Simple Dry Erase Calendar For $1.00

Just like everyone else I'm looking for ways to better organize our home and life.  My first attempt to organize for 2013 was to make a dry erase calendar.  There are a lot of tutorials out in blog land for just this type of thing.  Most were too large for the area I wanted to put my calendar, and too fancy schmancy for my taste.  I wanted clean, cheap, simple and fast.

We all have these little annoying pieces of paper..........appointment reminders!

  

Our kitchen has very little wall space so I have been hanging our calendar on the side of our fridge for years.  It's not pretty.

 This actually looks better than it did before I had a meltdown one day and ripped the top of the calendar off.  You know, the part with the pretty pictures?  I wish I had taken a picture of that.  It was a sight to behold.  Both top corners of the calendar were curled down making it difficult to even enjoy the pretty picture.  Plus the hole for hanging it ripped and had been mended with scotch tape.

I looked through my stash and found this frame that I had purchased from the Dollar Tree.  I had intended another use for it, but never did the project.  In fact I don't even remember what I was going to do with it.

 Now I needed a calendar.  I made one using Microsoft Publisher.  Once I opened the program, I chose calendar, then letter landscape 11 x 8.5 under blank sizes, then clicked create.  This will open up your blank calendar.  On the left side you will click template and choose which style you want to use.  I chose Understated.  From here you can make changes.  I deleted all the numbers in each square and also deleted the month and year.  I typed the year, 2013 in place of the previous month/year and centered it.  I chose Accent Text 3 and Arial, font size 48.  I also re-sized the days of the week using a font size of 36.  

This is the end result

If you don't have Publisher, there are lots of free printable calendars online, just do a search.

I used a punch and some scrap paper to make a label where I can write the month.

I used scrapbook adhesive to attach the label to the upper left side.  I put my calendar in the frame and attached magnets to each corner.  The magnets blocked the cardboard backing and since I would need to change out my calendar yearly I couldn't have this.  I just clipped the corners diagonally.  Easy solution.

Did I mention that I spray painted the frame white?

Final outcome.

Those aren't black smudges.  I just blurred out my appointments.............to protect my privacy and all.  I left one so you would get the idea.  I used the dry erase marker to add the year, numbers and appointments.

There it is.........clean, cheap, simple and fast. 

I'm sharing here:

Craft Organizational Decor Party at AliLily