Bombshell Tutorial - Perpetual Calendar

Hey my gorgeous Bombshell Ladies!!!  Bombshell Diva Meredith here with you on this glorious Friday to show you how to create a Perpetual Calendar.  It's FANTASTIC for birthdays as well as anniversaries of all kind!  I first and foremost want to thank Nichole Heady from PTI for this idea.  I cannot take credit.  She is the genius behind this masterpiece template. (download this...you'll need it) I simply slightly altered it from it's original form to make it my own.  So many thanks to Nichole!!!

I have made this many times and given it as a great birthday, hostess, housewarming or "no reason" gift!  It has always been well received and used lovingly!

So without further ado...let's get started!!

You will need twelve sheets of really great white (or other light colored) cardstock that can make its way through your printer.  This is to print out your calendar template.  Test the paper first.  You don't want to waste paper!  I intensely dislike when I try to put really high quality through to print and it shreds or gets stuck, major bummer!

You will also need 12 pieces of solid cardstock, 12 pieces (or more) of designer paper, a medium sized single 3-ring and of course, your Bombshell Stamps.  As you'll see in my project, I used a very "mixey matchy" bunch of cardstock.  I've been trying to be VERY good about using my scrap.  I have a lot...no seriously A LOT!  Easily six to eight BOXES of scrap...large storage boxes full.  So I raided one of them and easily found lots of fun paper to use!!

(pictured above are the very basics for this project - stamps, calendar, solid cardstock, 3-ring)

After printing my calendar (see above) and finding my cardstock, I then started by trimming out all of my months.  There is no exact measurement for this.  I trim on the outside of the lines leaving a tiny bit of white showing as a border.  I cut my solid cardstock at 9.5" long and 4.25" wide.  And I cut my designer paper at 9.25" long and 4" wide. 

I then adhered my blank calendar page to my designer paper.

(getting ready to be adhered!)

Now it's off to the sewing machine!!!

 

Stitching is not necessary at all but if you have the ability to do so it adds SUCH a nice, finishing touch.  Ok, time to decorate!!

I've kept my embellishing SUPER simple as I am loving the papers that I chose and I wanted to keep this very clean and simple (CAS).  For the dates that have birthdays and anniversaries attached I've used Bombshell's Banner Sayings set.  Super versatile and awesomely vintage!  I stamped Happy Birthday on Kraft cardstock in Brilliance pearlescent black ink, coated in clear embossing powder and heat set.  I did the same for the Congratulations on green cardstock so I'd know even before really looking if it was a birthday or anniversary that was coming up.  Also, on each month I've used the flower from Bombshell Angel , stamped in black Momento ink, purposefully left uncolored, punched out and embellished with a self-adhesive pearl in the center.  

Time to put it all together!!!  If you have one, grab your Crop-O-Dile Big Bite, if not a regular hole punch will do just fine.  For those of you who do have a Crop-O-Dile Big Bite, depending on your cardstock, you *may* have to punch these in two batches.  I had to punch in two batches as I used SU! and PTI cardstock for my solid and white and when you add in the DP it was simply too thick to cut through all 12 months.  If you are using a regular hole punch, punch through one month and then use that month as the template in order to line up all of your other months so everything will be straight and even!

(lining everything up)

(CHOMP!)

You are now ready to add your single 3-ring!  You could absolutely use other elements such as ribbon, twine, cording, etc as your holder.  I like the 3-ring because you can hang it easily, remove pages easily if necessary, etc.

(so pretty and crisp!)

And yes it's really that easy!!!  I chose not to put ribbons on my 3-ring simply for the fact that it does make it a little more difficult to flip each month over.  But that's simply a personal preference.

I do hope you've enjoyed my Perpetual Calendar Tutorial today!!  Thanks for popping by!!!