More is More

WooHoo!  The time has finally come when we can share sneak peeks of the upcoming Stamp a Sweet Impression release.  Friday January 2nd will mark the most extensive release in SASI history so strap on your seatbelts!  My sneek peek project for today is from A Year of Sweets 2 (yes that means there’s more than 1 of these sets!) and it’s a page from the brand new perpetual calendar that will also be available at Taylored Expressions.  I’m especially excited about the perpetual calendar because I helped to design it.  *bouncin’ in my chair*

There is a blank panel that can be decorated for each individual month on the calendar and that panel folds down to reveal a new one as the month changes.  The thing that had always bothered me about other blank perpetual calendars I have seen was that it tends to be difficult to design for a long skinny panel.  I wondered for a long time why someone didn’t make one with a smaller, easier to decorate panel on top…and now here it is!!  Can I get a *WOO HOO*?

The scenes in the A Year of Sweets series are designed to fit nicely on this calendar as well being the perfect size for cardmaking.  You could easily stamp the scene image directly onto the calendar panel, but I chose to do just a little bit of layering this time.  There is a hole already punched in the top of each panel and you could simply hang the calendar on a nail through that hole, but I  added a flower eyelet (retired SU) as well as some ribbon so the calendar could hang from a knob.  That’s my stamp room wall in the backround.  I apologize for the picture quality as our Canon Rebel is on the fritz and I’m using our point and shoot which I’m not as familiar with.

Perpetual calendars make great gifts any time of year since everyone has birthdays, anniversaries and other important family rememberances to keep track of.  You’re going to want to pick up several of these when they become available on Friday.

When I started this project I thought about what I could do that might be fun and different.  I’ve been using Copics so much lately, that I thought maybe I should try watercolor instead…and then it hit me…why not drag out my Twinkling H2O’s that I haven’t used in ages?  I love Twinkling H2O’s and I just wish you could really see the shimmer – there’s just no way to capture it in a photo.  If you’ve never used them, they are little cakes of super shimmery/twinkly watercolors.  You simply take off the lids and place the little pots onto a tray or sheet of wax paper and mist them with water.  Wait a couple of minutes to let them soften up and then paint with them using a watercolor brush.  You can also mix colors on a palette or a CD.

I stamped the image on Taylor’s brand new awesome Choice cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with the Twinking H2O’s.  I stamped the image a 2nd time and colored just the flowers and butterfly and punched them out with circle punches to be added to the bottom portion of the calendar.  I also painted with Twinkling H2O Cherry Sorbet around the entire outside edge of the bottom portion of the calendar using Eclipse masking tape for a clean line.  The cuppie was also masked with Eclipse so I could sponge the sky with my SU cloud template and Bashful Blue ink.  Then I also sponged on a bit of TH2O’s.

Here’s a close up of the scene.

Here are the layering measurments for your reference in case you want to decorate one of these calendars in a simlar fashion –

Image layer – 3-1/4 x 2-5/8

Black layer – 3-3/8 x 2-3/4

Pink Layer – 3-5/8 x 3-1/2

Project Recipe:

Stamps – A Year of Sweets 2 (just one stamp is used here)

Cardstock – TE Choice White, Basic Black, Pink Prism from Christmas Key Ingredients

Ink – Memento Tuxedo Black and SU Bashful Blue

Other – yellow flower eyelet (SU retired), dark pink Kaiser Craft rhinestone flowers, SU cloud template (retired), circle punches, teal ribbon.

Twinking H2O colors – mystic blue, sky blue, key lime, moss, yellow rose, orange peel, ruby red, pink azalea, jasmine, cherry sorbet.

I can hardly wait to see the Sneak Peeks from the rest of the Bakers Dozen! Let’s hop over to Taylor’s blog to see what she has today and from there we can visit the rest of the BD team as well!  I’ll be back tomorrow morning with another sneak peek so be sure to come back!  And then the big release is January 2nd at midnight (which is Thursday at 9:00pm for those of us on the West Coast).  So put us in your schedule now so you don’t miss a thing!