December Calendar Tag

It's time for December and my last Calendar Tag. I signed up this year to try them out, but as much as I enjoy getting them in the mail, I have a hard time getting myself to do them, so I won't be signing up next year.
Here's what I created:

I wanted to go with more snowy/winter vs Christmas. The background is just snowflakes and a strip of sweater looking paper, that i trimmed to the wrong dimensions, so I added the blue doily to the top and a strip of washi to the bottom. I had the calendar stuck down but couldn't figure out how to fill the empty space.The sticker of the girl is from another planner sticker book (It's actually from a January sheet), I added the flat back pearls as well. I colored the wooden snowflake with a silver metallic marker and added the gem to the middle.
Here's what I received:

 It's cute, but I feel she didn't follow the rules by having at least one embellishment.
The extras:

This is the last one of these I'm doing. I accidentally signed up two years ago in the middle of the year and only did it this year because I wanted to collect a year's worth, but I feel it was more work than I wanted.

November Calendar Tag

It's time for November's Calendar Tag

I made a shaker tag for this one. I saw where someone had used tulle and wrapped it around a tag, attaching it with hot glue and then attaching another tag on the back to hide the raw edges. I had picked up this fall tulle at the Dollar Store and thought I'd try it out.
I started with strips of paper for the background. I was going to pop the calendar up on foam, but liked the look of it flush on the tag. I added star confetti, some punched leaves, some leaf confetti, some leaf brads (that I removed the brad part from) and some fallish colored sequins. I love how this turned out.
What I received in return:

It took over a week to get to me. But, I love it, it's very cute!

October calendar tag

It's time for the October Calendar Tag. I wanted to do something that wasn't Halloween, cause like I said, I got rid of my Halloween crafting stuff, so I went with pumpkins.

I started with a piece of orange cardstock and added some sunflower pieces along with some pumpkin stickers. I thought the felt pumpkin on the left was too plain, so I added some sequins to it. I didn't like the whiteness of the calendar, so I swiped it with green and brown inkpads. I added some orangey ribbon to the top.
Here's what I received in return:

Obviously my partner went with Halloween, which is fine. It is a huge tag, I realize there's nothing to compare the size to, but I think it was at least 12" tall. Love it
Here are the extras she included:

Lots of good stuff.

September calendar tag

It's that time again, here's what I created for the September calendar tag:

I went with a cloud background. I added the cloud chipboard sticker to the top as well, along with an acetate tree, some chipboard insects and this metal word piece I found in my stash.
Here's what my partner sent me:

 I like the tag, did you see all the butterflies around that quote? The colors just make me think of Christmas.
Extras she included:

August Calendar Tag

I signed up for the August calendar tag in one of my groups. Here's what I came up with:

I used some leftover paper for the background, added the strip of cloud paper. Layered my calendar on more leftover paper. Added flower stickers and flower buttons to the bottom and some summery stickers to the top as well as some bright colored ribbon.
Here's what I got in return:

 I love this theme.
And the extras:

July calendar tag

I had a hard time with this too. I think it's because I wanted to do something that wasn't red, white and blue, but in the end I couldn't think of anything else.

I used a red and white striped paper for the background. I saw the pom pom trim on my desk and had to add that with some bling on top. The stars are toothpicks from another swap. The stickers at the top are from another swap as well. Funny thing is, I bought some 4th of July stickers at JoAnn's to use for this and then didn't. I also wanted to use the blue lace and chose it for the tassel.
Here's what my partner created:

I like how she went with summer instead of red, white and blue. I wish I could have done that. This is one of my favorites this year.

May Calendar Tag

It's time for May's calendar tag:

 I had a hard time making this one, I made it the last day before I had to send it. I used some pink cardstock for the background. I added the May sticker (Hobby Lobby) and the bicycle sticker (Dollar Tree) to the bottom. I had originally had the thin washi and the flower buttons for the bottom, but then I added the lace. I feel I should have taken off the washi, it looks a little sad with the lace underneath.
Here's what my partner sent me:

I love the flowers.

Here's the extras she sent with it:

April Tag

It's time for the monthly tag swap. I was going to go with an Easter theme, but then someone posted theirs that had a flower theme, so I sorta went that direction, sorta not.

I knew I wanted flowers, then I started looking through my stuff and decided I wanted the retro looking lady. I was originally going to put the calendar down by her feet, but it didn't fit with the border. I went with a yellow paper to mount the calendar on to pull out the yellow in the lady's dress. There was this flowery thing that I couldn't cut out of the image without ruining the lady, so I layered a die cut, a chipboard piece and a rosette over it. I love how it turned out.
Here's why my partner sent me:

 The big April calendar actually comes out of the pocket.
She also included some cute card kits for me:

February Calendar Tag

It's Calendar Tag time again, this time it's February:

We're supposed to have a love or Valentine theme.
I covered the background with a heart patterned paper. I layered some pink paper and a heart doily on the top. I found the envelope in my stash, I layered the calendar on some pink paper and tucked it in the envelope. The tiny stamp ephemera I found in my stash. I put some ivory seam binding on the bottom, with some pink felt trim on top and some vintagey Valentiney looking ribbon on top.
Here's what my partner sent me:

 I love the vintagey/shabby chic look of this tag.
Here's the goodies she included:

January Calendar Tag, Part II

I received my January Calendar Tag from my partner on December 26th:

 I love her use of the sparkly glitter paper for the background, and the blue color theme.
Goodies:

 I'm loving the napkins and the silver glittery words.

