enjoy using digital papers since they're reasonably priced, and they don't take up any space in my craft room.  Give them a try on your next project!

Have you ever challenged yourself to inspire your creativity?  Try it out and see if it gets your creative juices flowing!

Here's what I used for this calendar:
Photoshop
Sproutlets MEGA Collection by Carina Gardner
LD Punch Out (Font)
Precious (Font)

Challenge yourself and Have A Crafty Day!

Calendar Day...And A Tidbit About Clipping Masks In Photoshop

Ready for Spring yet?  I most certainly am.  Too bad we've got to get through February, and perhaps most of March, before hints of Spring start to show.  That good old groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania saw his shadow, which means six more long weeks of winter, ugh.  One holiday that helps ease my winter blues is Valentine's Day, (I think it might have something to do with chocolate) and my calendar for the month is all about it.  Instead of the usual calendar grid, I created rows of hearts for the days and clipped paper to them.  Using clipping masks is one of the most basic things to do in Photoshop, but I think it's tons of fun.  Take any shape you have and make it look the way you want.  This adds value to your cut files because you can convert them into PNG files using Make The Cut! and use them as clipping masks.   Check out how I did this in my calendar below:

Hearts A Plenty!

Underneath "February 2014" is a notebook shape that started out as an SVG file from SVGCuts.com.  I imported it into Make The Cut! and saved it as a PNG file.  This is necessary since Photoshop will not import SVG files.  I imported the PNG file into Photoshop and clipped some notebook paper to it by putting the paper above the shape and pressing CTRL+ALT+G.  Make sure your paper is completely covering the shape, it helps to magnify what you're doing to be sure.  Depending on the size of your shape you may want to scale down your paper.  You can move the paper layer separate from the shape layer to get the look you want.  When you're all set, press CTRL+E to merge the two layers together.  You now have your paper in the shape of the notebook paper, pretty cool.  The heart shapes for the days and the pink mat underneath were already PNG files I'd purchased.  The cool thing about those is if I decide I want to cut them, I can convert them into SVG files using Make The Cut! as well.  Now that's thrifty in my book, but then again, I most definitely am not the queen of thriftiness (just ask my husband).  So what do you think?  Have you tried this already?  If not, give it a go and have some fun!  Let me know how you do!

Here's what I used to make my calendar:
Make The Cut! software*
Photoshop
Love Story Paper Pack 2 by Echo Park (Valentine papers)
Love Story Element Pack 2 by Echo Park (Journal cards)
Be Mine Element Pack 2 by Echo Park (XO Border)
Babysitting Adventures Paper Pack by Lettering Delights (Notebook paper)
LD Charming Bold Font
LD Remington Portable Font
LD Jub Jub Font
Notebook SVG from Miss Baker's Classroom SVG Kit
Carina Gardner Photo Masks MEGA Collection 

Whew, that was a long list!  Keep warm, and Have a Crafty Day!

*I am an affiliate for Make The Cut!  Thanks for your support!