calendar art

Hi friends.  My friend, Lydia, recently started an on-going art project called calendar art, where each day you do a little art on the date for that day.  To say the least, I was intrigued. 

Being on a limited budget, I decided to see if I had anything I could work with that didn't require a purchase.  I found this old desk calendar from 2010 (yes, I know the date on the front is 2009, but that's because it has November and December included.

The first thing I needed to do was a test to see if this would work, since it was likely to get wet (gesso, watercolor, etc.).  I was also concerned whether or not the big xpedx would show through.  So I used some post-it notes to block off a square with one of the letters in it, slipped some plastic underneath the page and painted the square with gesso. 

Once the gesso was dry, I stamped some images from an SU set, fast & fabulous, added a couple of leaves on the big flower, and then colored with inktense pencils and a water brush.

When it had dried, I was pleased to note that the paper is still pretty flat, so I think this will be the calendar I work on.  I'm not concerned that the days won't match the current year.

I trimmed the calendar down a bit by removing the months along the bottom, the notes area on the right, and a bit of the top.  I plan to use comb binding to hold it all together, but I want to make some sort of front cover first.  I'm still working on that. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.