February Desk Calendar

As it's the first of the month, I'm sharing my desk calendar for February today. I picked one of the cute images from the 'Every Which Way' set by Penny Black, stamped it onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured it using watercolour pencils, then cut it out using one of my circle Nesties. For the background, I used snippets of heart covered papers from the 'Happy Colours' pad from The Works...distressing the edges and adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. The little hearts were cut from a snippet of pink card using my Cuttlebug 'Concentric Hearts' die.

Challenges for this calendar:

• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Creative Moments - Love & Romance
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Have a Heart
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - All You Need is Love
• We Love Stamping - Hearts

Penny Black 2026 Calendar

I have another Penny Black calendar to share today...this is the one I made for my Aunt for Christmas. The blank calendar is one of the A4 ones from Paper Mill Direct...and I decorated it using lots of Penny Black critter stamps, and snippets of patterned papers. I stamped all of the images onto watercolour paper, coloured them using watercolour pencils, then cut some into circles using my Nesties. I distressed all of the edges of the papers, and matted them all onto pieces of kraft card before adding them to the calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• Allsorts - Anything Goes
• C.R.A.F.T. - Anything Goes
• Little Red Wagon - Happy New??? (New Year)
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wedensdays) - Something New (New Year)

PBSC January - Anything Goes (Optional 'Something New')

It's the first Saturday of the month, so that means it's time for a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge...where the theme is:

'Anything Goes'

or

'Something New'

(New Year, New House, New Job, New Baby, New Stash...)

We are currently without a sponsor, so this challenge is just for fun.

My 'Something New' is the 'New Year', and I'm sharing the 2026 calendar that I made for my Mum for Christmas. Every year, I decorate a couple of the blank A4 calendars from Paper Mill Direct to give as gifts, and use only Penny Black stamped images. If there's a special event in a particular month, I try to find an appropriate image...it's a great project for using stamps that don't often get inked, and also for using up lots of snippets of papers! 

I'm also entering this calendar into the following challenges:

• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Everybody Art - Christmas and/or New Year
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

January Desk Calendar

Happy New Year!

As it's the first day of a brand new year, I'm sharing the first page of my 2026 desk calendar. Each year, I buy one of the little blank desk calendars from Paper Mill Direct, and decorate it month by month using Penny Black critter stamps. For January, I picked a pom-pom shaking hedgie from the 'Cheerful Critters' set...stamped him onto watercolour paper, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then used one of my circle Nesties to cut him out. I used a couple of snippets of starry background papers from the 'Shine Like the Stars' pad from The Works for the background. I distressed the edges a little, before adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen, then I matted it onto a snippet of kraft card before adding it to the calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• Crafty Animals - Anything Goes
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes

December Desk Calendar

As it's the first day of the month, I'm sharing the December page of my desk calendar. I picked one of the stamps from the 'Christmas Critters' set by Penny Black, stamping it onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured it using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out. For the background, I used a snippet of patterned paper from the 'Peppermint Forest' pad by Craftwork Cards, and layered a snippet of white card, with a torn edge, over the top. I matted it all onto a snippet of kraft card, then added it to my calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

November Desk Calendar

Today I'm sharing the page for November in my desk calendar. I picked a pup in cosy footwear called 'Fetching Slippers' by Penny Black, stamped him onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut him out. I used snippets of paper from the 'Fresh Florals' pad by Craft Sensations and 'Tea House' pad by Dovecraft for the background...it was supposed to look like wallpaper and carpet, but now I'm looking at it on a screen, it looks like he could be out in the garden!

Challenges for this calendar:

• As You Like It - Your Favourite Critter (Dogs, specifically Golden Retrievers - my family had several of them when I was growing up)
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

October Desk Calendar

I'm sneaking on a day early with my October desk calendar page, as I have another post scheduled for tomorrow. I used stamps from the Penny Black 'Be Very Scared!' set...stamping the kitty onto a snippet of watercolour paper, colouring him using watercolour pencils, before carefully cutting him out. I stamped the spider onto a snippet of starry sky paper (not sure what brand it is, as I've had it for years and only have tiny snippets left), then coloured the white of his eyes using a white gel pen, and gave him some snazzy sparkly glasses using a gold glitter gel pen. I added a snippet of green patterned paper (I think this is by My Mind's Eye, but again, it's old and I only have tiny snippets left!) along the bottom, before adding the kitty on top. I distressed the edges, then matted it onto a snippet of kraft card before adding it to my calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• Allsorts - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• Inkspirational - Moodboard
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

