Ready, get set…Christmas crafts!

OK before you through rotten tomatoes at me it is NOT to early to start getting ready for Christmas. Besides, wouldn’t it be nice to have all of your shopping done by Thanksgiving so you could actually relax and enjoy the Christmas season? That is my goal anyway. In addition to the store-bought gifts I buy I like to make gifts too (no plastic canvas toilet paper cozies either) I’m talking about stuff that people will actually want and use. Check out the easy and pretty calendar I made with the new Homemade Holidays paper pack from Lindsay’s stamp Stuff:

I made 4 of these in the course of an hour assembly line style, the more you make at once the more time you will save. As I was making these I realized that they would make awesome gifts for teachers, coaches and scout leaders as well as the family members I made these for (No one I know in real life reads my blog so I am safe LOL!)

I used 6″x12″ wooden frames meant to hold panoramic photos for my calendars. I bought a ton of these about 10 years ago with grand plans that never happened so this year I am using them up. You can use whatever size frame you want or have. Look around your attic or cellar, a quick coat of paint will make an old frame new! If you don’t have any frames check the dollar store, you can buy small wood frames there, these can be any size you want. If your frame has glass just place it behind the calendar papers so at the end of the year the recipient can use the frame for something else.

Supplies:

Frame, Tear-Off Monthly Calendar (Mine is from SkyBluePink.com), Cardstock, Pattern Paper (I used the Homemade Holidays Paper pack from Lindsay’s Stamp stuff), glue (either hot glue or tacky glue), double-sided tape, embellishments: felt stickers {from the dollar bins at JoAnns}, photo corners, buttons & bakers twine, Optional: Sewing Machine

Gather your supplies, I printed out full sheets of Homemade Holidays paper, to do this just choose the borderless photo setting on your printer, letter size paper and scaling to 100%. Tip: To save money on printing ink try off-brand ink cartridges, I get a set of 6 carts for my HP Photosmart printer (HP02) for $10 through amazon.com and they work just as well as the HP brand ones that are $12 each! Also take your empty ink carts to Staples because you will get $2  for everyone you recycle! It is like free ink!

Since I am using a 6"x12" frame I trimmed my cardstock to 6"x12" and my pattern paper to 5"x11", I used scraps to make the mat for the calendar. Paper punches can dress up corners and edges at no cost if you already have some (although I broke my Fiskars border punch during this project!)

Trim cardstock to fit the inside of your frame. Trim your pattern paper 1″ smaller and adhere it to the center of the cardstock. Use a sewing machine and cream thread to stitch around the edges. Make sure you do not put adhesive near the edge or it will gum up your needle. Adhere your photo over the pattern paper then cut pattern paper to mat your calender and adhere both of them down with double-sided tape. Glue on your embellishments. Place your creation in the frame and you are done! Easy peasy!

Small details really make a big impact: Machine stitching, threading twine through buttons and inking the edges of mats add homespun charm to any project.

This project qualifies for the following challenges:BabyBud (Scallops, buttons, bling), Bee Crafty, OSAAT, Marks Finest Papers, Stamp and Create, TopTipTuesday & Critter Challenge (Christmas), Craft Your Passion, Incy Wincy (anything goes), Craft’s & Me (make a Christmas Gift), Crafty Cardmakers & The Crafty Pad, Stempel Magie (stitching), Creative Card Crew (Punches), gingerloft, SSDS, Humble Pie (buttons), Inspired Crafters & Mami doodles (anything but a card) and Digital Tuesday (use a frame)

Lets take a look at the new Homemade Holidays paper pack from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff:

If you hate to print in color I have created a Bold Black &White paper pack too and I have a new set of clip art with SVG cutting files called Up, Up & Away in the shop this week too!

And now the moment you have been waiting for….the freebie! A fun pack of 9 papers with an 1980s flair!

click the image to download, enjoy! Thanks to Inferlogic for use of the zebra pattern.

Now let’s see what the rest of the LSS design team is up to this week:

Cheryl Gorka DT Coordinator

Shannon Neparko

Margie Visnick

Tracey Allen

Leanne Garner

Tamara Bennett

Cindi Hooks

Micki Harper

Karin Martin

Jennifer Bliss

Rhonda Walker

Diane Bove

Laurel Seabrook

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!