Calendar Challenge 2015: January

Happy New Year everyone..I hope the year ahead brings you all that you wish for. 

 Here it is the first monthly link up of our altered calendars. if you missed the first post explaining what this is all about then pop back and see the intro HERE....

Here are the 4 rules in summary.. 

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique - Crackling, any brand of crackle glaze, or the pva crackle method.... or any other way you can think of to add crackling. 

3. Add some book text 

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from Jan 1st 2015

So this is the calendar that I bought.. 

and here is how my first page looked... to begin with.. 

Remember.. Rule #1. Keep some of the original picture, and incorporate it into your new page.. 

Calendars pages tend to be glossy, so I added a thin coat of matte gel over the page, this gives the paint something to grab onto.. I started with a mix of blues, greens and a little purple of Frescos paints.  I blended these in quite roughly leaving several circles of the original picture visible. 

next I added some strips of patterned paper to make stems. This paper is old painted scraps from my bit box. I also added in a couple more flower heads and started to add more colour around each of the circles. 

While I had the paint out I added some to the bottom half, where the planner part is.. Now you don't have to decorate this bit if you don't want.. the challenge is just to alter the picture..

however if you want to alter this part too then go for it..  I added paint and paper scraps.. 

Back to the top half, I added more paint around the paper stems to blend in the edges.. 

More splodging of paint, and blending. I then added white to the edges of the flower heads..

Rule #2. Include a technique. this month it is crackling.. I added crackle glaze to various sections, and once dry I sponged on more fresco paint. 

You could use any number of crackle glazes or pastes, or use the PVA method, or even use a crackled stencil or stamp... get your thinking caps on

Now it has cracks, in all different colours, but it's blotchy and needs more blending.. 

More Fresco paint to blend, and I started to outline the white bits around the flower heads. I used a black stabilo pencil. I then blended this a little with a damp brush. 

Rule #3. Add a theme or piece of ephemera. This month is is 'add book pages'

I stamped and cut my leaves from book pages. 

of course I used my own leaf stamps from EDY05, EDY06 and EDY10. 

I liked how it looked at this point, but it just needed something else to make it pop..

So I added dots in my favourite blue Pea Coat. 

Now to finish off the bottom planner part. I added more leaves and a die cut bird. 

I then brayered some Fresco paint onto printer paper and stamped some number from Mini 18. 

These were cut out, edged with a black pen and glued into the planner squares. 

Here is how it looks now.. 

I love it.. there is something missing though and that is the title..'January' and the days of the week. 

Here is the finished bottom half of the calendar, complete with Month and days of the week. These are sneaky peeks of new stamps that are coming out soon. 

Now for rule#4. Blog your altered calendars and link up here... 

See all this months entries HERE. 

You have a whole month to link up, please do go visit the other blogs that add their links. Some may link straight away, others will link up over the month, so bookmark this page so you can check back and see the new ones. 

NEXT MONTH

On Feb 1st, we will have the new link for February... so that you can get started on your Feb pages, here are the four rules for Feb. 

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique - Paint effect caused by using clingfilm or bubble wrap 

3. Add some corrugated card

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from Feb 1st 2015