Art Calendar - Handmade Gift

I created this art calendar with some of my photos. As I indicated in this earlier post, I processed each photo in hopes of creating an image that looked more like a painting.  Some I'm really happy with others not as much.  Pretty good for my first time. I printed them at home on matte photo paper so they would be more like paintings.

The calendar pages are 8.5" square with a half inch added to the binding edge. The calendar was printed on the 8.5 x 9 inch sheet of white card stock.  The binding is Zutter.

Then I wanted to create a frame.  I could not find a die in my collection large enough and to the right proportions so I turned to my Cricut. After spending a long time with several cartridges and doing some test cuttings I selected the Elegant Edges cartridge.  I cut the borders to 6.75" wide which filled the 8.5" square pages nicely.  I added a piece of vellum under the photo which helped define the space for the photo as well as align all the pieces. I centered the vellum on the page then added the pieces over top. I cut all the borders from black card stock.  I did have to trim the vellum where it showed through the holes in the borders. That was tedious.  I added one of the die cuts from inside the borders next to the photo to balance the rectangular space.

The cover has the numbers 2015 cut with the Sizzix Go Go Boots Sizzlet Alphabet dies.