Purple rain

The Craft Barn calendar challenge April words are Blue and Umbrella, obviously inspired by the saying "April showers bring May flowers" that the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge has chosen this week. I am posting for both of them and the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge (A is for...) with my underpaper-collage April calendar page.

I did some stamping on the background with Fern green Archival ink and painted using yellow/orange acrylic paint. On the previous collage pages I have cut out my images without much sketching or planning, but this time I felt the umbrella would perhaps not be recognizable that way. I sketched it on the other side of the blue underpaper, cut out the pieces and glued them down leaving a narrow gap in between. To add detail and texture I sewed around each section.

My stash is missing an umbrella stamp (except for this one), but I realized My kids have a tiny paper punch umbrella and used it to embellish the calendar grid. My calendar grid is according to Finnish traditions: running from Monday to Sunday and I've added the Finnish name-days that would be on any commercial calendar too.

While doing these collage pages I have realized that just a white Sharpie is simply not enough, so I just ordered a pack with lovely green, purple, blue and pink... when they arrive, it might be this page gains a few more dots and squiggles! My girls are liking this collage-calendar, they want it to hang on our own wall next year :)

The previous pages can be found under the following links:
January
February
March