Credit: Rashida Coleman-Hale
We know it can be hard to resist all those brand new, blank calendars that your stores stock at the end of the year—after all, the promise of all those empty days is almost reason enough to give in a buy one, and then there are the photos: whether you're into kittens and puppies, Robert Pattinson, or Italian landscapes, there's a design out there for you.
But if you're trying to save on paper this year—or if you missed your chance and all the good ones are gone—then make your own perpetual calendar from spare craft supplies with this tutorial from I Heart Linen. The materials are simple, and you probably already have them on hand: scraps of fabric in your favorite colors, spare buttons (which you can also collect from worn coats, shirts, and pants), and a set of stamps. Cover each button—you'll need 31, stamped 1-31 for the days of the month, and four blank ones to fill the extra spaces—and glue a velcro circle to the back of each. Attach the coordinating pieces of velcro to a square piece of fabric, and use months-of-the-year stamps to make title pieces—then each month you can rearrange the buttons to help you keep track of where the dates fall.
Of course, you won't have the free space to write in your daily activities, but you will have a calendar that you can make with upcycled materials and use forever; as for dentist appointments, soccer games, and long-awaited vacations, save even more paper by keeping track of those electronically.
