Give This Watercolor Desk Calendar a Dry Run

You might say I have been bit into watercolors lately.  In fact, my last DIY project posted on here was ANOTHER watercolor calendar for your fridge or office.  I'm not sure what it is about me and calendars, but I really like useful DIY projects, and who doesn't use calendars on a very regular basis?  These were also SUPER easy - I was able to finish a whole 2014 set in less than 30 minutes using regular store-bought watercolor paints from the drugstore.

Note as of August 2015:  I have a 2016 Watercolor Desk Calendar for sale in my Etsy shop, if you would rather not spend the time making your own!  Each calendar is sold with a mini wooden easel for display.  

MATERIALS 

• Watercolor paints
• Paintbrush 
• Calendar Template -  click here to download! (2014)
• 2015 Calendar template
• 2016 Calendar template 
• I did not create 2017/2018 templates.  Sorry!  #life
• 2019 Calendar template
• Paper (I used Avery 4-per-sheet textured postcards to make it really easy, and it's good quality paper for watercolors.  You can get these here from Amazon.  Regular 8x10 paper will also work - you can simply cut the calendars accordingly.  :)

INSTRUCTIONS

Print out the calendar template, and cut your calendar pages out.  Take your brush and lightly wet the watercolor paints - this is important, as using a brush that is too wet will soak your paper with water, making it bubble up.  This is not attractive for your finished project!  Streak some color over your calendar in whatever manner you please - I used some different approaches for each calendar.

Diagonal strokes...

Vertical strokes...

Horizontal strokes…

Regardless of what strokes I used, I thought each calendar turned out pretty good!  Like I said, this is super easy, right?  Even a novice watercolor painter can do it!  Hopefully after my watercolor class I will no longer be a novice, but we shall see!

I have been inspired to re-do my cubicle space at work, and I thought these new desk calendars would look really elegant on the wall in my cube.  Hopefully I'm right!

My big challenge for DIY projects is to make sure the final outcome doesn't look "too DIY", if you know what I mean.  It's the difference between "Wow, you made that?" to "Oh, you made that didn't you?"  What DIYer wants to be asked that question!  Anyway, hope this is inspiring to some people - let me know if the calendar template I've posted is helpful (above) - I'm hoping it saves you some time if you try to make your own!  :)