5 Creative Ways to DIY Your Next Calendar
—Tracy Anderson
It used to be that people relied on the seasons to measure the passage of time, but once the calendar came into common use—well, it stuck around. In recent years, though, many have chosen to go digital, transferring schedule-keeping to the online realm. But perhaps an equal number of us have chosen to stick with our traditional, tangible calendars. You can always buy a new one at the bookshop or stationery store, but since the appeal of a real calendar is that you can actually hold it in your hands, there’s poetic justice to the idea of making your own. Scroll down to see five DIY calendar projects to mimic or to inspire your very own design.
1. Stick It
DIY decorators have made a darling out of washi tape, which is Japanese adhesive paper that not only goes on and peels off easily, but also comes in an endless array of designs. Use the tape to create a border for your DIY calendar, then fill the grid with colored post-it notes, one for each day, as Modish and Main cleverly did here.
Related: 13 Unexpected Ways to Use Contact Paper Around the House
2. Paint It
Plenty of non-energy-efficient vintage windows are homeless and looking for a second life. House by Hoff figure out that for a weekly calendar, a paned window lends itself extraordinary well to use in a DIY calendar. Simply chalkboard-paint the glazed portions of the window and use vinyl letters to define the different days.
Related: 10 Ways to Go Crazy for Chalkboard Paint
3. Snap It
From Photojojo, here’s a DIY calendar perfect for any amateur photographers in the crowd. To get started, head outside and start snapping pictures of letters and numbers in your neighborhood. You’ll need 49 total: the numbers 1 through 31, a set of letters or words to represent the different days of the week, and 11 fillers.
Related: Wow With Words: 10 Ways to Bring Typography Style Home
4. Clip It
Paint a regular clipboard and hang it from a nail in your entry hall or home office. Swap in patterned paper and simple print-out calendar templates for each passing month. It’s a quick way to see your month at a glance. For details on the (readily available) materials needed to make your own, head on over to Jenna Rose Journal.
Related: 5 Favorite Picture-Hanging Tricks
5. Box It
Some people use calendars to organize and plan; others use calendars to remember dates and reflect. Designed for the latter, a DIY calendar journal provides space to record your daily activities so that you can revisit them fondly year after year. Wit and Whistle shows you how to create one using only index cards and a recipe box.
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