Taking It Day by Day!

Hello all and welcome to the very first Inspire Me Monday of 2015!! Now that we have a new year, we need a way to keep track of those days, don't we? I have to admit, I am a bit old fashioned and I love having a calendar on my work desk to have at a glance. So, I decided I would pair a digital calendar file with some of Power Poppy's GORGEOUS digital stamps and create my own custom calendar for 2015!

Here’s a peek......

Can you imagine the fun I will have coloring up all those beauties? Too much! Do you want to create your own digi-calendar? Well, you can find this DARLING calendar download HERE, over at Mye De Leon. And from there, just use your favorite Power Poppy Digital Stamps to deck it out! Not sure how to do that? Never fear, I'll give you a step by step!

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN DIGITAL CALENDAR!

I started by downloading the calendar file. It is a .zip file, so you need to download, extract files and then open them one by one in a photo editing software program. I used Photoshop Elements to create a base for my calendar.

I have to add that this calendar has a fun diagonal stripe border on the edge. While I liked it, I didn't want the design to get in the way of those beautiful blossoms! So, I cropped my calendar to do away with that border. I created a "new" file and made my canvas 4.5" wide by 5.5" tall. And after dragging and dropping my calendar on top, this is what it looked like below! I wanted my calendar off to the side so that I could add in some of Power Poppy's fabulous digital flowers to deck out the side of each calendar month!

 From there, I opened up my Winter Pick Me Up image and knew I needed to do some work!

In order for me to overlay this image onto my calendar, I needed to erase the background. So, I used this fun little icon that sits off to the left side of my screen called the Magic Background Eraser.

Using this tool, I just clicked on the background and... voila! My opaque background is gone! See?

Afterward, I dragged and dropped my digital stamp to my calendar canvas and size it "just so!"

Now, before I show you this finished page, I want to share a fun tidbit that you may or may not know about when using Photoshop Elements. What if you want to change the orientation of your image or, in other words, flip it? You can!

All you need to do on Photoshop is click Image, then Rotate in the drop down menu and then, Flip Horizontal. What will this do? Well, this.....

It's not as noticeable with this image but, changing the orientation put the snowdrop floral on the top left side instead of the right. this could be important if you want to layer flowers and not have it appear that you just stacked them on top of each other on the side. In this image below, you can see that I switched the orientation of the digital stamp Camellias to make it appear like I have one unified image of flowing florals!

And so, without further ado, a peek at my creation for January!

To color up my image, I did use Tim Holtz Distress Markers and picked up these colors: Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Antique Linen, and Pumice Stone. I did a mix of techniques with these markers, coloring directly onto the image and then softening the color by scribbling on an acrylic block and picking up the color with a blender pen.

Moving on.... I did find this fun little easel at Hobby Lobby, which I thought was perfect to hold on to  my monthly calendars! And, because I believe there are very few cards that DON'T need a little extra sparkle, you can see I added some razzle dazzle to the pussy willows thanks to some glitter glue! See?

So, knowing this will have a home on my desk, I will have so much fun coloring up each month as I move through 2015! I will remind myself to share my new calendar each month over on my blog HERE!

If you want to make your own custom calendar, just follow the link above to the downloadable calendar and, of course, accessorize with some of those beautiful Power Poppy Digital Stamps! The good news is, I happen to know Marcella is making more (new digital varieties will be coming soon!) So, you can truly make this as you go with new images all along the way! What fun!

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for this edition of Inspire Me Monday!

~Julie