Dinner Time Calendars

Last night, I attended a little ladies night out with the girls, to celebrate for a dear friend who is expecting her third child. The hostess had a fun idea to put together a little calendar - and we could all sign up for a night to bring dinner to the family.

And of course, my MFT templates were just perfect for the job! Since the the gender of the new baby is a surprise... I thought it would be fun to have one Pink calendar, and one Blue calendar.

I printed the large sized template onto white cardstock and then trimmed off just outside the borders. Since I happen to have sort of a ridiculous stash of patterned papers it wasn't hard to pull a few

pieces that were just right for the project.

Since I didn't need the "notes" section for this project, I used that little section for an added swatch of patterned paper, and I created a flower bloom with a paper punch, a twine threaded

button, and a paper curlie-que and some punched leaves. In my little closeup shot, you can see that I stitched all the edges, and then gave a dabber with my vintage distress inks to soften all the edges.

For both calendars, I stamped the name of the month with the "Make the Date" stamp set, and then I stamped out the word "Dinner" with

the "Alpha Dot" stamp set.

Its a great set for custom, quick sentiments. I punched the letters themselves out with a 3/4" punch, and then added a matting with a 1" punch. Easy peasy!

For the March calendar, I used a little baby boy theme with the October Afternoon "Ducks in a Row" paper. Again, who knows what the baby will be... I can't wait to find out!

I kept the layout the same to streamline my production. The Alpha Dots were stamped in Soft Sky ink. Instead of my little flower treatment, I used a set of chipboard alphas to spell out baby.

After I finished the calendars, I backed them each with a piece of chipboard (You know you'll often find a lightweight piece inside your 12x12 patterned paper packs.) Then I added a large piece of magnet to each calendar so that my friend can hang them on her fridge and know who's delivering the goods for the first month with the new baby.

I think that these dinner calendars would also be amazing for anyone who likes to plan out the family menu in advance for shopping or dieting purposes!

So, now that I've got the calendars finished, I've just got to figure out some good casseroles for the THREE women I know who are expecting a new babies during the month of February!! Any ideas??