Pin Calendar

When my children were really small, I made them this pin calendar to mark the birthdays of our friends and family. I wanted to spark their interest in learning the names of the months and checking regularly whose birthday it is.

The pin calendar is a nice decoration and it's really cheap to make as you can use things you probably already have at home. I made it my mission to find stuff in our basement to use for this and not buy anything and had I not found any paint, I would have left the pins unpainted, as they are wooden and look nice. It took me a little while to gather the pins but the family helped.

1. string or even wire - should be thicker than usual sewing thread
2. laundry pins, one for each date you want to use - I used old wooden pins but it will work also with plastic pins and they do not need to be all the same size and material
3. optional: flat brush and acrylic pains (you can use the original color of the pins and not paint them)
4. thin permanent marker (or thin brush and dark paint)
5. 1/2 sheet of heavyweight paper
6. colored pencils
7. scissors

First, you need to find a good spot for your calendar. It can be as wide as you like, or as wide as the month with the most pins (if you don't understand this reference, read the whole instructable first). And as for the height, you'll need to hang 12 rows of string and the space between them should be a little larger than the length of the pins.

Also, consider how long you'd like the calendar to last. Do not pick places you need to clean or move often. I chose the railing of our staircase and I find that wall would also be a great spot, just maybe on a cardboard board.

If you chose a place on the wall or a board that you're going to hang on the wall, first put some pushpins which you're going to attach the string to.

If you - like me - chose a railing, you can tie the string to it without any pushpins or nails.

Cut the strings as long as you wish, tie one end, extend the string, make sure it's perfectly horizontal and tie the other end. Attach 12 strings in total, making sure the space between them is a bit more than the length of the pins (the longest pin you have).

Cut out 12 labels from the paper, any shape you want, one for each month. You can just write the name of the months, I made a small drawing also. The names in our calendar are in Czech because that's the language I speak to my kids (notice that the Czech month names are completely different from English).

Punch a small hole on top of each label (for example with scissors) and use a piece of string to attach it to the beginning of each string you have extended.

If you want to paint the pins, now is the time. I use only acrylic paint because I don't want the paint to rub off on our fingers when we handle them. You can also use watercolors or tempera but you'll need to spray-varnish the pins then. Let the paint dry properly.

Assign one pin to each person/date in your future calendar, write just the day number at the front of the pin and the name of the person/event at the long end of it. I used a thin permanent markers for the writing but you can do it with black paint and a very thin brush.

And now's finally the time to hang the pins. Pin the pins to the string of the corresponding month in chronological order. The labels will tell you the month and the number on each pin the day. Enjoy!