Saturday, January 12, 2013

JANUARY CALENDAR 2013 PAGE

OK...Now I am ready to start the pages for the months of the calendar.  
Where do I begin?  I love the look of all the snow scenes that everyone is 
doing but that really doesn't fit since I live in FLORIDA!!!
 So I think that I will start with the color....I am still thinking snow
 so I will make it blue with a splash of green.  
That seems like a good mix of the two!  
Blue for snow and green for the lush tropical Florida.


I was somewhat afraid to use the inky sprays inside my handmade journal because I could just imagine them bleeding through the spine and onto other pages.  That would be a disaster!  Or maybe not...after you journal for a while you become pretty good at fixing your messes! Anyway, what I am worried for?  They make gesso don't they and that is a great coverup for wayward inks.  Anyway the thought of wayward ink stuck in my mind so I decided to play it safe and use the Faber Castell Gelatos!

I usually gesso the pages before I use the Gelatos because they sometimes grab the paper and are difficult to smooth out.  But being in a hurry...I am already three days late to this party and need to get my pages finished...I jump right in without first priming my page.   See the scribble on the page below?  That's where the crayon grabbed the paper but not to worry...It will be covered by the squares for the days of the month.



I wanted a contrasting border around the page to write my New Years Resolutions but since I had a foldout page that would be seen when you opened to the February calendar, the color needed to coordinate with February's page.  In addition, I envisioned a bouquet of heart shaped flowers for February and for the cut-out shape of the fold-out to follow the shape of the heart flowers.  I can see now that I need to give thought to more than one calendar month when there is a foldout involved. The shape and colors for both sides of the fold-out must be planned and coordinated together!

Anyway, I chose purple for the color of the border because it would transition nicely into the reds and purples that I plan for February.

For the calendar's finishing touches, I used Dylusions sprays for the date squares, Derwent Inktense pencils for the border on the fold-out page and various markers to finish off the lettering and journaling in the date squares.


The calendar project is a great way to journal everyday if you work and only have a few minutes in your day to be creative.  Once the page for the month is completed the journal entries can be done in the evening just before you retire for bed or if it works better for you...at the breakfast table the next morning.

Try it!  Your Calendar doesn't need to be anything elaborate.  It can be a store bought journal, an altered book, a school composition book or even an old calendar torn apart and repurposed with your own artistic flair added.  Be creative...use your imagination and make a calendar that works for you...one that will have MEANING in years to come!


Next up...Calendar page for February!!!

Hugs!
Ginny