DIY Dry Erase Calendar

There were many reasons why I loved living in SC:

• We were equal distance from the mountains and the ocean.
• It's not too far from our family.
• Warm summer/fall nights
• Friendly people
• Amazing church family
• Tons of tennis

Last, but CERTAINLY not least...

• Yard sales in December!

I probably went to 5-6 yard sales in December. So whoever told me yard sales were only in the summer was a mean liar. I'm not gonna lie, it was a bit chilly, but I'll do just about anything for a good deal. If Maine had yard sales in the winter,  you better believe I would be bundled up early Saturday morning in the -5 wind chills to score an awesome deal.

So in the midst of my winter yard sale rummage I found this...

 An ugly bath picture. I saw so many possibilities. It's a large frame, glass still intact, and only $1. You can't pass these kind of deals up people.

The first thing that came to mind was a dry erase calendar. I've seen them floating around Pinterest world for a while now and thought this would be the perfect frame for it.

Pin board of inspiration::

 

This one is my favorite!

   

           
       

I started by taking some fabric that I already had, and that I've used on many projects...

 
        This is Walter's cameo. More on him later.

I laid the fabric over the cardboard insert to make my measurements. Math isn't my strong suit, so I have to be creative when it come to measuring things. I made little marks so that I would know where to draw the date boxes. I was actually pretty impressed with myself when I figured out how big each box needed to be. What would've taken hubs 3 minutes to figure out took me about 15, but, hey, who's counting?

                                         
                            

Next, I started drawing my calendar with a pencil and my handy, dandy floppy ruler, then went over it with a fine point Sharpie. QUICK TIP: Make sure to leave enough room at the top to write the month, year, and days.

I used a regular Sharpie to write the month, year, etc.

Then I stretched out the fabric over the cardboard and started hot gluing like a mad woman. 

 I folded in the corners just like you would a bed sheet.

It's not the prettiest hot glue job in the history of hot glue jobs, but it gets the job done.

I added lines of embroidery string because my lines were a bit crooked, and I thought it would fool the eye. I simply just stretched it out and glued it too the back. Well, it wasn't simple. It was actually very frustrating, but it was well worth it. But do you see what I see?

There was a stubborn sticker that was daring to ruin my entire calendar. I'm seriously not a perfectionist...just take a stroll through my messy apartment, but I knew this sticker would irritate me every time I looked at that calendar. It just wasn't worth those 10 second spats of irritation in my life, so I decided to cover it up. 

I took some fabric scraps and embroidery string and make a few rosettes. They are seriously simple to make, but very hard on my poor nubs. I can get quite impatient with my glue gun. 

Most people buy a calendar yearly, which can cost $10-$15 (unless you get a free one from your local co-op), so I don't think my $1 calendar that I can use over and over and over again was that bad of a deal. 

Now, I just need to invest in better dry erase markers.