Workshop Wednesday - Mini calendar holder (with download!)

I loved making this project. I love this mini calendar. I love that is it not digital, but tangible. I love mini anything.

So here are the steps to make your own:

PART A - CREATE THE CALENDAR HOLDER COVER

STEP 1
Scan in your vintage photos and collage to your computer. Save as jpegs.

This is photo is of my maternal grandparents sitting on a blanket with a friend. Granny and Grandpa Kelly are the ones on the left. They look so happy. Grandpa died when I was 11. Granny Kelly was always so happy and enthusiastic about our family. Once she told me if she had been younger she would have liked my Mark. And man, she would have LOVED my kids. I can hear her saying 'Oh Shona, they are so lovely'. I know she would have been proud of me. One day in heaven we are going to have a time catching up!!!
Before she died she bought us the fridge we still have. I was meant to get a new one this Christmas as part of my kitchen re-do, because it is white and my kitchen black. But I just can't get rid of it! I asked for computer speakers instead.

Anyhow, on with the tutorial....


STEP 2

In Photoshop Elements (PSE), or other photo program that can combine photos, open all the images that you want to combine.


STEP 3

I use PSE 8, so here is what I did, it is the same procedure for other versions of PSE: In PSE open a new file. I always set the dimensions pretty big, like 4000x4000, 72dpi so I have room to play. (My regular image files are much larger than scanned images, but I prefer to use the dimensions I always use.)


STEP 4

Drag each file over into the new image. (You may notice, that after I added in my collage file I then rotated the original 180 and picked a portion of it to drag over)


STEP 5

 Line them up side by side, you want to make a long narrow image combo.


STEP 6

Crop the image, flatten all the layers and save as a new jpeg.


STEP 7

Open this image in Word. Re-size the image so that it is and print onto heavy cardstock. My calendar holder image was 7 1/4 x 3 3/4. Cut this card out and fold in half.


STEP 8

Inside of folder

Add a pocket to the inside of your holder. Add some collage elements to this pocket, and possibly some rubber stamps and a paper clip. This will be where you store your mini calendar.

PART B - CREATE YOUR MINI CALENDAR 

**You can download my Mini Calendar and skip to Step 7!**

STEP 1
I am sure there is an easier way of making a calendar, but I am most familiar with Microsoft Word, so that is what these steps cover:
Open a new blank document.

STEP 2
Insert a Text box.

STEP 3
In the text box create a table. Format it to 7 columns and 8 rows.

STEP 4
Open a copy of the 2011 calendar and type in January's dates on the appropriate days. Choose a font you like. I used Kingthings Trypewriter (not a typo) from Dafont.com. I love this font and it is free!


STEP 5

This is the scan of a rubber stamp that I carved from a photo I took!

Add an image you may like.


STEP 6

Download a PDF of this calendar here!

 Copy and paste January and adjust to create February and so on.


STEP 7

Print this onto cardstock. Trim.


STEP 8 (finally)

Insert the mini calendars into your pocket, minus the one you are using - one of the months will clip onto the front of the pocket inside the folder!

It took me a long time to create this calendar, so to save you that time, why not use my mini calendar?

Download my Mini Calendar!

It's a free PDF for you to use for your personal projects.  

I added a paper circle around my people after I printed the folder.

back view of my Mini Calendar Folder

 

Memory

I am becoming
gentle dust
thrown
ancient
changing forms
over and over
until I no longer
recognize even me
my face shallow
in the dark light
the wind down
then up
the decade of
gentle decline
coming fast
and I still
can’t read the writing

by Shona Cole

Before and After Children - a visual description

 He is my world's eclipse.

The world before children

The world with children

****************

And one more reason I homeschool my children - read this short poem by W.D. Ehrhart 'Sins of the father'.

Sigh. My heart breaks.

All my love

The beginning of a story

Once it began, it began for good

an irrevocable story

of friendships, of a marriage that lasted

and lasts still to this day

peering from the eyes of my children.

There has been an excuse made!

an attempt at an excuse,

to not move continually onward and upward,

to not apply myself, happily

within my wealth

but today I feel the cost of their decades

lived as well as could be

the sensation is open to interpretation

but the white wall around the family home

in my memory shoos me on and on

I lift my head high

their tombstone is black and faces the sky

and now that frozen moment of youth,

the beginnings of Truth,

their smiles, a maternal reminder –

‘live well, child

you have only this one, quick life’. 

