A New Year. . . A New Blog

Happy 2011!  I have been thinking about creating a blog for about two months.  In October, I began daily following two blogs:  Diane at capadiadesign.com and Robyn at mypinkstamper.com .  They both really inspired me to begin a blog to post my own creations and designs.  I decided that the new year was the perfect opportunity to start this new project, so here it goes.  I hope that you can find some ideas to "scraplift" or some designs that you can make your own.  I tend to come up with really BIG ideas and then have a heck of a time trying to bring them to fruition, but I usually enjoy the journey of figuring out how to make them come to life.  Because of that, I decided that Dream Big. . . Design Big would be the perfect title for the new blog.


My plan was to kick off my new blog with twelve days of calendar layouts.  I have been working on the calendar ideas and getting very excited about making them my first posts; however, Robyn (mypinkstamper.com) issued a CHALLENGE last night on her website.  She is trying to fill two spots on her 2011 Design Team, so I am going to do my January calendar tonight as my first blog post and then will interrupt my calendar posts when I have finalized my entry in her CHALLENGE.


I will try to include very specific instructions regarding the content on my posted layouts and projects, but if you ever find something confusing or if you need further information please leave a comment for me at the bottom of the post and I will be happy to get back with you as soon as possible.  Enjoy!!!

I have a friend who owns an Everyday Display from Creative Memories (creativememories.com).  This wooden frame with a magnetic center is a great home decor item that can show-off fun family photos, but can also be decorated and changed for each month or each season.  She likes to have a 12 x 12 layout pre-made that she can add pictures to throughout the month.  At the end of the month, she takes it out of the frame, pairs it with a coordinating page and tapes it directly into her album as a double page layout that kicks off that particular month of events in her album.  This is a great organizing tool and a perfect way to fit in some of the highlight photos that might not typically have enough pictures to create a complete layout on their own.  I loved her idea and created our first calendar display for 2010.  The idea worked beautifully and so I created another year of calendars for her to use in 2011.

This is the double page layout that I created for January 2011.  I will work on getting better at taking the pictures.  I couldn't seem to get the lighting just right to show the beautiful paper and the detailed cuts from the Cricut.  I was just really determined to get this posted before midnight, so I'm using these two photos despite their less than perfect exposure.

Recipe for these pages:

Background papers:  the swirl paper from Best Creations Winter Wonderful collection

All Matting, Title, snowflake punches and Cricut cut image:  Bazzill Basics Bling in Sparkle

Cricut cartridges:  "JANUARY" from Gypsy Font, Boy and Snowman from A Child's Year

Snowflake punch:  Creative Memories snowflake pocket punch

Other products:  Creative Memories oval and circle cutting templates, CM personal trimmer, CM 12 inch Rotary Cutter, CM tape runner, CM Precision Glue Pen, CM pop dots

I hope everyone enjoys this idea.  I would love to see your own take on the calendar page projects.  Please feel free to link them to your comments.  Here's to a fantastic start to 2011!