custom photo calendars

The holiday gift-giving season is fast approaching and I don’t know about you, but I am on the lookout for inexpensive, but personal gifts to give this year. I always get a rush of creative energy every November as I read my favorite magazines and check out all of my bookmarked creative blogs and sites. I start to imagine all of the cute, crafty things I could make for my friends and family, but more often than not I run out of time or energy. However, there is one simple, yet personalized item that everyone loves to receive…a custom photo calendar. The best thing about creating your own photo calendar is that it can be as simple of a project as you choose. One of the quickest, easiest ways to create a custom calendar is by using an online service such as Snapfish, Kodak Gallery, or Qoop. These sites provide the calendar design, printing and shipping meaning that all you have to do is pick your favorite photos and upload them! And if one of these sites is already your photo printer of choice, you can choose the photos that you have already uploaded throughout the year. Super easy and super fast! And I am so excited to tell you that Snapfish is graciously providing the whole Shutter Sisters community with this awesome offer: buy one 12-month calendar of any size, and get one 12-month 8.5x11 calendar FREE! The coupon code is FREECAL08 and it is good until 11/31/2008.

Now, if you are feeling ambitious and want to try something a little more “hands on”, I have another idea. Have you seen the little desktop calendars that fit neatly into an empty (and slightly dismantled) cd jewel case? Why not create one using your own photos? There are a couple different ways to do this.

If you are a Photoshop user, I have exciting news. I took the liberty of designing a photoshop calendar template that I am sharing with all of you! Click here to download the files. Then all you have to do is plop in your own photos, print them on some photo paper or cardstock and cut them out! Now I personally would not benefit from having this photo calendar sitting on my desktop because I tend to be a little…uh messy. In fact, it would get completely buried by paper and coffee cups. So I am opting to make mine into a calendar that you can put on a bulletin board or magnet board! I went to Target and got little colorful binder clips and some magnetic clips. That way the recipient of this gift can display it in plain site. But don’t worry. If you would rather use a jewel case to hold the calendar pieces, I created the photoshop template to fit in a standard sized cd case.

If you are not a Photoshop user and prefer a more scrapbooky approach, you could always cut out a photo and stick it on a 4.5”x5” piece of cardstock (leaving the bottom blank), then use a nice pen to write out the calendar dates on the bottom. Do that 12 times and stick them in an empty jewel case! Voila, cute and crafty.

However you choose to create your photo calendar, I guarantee that your friends and family will love receiving a gift that they can enjoy all year.

EDITED TO ADD:

Looking for the 2011 template?? Here it is!

Comments

[Leesa]

I love the desktop calendar.. I will definitely try this. Thanks :)

[laura - dolcepics]

Paige, how utterly generous of you! This is so great! I was totally going to do calendars as gifts this year so thank you many times over. I love the CD case holder idea! Very cool!!

[Karen from Chookooloonks (and Shutter Sisters)]

GIRL. I've been looking FOR FOREVER for a way to do this. Thank you. THANK YOU. *THANK YOU*.

K.

[kosenrufu mama]

i love those calendars, i has been the same idea for christmas gifts, i created calendar for my friends and family. thank you for sharing yours....have a nice weekend.

[Marcie]

What a wonderful idea to do these in a size that fits in a jewel case. For years I've been doing calendars as gifts that are displayed in 8 1/2" x 11" clip frames. I also post them on the first day of each month on my site. Here are a few examples"
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=572
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=375
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=287

[kt]

Thanks for putting this all together, great ideas! kt

[dani.ela]

Wow, this is a wonderful idea Paige - THANK YOU so much for sharing the PS files!

[lora]

you are heavenly! THANK YOU. for the fabulous site references (what fun for me on a Saturday morning), the photoshop template, AND the awesome idea of making a calendar a little more like a jewel than a monster. =)

Great post!

and another good photo fun printing and gifting reference for you all:
Shutterfly.com
incredible. fast, clean, GREAT deals all the time, and super good quality.
our personal favorite.

[Angie]

I've always wanted to try this, and this may be the year! Thank you for the inspiration!

[cindy k]

thank you for the photoshop templates! my version is too old for my new mac, so i made a calendar in word and try to tell people how to do it, too
http://quainthandmade.blogspot.com/2008/11/craft-2009-calendar.html

[Jodyangel]

Omgosh I'm glad I checked in early today! Now I've got something to be excited about while we take a drive to lancaster pa today =)

[Lucy]

I love it! Thank you so much for coming up with something easy for me to do that will make many people around me happy!

[Alli]

Thanks sooooo much for the template! I did a calendar last year and totally over-thought the process. I want to do another calendar this year, and this will be a lot easier. I still have some of the tiny wooden Ikea easles, so I'll probably use those.

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!

[renee @ FIMBY]

This is the most "I can do this" craftiest thing I've seen this season. Thank you, thank you. Everything else out there is just way too crafty, scrapbooky or impractical for my purposes. Great post and great information.

