Magnetic Kitchen Cabinet Calendar

Wow, so I have been slacking on updating but not on crafting - been quite busy decorating for Halloween.  More on that later but for now I am thrilled to share my Magnetic Kitchen Cabinet Calendar!

It all started (as most of my projects do) with me toying with the idea of making something I saw on a blog - this time it was the Halloween Countdown calendar similar to the one that Project Naptime made but then I remembered that my Mom is the one who can sew...not me.  So I went to plan B - paper!

I initially had planned to do the countdown on a board that would be hung from the door leading to the basement.  I wanted it to be magnetic so I thought a sheet of metal would work but then I realized that the girls would not be able to see that since it would have to be hung pretty high and it would be crazy heavy - both things which kind of defeat the purpose of having a countdown calendar for the girls, right?  Looking for a different solution, I realized that the end of my kitchen cabinets would work beautifully and that with a little magnetic paint it was just what I had in mind!

I started by putting on several - and by several I mean 8 - coats of magnetic paint.  It took so many coats just to get the paint to be reasonably magnetic.  This stuff is pretty cool although it is quite smelly and very thick. I used a foam brush to put it on because I didn't want to pour it into a paint tray (Abby, my 7 month old, would have found that in 3 1/2 seconds) - it worked fine but a roller would have been faster and probably a touch more smooth.

After the final coat of magnetic paint went on, I put 2 more coats of the original white shade.  Can't tell there are 8 coats of black magnetic paint under there can you?  I was very relieved because about 5 coats into the very dark, very thick black paint, I was 100% convinced it was not going to cover up easily.  Thank goodness I was wrong!

While it isn't the most magnetic surface, it will hold a sheet magnet cut into a shape or the super strong, teeny-tiny dot magnets.  My favorite part is that if you don't know the paint is there, you would not be able to tell that the wall is magnetic.

As I mentioned, this was originally to be a Halloween Advent calendar but I realized that I liked the idea of having a calendar for the girls year round.  Some where accessible to mark the different holidays, special events and celebrations throughout the year so I created this:

Ellie, my 3 year old, loves it!  It took a while to make but it was not hard at all.  I used my Cricut to cut out the squares and each date - then I ran them through my Xyron machine to make them into stickers.  I originally used the repositionable cartridge but the squares kept peeling and falling off so I switched to the 'permanent' one and they are sticking fine 20 days into the month!  

  

Ellie and I added some cute foam stickers from the craft store - love my trick or treating ghost!

 

I used the Cricut to cut out a day marker magnet in the shape of a pumpkin - Ellie moves it every morning when we get up.  And throughout the day too, actually.  We change dates a lot around here.

 

I cut October out using Spooky Font and used the Xyron to make each letter into a sticker. I added the tree because I liked the way it looked and need something extra to fill up the space between October and the 1st.

I am planning on doing a new one each month - check back in the beginning of November for the latest calendar!  Hope you like it!

I am linking up to a few bunches and bunches of parties:

Halloween Wreath: Burlap and Glitter

I have to brag just a little - my husband and I were installing Abby's (the 7 month old) new tank car seat into my car. (my baby isn't such a baby anymore! *sniff, sniff*)  The car was parked in our driveway and a car a pulled up to the end of the driveway.  The driver said he was sorry to bother us but his wife loved our wreath and asked where we bought it.    I was thrilled to tell them that I made it.  *squee*

This wreath is so simple to make - it only took me about an hour or so from start to finish! 

I bought 1/2 a yard both of orange and black burlap and cut them into 1" strips the length of the fabric so I wound up with a bunch of 1" x 18" strips.

Tie them in knots on your wreath form and alternate blocks of the orange with blocks of the black or you could also do half in orange with half in black.

The only downside to this wreath is working with the burlap - so messy and itchy that I had to take a shower the second that the wreath was done while my husband ran the vacuum!  If I did it again, I would only do this outside.  :) 

The next step was to find something extra to add.  I had originally bought wooden letters that spelled BOO but saw the orange glittered Boo! at Target for a whopping $2.50 and went with that instead.  Much quicker and impossible for me to mess up.

I threaded the orange ribbon through the Os and looped it around the wreath as a hanger and that's it!  Halloween decor in under an hour!  Hope you like it as much as we do! 

I am linking this up to the Halloween Extravaganza on the CSI Project!