By Shona Cole

Art Finds Friday - December 3, 2010

1) PHOTOGRAPHY

Shannon sent me a link to this lovely article on the JPG magazine website - it is a photo story by Liberty Kifer called 'What child is this?' I love how this mama loves her little girl and is not shy in sharing it with the photography world, that is often, in my opinion, urban and edgy and unsentimental. You can vote on the story, the more votes she gets the more likely her chance of being published in the magazine.

2) ART FOR KIDS

Here is another thing to vote for - Courtney of Vintage Ginger Peaches, a talented photographer, sent me this link to the Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsi are giving away money to people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact on other people's lives. MaryAnn Kohl, artistic mother, author of kid's craft books and art teacher has an idea to bring art to kids who don't have art programs in schools. It seems like a really good use of the funds. You can vote for her idea over on the Pepsi site. All you have to do is sign in and vote. I signed in with my Facebook account, it took all of 5 seconds to vote!

3) ARTFUL HOME ORGANIZATION

I love this paper organizational idea by Corey Moortgat. Some of you may know her as one of the contributors to my book, The Artistic Mother. I love her artistic scrapbooks, if you scroll down below the organizational tip you can see one she did for her one year old daughter (oh and check out the cute birthday photos). Corey has moved from that blog space to Flickr, so for any of her current art, go there.

4) ART EVERYDAY (December, 2010)

"Tortoise walked step by step until he reached the finish line. To become good at something we must work at it day in, day out, bit by bit.... With even an hour a day, if we are consistent, we can improve our skills and make the art we desire." Shona Cole, The Artistic Mother! I can't believe I am quoting myself!!

5) BLOGGER MEET UP

If you are in the Houston area I hope you will join me for a gathering of local bloggers. Dec 8th at La Madeleine's in Market Street in the Woodlands at 7pm. It will be an informal get together to celebrate what it is we do love about blogging!

So far everyone that is coming is someone I have already met in real life, which is awesome, I love a decent girl's night out, but I really would like to meet at least one new person. So if you live anywhere near Houston please do plan on coming :)

More details here.



and finally today.....

I just love my little boy. Maximus James you are my treasure, my daily joy.

Finding

Part of life that was forgotten
in envelopes, mailed a distance
or boxes wrapped with plastic
taped and quietly waiting

found on an empty day
spent looking for art,
scratching the surface
for some meaning
for these grey clouds to part

and in a final triumph
December's loom weaves
and my family's yesterday
comes bearing forward
to my waiting arms

eager but yet poised

Shona Cole

Workshop Wednesday - Inchie Gift Tags

As part of my December commitment to making art every day I am working with some old photos and documents from my dad's side of the family. I have a few ideas in the works, but out of that effort came something functional - inchie gift tags.

I was so lifted up by the comments left for me on my last post that I feel better about things (thank you folks), and so thought I would go ahead a stick with my blog schedule and share my process of making these quick and simple gift tags.

I have a whole section on working with inchies in my book, The Artistic Mother, starting on p115.

Supplies:
Cardstock - various shades of while, cream and beige
Scanner, printer (printer ink of course)
One inch hole punch
Glue stick
Scissors or paper trimmer
Hole punch
Twine
Personal vintage photos


A) CREATE YOUR OWN BACKGROUNDS (optional)

STEP 1

Gesso the middle of a piece of old book paper. Dry really well with a craft heat tool.


STEP 2 (optional) 

Write a poem on the gesso with ink.


STEP 3. 

Choose some vintage photos and documents to compliment your poem.


STEP 4.

Scan your images in to your computer. Crop and re-size as needed.


STEP 5.

 Lay your images out in Word together.


STEP 6.

Print your images onto cardstock.


B) CREATE YOUR INCHIES

STEP 1. (the only step in this section!)

 Use an inch square punch to punch out 'inchies' from the images you printed. I like to use my own photos and poems so that the art work is really mine. TIP: I turn my hole punch upside down so I can see what I am punching.

