"make your own" calendar

Adam and I bought each other a new Nikon camera for Christmas, so we didn’t spend a whole lot of additional money on each other for gifts. I knew I wanted to make him something unique that would fit into my small Christmas budget.

I’m an avid YoungHouseLove reader and I think the calendars they make each year are adorable. Looking through their past calendars I saw one that I thought would be perfect for us. They even put a file on their blog that you can download into Photoshop to make your own calendar. I decided on their calendar from 2011 so instead of downloading their files (knowing I’d have to change the pictures, dates, etc.) I just used their idea and made my own template. Plus, I’m OK at Photoshop, but I prefer to use InDesign.

Here is how my calendar pages turned out!

It’s the perfect size for the side of our refrigerator (7 x 11) and it was really fun to make and inexpensive to get printed. If you have your own printer at home this project could be practically free! I went to Staples and ended up spending $12 (which is pretty cheap for a custom calendar).

Adam liked his gift – but I think I probably like it more than he does.

Did anyone else make a fun personalized calendar this year? 

If so, I’d love to hear from you.

diy magnets

After Adam and I got engaged in October 2010, wedding plans began immediately! I knew we had to find a venue ASAP (because a couple places I casually looked at were booked up for a year and half – I couldn’t believe it!). Once we decided on a venue and a date I knew I wanted to make my own Save The Dates. It gave me the freedom to do exactly what I wanted and they were very “budget friendly”

 We loved how they turned out. After finishing our picture wall I had a few left over pictures that didn’t find a spot in frames. Since I had some materials left over from my Save The Dates I decided to make a few more magnets for our refrigerator and chalk board.

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Here’s what you’ll need:

1.     pictures (or other things you want to make into a magnet)

2.     magnets (bought by the sheet)

3.     a straight edge and exacto knife

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easy peasy hair clip

Like I’ve mentioned before, curly hair can be hard to handle. 

That’s why I’m always looking for a new clip or headband to tame the “sometimes frizzy, always doing whatever IT wants to do” hair of mine. The other day I was board with some of my other hair accessory options and decided to whip up a cute fabric barrette to add to my collection.

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Here is what you’ll need to make your own:

small scrap of pretty fabric

small scrap of felt

needle and thread

button

some sort of barrette

fabric glue

something round to use as a template

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burp cloth

I've been thinking a lot about how burp cloths have to be super easy to make...so I decided to take a stab at it myself. What really prompted me to do so was the fact that I was at a baby shower last weekend and my sister in law received a few cute ones as gifts - one of which was homemade by my husband's aunt (really adorable). Here is my take on the "much needed if you have a baby" burp cloth...

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Here is what you'll need:

2 different pre-washed fabrics (one of mine was a soft terry cloth)

a CD (or something else round)

Fusible web (optional - can't decide if it made my burp cloth too stiff...)

Usual sewing stuff

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