DIY - Dry Erase Paint Chip Calendar

I found myself with a little time on my hands this past weekend, so I decide to finish a project that I started a few months ago.  I originally found this idea from a pin on pinterest.

I picked up a poster frame at my local grocery store, you can get one almost anywhere.  I bought a 18x24 frame.  Then I went to Lowes and picked up some paint chips.  You will need a total of 35 paint chips.  You can do an hombre effect and get colors that all match or you can do what I did and mix it up a bit.

The other things you will need are a circle punch, double-sided tape and a ruler.  If you want to line the back of your calendar with a piece of fabric, you will need that too.  I did not choose to do that, instead I just turned over the paper that came in the frame and worked from that surface.

Here are the colors that I chose, minus a color.  I just realized that one is missing from this picture.

Figure out what order you want them to go in and make sure they are going to fit on your frame.

If you want to, punch a circle out of the top of the paint color where you can write the date once it's made into a calendar.  I strategically placed my punch over the writing.  At this point, you could also round the corners if you wanted.  I liked mine as they were.

Once I had them all punched, I did a dry fit just to check out spacing.  If you look carefully, you'll notive that a few of my middle brown chips got circle-punched a little off.  Be sure to hold them tightly when you are punching them.

Now it's time to attach the chips.  Use some double-sided tape and start at the bottom.  Measure from one edge and find the middle of your background.

Take your color that will be in the middle and place it in the middle of the poster.  Since my poster frame was 18 inches wide, I centered my middle color over 9-inches.

My spacing was about 1/8-inch between each color.  Work from the center over the edge.  Line up the ruler on the bottom of the poster to keep the swatches level that way.  Now start from the middle and work your way to the other edge using the same technique.

Once you have the bottom row completed, measure in from the side and make tiny marks all the way up the side of the poster.  This will give you a guide of where to put your edge pieces.  Do this on both sides and then put your edge colors on.  

Then you can put your other pieces in.  Start with the middle color and attach the whole column.  Then, just work your way up from the bottom working hard to keep everything lined up.  If you want to measure everything out, you can.  I just found that it was easier to eyeball the middle pieces once I had the sides lined up.

Once you get all of the colors in, put your frame back on and admire your work.

Figure out where you are going to hang it and put it up!

Find a dry erase marker and fill out your month.  I had just purchased a bunch for another project, so I stole one from there.