NOTE. If you don't want to create your own backgrounds specifically for this project, you can join in at this point and use whatever you have on your craft table to make the inchies:
~ Your kid's art
~ Scrapbook paper
~ Catalogs, newspapers, old books
~ Your own printed photos
~ Pages from your journal
~ Some of your 'failed' paintings
~ Doodles
~ Wrapping paper
~ Old Christmas cards


C) CREATE YOUR GIFT TAGS

STEP 1-4.

1) Cut cardstock to your desired tag size. Mine are aprox 2 1/4 by 4 1/2.
2) Draw slanted lines on the top of this panel. I used a block turned like a diamond to draw my lines (does that make sense?).
3) Trim the card along the lines to create the tag shape.
4) Make a hole with a round hole punch, I can never get my holes dead center!!!

STEP 5-7.

5) Stamp your tag. I used 'Ledger Flourish' by Stampington & Co. and black Staz On ink.
6) Glue on 2 inchies at the base of the tag, over the stamp. I added inchies randomly to each tag, not thinking too much about what 'should' go together.
7) Add twine. I used orange 'Divine Twine' also by Stampington & Co.

Experiment with different colored papers and make a bunch all at once, it should only take an hour and it is a nice way to add a personal arty touch to Christmas gifts.

I will be posting photos of my December create everyday journey tomorrow & everyday after that for the month of December. I will also try to stick to my normal blog schedule, as the mood takes me. So on Friday I will do my regular Art Finds Friday Post.

Here's to a creative December. If I can do it, so can you.

Holidays & thoughts on blogging

I thought I would give you a peek inside my Holiday weekend.

We had 21 folks for Thanksgiving dinner, and 15 over later in the evening for seconds. Mark cooks a really good turkey and I think this year was the best. We order the turkey from a local farm each year in the summer, they grow and prepare it and we pick it up on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This year's turkey was 28 pounds. Nothing but the carcass remains, which I laid out in the forest to become part of the natural circle of life.

We always do Tex-Mex stuffing, mashed potatoes (this year we did cauliflower mashed potatoes as it seems many of our friends are South Beaching it), my favorite vegetable ~ peas, a huge cheese platter and other decadent appetizers. Everyone else brings multiple dishes and together we make a feast. Thanksgiving ~ good food, company, music and conversation.

For most Thanksgivings we have friends over, but this year Mark's dad and step mom were here from Tulsa. It was the first time that we had actual family here for Thanksgiving dinner! That was nice for the kids to have family here and good for us to catch up on family news. 

As soon as Thanksgiving was over we  turned our attention to Christmas. The women's group at our church is having their Christmas tea in my house, so I needed to go ahead and get the place decorated. So, while I missed out on the whole Black Friday shopping thing (seriously, what kind of name is that?) on Saturday we went ornament shopping at World Market. The kids went to town picking the most lovely (expensive/breakable!) ornaments until I calmly directed them to the cheaper/non-breakable ones. 

It is funny watching myself do this ~ prepare for holidays just like everyone else ~ because I am so not a holiday person. I have never really like tradition or the silliness of shopping and all that. I don't like being artificially told to think about Christ's birth, I prefer to mediate on that in my own time, when it seems organic. But I have children so I do it for them. I do it for the memories we are creating in their minds. I grew up with Christmas carols and hymns and dinner and presents and all that, so I don't want to deny that for my kids (and my husband who LOVES holidays and abundant gift giving!).

Anyhow, after shopping we then came home and decorated the tree in the living room. And Laura decided to decorate herself:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been thinking about blogging a lot lately ~ thinking about it's purpose, my place in it all, my voice, the hugeness of marketing via blogging. I have visited so many successful blogs and love to see how committed folks are to their vision and the process of art and blogging. I know, unfortunately, that I can't compete. I am just not that fired up as I feel I need to be to be truly successful. I have made some changes around here and some folks kindly told me that my blog looks more professional now. But 1) my traffic has not increased for the effort and 2) my very closest friend told me that my blog no longer sounds like 'Shona'. So what is the point of it? For the discipline of coming up with ideas? To market my book? To please others & get kudos? To record my life? To cast a vision of the Artistic Mother? To be really me?

If I want to do posts that are interesting to others then I feel that I need to come up with something new. I don't like to do things that everyone else is doing. I am a starter and when I find that what I am doing is being done over and over I loose my motivation and want to go on to something new, this has always been an issue for me. Also to create good posts I think that they need to be interesting! And you know, a lot of my life is just not that interesting/exciting/artful.