 A bag of chocolate, washi and flower pieces.

And this beautiful watercolor card that she painted.

January Calendar Tag

It's time for a new year of Calendar tags. I bought a notepad at Dollar Tree, just so I could have a whole year of these. Funny how a fluke of signing up for the wrong swap got me into these.

 My inspiration was some Paris themed washi that I forgot to put on the tag. I had a napkin with the Eiffel tower on it that I thought would look great with it. I used this flower paper from a Paris themed paper pad from Hobby Lobby for the background. I mod podged the Eiffel tower on top of it. I also added some teal ribbon and some heart lace to the bottom. The calendar is on really thin paper, so I layered it on some cardstock and foam tape. I wrote 'It's a new year' and 'Make it exciting' and added some (what look like snowflakes or fireworks) flat white pieces to the sides.
One of the new requirements is to have at least one embellishment, which kinda defeats the purpose of being able to send it with one stamp, and also makes it a bit more challenging for me. I used to do a bit of mixed media, but I think I've always been more of a paper arts person.
I also created a card for my partner:

It's very simple, I just took a journaling card (I don't know the dimensions), affixed it to cardstock to make a card. I attached a flat back jewel to the card, and framed it with rose gold washi (mostly because it was crooked).

November Calendar Tag

I signed up to do another calendar tag in my facebook group. This month, the theme was pumpkins. Here's what I made:

I picked up some pumpkin paper at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago with the plan to use it as the background, but I decided it was too busy, so as I was covering the packaging I was using as backing, I chose this paper.  The giant pumpkin I got at a garage sale. I love the way the circle of the calendar fit so perfectly on the pumpkin. The 'it's a wonderful life' sticker came from Dollar Tree. I made a litter banner of leaf confetti (from a garage sale) and added some pumpkin stickers on top of them. I like the simpleness of it.
Here's what my partner made:

 and some goodies:

I love what she made for me, don't get me wrong, I'm a little disappointed though, because the theme was supposed to be pumpkins. I actually changed what I was going to make because of that.

October tag

I signed up to make an October calendar tag in one of my facebook groups, the theme was Halloween.

I didn't have any Halloween patterned paper in the size I needed, so I used some yellow paper and a cellophane bag with jack-o-lanterns I got in a swap last year. Of course it didn't want to stay glued on, so I framed the tag with some black washi and spiderweb wash. The tree was from a swap as was the tombstone and the 'eat, drink and be scary'. The calendar I printed from online.
Here's what my partner made:

 And some goodies:

August Calendar Tag

I signed up to do a July Calendar Tag in one of my facebook groups, when I printed off the calendar for July, it also had all the other calendars for the rest of the year, so I figured I might as well do those tags as well.
Here's my August one:

When I think about August, I think about vacation and that one last chance to get away before going back to school.
I used some blue cardstock as the background, I added some word paper on top of that with a wave sticker at the bottom. I added some flip flops, swimsuit and ice cream stickers on top of that. The August calendar is on the top. I wrote Vacation time on the side because I didn't have any alphas with enough letters to spell it out.
Here's what my partner sent me:

I'm not sure how I really feel about this one.
 And the goodies:

I like the small notebook. I thought that journaling card at the bottom said read, which got me thinking if there was a reading themed journaling card set, I'd totally buy it.

July Calendar Tag Swap

I signed up for a July Calendar Tag swap on facebook. I accidentally signed up for this swap on one of my groups. We usually sign up by stating what number of swap we want and how many partners we want, I thought the number I picked was for a bookmark.

Since, I did sign up, I went through and made it. We had to make a tag that was no smaller than 4 1/8 by 8 1/2. That's huge for me. I had a hard time figuring it out, but I wanted to do something with Independence Day and red, white and blue. 

Here's what I created:

The background paper looks like a faded old flag, it was from my stash. The dictionary paper is from an old dictionary, I tore out the page that had Independence Day on it. The lady actually has her hand underneath Independence day. The lady is from the Newsworthy paper pad from Hobby Lobby (that page was actually one of the reasons I had to buy it). I added a blue sparkly star button to her and the July calendar to the bottom. The lady is actually attached with foam tape. I like how it turned out.
Here's what I got from my partner:

 And some more goodies:

I love the die cuts and the kids.
I signed up for a patriotic pocket letter, mostly so I could use these kids in it.