Through The Year CTMH SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the November 2017 Stamp Of The Month Blog Hop featuring the stamp set Through the Year. This month there are about 20 bloggers sharing projects they created with the CTMH SOTM. If blog hopping is new to you, we try to keep it easy: just keep clicking on the link to the next blog (typically near the bottom of the post) to visit the next stop. Our blog hop is circular so visiting the next blog will take you back to where you started.

You should have arrived here from ***Michelle Stewart's Creations With Michelle***. If you get lost along the way, Melinda Everitt keeps a list of participants on her blog at If You Bling It.

I did not use my 2017 planner faithfully. I did not transfer all birthdays and anniversaries into it, so those events were often catching up with me. This stamp set inspired me to create a reminder book – something than can sit on a desk or shelf at home where all family members can see (and use it).

The size and shape of my reminder book is inspired by the 2017 CTMH planner and in fact I recycled some of the elements from the planner. If you had a 2017 Planner, you can use the Everyday Life™ Album you kept it in (if you did not have a 2017 there are still some available; see the links below). Or you can update to the new Blush version (Z9996). I also reused the tabbed divider pages from my planner.

This was a hard project to photograph so I also took some snaps with the pages not in the album.

The introduction page was inspired by the cover page of Make It from Your Heart™ Volume 3 (9043). I created two versions of the cover page. This one uses the font from You Are Here and a Basic Shapes Heart. The cover pages can be mixed and matched or tailored for your family or recipient if you are making a gift.

Now that I see it in a photo, I think the "Family of" seems very formal and I might change my cover page. Maybe it was because I was watching a genealogy show when working on this project. {smiles}

I also created a version of the cover page that uses an image from Aritste and words created (welded) with the Artbooking font that you would cut from cardstock rather than write everything with a pen (see the Design Space link below–both options are in the same file).

In addition to the month name, I stamped one of the icons from the stamp set that we often associate with that time of year.

I did not add numbers to my reminder pages so it can be customized to allow for many birthdays or anniversaries clustered around a handful of days or a week. For example, in my family we have a couple of anniversaries and birthdays the last week of December.

I was able to create double-sized pages. So you can see both sides, here is the back of January and the front of February.

Here are a few tips for cutting and drawing the lines:

1. After clicking "Make It", move the pages down both virtual mats to the 1" mark.
2. Select the second mat before clicking continue–this will draw the lines on the cardstock then cut the page. Add the cardstock to the mat and a pen to the pen holder then insert the mat and press go.
3. When this page is complete, do not remove the page from the mat, only remove the excess cardstock. Mark the corners of the page so you know where to place it when you flip the cardstock over. If you use a Pilot pen, the marks will disappear over time (I had to create new marks when I resumed working on my project the next day).
4. Flip the cardstock over and align it between marks.
5. Remove the pen from the holder. Since you need the writing attached to something, for the second side I set the cut lines to score lines, but you do not need the score tool.
6. Insert the mat and press go. The mat will move around while the machine thinks it is scoring (it will follow the edges of the page and the "hole punches". The machine will pause while you insert the pen. Press go and the lines will be added. I had a bit of a problem getting the pen inserted correctly at this stage and it happened more than once so I think it could happen to you. If it does, pause the machine and try reinserting the pen again. At the end, don't remove the mat, but remove the pen and press go again (scoring, pausing, inserting the pen, drawing the lines). When the lines are complete–even if there are more lines to draw, pause, press the button to unload the mat and cancel the rest of the cut. I cancel once all of the lines are drawn because re-drawing them makes them thicker and darker (see the 4th line down on the back of the January page above).

If any of the above information is not clear, please leave a comment and I will try to come up with a better way to describe it.

The first two pages of my reminder book.

I forgot to photograph this, but if you are very organized you could add the 4" × 6" or 6" × 8" Memory Protectors™ to your reminder book to store the cards you created in advance. Or, if making this as a gift, you could include a variety of cards for the recipients to send to those celebrating events.

Before you visit ***The Inky Scrapper by Haley Dyer***, the supplies I used to create my project are listed below.

All supplies are from Close To My Heart except where noted:

• My Acrylix™ Stamp Sets: November 2017 SOTM: Through The Year (S1711)
• 12" X 12" Cardstock: White Daisy (1385)
• Everyday Life™ Album: I used Black (Z3208), but you can also choose from (also see the bundle below):
• Bashful (Z9996)
• Stripes (Z9979)
• Everyday Life™ 2017 Planner Pages (CC2017), but you can also choose this bundle with an album:
• Everyday Life™ Stripes Album & Planner Pages Bundle (CC1178)
  
• optional: Memory Protectors™ 4" × 6" (Z3252) and/or Memory Protectors™ 8" × 6" (Z3192)
• Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pads: Sapphire (Z2848), Crystal Blue (Z2817), Ruby (Z2870), Pixie (Z2844)
• Cricut® Collections:
  
  • Artiste physical cartridge (Z3170) – retired
    Happy Birthday ― #M38CF0 ― page 70 ― height 0.7″ ― <hppybday> ― I used the Slice feature in Design Space to get the word "birthday"
  • Artbooking physical cartridge (Z3169) – physical cartridges are retiring and available while supplies last
  • You Are Here Physical Cartridge (Z3389) or Digital Collection/no cartridge (Z3387)
  • this is my Design Space file for the cover page
  • this is my Design Space file for a monthly page
• Cricut® Explore Air™ 2 (available at Level 3 of Hostess Rewards; see page 4 of Annual Inspirations 2017-2018)
• Supplies not from Close To My Heart: Cricut® Design Space, Pilot Precise V7 Rolling Ball Fine Point (this fits into the pen carriage without an adapter)

I think this is a great gift idea for a new couple. This would be a great way for the spouses to combine family birthdays and anniversaries into one location so family harmony can be kept. I think it should be a wedding gift rather than a shower gift so remembering important dates does not fall on one partner. {insert big grin ― we all know it sometimes happens} I am sure that you will find plenty of inspiration on our hop, but I want to tell you another reason why you may want to purchase the November 2017 SOTM; this stamp set will be used in the Through The Year Calendar Kit which will be available in December. When complete, the calendar pages created with the kit are:

If you do not have a CTMH Independent Consultant, you may purchase all of the supplies I used on my Consultant website. Before you leave I would be delighted if you left me a comment letting me know what you think of this book to keep track of family birthdays and anniversaries. Thanks for hopping with us! So you do not have to scroll back up, the next stop on the hop is ***The Inky Scrapper by Haley Dyer***.