I wanted to make a rug with roses, so back to Pinterest I went and sure enough there were a couple of examples of crocheted rose rugs and they were gorgeous. That was it, I now knew exactly what I wanted to create, a beautiful crochet rug made to look like a bed of roses.
One of the many things I have missed in my office is having a Month-at-a-Glance calendar where I could write in the upcoming special events-important dates such as dinners with friends, birthdays, appointments that I want the family to also remember, travel plans, etc.
There are calendars in many office supply stores that are dry erase, but my office has antique furniture in warm oak tones and the cold look of white board and metal did not appeal to me. Also I find that the dry erase boards tend to stain over time and not look great. One other feature that did not appeal to me was the overall size of the available calendars; they were just too big.
About a year ago I had purchased two 11”x14” frames that I wanted to turn into calendars, but it wasn’t until I bought the Cricut Maker that I knew how I wanted to make them. I created the calendar files using Adobe Illustrator and made my calendars and I wanted to share these files with you.
I am so very happy with the results and my calendars went up on the wall and right into use. They look great, they offer function as well as style. I hope you find that they work for you as well. You can choose any 11”x14” frame with glass, not plastic, and you can choose any fabric and any color pen. I chose light colors to work well in the office, but keep in mind that you will want to be able to write on top of the glass and have it show up. I think light colors work better.
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Creating this video was a difficult process. I went through several variations of how to heat the beeswax onto the fabric and most were messy and required too much dedicated equipment or supplies.
As a Beekeeper I have work with beeswax a little bit. I have separated wax from honey. I have purified wax to store for future projects. I have had wax in all colors from the purest white that only comes from brand new hive boxes to rich golden hues from matures hives. Sadly, to this day, I have not made candles. I have all of the equipment and I will make them eventually and I am sure it will end up on video for your viewing pleasure.
When my oldest daughter showed me Bee's wax Wrappers and told me about using them to store food, acting as a reusable replacement for plastic wrap and to cover bowls for food storage my first thoughts were how I would make these. My secondary thoughts were how I would keep my kitchen clean while I made these.
I scoured the internet and saw several methods and got to work. I bought aluminum trays so I would not permanently damage my cookies sheets and tried melting the wax onto the cloth in the oven. The was didn’t spread well, and I felt like I had to watch it like a hawk. Wax has a fairly low flame point and I didn’t want to start a fire. The oven method just made me nervous. My next attempt was to use an embossing heat gun to melt the beeswax, but it just blew the wax around too easily before melting it and again it did not spread well.
The iron and parchment paper method that I show on the video, on top of a folded towel was so easy, clean and effective! The wax spread, the mess was contained to sheets of parchment (which can be saved and reused) and the towel was there to soften the work surface and also catch any wax that may possible leak from the paper. I started with less wax and I could easily add more, so leaking didn’t really happen. It was controlled, simple and fast.
Keep these wrappers in mind for gifts. They last about one year, so like a dish towel, a hostess can always use some more. Plus, if you look for Fat Quarters in your fabric stores quilting department you will find a range of fun fabrics to match anyone’s theme or décor.
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When you watch the video about making the Perpetual Annual Calendar on the Cricut Maker it is important to note that this is a follow up to the video about making the Perpetual Monthly Calendar. This video has a bit less detail, but all of the instructions are included from the point where the SVG file is uploaded.
This annual calendar, made with any 11”x14” frame, is so convenient and family friendly. It is a terrific “at-a-glance” overview of the whole year and the frame size of 11”x14” is an ideal size for most locations. It is not huge, but it is not too small to include important appointments and events. Additionally, using the glass surface of a frame works well because most dry erase white board material eventually stains. This calendar will look more stately than stained.
I must say that I am very pleased with the results. My home office is furnished with antique furniture, all American oak, and I wanted subtle understated accents for my office accessories. The fabric I used was found at Hobby Lobby and it is a light taupe or maybe ecru fabric with a white print. It is almost tone-on-tone and is perfect for a calendar that I want to write on top of. I have been using a black dry erase pen.
The accent color was drawn by the Cricut with a Cricut pen. I used Bronze, but with the Monthly and Annual calendars I decided that I wanted just a touch of gold, so I went over the written details with a gold fabric glitter pen. I’ll put the link below because this pen was AMAZING to write with!
There is a download file that I have made for both the Monthly and Annual Calendar that can be downloaded at no cost. Just click on the link below to find the file (if you are not logged in a registration page will pop up--sign up for free and you will be able to access the download).
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