DIY: Dry Erase Picture Frame Calendar ($0)

I have been asking the hubs to find me a desk/wall calendar for months now. I wanted something that I could keep the kids' homework due dates and other things on. I really truely hated the idea of using a paper calendar and then having to tear off the sheet!! To me that was just a waste, even if it would have been tossed in the extra paper pile for later artistic endeavors.

So, I've been searching the web, almost until 4 this morning! And ran across a few Do-It-Yourself wall calendars. My insperation to DIY was from The Creative Crate, she made an awesome picture frame calendar from a picture frame she picked up for $3.





Isn't is great?? I knew that mine wouldn't look as good, but I had an old picture frame hanging on the wall framing some wrapping paper that I fell in love with, a permanent marker; and the will to do it!!! So first I took the MASSIVE frame off the wall, now let me tell you, we have had this frame for years. A friend of mine gave it to me and my grandmother back in 1996 and it was originally a very ugly bird on an even uglier branch; I just couldn't part with it because I loved the frame itself. So I put various posters in it over the years and eventually in 2007 I put in the wrapping paper.





Supplies Needed:

Picture Frame with GLASS ( make sure it is glass and not plexiglass)

Permanent Marker ( I used a Fine Point Sharpie in black)

Something to measure/mark your grid with ( I used a calendar!!)



Now, As you can tell from mine, everything was done by hand! I used a regular sized wall calendar to determine the size I wanted my calendar to be, I wanted a little space left over for notes).

You can't really see the lines but from end to end of the calendar laid on its side is the width of my new calendar. Then I had to decide exactly how big I wanted the date boxes to be. I knew that with three kids, they would have to be a decent size, so I numbered some post-it notes that we got for free and lined them up 1-7 across and then down to 29 (which you can't see). Then I just used the edge of the calendar to draw on the lines.

Now comes the fun part! You can cut out the days of the week and the word Month out of Vinyl if you have one of those fancy vinyl cutting machines, but since I don't have one; nor did I want to wait till I could find someone who did; I free handed the word Month and the abbreviated days of the week. Now, you can do this the easy way: Flip your glass right side up, and with your marker write the words you want, then just flip the glass face down so that when you see everything it is backward. Then you can just trace over what you already wrote!  Now I had to be the one to be complicated! The glass in my frame is very thick and has a few rough edges, so I just wrote everything backward ( don't worry if you mess up, you can simply remove the mistake/word with a little acetone( nail polish remover) and start over.





All that is left is to add your backing, now you can leave this plain, paint it, use wrapping paper, or even scrapbook paper. It is all up to you and how you want to do it. Make sure the backing is secured to the frame and then hang!