So to come up with new/interesting ideas for blog posts it takes time and effort. And with a young toddler, who has taken to opening and emptying every kitchen cupboard, that is just plain hard to do. I am pretty good at ordering my day so I can see exactly what I am spending my time on. And I have been wondering ~ is this really how I want to spend my limited free time? What about my art and writing? I know that every minute I am blogging I am not spending time creating. And when I am not creating then, as my husband pointed out, I get in a funk. I need to have a project. I need to have something new going on, something to create.

So this December I am going to challenge myself to make a piece of art everyday. It is going to be some combo of photography, poetry and mixed media collage (my big three). I will post my findings here, everyday for the month of December and then see how I am doing. But I won't be doing a whole lot of talking here. I will be posting without words. Focusing on the art and not the blogging.

I hope to have more blogging focused discussions with fellow bloggers on Dec 8 at La Madeleine's in The Woodlands, Texas at 7pm. There is a good group coming. It is going to be fun to be around people who like to talk about a topic that is interesting to all of us. If you live anywhere near Houston, you are invited to come. Let me know if I can expect you.

Art Finds Friday - November 19, 2010

1) BOOKS

Last night I left the comfort of my home, my kids in care of daddy and went to Houston to a book signing  - Chris Guillebeau's book 'The Art of Non-Conformity'. I have been enjoying his blog for a while, he talks about leading a life that is outside the norm, doing what makes us really happy all in the context of service to others. I think that as a homeschooler it is inevitable that I would be a part of his audience. I like to listen to what he says and then apply it to my life as an artistic mother. Chris spoke for a while last night and then opened it up for Q&A, which was good, but to be honest I would have preferred to hear more from Chris, he has some interesting thoughts and ideas.

It was fun being there. I got to meet Chris, have my book signed and I met a few other bloggers. It was fun to be around folks who talk the same blog speak and know about things like Seth Godin and NaNoWriMo, stats and traffic and all that. I briefly spoke to author and blogger Karen Walrond, who was the host of the meeting.

I enjoyed watching this video Crystal Street put together of one of his meetings in North Carolina, it made me not so nervous about attending the one in Houston.


The Unconventional Book Tour stops in Durham, NC. from crystal street on Vimeo.

Videos are a powerful medium. I am in the process of creating one to talk about my book. It is a lot harder than I thought. I have given myself a Christmas deadline.


2) INTERVIEW

Please visit me at Stephanie Levy's blog. She interview me about being an artistic mother and has posted it on her blog yesterday. I am sure she would love to hear from you. If I remember correctly I actually got the interview because I left a comment on her blog one time I had wandered over, so you never know what can come of saying hello!

 
3) FOLLOWER LOVE and POETRY

I about fell over when I saw a man's name in my 'follower' list! Joel of Wildberries signed up and I am so glad he did. He has a downloadable journal fantasy, poetry and art called 'Wildberries Journal of Mythic Fantasy'. You may not be as into poetry as I am, but the art on p6s 6 and 17 by Christina Cairns is worth a look.

I am just over 800 followers now! Thank you, where did you all come from? It amazes me when I step back and think about it. I appreciate you visiting and letting me know you hear me. Nothing better than that for the writer soul in me. 


4) MUSIC

The man can sing. When you first listen to Jack L, you have no idea the amazing voice that is to come. I got to see him in concert in a pub in Ireland the summer before last, he was an amazing performer.

Here he is singing 'Rooftops' live with Dublin behind him:



And here is another lovely Irish singer, Lisa Hannigan. She used to be with Damien Rice, but has since become a singer in her own right.





5) ON MY TO DO LIST

1) Hang out with this cool, happy baby & his siblings.

2) I am going to focus on writing poetry for the remainder of this month. I will write everyday. This is my accountability. This, me announcing it. Here. Even on Thanksgiving day. Especially on Thanksgiving day!

3) Take next week off from blogging for Thanksgiving. So see you 11/29.

Please leave me a comment to tell me how I am doing with my new blog schedule, I am, again, rethinking it! My blog is like a tinker toy I just can't leave alone. I am seeking a balance between speaking in my own voice/way/content and giving my readers what they want. It is not an exact science!