Welcome to our May Calendar Girls' Blog Hop. Papercrafts Presents 365 Cards magazine which is our inspiration for these monthly hops which thus became the Calendar Girls. The magazine has Creative Ideas for every day of the year: occasions, holidays, and celebrations including 42 unique holidays!!! These unique holidays are our inspiration. The May unique holidays are:

May Blog Date: May 19, 2012

1. May is National Salad Month - Lynne 
2. May is National Hamburger Month:  Anita    
3. May is Bike Month:  Pamela 
4. May 1st: Mother Goose Day - Lisa
5. May 4: International Space Day:  
6. May 5: Cinco DeMayo:  Lynne
7. May 6: Beverage Day:  Kimberly  
8. May 6th: National No Diet Day - Laura  
9. May 7 - 12: Teacher Appreciation Week:  Lisa 
10. May 13: Mother's Day:  Laura  
11. May 13th Frog Jumping Day - Angela  
12. May 15: National Chocolate Chip Day:  Edwina   
13. May 19: Armed Forces Day -  Janet 
14. May 21: National Memo Day:  Pamela  
15. May 23: Lucky Penny Day:  Kimberly 
16. May 25: Nerd Pride Day:  Miriam 
17. May 31st: World No Tobacco Day - Lynne 

The hop starts with Lynne (http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/). You won't want to miss a single occasion!!!

The line-up for May includes:

Lynne: http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Anita: http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Pamela: http://kraftykatstampstudio.blogspot.com/
Lisa Woodward: http://mycraftyspaces.blogspot.com/
Jearise: http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com/
Kimberly - http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com/
Laura: http://lauraleesdream.blogspot.com
Angie: http://atuttletime.blogspot.com/
Edwina:  http://edwinascreations.blogspot.com/
Janet: http://ladyluvbug.blogspot.com/
Miriam: http://miriamscreations.blogspot.com/
Lisa Peters: http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/

Stop by and check out these holidays as I am sure you are going to want to remember these holidays and include them in your card making projects!!!!!

We will have blog candy to the lucky recipient that remarks on each site along the way!


    The holiday that I am commemorating with my project is Nerd Pride Day. I have always thought of myself as a nerd, or possibly a dweeb. If you have ever wondered about the differences between nerd, geek, dork, and dweeb check this out:

From: http://laughingsquid.com/nerd-venn-diagram-geek-dork-or-dweeb/

 So, of course I had to make a book. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time! I chose to make the book from an empty frozen pizza box. These are great because, in general, they are 12 by 12 (the same as scrapbooking paper) I cut the box in quarters to make a six by six square with a spine.

Then, I took 15 pieces of white cardstock and cut them all in half. I then separated them into piles of five and folded them. 

I cut letter and number patterned pieces to separate each of the six sections and folded them over the white paper. These papers are from a kit I got on clearance at JoAnn's about 5 years ago.

Okay, this is the part where you can hopefully learn from my mistake. I then hand sowed  three of the sections onto the spine of the paperboard cover.

Here is how it looked when I was done a section. Then, I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could use the sowing machine to do this... will it be strong enough?" I tried it... quick and easy. That method is so much easier and faster, and less painful. It is also much cleaner looking. Although, I did have a bit of trouble with it pulling. I learned after the first sections to have the needle to the left instead of centered. Slow and easy works great... go to quick and it tends to slip (at least for me). 

So, here is the book all sown together. Underneath you will see a paper bag, cut into a rectangle that is larger than the book laid flat. I used paper bags to cover my text books when I was in school, so this is a throwback to that. I folded over the top and bottom so that it was the same height as the book, and then folded the ends so that it was the same width. Once that is done the sides slide right into the "pockets" that are made on each end.

Here it is before being decorated.

Here is the outside with lots of fun nerdy sayings. I also inked it with Close to My Heart chocolate distress ink to make it look broken in and well used!

As well as the patterned paper outside of each section I also glued six by six pieces on the inside of the covers. This is pretty, and it serves the purposed of holding the cover on securely. The paper on the back of the front cover was from a card kit my friend Deborah Foti got in the mail and the one on the back was from the same kit as the others. I hope you enjoyed seeing my project.

Now, kindly hop on over to Lisa's blog. Thanks for stopping by and mark your calendar again next month to see what Holidays to Celebrate on June 9th for the next Calendar Girls Blog Hop!