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How To Make Your Own Calendar

Most people are aware you can make your own calendar using software on your computer.....

You simply put in the year you want and the software creates it for you. While these home-printed calendars are convenient, they're not always ideal and they usually look home-printed.

There are ways that you can make your own calendar professional-looking, so that you can happily give them to friends and family as gifts. This is especially memorable when your homemade calendar includes photos of cherished moments or pictures of memorable occasions.

Personalized calendars make excellent gifts simply because the recipient has something that can remind them of your thoughtfulness throughout the year and they can also keep the photos as mementos once the calendar year is over.

One of the best aspects of making your own calendar is the ability to include important dates throughout the year on various months so they're printed neatly on the right date. This is far neater than scrawling events and birthdays with pen all over a lovely calendar and ensures people won't forget important dates.

There are several ways to make your own calendar. From simple templates to personalized shapes and sizes to professional printing services, the choice is yours.

Designing Family Photo Calendars

Photo calendars are a thoughtful gift that family members can appreciate all year. When you're designing your family photo calendar, you will need to begin by choosing suitable pictures from your collection.

If your photos aren't already on your computer, then you'll need to scan them on your scanner so they're digital. If you have software like PhotoShop, then you can edit the photos to suit your needs. You might want to crop them to show only certain parts of a picture or add captions or rotate them to suit your calendar design.

Many software programs, such as Microsoft Word, have simple calendar templates that allow you to drop and drag your photos into the positions you want. You can also change the theme and style of the font, the surrounding graphics and the layout of the dates.

Personalize Your Homemade Calendar

Remember to personalize specific dates that could be important for family and friends to remember, such as birthdays, anniversaries or special occasions. The great part about making your own calendar is that you can decorate individual dates with party themes or birthday graphics so they stand out.

When you make your own calendar you might want to get creative and add specific themes and graphics to certain months. Examples might be Christmas decorations around the month of December or you can even use this method to make your own advent calendar. Or you could put festive Thanksgiving graphics on your calendar or maybe even romantic hearts and adornments around February to signify Valentine's Day.

Printing Your Homemade Calendar

There are several ways to print out a homemade calendar to make it appear professional. You might decide to print on both sides of regular A4 pages or you could choose to set your calendar so that each A4 page shows a photo and a set of dates for a specific month together on the same page.

Always be sure you check and double check which way your paper needs to be facing before you print anything. Use a regular sheet of paper and draw a mark on one corner to let you know which side is printed when that corner goes through the printer first.

This way you'll always know how to place your paper to be sure you don't end up with upside down pictures or dates on any of your pages.

Assembling Your Homemade Calendar

Finding a way to bind your created calendar so it looks neat and doesn't fall apart can be tricky. Using staples to hold it together can sometimes look a little messy, so you might want to consider binding your calendar pages together with some neatly applied binding tape.

Another option is to use a paper hole-punch through the top of the pages in two spots and bind them together using ribbon or raffia. You can even use the ribbon as a hanger from which to hang the calendar on a wall or door.

If you don't want to print and bind your calendar yourself, you should find that most copy shops will happily print and assemble your calendar for you for a very reasonable price.

Using Calendar Templates

Calendar templates can be a good way to begin creating your own calendar and they're often available as a daily, weekly, monthly or annual calendar. You simply download the template and amend any parts you want to appear differently.

You can add your own text into specific dates and change the pictures or graphics surrounding the actual date displays to suit your own needs. Many people also like to alter the color scheme to suit their own tastes too.

If you have a good quality color printer, then photos can be printed out on high-quality photo-paper to give your calendar a more professional appearance.

We hope you enjoy your customized homemade calendar. If make your own calendar, we'd love to see the results Please post about your creative additions here.

Make Your Own Calendar