I adore this 3D town calendar from Canon - it's just the sort of project I'm after this week. Not too taxing but something fun to do before the big splash of New Year's Eve! It comes as a PDF download and all you need to do is print out the pages and assemble. You can see more photos of a finished calendar on Zakka Life.

The Canon website has a selection of other free downloads, such as these photo calendars so it's worth exploring while you're there.

Via: Folding Trees

A while ago I posted about a new sister magazine that's launching here at Future. We're all very excited about it and it's been lovely to see all sorts of knitted delights coming through the office. If you're a knitter, or know someone who is, I strongly recommend signing up at the brand new website for The Knitter so you'll get all the updates about the launch and when you'll be able to get your hands on a copy (but don't forget to come back here and catch up on all my Christmas posts!)

Writing Christmas cards may seem a million miles away by now (thankfully!) but I am sure that you received a few with the 'annual family update' enclosed. Sometimes these are boring, sometimes quite inspired, but as a scrapbooker it makes me think about how I would want to record the year that has just passed.

A little while ago I came across the website of Nicholas Feltron, who is a graphic designer. He has taken it upon himself to write an annual report of his year, and to include all sorts of strange statistics. What caught my eye was the great way he had presented them and I thought they'd provide excellent inspiration for scrapbookers. Here's a snippet from one of his pages:

Make sure you read the small print carefully! You'll find the whole report here. You need to hover over to find the links on this title page which will take you to the individual pages of the report.

I thought I might try to come up with my own 'annual report' based on this theme. Thankfully I haven't had to confront any burglars like Nicholas, but I have only locked myself out once, which is quite an achievement for me. What ideas have you got for unusual yearly statistics? We'd love to hear them!

If your family is anything like ours, Christmas prompts a bit of a re-organisation. You receive all these lovely presents and then have to find homes for it all! If you are feeling sadly overwhelmed by too much turkey/mince pies/sherry/stuff then do not despair! I like to think of it as a chance to investigate all the lovely storage boxes I can find. I also try to persuade myself that it's a creative opportunity to come up with new ways of fitting things into the existing space!

IKEA is one of my favourite places to look for new storage bits and pieces. Take
these boxes for example.

They look great, they're really useful for stacking on top of cupboards and wardrobes, and they're cheap! What more could you want! If, like me, you're just feeling too tired and full from all the Christmas festivities, then cheer yourself up by looking at some lovely pics of someone else's tidy and wonderfully organised scrap space and dream a little. To get you started, here's a peek at Shimelle's beautiful creative room over on Two Peas.

Every month I write a short column in the Inspirations section of the magazine highlighting blogs I like, or ones that have been recommended to me. I love to here about your blogs too, so drop me a line if you'd like me to visit. Here are the blogs from the February issue:

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* Make it Multicolr’d A highly addictive website (http://labs.ideeinc.com/multicolr) that creates mosaics of photographs from Flickr based on a colour palette of your choice. Add or remove colours as you like to create inspirational patterns. Great for putting together colour schemes.

* There are two very good reasons to visit the Volksfaden online shop (volksfaden.de): one, it has a gorgeous collection of unusual fabrics, and two, it features wonderfully creative photo-fabric collages to illustrate each section of the shop.

* If you’re a bride-to-be make sure you bookmark the Snippet and Ink wedding blog (snippetandink.blogspot.com). It features breath-taking photos from real weddings, creative ideas for stationery and colour palettes to inspire your own big day.

* Dive into the lovely Rachel Ward’s scrapbooking blog Rewarding Memories (rewardingmemories.blogspot.com) and draw inspiration from her first class layouts. She’s always busy creating something new – well worth adding to your blog roll.

* Finally, no snow? Make a flake at snowflakes.barkleyus.com

The January issue (48) of ScrapBook inspirations goes on sale Friday 12th December - the perfect excuse to get snuggled up on the sofa with a selection box!

In this frosty issue you'll find...

* 365 day photo challenge
Have you resolved to take more photographs in 2009? Shimelle Laine's got just the ideas you need to keep inspired throughout the year from taking a photo a day to week-long themed photo sessions.

* Pages all about you
We've got a bumper selection of 'Me' pages with both the Design Team and the Reader Gallery taking on a reflective feel. Great if you're working on a 'Book of me' or want to record your resolutions for the forthcoming year.

