Use the Stash #1: A Simple Calendar

From time to time, I'd like to share how I'm using the supplies I've stockpiled so far. As scrapbookers, we do tend to do a lot of "collecting," sometimes more than we do our actual creating. My goal is to seriously shrink down my stash and use the supplies I've purchased with hard-earned money.

Now that I know how to digi-scrap, I'd like to use those skills and the paper and supplies I have on hand to create more hybrid projects.

Here is one such project:



This past year in school, Izzy, my kindergartner would bring home a calendar she made in class. At the start of each new month, she would show me her simple creation, made on a big piece of construction paper that was adorned with her artwork. She was always excited to show us what she did on each of them, and expressed more interest in learning the days of the week. I was pleasantly surprised to watch her learn how to correctly identify the current date. All we did was put her calendar up on her bedroom wall, and she took it from there.

When school got out a few weeks ago, she asked if she could make a calendar during the short time she had off. I knew somewhere in my digital stash, I had a calendar grid, so I went digging and found the one shown above. It was part of the goodies I got when I bought Jessica Sprague's Computer Tricks 3.

I kept the whole thing pretty straightforward. I saved a copy of the grid and deleted the extra layers I didn't need, printed it in Photoshop Elements, and let Izzy fill in the numbers on each day. She then colored her own picture for the top portion of the calendar, and she glued the picture to one piece of construction paper and the grid to another. We taped the two pieces together, and we were done. Using the construction paper also helped us get into a stash of art supplies I have for the kids to use, which has also gone untouched for quite awhile.

This isn't a groundbreaking idea or anything, but I forget sometimes that I don't have to use my scrapping supplies just for pages or cards. I thought it turned out very cute! And, if it helps my daughter learn a little along the way, then that's great,too.

Thanks for stopping by...:)