Tutorials: Magnetic Cookie Cutter Calendar

Happy first Counterfeit Kit Challenge!  Our task?  Use the counterfeit kits we made, plus COOKIE CUTTERS, and create a masterpiece!  Whoa Nelly!  A baker I am not, so my first task was to locate the baking supply section at Michaels.  :)  Once I found it, I lucked out and found an awesome cookie cutter set that was made for making gingerbread houses.  So long story short, here is my creation: A Magnetic Cookie Cutter Calendar!!

So let's break it down!  You may recall that this is the kit I assembled that I would be using for this project:

Here's the Gingerbread cookie cutter set I bought (picture courtesy of the Wilton website  since I forgot to snap a picture of mine before I destroyed...ahem...re-purposed it):

So I wanted to elongate the shape of the house, so I cut the bottom of the rectangle shape and the bottom of the triangle shape, bent the edges and combined them into one big house shape.  I glued the two shapes together with E6000 and clamps.  It's about 10 inches high and 5 inches wide.

I knew early-on that I wanted this thing to be some sort of magnetic memo board or calendar, so I traced my house frame onto a flat sheet of thin metal.  I then used a metal tool to cut it into a house shape (sorry I can't be more specific: my husband bought this tool from a classified ad and the best way I can describe it is like a paper-cutter with a lever, only when you pull the lever down it cuts metal instead of paper.  I don't know what it's called, but it is a champ)!

Important note!  Test the metal with a magnet to make sure it's actually magnetic!  I did this whole process with a piece of non-magnetic metal and had to re-do it once I watched my magnets slide off!

I laid the metal house shape into the house frame and glued it to the flat bars on the back (see the bars on the back of the cookie cutters?)  Here's a picture of the back of the project (pretty it is not):

Once that was all situated, it was just a matter of covering the whole thing with paper, which I did.  I glued the paper down using an industrial-strength glue stick that works on all surfaces.  This is what it looked like at that point:

I made the scallop roof edges from cutting out the circular token-looking things from one of the pieces of patterned paper and bending them over the roof.  I may have also cheated with the bright pink strip of paper because it was the back side of one of the pieces I had in my kit.

Lastly, I made the separate elements that are removable:

I glued a magnet to a Tim Holtz clip and also added a magnet to the back of the bottlecap with the button, yarn and pin.  I put some more patterned paper on the January calendar for some added oomph.  The magnets hold up the calendar.

I also added some glass bottles (one that's filled with "spunk" and another with happy-looking glitter).  I added a vintage thimble as the final touch.

So how is this a "calendar"?  Well, I'm usually adept at knowing what day it is, but what I really wanted was a monthly reminder of my crafting deadlines.  So the paper with the 6, 11, and 15 are dates in January that I had crafting projects due, along with an abbreviated description of the project.

When February rolls around, and subsequent months, all I'll have to do is switch out the calendar card and make a new piece of paper with February dates noted.  

So there you have it!  A use for cookie cutters that did not force me to spend time in the kitchen!  That, my friends, is a success for me!  And the bonus is that now I'll stay more organized and have a visual reminder of all those exciting crafting projects on the horizon.