[maya]

stumbling this - great idea! and thanks for the template.

[jag]

Oooo, I wanna... I wanna...! BUT, do any of you know if these printing services send to Canada? I know that QOOP doesn't. Whenever I modify my photo in Flickr, the resolution is so bad when I return it to my hard-drive. They're only good for looking on-screen. Some of them are OK as a 4x6, but certainly nothing bigger. Are there online printing services I can use??

I know Photoshop would allow me to play with my photos right on my hard drive, but I'm so cheap! Don't know if I can justify the expense... yet. :-)

xox

[Jami]

Thank you, very sweet of you to share.

[spread your wings]

thank you so much for sharing these ideas. I had already started mine using the CD case but you are so sweet to offer the template. I'm in advertising so we get that type of calendar as promotionals - I have always loved them and wanted to do one myself.

[Joelle]

Thank you soooo much! I always make photo calenders through Shutterfly for a few people, but your wonderful templates will allow me to do them for the masses! Thank you so much for your generosity!!

[Puna]

I am definitely doing a calendar this year! I use snapfish and I really like the company a lot. Thanks for the inspiration once again!

[Denese]

I just spent the last hour doing this-- I already have my 'favorite' photos file. And the calendar is perfect. THANK YOU.

Denese

[Lindy]

Oh I love this time of year! I'm working on my calendar too! Thanks for the tips/ideas.

[dr lyn]

amazing. thanks!!!!

[leaca]

very cool idea.

[elizabeth]

what a fabulous gift idea for friends/family.

I am having trouble downloading the templates. any tips?

thanks!

[Jodyangel]

Ohh I am sooo doing this with Snapfish!! Paige you are an angel~

[Sarah - Ji]

Paige, your calendars look so AWESOME! Thanks for the idea. I'm am SOOOOOOOOO not crafty, but I might give it a try! And thanks for the Snapfish coupon code. I didn't give the grandmas and great-grandmas Cadence calendars last year, and that was not a smart move.

[Paige]

Elizabeth, watch for a little countdown after clicking the link. After like 30 seconds a little download button will appear and you should be able to download it then. The only problem is that there may be some pop up windows while you wait. Hope this helps!

[Chris]

I love this! However, when I click on download it says the file has been deleted?? Help!

[elizabeth]

paige, I tried all that and it told me the download failed! ugh.

[Paige]

Ok ladies, I upgraded from a free to a premium account to allow for unlimited downloads simultaneously. Hopefully that solves the problem! : )

[anita]

Thanks for the template! Now I have no excuses for not finally tackling this project. Great post!

[Jen]

very cool, paige! thanks for the template ;-) i will definitely use it for some gifts this year! ~jen

[nikkole!]

thank you so much.
i didn t know if this template would work with with photoshop elements but it seems too!
this is not even something i ever thought of doing but i love the idea.
so excited
thank you, thank you, thank you!

[elizabeth]

it finally worked like a charm! thank you so much, paige. :D

[cloverjelly]

thank you!

[Leslie]

I've done these small calendars for a couple of years. Big Huge Labs has a free online template, too!

[Charlynn]

Hi paige can u send the template to my email? tried downloading it but they said the file has been deleted!

It really is an awesome idea! Thanks alot

fuschial@gmail.com

[tm]

Hi, I really like the look of your cd case calendars, I tried 3 times to download the file, but I get this message;
PhotoCalendar.zip" does not appear to be compressed or encoded. It is advised that you obtain further information about the contents of this file from the sender or provider of the file.
Am I too late? thanx

[Shimona]

Hey Paige, thanks for a lovely template. I just got my calendar from the printers and am loving it! And your template was so easy to use, I was done designing and uploading in maybe an hour or so!
Here are my pics of the calendar...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shimonkey/3239905782/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shimonkey/3239905800/in/photostream/

[Sylvia]

Do you still have the template available somewhere? I'd love to try doing this!

[paula]

Hi there - I was wondering if you are going to offer the templates again? I tried the link and it says that they are no longer available.
TIA!
p

[Deirdre]

I would also love to be able to download this template, but it's not there anymore.

Here's another option for creating calendar's: http://bighugelabs.com/calendar.php

I prefer your template though!

[belinda]

Hi,

the link for the photoshop document doesnt work anymore. I would love to do this for christmas gifts. how can i get it?

thank you!

belindamodra@gmail.com

[Lisa Epp]

You don't by chance have the 2011 template to use now do you?
This is the perfect simple, template!!

[lisa]

Hi, I see many have asked about a new template. I would love to make this beautiful calendar, please let me know if the template is still available.

Thanks.

[Shutter Sisters]

HEY ALL:
The 2011 calendar template is available!
http://shuttersisters.com/home/2010/10/23/2011-photo-calendar-templates.html
YAY!

[photo flip book]

I like that custom calender. nice blog.

[Michelle]

Please tell me you are doing a 2012 calendar! These are great!!!