DIY Whiteboard Calendar

Ok soooo...I wanted to invest in a family calendar.  You know, one big calendar where we could post all of our daily things like Dave's work schedule, Ashley's teenager stuff, TV shows we don't want to miss (yes, I need a calendar to remind me of this!!) important events and trips.  I looked on Pinterest and saw some great ideas.  None of them seemed big enough for what I wanted, hardly any space to write in.  Then I looked around at stores, I really love this system from Pottery Barn, but I don't need ALL that stuff, just the calendar...

I just don't want to pay $60 something for just the calendar.  No thank you!  I looked at JoAnn's while I was there the other day, everything looked too cheap or small.  I needed the perfect thing.  I have the perfect spot for it, but I didn't want to settle for just any ol' calendar.  Then, I found this...

A blogger over at The 36th Avenue made this out of self-adhesive vinyl paper and washi tape.  I LOVED IT!!!  AND!!!   It is definitely the most frugal of ideas that I have looked into, besides settling for a cheapo calendar that is NOT cute.  This one is TOTALLY cute!!  She mounted this to the side of her fridge, so hers is also magnetic (lucky) but I don't have that option because of how our kitchen is set up.  Boo...She's got a great little family station set up here!

Drool!

Anyways.  I got to work on making my own DIY whiteboard calendar.  I looked all over for high gloss vinyl, which she used for hers, but I couldn't find something that I knew for sure would work for my project.  Enter Amazon.  Gotta love them.  They had this!

Hello!!??  That is exactly what I am looking for!!!  It's self-adhesive White Board paper.  LOVE IT!  For $22 and some change, I hit 'buy' and waited for it to arrive.  In the mean time, I bought some decorative tape from JoAnn's to help spruce up the project.

Today, my paper arrived and after work, I got to...um...work on it.  Haha.  I made sure the spot on the wall was clean and dry...its the wall in the pic below, on the left as you head to our kitchen/basement/bathroom/pantry.  Big ol' empty space that I didn't want to put artwork in, it's too awkward with that big AC vent.  It is a perfect spot for a calendar, because you can't see it from the kitchen or dining or family room, it's sort of hidden away.  We like to put our Disney countdowns here, I guess they will have to go underneath!

I un-rolled the white board paper and cut off the end since it seemed a little dinged up.  I cut a piece that was roughly 24x24 inches.  A big square.  Then, I laid it out on the table and weighed it down with some random stuff to get the curl out of it.

After 30 minutes or so of waiting around, it was ready and less curlier.  I got to work putting it up on the wall.  I  thought I would need Dave to help me get it straight and lump-less, but I ended up doing OK on my own.

The edges I cut weren't perfectly straight, but I fixed that with the decorative tape.  That part I thought would be tricky too - but it wasn't bad either!

Here's my tape!  I wanted to do something fun and colorful, but then I realized I didn't want it to look too crazy.  So I picked the B/W polka dots because it was still fun, but more neutral then the others I liked.  

I grabbed my level for this part, just to make sure I was getting straight lines, and started taping away!  I love how it outlines the whole thing...makes it look fancy pantsy!

The paper was easy to put on without bubbles, so I can highly recommend this if you are interested in making one.  Super easy!

After the outline I got started on the calendar part of things.  Doesn't it look so fun?!  After eyeballing the weeks and days, I got to the fun part...filling it in!

Yeah, I started with October because there are only a few days left of September, and I didn't see the need to fill out the calendar just for a few measly days;)

I still have some filling in to do, but my arms were starting to get tired at this point.  It's been a long day, but I am really excited to have this calendar up and proud of myself because it only cost me $27 (paper + the decorative tape) to do the whole thing!  Now we can keep track of who goes where and when and how and all that good-to-know stuff.  I love being organized, don't you!?

Cheers!