2012 CD Calendar

I am sorry that I have been neglecting my awesome friends here! Besides getting busy with the holidays like most people, I have been trying to play catch up after internet problems - I just got my second round of credits, this time a  month's worth of credit from Suddenlink for service outtages covering most of September and almost to the end of October. I have to say that I appreciated the bill credits, and the super customer service they had. The first tech could have found the problem if he had really put the effort in, but it was a dreary rainy day and he had been working outside in it for hours and I don't think it would have been safe for him to even try to get to the connector on the main line up the power pole with the bank being muddy and slippery, so I understand his unwillingness. Now I am doing my best to get back into mode with challenges, digital and paper, or even hybrid. I'm going to try making a Christmas card a day (wish me luck) and a couple digital challenges a week.

What better way to get in mode than a CD size calendar? Compact enough for any room of the house, and easy to modify with color and photos once I get the layout set up. And, I'm not the kind of person easily satisfied with simplicity, so while I used a template for a challenge, I modified it and also learned how to use masks WOOHOO! I finally got brave enough to step out of the box LOL.  Here is the calendar cover and credits for digital art follows it.

I thought about adding text but if I consider using this cover for multiple calendars to give to family and friends then I need to think of what would be multi-purpose and still personal. The awesome mask is by HollyAnn which you can find at GoDigitalScrapbooking as a set of two masks and currently is half price, but even full price is only $1.50 and they are worth it. I also stumbled upon some great tutorials for GIMP users. I needed to know how to use the mask, and voila! http://pascalea.com/blog/alphas-and-clipping-masks-gimp-tutorial-freebie/ She is also a fabulous designer and there is a free mask and word for beach photos with the tutorial.

For the year I used Autumn Blush Alpha by Marcie at Digital Design Den where I am a member and also got the Think Fall Kit as a daily download, both were free, and the alpha still currently is. DDD is a fantastic digital community to be a member of. 

The challenge was on Scrapping with Liz blog for the November blog template challenge. The template for the calendar covers were provided, but it was a new visit for me so I missed the page templates. I will be making my own pages for the months and a challenge of its own.


The photo of us is actually a still (screenshot) of a video we took on a vacation to Pipestem Resort here in WV. We were a little late for colors there as a very windy couple of rainy days took most of the leaves off the trees on the mountains but there were still plenty of colors to be seen in the lower valleys. I love living in the mountains and being north enough to have beautiful seasons!

Well, that about sums it up. I hope some of this was useful to you and you enjoyed visiting. I'd love to know if you followed any links and made use of the freebies I shared.

Many Blessings, Deborah/JoyfullyOrange