what to do, what to do...

A couple of things...first off, I visited my local Michael's on 4th St. in Santa Monica. All I can say is...WOW. Yes, it has been a while and no I don't frequent that store although the West Elm right next door is a favorite of mine. The fact is...Michael's is usually a disaster area and I hate shopping in the midst of mess and ineptitude. I will now offer my humblest of apologies for that last statement to the folks at the SM Michael's. I found your store to be delightfully well tended. The floors were clean and remarkably clutter free. The aisles felt wide and airy...the merchandise well stocked. I even overheard a customer asking a salesperson about a certain product and the gentleman responded with a concise and correct answer....with a very pleasing tone I might add. They had so much product I had never seen in there before. Everything seemed to be in its place and I found it to be a truly enlightening and enjoyable excursion. Incidentally...gotta love the fact that they invented a new word "Imaginate" and had the foresight?? to trademark it! I plan on peppering many a conversation with it until I receive a cease and desist letter.

The next thing...I purchased this lovely naked storage drawer thing at Paper Source. It was only eight dollars and at the time I could see its glorious possibility. The dilemma....I got it home and now I haven't a clue what to do with it. Do I paint it and leave it at that? Do I rubberstamp the living heck out of it? Shall I begin to clip random bits of birds and roses to decoupage? What to do? I'm on the hunt for some ideas so this weekend will find me out and about in search of a little inspiration.

And finally...I have a download to the right that alludes to a calendar. I am now updating that template so that it reflects the upcoming year. Who wants a 2007 calendar now? Nobody. Therefore it is now available as a PDF and when printed out looks like the image below. You just cut and pretty it up. This is the perfect little gift whether it be for the holidays or just 'cause.

For those of you that have identified this as a completely unoriginal idea...you would be righto. I learned long ago to never claim anything as my own...unless it really is my own:) A few years ago I saw one in a catalog...can't recall which, then the year after that I purchased a delightful one by Snow and Graham. You can even purchase a blank one from Impress. I started making my own after I saw the first catalog one. They make a very good project for my rubberstamping workshop. That being said...I created a template and am offering it to you for free if you want it. All you need to invest is a little creativity and a CD case. Below you will see a samples of a few I made...and the Snow and Graham one I purchased last year.


The first card was printed on white and I just used snowflake rubberstamps in two different sizes. The one in the middle was just a combo of a rubon by DCWV and a hand cut heart. The third...which happens to be my favorite, is just a little patterned paper and an index print. I thought that it would even be kinda cute to add a small jounaling block or a larger journaling area on the back and when the month is over jot down a few of the highlights...then at the end of the year you have a sweet collection of memories.
Enjoy!