Hi everyone, today I have part two for you in my Calender Month Series that will continue this entire year! This is a project where I make a fun birthday calender to hang in my new craft room so that I know when my handmade cards need to be ready and also to create a beautiful art piece to hang on the wall. I’m planning to use my most favourite stamps on this calender but we will see how it turns out throughout the year.
So, every month this whole year I will decorate a different page on my birthday calender and share that with you. This month I did February. The calender I have chosen to work on has a different colour scheme on every page and these are the colours I’ll try incorporate further in that month’s page.
If you want to do something like this you can, of course, use any birthday calender you have that you want to alter. Your working space on the calender needs to be big enough for you to make what you want on there!
This month’s page main colours are a deep orange-brown and a dulled yellow, so that are the colour-families I’ll be trying to work with today. Since Valentine’s Day is in the month of February I also wanted to incorporate some hearts in my design. The cute fairy stamp I used is called “Hope”, from the new and gorgeous February 2017 Whimsy Stamps release, which I stamped on Strathmore Bristol Smooth Surface paper with Versafine “Onyx Black” ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder (like I always do when I plan on using my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and my Pentel Waterbrush).
For the orange-brown parts of the fairies’ clothing and wings I used a combination of the following Zig Clean Color markers: Orange and Brown. For the yellow parts I used: Yellow and Ochre. For her skin I used Pale Pink. For the green, mainly background, I used May Green and for the dog and the case I used Mid Gray and Gray Brown.
Since I’m struggling to get the hair-part on these sort of images right, when using these markers, I thought I would try a different approach today.
In the past I always tried to use these markers like I would with coloured pencils, when I’m colouring hair. That was a struggle every time so I tried the following method on this image: I used Beige as my first layer and used this colour and water to decide where my highlights should be. After drying I put on a second layer of Beige in the same way to darken. Then I used “Dark Brown” to define the shadows more. And concluded with another layer of “Beige” to bring back the warmth. I think the results look really nice! This way I wasn’t struggling all the time to not loose my highlights.
First I thought about using my regular Light Blue as my background colour but it somehow felt to cool, so that’s why I chose green as my background colour for this project, that way I created a nice contrast with the colours I already had going and now I have a third colour to work with when I’m designing the rest of the page.
As always I finish the colouring part of the fairy with a thin layer of Stickles on the wings, this time I used “Diamond”. And I added some Glossy Accents on the little thingies in her hair and on the case she is sitting on!
Next it’s time to design the piece that goes on the calender and incorporate the fairy in there. I cut around the fairy with my Big Shot and a circle Crea-Nest-Lies XXL die in the size I wanted. I edged this piece in a matching green ink colour from ColorBox named “Fresh Green” and a little Distress Ink in “Mowed Lawn”. In the beginning the green outline around the fairy looked a little awkward but as I kept working on this project everything came together. So don’t give up if you think something is not working out or maybe you think you should have made a different decision somewhere along the road. And sometimes you just have to put a project away for a couple of hours and look at it with fresh eyes to finish something gorgeous!
Then I went through my patterned paper stash looking for a piece that matched the colours I had going: I found this dusty orangy piece with music notes and flowers that was quite subtle so it wouldn’t draw attention away from the fairy. I cut the patterned paper in the right size to fit the rectangle that was already given on the calender. Fortunately I had just enough patterned paper left to also cut a circle a little larger then the circle with the fairy on it. Then I edged both pieces of patterned paper with VersaMagic “Red Brick” to create a bit more definition.
For an additional green element on my project I looked through my coloured card stock for a matching green piece. I cut this paper by hand to the size I wanted and run it through my Big Shot with one of the WeRMemoryKeepers Next Level embossing folders from the “Dotted” set (featuring hearts). Now, be careful when you do this because these embossing folders are special: you need to use Tab 2 of you Big Shot with 1 ! cutting plate (not 2) and maybe an additional piece of card stock if the impression is not as deep as you would like. If you use these embossing folders like you would usually do then you ruin your Big Shot, so be warned!
After embossing I used the Mowed Lawn ink to go lightly over the raised area’s with a blending foam and also along the edges.
To finish this second page for my calender :
- I used some orangy/coppery ribbon (did I mention that I’m in my ribbon-fase?). I taped the ribbon on the back of the biggest piece of patterned paper after gluing on the green square with liquid glue. Then I foam taped the biggest piece to the calendar with one millimetre thick foam tape. I also glued the die cut circles together with liquid glue en foam taped them to the green square;
- I used a decorative chipboard piece from Scrapiniec (medium size “Doily Lace”) cut in half and glued on with Ranger Medium Matte;
- I used some sequins from my stash in colours that matched my project.
I feel the colour combination I used has a spring vibe to it, and that’s exactly how I always feel in February, I can’t wait for Spring to be here! I love how this beautiful second piece for my calender project turned out in the end.
Because we give so many things we make away it’s fun to also make something for ourselves to decorate our room/crafting space with. Every time I look at this calender I feel inspired to create something beautiful!
I would like to submit this project to the following challenges:
SSS Monday Challenge: “Transport It” (of course her wings are the fairies form of transportation):
http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=8175
The Ribbon Girl February Challenge ”Use any image”:
http://ribbongirls.blogspot.nl/2017/02/ribbon-girl-february-use-any-image.html
SSS Work it Wednesday February 2017: “Color Green”.
http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/blog/work-wednesday-february-2017/
SSS Wednesday Challenge: “Anything Goes”:
http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-anything-goes-36/
Deep Ocean Challenge : “Add Lace” (I’m using a medium size “Doily Lace” from Scrapiniec)
http://deepoceanchallengeblog.blogspot.nl/2017/02/challenge-149-add-lace.html
Colour Craze Challenge : "Week 7":
https://colourcrazychallenge.blogspot.nl/2017/02/week-7-colour-crazy-challenge-all.html
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge: "Challenge 52":
http://lilpatchofcraftyfriends.blogspot.nl/2017/02/challenge-52.html
As you like it Challenge: "What do you make other then Cards (and Why)":
http://asyoulikeitchallenge.blogspot.nl/2017/02/what-do-you-make-other-than-cards-and.html
To conclude this post I will insert a picture of my January post for this Calender Month Series (featuring Whimsy Stamps “Holly”) and you can read more about how I made this page over here:
http://www.makeyourlifecolourful.com/single-post/2017/01/16/Calender-Month-Series---January
#scrapiniecdoilylace #zigcleancolorrealbrushmarker #whimsystampshope #wermemorykeepersdotted #creanestliesXXL
