DIY Calendar Pin Board

I can definitely say that I am addicted to Pinterest and I love looking at all the great DIY project pins.  That being said, I have noticed that a lot of people have pinned a "command center", which consists of a desk, chair, small filing area, calendar, and usually a laptop, essentially it holds their their lives in one place.  I don't have anywhere to put one in my house, but I do have a big empty wall in my kitchen screaming for some attention.  So I decided to make my own interpretation of the command center for those who don't have the additional space for a command center.  My idea inspiration came from a pin, of course, that took a frame and used it as dry erase board, seen here:

I wanted to make a reusable calendar that mimicked this idea, but also had a cork board to hold all my important letters, my grocery list, bills and any of the things that would otherwise get lost.  So I ran out, paid maybe $12 for the materials and made my very own command center, and this is what I came up with:

My neighbor loved the idea and needed one of these bad boys for her house.  Since the frame was buy one, get one free and the cork came in a four pack, I had the extra materials to make her one too.  So after work, we had a Pinterest craft party.  Her's was a little more involved than mine, so if you want a more plain Jane one like mine, swap the fabric for ribbon to cover the edges of the cork (attach with hot glue), and nix the paint samples to draw on the calendar.

You'll need the following:

• A frame - I used a poster size that would fit on the wall I wanted to use, and they were buy one get one free!
• A sharpie
• A ruler
• A pencil
• Cork board- I found a four pack of these great squares.  
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Paint sample cards -I've made two of these now, one I used paint sample cards and the other I just hand sketched the calendar out, either way looked great.  
• A piece of Fabric (one fat quarter was more than enough for one piece of cork)

Step one: Map it out. 

I wasn't sure about the lay out.  I wanted a decent size cork board, and the squares had to be big enough to write in, so it took me a couple of tries to get the size for mine just right. I also wanted to make sure there was room at the bottom for notes, meal planning, etc.  Make sure you know what you want and that it will fit in the size frame you purchase.   The two pieces of cork together were a little too long to fit in this frame so I just used a regular pair of scissors and trimmed it down until they both fit.  

  For Brianna's, she went to Home Depot and grabbed a few of these super paint sample card to use as her days.  Pretty smart considering it took me about an hour just to measure and draw out my map.  Once it's mapped out, you need to remove the plastic or glass, depending on your frame.  I know it sounds weird but you need to be able to map it all out correctly.  For this frame, the plastic was only held on my four sticky spots.  All I did was pull slightly and it popped right off.

Next, you'll want to flip over that spiffy sheet that the frame comes with to give yourself a nice (and free) white background.  Next put your cork back in place, but DO NOT glue the cork down in this step, you just need it for spacing.  This is when you either draw out your calendar or use these cute paint sample cards.  My neighbor was able to make this really pattern for hers that can be mimicked with any color really.  We spaced out the colors evenly and then one by one glued them down with hot glue.  You might want to use a paper towel to press down on the cards because after the first three it starts to really burn the fingerprints.  

Now its time to put the glass/plastic back in the frame.  You can reattach it to the frame just the hot glue.  I added one drop to each side and then one in each of the corners.  Place the frame back over the calendar and attach the cork to the top of the glass/plastic.  My neighbor wanted to add her own flare to the cork board before we attached it to the board.  So she printed out this really cute image and we just hot glued it right to the cork.  To secure the cork, we used the double sided foam pieces that came with the cork.  You can add almost anything to it to make it your own.  My neighbor covered her cork board in her favorite fabric to give it some flare.  You can also add photos under the glass to personalize.  The very last step is to use a dry erase marker and organize your life!  Happy Crafting!!!