Too hipster? Gelli ® print deer head

It has been SOOOOOO long since I got to do any sort of crafty thing except knitting (which is portable and that is the only reason I can squeeze that in!) so I am super excited to be able to add a fun project.  I love it, even if it was a ton of work to accomplish.  And the one day I sit down to actually craft I get non-stop interaction from my darling Hubby (to be fair, he is trying to sort out my desk phone so I shouldn’t complain) and deliveries that need signing for, and gutter cleaners needing input, etc etc etc.

Anyway, I had noticed these 3D animal head craft kits at Lidl for like £2.  I think there were a few options, but I only got three – the deer, a ram and an elephant.  I think there was maybe a bear and something else.  As soon as I saw them in the flyer last week I mentally noted that I needed to go on Sunday to get them.  Then I promptly forgot.  DOH!  I was in Lidl yesterday to get a few things and I thought I would check the section that has the “last week’s” stuff.  And lo and behold they had a stack of them! Woo hoo.

It’s all punch out, super simple but lots of pieces

See?

Size-wise it is about 13 inches across

Now, given the base is white, I could have streamlined the process a LOT by pulling the prints right onto the pieces, but that seemed dangerous.  If I screwed up a print, I would ruin the whole piece. Instead, I went back to my stash of prints (recently unearthed in my ongoing office sort) and started matching up prints to pieces.  The pieces are numbered on the back so easy to see what will be next to what

I did the base piece using this weird paper – thick and almost foam-y in texture, with a wood print on it – than my DH’s Aunt sent, wrapper around a gift. I’ve been hoarding it.

and I inked the backs, except the big piece that included the antlers.

You can’t see the number at all once the ink is on so I had to be a bit more organized than I usually am.

I also covered the antlers in a similar but darker foam-y paper and that worked much better than the light version would have. AND I backed it with some quite thick black cardstock.  Cutting that was a pain but it made it all much more stable.

I inked the edges or dragged a fat marker around, and…..

ta da!

So hard to get a decent photo that really shows its loveliness!

 

I hung it up on my office door. It needs a name.

 

I think I need to go back and buy them all!!

New page, new toppers and a question about Spanish

I have added a new page to the top menu.  This is where I will add any calendar pages or topper pages for the planner printables.  I also added a couple of new toppers:

B&W floral drawing

Colourful Floral

I am wondering if it makes sense to do the same sort of thing for the Project Life sized cards.  Thing is, I get requests every year for me to redo a past calendar updated for the current year.  I’ll have to think on the best way to do it, but would it prove helpful to have all of the past designs as blanks which then have the current year printed ver them?  I wonder…

And wondering on…

I was trying to figure out how to create one of the iPhoto calendar blocks in Spanish, without having to go in and edit all the words.  Simply by changing the language and region preferences I was able to generate a Spanish language calendar.  Nice – had I thought to change the start date to Monday.  DOH! I think selecting a region selects that sort of thing for you and you have to go in manually and alter it. Here is the sample page – I did change the font for the month name, as I did with the other one.  Is it worth continuing?  

It’s a bit of a plaver to change it but my preference is for planner to begin on a Monday.  Is it yours, English or Spanish??

LMK!

Spanish Sunday to Saturday

Oddly, I had TWO requests for more Spanish calendars.  One was for the non-traditional Sunday to Saturday version.  I had a quick play to see if it would be easy to create.  It wasn’t too bad.  I changed up the colouring for December, but the rest are the same, although the location moves around

Grab it here.  I do realize that the world is split between Spanish speakers you use Monday to Sunday and those who use Sunday to Saturday.  If there is enough interest I will try to do the MtoS version soon.

I also hope to sort out a Planner page so I can keep all the bots for printing custom calendar pages in one place.  And I may try to see if I can print the calendar pages in different languages.  I love a challenge…..

 

Interesting Planner printables

I love playing around with weird ideas that pop into my head.  You know the planner pages I added recently?  I had the idea to expand on them in what I hope will be an interesting way.

I first created, as requested, the full 12 months of the side-by-side lace-strip planner pages.  That looks like this:

BUT what I have added is just the lace strips on each page. If you print that you will get 12 sheets, each with a lace strip at the top edge with NOTES: at the far right. The files has been created so the two “pages” print side-by-side on a single sheet, and no matter what size paper you select, the design will be scaled to fit and print in the middle of the sheet.

That in itself could be useful, I suppose, if you wanted just a nice decorative sheet for your planner with lots of space to write.

I also designed two other files.  One, like the lace file, has 12 sheets, each with a decorative strip across the top.  Like the Lace one, it starts with what I have assigned as JANUARY, and ends with what I have assigned as DECEMBER.  The strips look like this:

but that is not the order they appear.

A third file is a single sheet, meant to be printed 12 times.  That is a watercolour floral and looks like this:

The second element is the calendar pages.  I did three – well, two and a variation.

Big Date

Big Date with the days and Month larger and darker

Modern, with a fancier font

Again, these are 12 sheets on month a page.

Here is how it works.  Figure out how the paper feeds thru your printer.  This is critical.  Print a single sheet, print all 12, of whatever calendar page you want.  Them load a page, or the stack, back into your printer and print the decorative sheet of your choice over the top.  The decorative elements will be centred just like the calendars are.  So you could print January with the lace strips using the fancy font calendar – see the selection to print the page selected in the sidebar?

and the other option to print page 2 only?

And you might be able to fill the page more completely by selecting the BORDERLESS option

 

The point is, you can print any of the calendar pages onto any of the decorative element pages, as you prefer.  You could even just print the calendar pages and add your own decor – stamps, patterned paper, washi tape, even a photo strip.

Now, I would LOVE to be able to perform all these actions to show you they do work, but my stupid printer is out of black ink.  I have a full smaller black ink cart but the fat cart is empty and it won’t print without all the carts having at least some ink in them.  I hate that.  Anyway, give it a go and see what you think.  For me, this is a great way to share LOADS of different options and allow people to customize planner pages by picking a combo they like.  And it means with three calendar options, I can add tons of decor topppers quickly and effortlessly!

Calendar sheets (12 months, each month across 2 planner pages. Designed to be cut in half, and hole punched to lay side-by-side)

2017 Fancy Font calendar

2017 Big Date (light text)

2017 Big Date (darker text)

Decorative sheets (12 months, side-by-side)

Lace Strip

BoHo strips

and finally

Watercolour floral  (one sheet to be printed 12 times, one per month)

Hope you have fun with this.

More Freebie Book Folding!

I had a request for some READ templates, which is pretty popular – it’s a nice simple word to fold, and makes a great gift or decoration. Lots of the request mention they are from Librarians or for Libraries.  I thought I would start of with this on, as I update some of the original book folding templates.

Let me explain.  When I started, I would sometimes suggest to people that they might fold both the BLACK LINES and the WHITE SPACE between, in order to get a nice fat full looking word.  But having done it, I know that is hard on the eyes.  I also know it is possible to fold just the black lines and still get a credible design.  But fatter is better in this case, so instead I started s t r e t c h ing the word to create more lines,  When folded the design looks in proportion.

This PDF has all 8 versions.  Just print the page you want.  There is a mix – some scripty, some blocky and a couple that are rather childlike.

You might be able to see some areas where the lines look darker, overlapped or outlined.  This may depend on the quality of your monitor.  If you see it on the screen, don’t worry.  It doesn’t appear when you print.

What you MIGHT see on some words is an area where the lines don’t print fully.  That seems to happen most with text on a slant.  It is easy enough to fix – find the area (see it there between the a and the d in Habano ST font? Very slanted!)

and connect the line with a pen. Low tech solution for sure.

Remember the lines DO NOT tell you how many pages you need for your template, they are to help with the counting. Be sure to go back to my blog post for info on how to calculate the page count.  https://scrappystickyinkymess.wordpress.com/folded-book-templates/ has links to two different posts for how to do this. Be careful to count the alternating folds correctly!

Why I won’t tell you how many pages you need can be found here https://scrappystickyinkymess.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/book-folding-why-i-wont-count-them-out/

Another 2017 CD calendar – very colourful! And with a one-sheet too.

I thought I would do a different version of the CD circle calendar.  Just playing around with inky circles.  I wanted to see how easy it would be to create a one-sheet version at the same time.  Turns out it was pretty easy.

The CD version looks like this:

 

I’ve done both the one sheet…

as well as a version that is gridded so it can be cut to create either small loose squares or assembled into a tear-off.

Download the CD version

Download the One-Sheet

Download the tear-offs

Hope these prove useful for your calendar crafts!

One Sheet calendars for 2017

One thing I made that seemed to be much downloaded was the One-Sheet doily calendar.  I do try to pay attention to the things people find useful, so I have been playing around with a few other One-Sheet versions.  Those in the UK will be forgiven for reading that Juan Sheet LOL!

There is the Lace circles version, the Pixels version and a new one, in the middle. In addition I made the Lace and Pixels versions blank at the top and bottom (so no lace and no pixels,  one with a very plain font and one slightly fancy font) that you can decorate yourself with stamping or art journal techniques, or add patterned paper or photos.  Print on heavy cardstock in high or photo quality, for the best base to decorate onto.

Download the Lace version here, and the fancy font, decorate it yourself version here.

Download the Pixel version here, and the plain font, decorate it yourself version here.

Download the new one (the one in the middle) here.

Hopefully that is enough of a range of styles to suit all!

Keyring Calendars – updated for 2017

NOTE: See the post here for a 4 per page version

I had a request to update my Keyring Calendars – I had to go back and read the post, then look at my “working files” to see how I made them originally.  Not at all how I thought LOL! Took a bit of doing but I hate to disappoint….

 

It always freaks me out when I look at the PDF on the screen, sometimes I see weird artifacts.  This one, the lines under the days of the week are either nearly invisible or super thick and dark.  And yet, when you see them as a .jpg rather than displaying as a .pdf they look fine (see above.)  Probably why I tend to print the file to make sure what people get is what I expect.

Anyway, I went ahead and did the work to bring them up to date for 2017.  The sheet lets you print two full sets.  You can download the PDF here.

I wouldn’t say these where one of my greatest hits, IYKWIM, so I’ll only make other versions if I get requests for them.  But at least one of my followers will be happy…..