A Homemade Christmas – #1 – Practical Perpetual Calendar
October 23, 2008
Welcome to the first A Homemade Christmas! This is week One of Ten (you don’t have to enter in each one). I hope you’ll join us in sharing about homemade gifts that you have received or made — past, present, and future!
You can click here for the Introductory post.
This calendar will last a very long time, which makes it a great gift. Since it is perpetual, it just keeps going. There are lots of things you can do with the idea, and it’s pretty easy to make.
It has a bit of a vintage look to it. Each date is the tin lid of a fruit concentrate can. I used scrapbooking paper for the background of each date. The numbers I printed out on card stock and then cut out with an exacto knife. The background is a wood board that was primed, spray painted, then distressed (sanded and stained).
Each date is put together with decoupage glue (we use Mod Podge) with the scrapbook paper in the background, and the numbers stuck down on top of that.
To make the holes, I took a piece of vellum and cut it out the same size and the background paper. I used vellum so that I could see where to put the hole. Near the edge (about 1/4 inch from the edge), I punched a hole in the vellum. This was used as the hole template.
I laid the vellum template on top of each finished date, and marked (with a permanent) the spot where the hole was to be. In this way all of the holes were located in the same place on each one.
My wonderful daddy put holes in the tin lids, and cut out the months.
The months are actually cut-outs from the sides of large tin cans (you can slightly see the ripples in the middle). After Daddy cut the tin out, I decoupaged them with scrapbook paper. Four large nails were added to the top to hold the months.
An addition for the calendar (which I haven’t made yet) would be making dates for holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries.
It does take quite a while to make, so if you’re thinking about making one, you better get to work saving all those juice can lids!
Have you made or received any homemade gifts? If you’d like to make a post about your homemade gifts, you can sign Mr. Linky below. You can add one of my Homemade Christmas icons to your blog by clicking here. Each Thursday (until the end of December) there will be A Homemade Christmas post! Hope you’ll join in the fun as we learn, inspire, and encourage one another!
| 1. BreezyTulip 2. Robin@ Robin’s Egg Blue 3. Emily |
4. SchoolinRHome 5. Tina 6. lilie |
7. Jess @ the JOB 8. Buttercup |
While living the life my Lord has blessed me with, I am at home with my family enjoying being a daughter, homemaker and artist. My highest goal is to give glory to God and enjoy Him forever. It is He that has saved me with His amazing grace and is continually molding me; to Him I owe everything. Read more . . .
Emily, this is such a sweet idea! I hope you have a good turn out – no one is going to want to miss this one!
God Bless,
-Breezy
I think your calendar is just lovely. It is so artsy and easy to use. It really adds a lot of character to our kitchen. Thanks for sharing it.
I really enjoyed this meme, I am already looking forward to putting together more posts and thinking up more ideas. Thanks for putting this all together.
Love, Mom
Hey that is a wonderful calender. I posted about a sugar crystal snowflakes.
have a blessed day
miss emilly
I love the calendar!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a fantastic project. I will be tucking this project away for later.
This is so cute Emily! That is a wonderful idea for a Christmas gift. You won’t have to buy another calendar for awhile, now would you! very neat. :)
Love,
Rachel
http://dixonhomestead.com/rachel
Wow, that calendar is gorgeous!
Hi that is a really cool calender. I fixed my picture so you should be able to see them now.
Have blessed day
Miss Emily
Hello Miss Emily! Your mother posted a quick note at the Homeschool Lounge directing us to your Homemade Christmas and I thought I ought to check it out.
I leave this comment though, because I wanted to share with you how utterly impressed I am with you! I am not sure how old you are-but you are an incredible young woman- one of those girls that I just PRAY my girls turns out like.
I am 26 years old and have been married for 6 years, two young ones and a third nearly in my arms instead of belly, and I must say how horribly ill-prepared I was for marriage. Really, it is laughable! Much of that had to do with my upbringing, I didn’t have a very good role model. My life from that point onward was a constant quest to teach MYSELF how to act, how to cook, how to parent, and how to be a godly woman and wife.
You are incredibly blessed to have parents who love you enough to teach you what is good and right, and to help prepare you for the wonderful chapters of your life that are yet to be read! I am thankful, too, that you are wise enough to see the beauty in your life and your duties as a Christian woman, and to value them.
The idea of a Homemade Christmas is delightful, and being a lover of all things handmade myself am particularly excited about it. I am finishing up the responsibilities of unpacking and moving into a new home and our little “Bunkin” is due in just a few short weeks, so I am not sure if I’ll be able to participate this year (though I shall try!) but I do know that I will enjoy it through everyone else’s participation! :-)
Oh yeah-and that calendar is pretty snazzy! ;-)
Great idea! I LOVE the vintage style. So creative!
I found your site through your comment on The Homespun Heart. I love this idea! Practical and there is so much you could do to personalize it. Cute!
Too absolutely adorable! You did such a wonderful job, and such a clever idea! :)
If you’re not busy and want to do another GGM article this month, lmk. Brielle is too busy and I am not a seamstress! :((
(((HUGS)))
I have been saving juice can lids to make ornaments. Simply punch a hole as you did on top, and take a pattern (like a tree or such) and a hammer and nail, and tap holes through lid, outlining your pattern. You will want to leave a space between holes, as you are just trying to get an outline of your pattern.
Hi Emily! I found your blog by accident, through a series of links on several different blogs. Anyways, I think this calendar is just stunning! I’m a huge fan of vintage, whimsical crafts like this; I’m going to show this to my mom and see if I can try something like it myself. :) Thanks for sharing!
That is so incredibly creative. I have someone in mind that would love this, I can’t wait to get started!
Hi Emily!
How neat! It looks wonderful!
Sorry I haven’t commented in a very long time!! School and babysitting have been keeping me busy, and at times, when I try to visit your blog, it says it is blocked by Parental Controls. The Parental Controls on this computer is very picky, and it has even blocked up my blog before!
Again, the calendar is so neat! You are very creative.
Have a great day!
In Christ,
Kira
Oh, and I don’t think I have commented on your new blog look, yet. It really looks WONDERFUL! I love it!
Wow, what a great idea! Your calendar turned out lovely! I came here from GGM, and I’ll definitely be visiting again.
~Stephanie
Hey, I just signed up!! I might not be able to post about the ones I am making for my family because they are always looking at my blog! Thank you for doing this, I think it is a great idea!
-Your friend Buttercup :)
Fantastic blog! Thank you so much for sharing with all the rest of us!
Its so pretty and I’m thinking about making one
But your dates are mixed up.
Your “19″ came before your “18″
;)
I love this idea!! My mother-in-law saw one recently at a craft fair where they used old canning lids for the numbers. I’ve been going through you site little by little and see many Christmas and birthday presents!
You have been such a blessing and I thank God for the wonderful parents you have!! It is such a blessing to encounter young ladies who desire to follow the Lord’s lead in their lives!! It is also nice to see things that are truly feminine. (I live in a house of all males, ages 10 to 15 plus my darling hubby!!)
Once again thank you so very much!
Wow, this is too cute! I can’t wait to make mine! All the relatives are going to get this one for Christmas this year from our family.
Your whole family is amazing! I read a little about you and your sister and I am so inspired by you two. I love art and photography and just about anything creative. Did you develop your own website? How did you learn to do all of this? It fascinates me that you and your sister are so accomplished at such a young age! If you ever want to chat, I would love to get to know you all – my e-mail and blog are here. :)
Take care, thank you for who you are in Christ and for the image bearer you are being.
In His Care,
Elisabeth