Altered Desk Calendar

With the summer speeding by, my thoughts have been moving ahead to back-to-school time. Each year I like to make something new for my classroom. This year I decided I would make items for my desk.

I happened to find this black desk calendar at a discount because the top center section had a big scratch across it. Since my plan was to alter it, that didn't bother me a bit and the lower price was a bonus.

I did research on the internet to find out how to best prepare the leather for adhesive. I had attempted to glue items to leather before and they didn't stay attached very long. I found that using denatured alcohol or acetone would remove the slick finish and make my embellishments last longer. Be sure to apply only to the areas where you will be adding adhesive. A small cotton ball works perfectly for this.

After prepping the surface, I applied Memory Mount adhesive to the back of the papers I chose to use (Imagination Project). An old used gift card or sample credit card from junk mail made it easy to apply a smooth even coat of the glue. I worked from the upper corners inward, trimming my papers to allow around ¼ inch space in between each so that the black leather would show. As I'm an art teacher I put one of my favorite art quotes in the center. I attached a triangular piece of patterned paper to each of the bottom corners.

This particular desk accessory had blank monthly calendars with it. I added leftover alphabet stickers along with rubber stamps to fill in the months and days.

In order for this to be the most useful for me, I decided to color code my reminders. Pink ink was used for personal notes, blue for scrapbook deadlines, and grey for my school-related activities.

One word of advice I have is to make sure that the calendar you decide to alter holds a standard-size yearly refill. This particular one does not so I'll have to come up with a solution when the 18 months worth of pages are used up.

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