Beauty and the Beast of Dry Erase Calendars

I decided to name this post "Beauty and the Beast" of dry erase calendars because I could not stand my last one and I love my new one!

With the new year here, I was ready to make a new calendar for the wall outside the kitchen.  I wanted it to be better than the one I had which was a store purchased dry erase.  I also wanted it to be a picture frame calendar so I could have an excuse to get some new chalkboard markers.  I also knew I wanted it to be blue and green to match the blue walls in parts of my home.  So with the stage set, I began! As a side note, how many pictures are too many for a tutorial?  I guess we will find out!

 Picture #1...

I am just taping some paper down to use as the background for the stencil

I am using a Laura Ashley Home stencil I picked up for little to nothing

I have not used it on the walls before

This is the first fail- I stenciled yellow and red and it was not great-did not look good on blue walls

Then I did blue and green and was in love( 2 fave colors)

Half done

A little nap for the stencil to dry off before the next step

close up

here comes the BOOM- glow in the dark paint!

Before the glow in the dark

All glowed up-I wish I could show you her "purty-ness" at night with the glow in the dark paint added!

Then I added some Silhouette birds and things to add character

Frame in gold before I spray painted it a really cool hammered bronze color

I used the last calendar as a guide to hot glue down the dividing lines on the glass of the new frame

I then added yellow stickers as templates for the days of the week

Then I wrote all over it with chalkboard markers-they wipe off very well!

The I took a picture of the finished project reflected in mirror to look artsy

The Beast! See ya on the 5th of NEVUARY! (never + February)

 Now that I have finished I will say that I love the fact that the glass is the only thing that gets wiped off and the stickers and detail are all underneath.  This is good because I can use dry erase and chalkboard markers and not worry about cleaning too much since it is just glass.  It cleans easily and just looks better.

I think that the hardest part was getting the lines measured and glued down and the yellow stickers.  I sometimes have no method to my madness and it took a while to get the stickers exact since I was not measuring as much at that point.

I enjoyed the process because I basically just kept grabbing stuff from around the house and using it like the yarn for the divider on the days and the yellow stickers.  I also was very excited that my Silhouette worked this time.  I realized that it probably needed a larger setting for the needle so I turned it to 3 and it cut properly....which means I am going to finally perfect that wall stencil I started!

Well, that's it- is there a wall calendar that you just can't stand any longer and need to bury?