September Desk Calendar

As it's the first day of a brand new month, I'm sharing my desk calendar page for September. I'm a music teacher (teaching one to one woodwind lessons) and it's back to work this week, so I picked a flute playing cat from the Penny Black 'Jazzy Cats' set. I stamped it onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured it using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out. For the background, I used snippets of papers from the 'Vintage Dreams' pad by Craft Sensations. I stamped the cat again onto the background...so that he didn't lose his whiskers, then added some extra notes using a stamp from the 'Critter Concert' set by Lawn Fawn. I distressed the edges, then matted it onto a snippet of kraft card before adding it to my calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Stamp It
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

August Desk Calendar

It's the first day of a brand new month, so today I'm sharing my desk calendar page for August. I stamped three little pups from the 'Man's Best Friend' set by Penny Black onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured them using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut them out. I made a simple background from snippets of paper from a pad called 'Let's Fly Away' (magazine freebie) and 'Love Lies Here' by Raspberry Road. I used one of my 'Stitched Hillside Borders' dies (from Lawn Fawn) to cut the green hills, then distressed the edges before layering it up and adding it to the calendar.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Favourite Cats or Dogs? (Dogs for me, as we had several golden retrievers when I was growing up)
• Krafty Chicks - Anything Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

July Desk Calendar

As it's the first of the month, I'm sharing my desk calendar page for July. The image is from the 'Cheering Critters' set by Penny Black...I stamped him onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut him out. For the background, I used snippets of patterned paper from three diffferent pads...the 'cloudy sky' is from the 'Cut & Paste - Charm' pad by My Mind's Eye, the checked yellow 'cornfield' is from an unnamed pad from The Works, and the spotty grey 'tarmac' is from the 'Breeze' pad also by My Mind's Eye. I distressed the edges a little before matting it onto a snippet of kraft card and adding it to my calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• Crafty Animals - Anything Goes
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

June Desk Calendar

As it's the start of a new month, today I'm sharing my desk calendar page for June. This month, I picked one of the cute pup stamps from the 'Man's Best Friend' set by Penny Black. I stamped him onto a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut him out. For the background, I used a couple of snippets of papers from the 'Here & There' pad by Studio Calico, using one of my 'Grassy Edges' dies (by Die-namics) to cut the green one. I cut the fence from a snippet of white card using another Die-namics die, 'Picket Fence', layered it all up, matting it onto a snippet of kraft card, then added it to my calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• Allsorts - Anything Goes
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Stamping Sensations - Our Furry Friends

May Desk Calendar

Today I'm sharing my desk calendar page for May. I picked a cute little hedgehog stamp from the 'Wonderful Day' set by Penny Black, and stamped him onto a snippet of watercolour paper. I coloured him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut him out. I used snippets of papers for the simple background...the cloudy sky paper is from a magazine freebie pad called 'Let's Fly Away', and the green paper (that already had its edge cut into a curve using one of my Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside Borders' dies) is from the 'Bright Freshness' pad by Craft Sensations. I distressed the edges a little, and matted it onto a snippet of kraft card before adding it to the calendar.

Challenges for this calendar:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

PBSC April - Anything Goes (Optional 'Easter')

It's the first Saturday of the month, so that means it's time for a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge...where the theme is:

'Anything Goes'

or

'Easter'

We are currently without a sponsor, so this challenge is just for fun.

I picked a cute little goose stamp from the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' set to decorate my little desk calendar with an 'Easter' theme'. I stamped him on to a snippet of watercolour paper, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut him (and the little eggs) out. I made a background using snippets of papers from the 'Hippity Hoppity' pad by Memory Keepers...adding some little clouds cut using a die from the 'Rainbow' set by Sweet Dixie. I distressed the edges a little, then matted it on to a snippet of kraft card before adding it to the calendar.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

• As You Like It - Cute or Floral (Cute for me...especially Penny Black critters because they were what got me hooked on crafting!)
• C.R.A.F.T. - Spring/Easter/Anything Goes
• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Sparkles Forum - Easter

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

PBSC March - Anything Goes (Optional 'On the Farm')

It's the first Saturday of the month, so that means it's time for a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge...where the theme is:

'Anything Goes'

or

'On the Farm'

We are currently without a sponsor, so this challenge is just for fun.

I picked a little sheep stamp called 'Butterflies & Ewe', and stamped it on to a snippet of watercolour paper. I coloured it using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut out the image. For the background, I used a piece of cloudy sky paper from a pad called 'Let's Fly Away' that I picked up in a charity shop, but I think it was originally a magazine freebie, then layered a picket fence, cut from a snippet of brown card using a Die-namics die, with some grass cut using another Die-namics die and a snippet of paper from the 'Over the Rainbow' pad by Craft Consortium layered over the top. I added the sheep and her butterflies, before matting it on to a snippet of kraft card and adding it to my desk calendar.

I'm also entering this calendar into the following challenges:

• Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.