Paint Chip Calendar!

I saw this on Pinterest:

and decided to try for myself!  

What I used:

• 35 paint swatches (free!)
• An old picture frame (with a GLASS front)
• White board markers
• Poster board ($0.99)

First I needed my colors.  I decided to go for yellow (my walls are blue).  I took my sheets (also yellow) to Lowe’s and used their paint-matcher to find the closest one.  Then my sister had the brilliant idea to use the three colors on either side that way I knew they matched and I could have one color for each day of the week.  Here’s what I came up with:
The colors I chose were WV31007-WV31013

• Breath of Blue
• Morning Mist
• Maine Shore
• Golden Rod
• Lemon
• White Pine
• Honey Pot

**Note: be sure to pick paint samples that are big enough to cut the words off of and still have a square.  I used Valspar samples because they’re huge.  

Next I had to decide what layout I wanted to use—random or uniform.  I went for uniform, but here were the layouts I played with before cutting my samples

The cutting took forever, especially since I messed up and cut the square out of the wrong corner a few times which meant I had words on my square.  Luckily I thought ahead and grabbed a few extras from Lowe’s.  When I finally finished cutting it was time to start gluing.  I chose a frame from IKEA (11 3/4 x 15 3/4).  I had originally planned on using the back of the photo insert to paste my squares onto, but being IKEA the hanging directions were on the back of the insert.  So I just cut some poster paper to fit the frame.  I wanted to make sure the spacing was even and the frame didn’t cover any of the squares so I reassembled the frame so my poster board was in front of the glass and just glued my squares on that way.

I used scrapbook tape to stick them on…you don’t need much, just a quick slide in the center.  In order to keep the spacing right (I just eyeballed it) I laid out the top and left sides then worked my way down and right.

When I finished (it took maybe 10 minutes) I put the frame back together and put my numbers on.

All in all I think it turned out pretty good.  Not to mention how easy and cheap it was.  I just paid the 99 cents for the poster board since I had the empty frame lying around and I had my own white board markers.  I recommend this one for sure!

xo