That title is a mouthful, but that's what these are: a rather special holiday greeting on the outside, a year-round calendar on the inside, and wood throughout. This is something you probably won't make for your one hundred dearest friends, but you might try a few anyway. And after you've made a few with wood, you might transfer the whole idea to cardboard. It would still be a nice gift greeting card.
Materials:
wooden triptych
pencil
Woodcraft color markers
Woodcraft gold metallic
new calendar
wood burner - optional
assorted stickers or paper cutouts - optional
Steps:
- With a pencil, lightly sketch out the pattern or pictures on the front panels of the triptych (figure A). As an option, you could burn in the lines with a wood burner.
- With Woodcraft color pens, color in the design.
- When the paint is dry, trace over outlines with the gold metallic pen. Add any stickers or paper cutouts, if desired.
- Use a gold metallic or other color pen to write in any holiday greeting and to sign your name.
- Color the inside three panels (figure B) and color in an outlined area in the center panel for a year sticker.
- Cut the paper calendar into three panels and glue each piece to a wood panel.
- Optional: Apply a protective acrylic coating over the calendar.
Notes and Tips:
- The calendar you select should show the entire year on one page. You can have it reduced to fit at a copy center.
- The wood burning was done to help prevent the colors from running into each other. This is not really necessary with the Woodcraft markers because they are made for wood and they do not run.
- If you like the look of wood burning, it is best to do it AFTER painting so that it accomplishes what the gold pen did: cover any minor sloppiness and give a crisp outline to the work.
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