Rustic Wooden Calendar

Have you ever see something in the store that you love, but then see the price tag and think well I don’t love it for that price ?! Me too, all the time! And what I do in most of those situations is ask myself if I can make it myself? This was one of those situations and the answer was ‘yes I can’ and today I’m going to show you how to make a Rustic Wooden Calendar.

Rustic Wooden Calendar

I will say the hardest part was figuring out how I was going to make those metal sliders and then out of sheer blind luck I was at Walmart and happen to look down to see a photo album that had a metal label holder on the side. Genius! But of course Walmart doesn’t sell those pieces individually, but lucky for me I live near a Hobby Lobby. Sorry that was a proud moment for me so I thought I’d share, haha. Lets get started my friends.

Materials:

• Drill
• Circular Saw
• Jigsaw
• Needle nose pliers
• Hot glue gun
• Glue sticks
• Brass flat bars
• Label Holders
• (1) 1 x 4 common board at least 2ft long
• (3) 1/2 in. x 2 x 2 poplar board (cut each board down from 2 ft to 1ft 8 in.)
• (1) 1/2 in. x 3 x 2 poplar board (cut into 2 pieces of 11 1/2 in. each)
• Wood screws
• Wood glue
• Sand paper
• Wood stain
• Letter stamps
• Number stamps
• Ink pad

Instructions:

Step 1: Cut all of the wood to the measurements given above.

Step 2: Lay the two side pieces flat and then line up all of the horizontal pieces to get the spacing right. Then measure 2 in. from the bottom and 2 in. in between each board, leaving 1 in. remaining on the top. I then labeled the board for my cuts.

Using the drill make holes in each corner as shown,this will help with the corner cuts for the jigsaw. Then cut out each marked section with the jigsaw.

Step 4: Assemble all of the pieces. Use wood glue to hold the horizontal bars in place and then screw each one to the side boards.

Step 5: Screw the side boards to the base by first drill a hole from the bottom into the side boards, then screwing them in place.

Step 6: Using the needle nose pliers form the brass flat bars around the horizontal pieces, but not all the way yet. You want them to look like “C”s for the time being.

Step 7: Stain the wood

Step 8: Once the wood stain is dry, stamp the numbers on the lowest bar, then the Months on the middle bar and the days of the week on the top bar. For spacing I lined up all of the numbers then just stamped as I went.

TIP: If you use a paper towel to wipe the edges of the stamp, you will keep yourself from get the square edges stamped on the wood as well.

Step 9: Using the hot glue gun, glue the label holders to the back of the flat brass “C”s that we created. Then assemble them onto the horizontal boards and using the needle nose pliers again, form the flat brass all the way around the boards.

The finished wooden sliding calendar will make a great accent to any desk or study. I know that my brain works different at times so if you have any questions at all about any of the steps, please let me know in the comments and I’ll do the best I can to help you out. Good luck and we’d love to see some of the finished products so be sure to tag those pics with #omtcrafts.