Verjaardagskalendar (Dutch Perpetual Birthday Calendar)

The first time I visited my in-laws in Holland, I was intrigued by the perpetual calender they had in their main floor bathroom. I asked Niels about it, and he said everyone in Holland has one. It's really brilliant actually. 

Instead of filling out birthdays and anniversaries on a new calendar every year, the verjaardagskalendar (literally: birthdays calendar) has dates and lines (no days of the week), making it a perpetual calendar. The Dutch keep it in the bathroom because that's the one room where you sit for a few minutes each day. 

A month ago, we bought an Ikea Ribba shelf for our verjaardagskalendar, but it needed something else. I liked the idea of a magnetic board with scrabble letters, but the one I made was an epic fail. Well, maybe not epic because D likes to play with it, but it's too ugly for our powder room!

Yesterday, I found this magnetic dry erase board with two photo slots at Target. It was just what I wanted, but the wrong color. Our powder room is yellow with orange accents. But I couldn't stop thinking about it, and last night I picked it up.

I thought about painted it, but I don't paint so well. I had some glitter tape from Joann's, but it was just not quite wide enough.  

I improvised with some printed paper tape from Target. I tape the entire outside edge of the frame with the orange striped tape.

I remembered to use an old bread bag clip to make using the tape easier.

The orange tape was a little wider than the frame.

I clipped the corners and tucked them over.

Next, I placed the glitter tape on top, lining up on the inside edge of the frame.

I cut the corners on the diagonal with my exacto knife.

I used the same idea for the center pieces.

I used several small stripes on the small piece so the pattern continued.

No more blue. Well, only a peek of blue.

I wasn't happy with my trim job, so I touched up with our trim paint, Sherwin Williams Pure White.

A clean seam.

Next, I rounded up all D's frig magnet letters that he hardly uses anymore. I borrowed this idea from The Crafted Sparrow.

I bought both a primer and a metallic finish paint.

The primer was pointless.

But it didn't matter. The metallic paint worked great.

I did have to spray from both sides.

While I waited for the letters to dry. I turned my attention to the photo frame slots. I knew I wanted one to explain the verjaardagskalendar. I used PowerPoint to make it. It took two tries because the frame actually covers quite a bit of the 4x6 glass.

I used the glass to trim the paper.

Next, I chose one of our new family photos. In order to not waste photo paper, I also printed another photo I knew I wanted to frame.

 Perfect fit.

I love this picture of Niels and Bailey. This was taken the day before she died. I love that my dog really became our dog.

By this time, the letters were dry.

And my paint sheet has a nice design.

When I collected all the magnets, I thought it was fun that you could still see the colors on the back.

I thought the letters would be a fun touch.

I put the rest of the letters in an empty basket I had sitting on the window ledge.

You can still see a touch of blue.

But it's okay because there's touch of blue in our art.

Especially this one:

A few close ups:

 

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