* New ways with chipboard
It's cheap, versatile and readily available - Anne Parry tries out three ideas for using blank chipboard on layouts. Keep an eye on all that packaging when you're opening your presents - it may just find a home of your next layout.

* Cosy & cool mini books
Do you like snuggling in front of the fire with hot chocolate or brisk walks in the frosty outside? With Caroline Scattergood's pair of mini books there's no need to choose!

Plus don't miss your favourites:
* A brand-new sketch from Mary Anne Walters
* We Challenge You to make a page in a hurry!
* 10 pages packed with the best reader layouts
* The very latest patterned papers and embellishments to tempt you

The January issue of ScrapBook inspirations goes on sale Friday 12 December 2008.

Perpetual calendars are such a good concept. They have tabs that you can turn individually for the month, day of the week and the date, but don’t have any reference to a year date, so they can be used year after year. That makes them a much greener idea than an ordinary disposable calendar – and also makes it worthwhile to invest time and energy in making your own. Because you can personalise them with photos for the recipient they make great desktop gifts for all ages and both genders! I based my perpetual calendar on a spiral-bound planner I spotted in a shop in France.

I wanted to use basic scrapbook supplies so I made the calendar 12in wide and 6in high. To make a calendar like this you’ll need the following pieces:

12 6x6in (one for each month) I scrapped mine so they’re actually mini layouts
7 2x6in (one for each day of the week)
4 2x6 in for the first set of date tabs (blank, 1,2 & 3)
10 2x6in for the second set of dates (0-9)

To bind all the pieces I used my Bind It All machine, but book rings would work or even an altered spiral-bound drawing pad. I used chipboard for the front and back covers and attached a piece of ribbon to tie the calendar closed.

I used papers from a set (by Bisous) but chose multi-coloured designs so that I could mix and match letter and number stickers. Although I planned what I would need I did make a couple of mistakes, forgetting a blank tab for single number dates and a zero tab for the 10th, 20th and 30th dates. Luckily I realised before I bound it together. The other problem I had was trying to explain to Georgina why I didn’t need to make 365 tabs! She just didn’t get it until she saw it finished. I will definitely be making some for gifts even if it takes me all year they will still be good for next Christmas!

I have to admit I'm pretty lazy when it comes to printing my digi photos. I nearly always leave it until the last minute and end up paying extra to have photos developed in an hour because I need them right now! Sometimes I'll get my act together and send a batch to be developed online - great - but I'm too impatient to wait for the post. Then I got my hands on a Canon SELPHY printer at the Stitch & Craft 2008 show. If you came along to the Scrapbook Theatre you may remember that the team were able to take your photo and print it out for you to scrap right then - and it was the SELPHY printer they were using.

If only I looked this glam when using a printer!

Anne Parry gave me a quick demo - showing me how to hook up a camera and download the images you want to print, all without the need for a computer. You can either slot in a memory card, or download straight from your camera. The photos print quickly and I was able to sit down and make a layout within minutes.

The printer takes combined ink and paper cartridges so it's very easy to set up - you just slot in a cartridge and away you go. You can even print in gold or silver - how cool is that?! I also got to grips with some basic photo-editing such as automatically correcting the brightness, trimming and getting rid of red eye.

So, I'd say the Canon SELPHY printer is a great choice for the impatient scrapper!

And for a nice added bonus Canon are also giving away a free photo album with every SELPHY printer sold in November or December - see these links for details: http://www.canon.co.uk/selphyalbums or http://www.canon.ie/selphyalbums.

What do you want for Christmas? Is there a new scrapbooking gadget you're after? I'd love to know.

I am completely smitten with these jaunty Christmas trees I spotted on Design*Sponge. They're designed by last week's guest blogger, Sarah Fox of Cursive Design. Helpfully Sarah's provided full instructions so you can make your own. A little forest of them would make a wonderful decoration for your Christmas table* or on a windowsill with a length of fairly lights wound around them! I love that you can make them with scraps, and if they get trashed this year you can just recycle them and make a fresh copse next year.

*Disclaimer: I love Christmas and I'm already in full-on festive mode (have you seen the latest issue?!) So expect more Christmassy hoo-ha on this blog over the next few weeks!

American scrapbooker Cathy Zielske posted this video on her blog today and I absolutely love it:

It's like an advert for scrapbooking. If you don't scrapbook, wouldn't this make you want to do it?! It's sweet and poignant and funny all in one. I love it. I had to listen with the sound down because I'm in the office, but I imagine with music it's even more tear-making.