The Second Annual $5 Challenge
over at
1) The challenge was to create a new spring decor item for your home
2) It had to be purchased from a dollar store
3) $5.00 was the price limit
4) You could use paint, glue, fabric, paper and tools if you already had them on hand
We were in great need of a calendar in the kitchen, but I knew I did not want a big bulky one.
So while at Dollar Tree shopping for Valentine goodies I found this :
miniature cork board
I was not sure what I was going to do with it but for $1.00 I had to have it!
I found this and did the project before the announcement of the challenge, everything happens for a reason!
I sanded down the wood trim with some left over sand paper
I had bought these for another project and had not used them yet, I thought they would dress up the board!
They were only $1.99, so even if I had to purchase them to stay within the $5 budget
I would have been able to!
You could also choose not to hot glue them on if you want a look more contemporary
I them painted the wood frame black, with Apple brand paint (I always keep this on hand) with a cheap-o sponge brush (I buy these in bulk)!
When it had dried, I used the sand paper to rough up the edged, to give it a little personality
I then painted the decorative pieces with Apple brand paint in lime green, when the green had had time to dry I brushed over it with black with a sponge brush as well!
I glued the pieces on with hot glue, a girls best friend!!!!
I wanted my calendar to go on the fridge so I dug through the junk drawer and found 4 magnets and hot glued them on!
I had initially wanted to use some black and white Damask wrapping paper left over from Christmas to cover the cork but was afraid that it would be a little difficult to cut to size , so after thinking for a second I decided that I would go through a whole drawer full of scrap book paper that I never use and see if I could find something black and white.
I came up with black and white polka dot, which I was not crazy about at first but I know it had to work.
I am sure that when I purchased this paper about 3 years ago it did not cost more than .25 cents!
All I did was cut the paper just a tiny bit bigger than the cork part and slipped it under the wood frame!
Now for a calendar , I looked at dollar stores and could not find a cheap small calendar that I could take apart so I went online an found a Word version, changed the font, printed to size and then punched two holes in the top so I could run a piece of ribbon through it.
I had planned on using some burlap ribbon my Mom had given me
for Christmas but it looked too bulky, so I looked around
and found a great lime green piece of ribbon that came on a bag
from Coldwater Creek, it was perfect and FREE!
I then cut a piece of card board (from a cereal box I was throwing away)
to use as backing for the paper calendar.
Stabled it and the calendar to the cork and boom it was done!
When I saw that Lindsay was going to have a $5 challenge I knew I had to enter, this would also be perfect to hang on a metal file cabinet in the office or leave off the magnet and place in an easel on a desk!
