Craft It :: Calendar

Ages ago, Design Mom posted an awesome idea for a calendar and I knew I had to make it.  Our family needed a large calendar last winter and I headed down to the office supply store and just grabbed what ever was cheapest.  It was a moment of frustration and certainly not design inspired.  The lack of options for big calendars meant that if I was going to keep up the big calendar, then we needed to make our own.

Gabrielle's inspiration was exactly what I needed!  But it wasn't exactly right.  We fill up a calendar really quickly.  With lots of colored pens and scribbles and plans.  It gets pretty ugly.  So I needed a totally basic base to build our calendar on - color free.

Since the calendar I stumbled upon last fall was a 'school year' calendar, it ran out at the end of June.  It was time for a new calendar!  I'm thrilled with the results.  The new house has no extra space so it hangs in the middle of the kitchen and this actually looks really nice there.  Nicer than the fridge does... but that's another post.

1. Use wire cutters to remove the binding if you want to keep the edge intact.    ::    2. Measure out the space so the edges are even    ::    3. Stamp the box top evenly    ::    4. Let dry   ::    5. Lay out one page ::    6. Erase any stray pencil marks    ::    7. Write in days and dates    ::    8. Hot tip - write the month in the corner so it's not a game later...

You'll need ::
Watercolor paper
Acrylic paint
pencil
eraser
small square box top (mine was 3.5" x 3.5")
thin line pen
thick marker

Step 1 :: Measure out the sheet of watercolor paper vs. the size of your box to determine where the center box will be placed.  You need 7 boxes across and five boxes down.  Use another calendar (used the one on my phone) to layout where in the week months begin and end.

Step 2 :: Dip edges of box top in acrylic paint and 'stamp' them on the paper.

Step 3 :: Let dry.

**TIP** Be sure to write the month in pencil on the bottom of the page so you don't forget which month is which while you wait for paint to dry

Step 4 :: Write day numbers in each square with a thin line pen and the day of the week at the top of the page.

Step 5 :: Write the month at the top of the page with the thick marker.