Gallery Wall: Part 4, Anniversary Calendar

I had an empty 8"x10" matted to a 5"x7" hanging on my wall without any idea what I was going to put in it. Then a few days ago, as I was traipsing along on Pintrest, I saw this:

Source: eggpress.com via Heather on Pinterest

What an interesting and unique way to display a special date! I had initially assumed that I would make something like "Nelson, Est. 2005" as we have seen so many times. I actually like those and wanted one, but I already had our family name represented on the wall and I didn't want to over do it. But with this calendar, I could take down two birds with one stone. Brilliant!

I got to work on my computer designing how this calendar would look. First off, let me say that deciding on a "perfect" design is a pain and hardly ever happens. This would be one of those times that I settled for "good enough." Second, I really wish that my printer was calibrated to my screen.

Anyway, after toying around with a few different options, I landed on this design.

After printing it out, I turned my attention to phase two--framing it.

The biggest thorn in my side about the calendar that I had designed was that it had no pattern. Ugh! But I wasn't willing to put in the extra effort to try to add some, so the pattern came into play in the mat. Inspiration at its finest here, folks. (Seriously, it's not me. After mauling over a problem for a while, ideas just pop into my head. I take no credit for them.)

I pulled out a piece of patterned cardstock (that I had initially intended to use for a background when framing Darin's Eagle, but had decided against) and cut it to the dimensions of the afore mentioned mat. Then I cut the inner rectangle slightly larger than the mat's opening. For a little artistic definition, I traced along the inside edge of the opening with a black marker. Patterned top mat: done.

Finally, I taped all of the layers in place and slipped the whole thing into the frame, and voilà. Here is the finished product.

Do you have another idea for a creative way to display a date? Are you longing for a "Family, Est. <Year>" sign? Do quirky ideas pop into your head from time to time?

PS. This project was updated on 1/13/2012 at Updates to "The Wall" with Cameo.