Washi Whiteboard Calendar w/ Magnets

Hello friends!

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen some sneak peeks of this project.

We have a mini hallway between the dining room and kitchen,

opposite the door to the basement.  I planned to put a central command station

there, with clipboards for each of my boys, to organize important papers for school.

That was last year.  doh

The farthest I got was hanging up a big corkboard, which unfortunately

became a clutter magnet instead of an organizational tool.

By the time another school year rolled around, I got serious ; )

I was inspired by this Vinyl Washi Tape Calendar 

from The 36th Avenue, which I shared on facebook long ago.

At the time, I commented that it could be adapted onto a whiteboard, 

instead of sticking a giant piece of vinyl to your fridge.  That's what I did -

turned a giant white board into a dry erase calendar.  It's a magnetic board,

so I also made magnets for the days of the week and day numbers.

The white board was one we already had.  It was a bit beat up, but a magic eraser helped with that.  I just purchased a few rolls of washi tape to turn it into a calendar.

TIP: a wide, quilter's ruler really helped with this!!

I lined the sides of my white board with 1/2" colored washi tape.

Then I divided the inside area into seven columns across.

I should state that the outer measurements of this white board are 36" by 24"

It was such that the spaces would not measure out evenly in easy amounts,

(of course) so there was a lot of adjusting 1/8" here, 1/16" there.

My seven columns across are roughly each 4 1/4" 

I marked this out with a pencil on the frame of the white board,

then used my quilting ruler to make straight edges to line the tape against.

I started each section of tape so that it was centered on my measurement mark.

Once the columns were on, I lined the top and bottom edges with the same

1/2" colored washi tape, covering up the ends of my column pieces.

Then I measured out the rows, again which are not exactly all the same due to

weird percentages.  The five rows down are roughly 4" each.

I chose different washi tape for the rows, and it doesn't matter if it is wider, 

as long as you start each piece centered on your measurement mark.  Make sense?

This time I just carefully trimmed the edges even with the border tape.

You can see in the above pic that I also put wide washi tape around the front 

of the frame.  I did opposite ends all the way across, and then trimmed the remaining 

sides into a mitered corner by cutting diagonally from the corner of the frame toward 

the inside corner.  When this diagonal edge is smoothed out as a top layer, 

it makes the corners look nice and neat.

Now the base of the calendar is complete!

For the magnets, I upcycled some wooden magnets from a (very) long neglected chore chart.  I hesitated to do this (because it was a very nice magnetic chore chart) BUT, in the end I decided it was worth it if they were put to SOME organizational use instead of just collecting dust ; )  I pulled out only seven of the large ones (for the days of the week), and purposely chose ones that would not be used much if said chore chart was ever used again in the future (fat chance).

I peeled off the papery top of the stickers with the help of an exacto knife.  
I whipped up a printable, printed it on book pages (which is actually just as easy 
as using regular paper!) then trimmed it, used spray adhesive to attach it to the
 front of the magnet piece, and mod podged over the top.  
These magnets are 3 1/2" by 1" and 1/4" thick.  You could probably 
make them from foamcore, with adhesive magnet strips on the back.

Because I like things matchy-matchy, I caved and used the 1" round magnets from the same chore chart for the calendar numbers.  I figured if we ever use that chore chart again, ANY token with a magnet on the back could be used for marking chores completed.  You could make these with buttons, bottle caps, glass vase fillers...I upcycled what I had.  I was dreaming of typewriter key numbers for this lil' project, but every font and printable I could find only had numbers from zero to nine (like what you would find on an actual vintage  typewriter).  SO, I made one for numbers one to thirty-one, and printed it on book pages to match the others.

Once I had peeled all the paper tops off the old magnets, I sprayed them 

lightly with spray adhesive, and placed my cut-out printables on top.  

I didn't have a 1" punch, so I just held the magnet up to a light and tried to center 

the number against the silhouette.  A few are a bit wonky, but that adds charm, right?    

Then I just cut right around the edges and mod podged the tops.  

They went together really quickly, and turned out fabulous!

The washi whiteboard calendar & magnets are only part of 

my new central command station.  

As you can see below, I added clipboards underneath, and 

then also a holder for an eraser, marker & extra magnets.

Come back and see them next!

Sharing @
   

Made by You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou