Thursday, December 18, 2008

A Muse / Verve Calendar Gifts


Back in September (I think?), A Muse came out with downloadable 2008-09 calendars. 100% of the sales benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This cause is near and dear to my heart as I lost my sweet cousin, Dale, to leukemia earlier this year.

I knew that I wanted to use these to create calendars for Sabrina's teachers, therapists and para professional aides for Christmas this year. As the parent of a special needs child, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for all who work with Sabrina to learn and grow. This year in particular, she has come a long ways and is now talking (and repeating) up a storm! Sabrina has 3 kindergarten teachers (1 mainstream and 2 resource), 5 aides who rotate working with her and 4 therapists at school. She also has private therapists and caregivers who work with her. A few times each year I try to spend extra time creating a special thank you gift for each of them.

I had a few months to start on my project, but of course, I didn't start until early December. I decided to make 20 calendars. I finished 13 and the rest are waiting to be assembled. The sad thing is that I'm not even sure I will end up being able to keep one for myself! I think they are all spoken for!

Today is Sabrina's last day of school for the year, and I spent the last 2 nights trying to finish them (up until after 1 AM, which is VERY late for me). Last night it came time to punch the holes and I nearly lost it. My Crop-a-dile decided to stop working (agh!), so I had to go to Plan B. I started with the hand punch, but that's 28 holes per calendar (ouch), so I tried our heavy duty 3-hole punch. I couldn't get the holes to line up quite right and messed up several attempts on scrap paper. My wonderful hubby stepped in, calmed me down and figured out a way to put popsicle sticks in the 3-hole punch to line it up correctly and punched the holes one at a time for me as I frantically attempted to finish the individual calendar pages (we later found out at almost midnight that our 3-hole punch is adjustable -- oops!).

Anyway, you didn't come here to listen to me ramble on and on about my project. Suffice it to say that all 12 calendars were delivered this morning and I only need to finish assembling the rest and deliver early next week. The back side of each calendar page can be used to write down important recurring dates (birthdays, anniversaries and such), so when 2009 is over, the calendar isn't useless. It is a perpetual calendar. Each page is embellished simply with a Verve image and/or sentiment.

2009/Perpetual Calendar:

Individual months (click on individual photos to enlarge):








4" x 4" calendar download: A Muse; Cardstock: CTMH, PTI; Patterned paper: all CTMH except Sept. (Daisy D's) and Dec. (Marcella K); Stamps: Verve, CTMH (numbers for year); Ink: Memento, CTMH, PTI; Copic markers; Spellbinders Nestabilities and tags dies; MS border punch; Star Dust stickles; Liquid glass (CTMH); MM flowers; Other: pink pearl brad, rhinestones, ribbon, white gel pen; black pen; loose binder rings, hole punch, foam tape.