The Crafty Momma: Birthday Calendar

So, I made an AMAZING project for my sister-in-law for Christmas.  I found the idea on Pinterest (like most of my ideas).  I looked for the perfect one, but tweaked it a little to make it my own.  The following is needed to make the Family Birthday Calendar:


Black Grosgrain Ribbon 7/8" at Hobby Lobby for $3.99




Wood Plaque from Hobby Lobby ON SALE for $5.99

Wood Circles from Hobby Lobby ON SALE for $2.24



 Liquid Stitch from Hobby Lobby for $4.99

Black and white scrapbook alphabet stickers, 2 sheets

Paint colors of your choice (usually $1 each or so from Hobby Lobby)

Small Paintbrush

A printout of the word "birthdays" as large as you want it (to use as a stencil)

 

So now you can begin:

 

1. Get your wood plaque and paint it the base color.  My base color was tan.
2. Then, get your wood circles (only the large ones) and paint them the same base color and one other color.  My other color was white.
3. Paint the trim around the wood plaque to match your ribbon.  My trim and ribbon color was black.
4. I used a font called Special Elite that I found online.  I enlarged it to about 200 pt. and printed out the word "birthdays".  It took two pieces of paper, which I cut and taped together. 
5. I found this great technique for painting letters if you don't have a stencil.  Check out the tutorial over at That's My Letter.  You won't regret it and soon you'll be personalizing everything wooden in your house!
6. After I painted the word "birthdays" in black and let everything dry, I began placing the alphabet stickers vertically from left to right in the order of the months.  Be careful with the spacing.  I did abbreviations for January, June, July, and December first so that I would know how to correctly space the other months.  To make it uniform I used the following abbreviations: jan, feb, mar, apr, may, jun, jul, aug, sep, oct, nov, dec.  I know some of these aren't the correct way, but it looked much better to have 3 letters for each month.
7. After placing the stickers, I could start on the ribbon.  On the underside of the wood plaque, I hung 12 strands of ribbon (1 under each month).  Each ribbon was about 15 inches long to give room for more birthdays.
8. Because I wasn't sure how many birthdays my sister-in-law would need for each month, I did not glue any wooden circles on the ribbons.  I gave her all the painted wooden circles and told her to add them to the ribbons as needed.  I gave her a fine tip Sharpie pen to write the names and dates on each wooden circle. 

This was such a wonderful (and rather inexpensive) gift, that I think I am going to make one for each family I know when their birthday comes around.  It's practical, functional, decorative, and an all around fun way to remember all those birthdays!

 

Post a comment and let me know what you think!