How to Make a Family Photo Calendar From Scratch

How to Make a Family Photo Calendar From Scratch Looking for a personalized gift that will be enjoyed year-round? Its easy to create your own personalized photo calendar. Include images of friends, family, ancestors, or special places on your calendar to remind you of special people or events. Make your own calendar for grandma of the grandkids, or one of yourself for the special person in your life. Photo calendars are a thoughtful, inexpensive gift that can be used every day of the year. Select Your Pictures Find pictures from your collection that suit your fancy, and use your scanner to make them digital. If you dont own a scanner, then your local photo shop can scan the pictures and place them on a CD/flash drive for you or upload them to an online service. Dont be afraid to get creative and branch out from traditional photographs - scanned copies of a childs artwork or family mementoes (letters, medals, etc.) also make nice calendar photos. Prepare Your Photos Once you have your photos in digital format, use photo-editing software to add captions, or rotate, resize, crop, or enhance the pictures to best fit your calendar. Create the Calendar ​If youd like to create and print a photo calendar yourself, specialized calendar software programs make a printable calendar as easy as drag-and-drop. You may also already have software right on your computer which will do the job. Many word-processing programs, such as Microsoft Word, include basic calendar templates, as do many photo-editing programs. A number of free downloadable calendar templates can also be found online. As an alternative, there are many calendar printing services and copy shops which can create a personalized photo calendar for you using your photos and special dates. Some of the most popular and versatile include: ShutterflyMixbookPicabooSnapfish Personalize Your Calendar Once you create your calendar pages, its time to customize. Go beyond the basic calendar by adding your own custom colors and fonts. Unlike bland, mass-produced calendars, each month can have a different theme. Match photos to the months theme- a photo of your parents on the month of their wedding anniversary, or a closeup of the family Christmas tree and its treasured ornaments for the month of December.Add personal dates, including birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and other significant events. Not sure when Thanksgiving or Mothers Day falls this year? Check out holiday calendars for a wide range of national and holiday dates.Keep family history alive by including photos of your ancestors and major events from your familys past. You may be surprised to find how many of your family members share birth dates with their ancestors. Print Your Calendar Once youve finished designing your photo calendar, its time to print. If you plan to print the calendar yourself at home, begin by printing the photo pages- one for each month- preferably on good quality photo paper. Once completed, youll need to reload the printed photo pages into your printer in order to print the monthly grids on the other side of the pages. Remember that each months picture appears on the opposite side of the previous month; for example, you should print Februarys monthly grid on the back of Marchs photo. Make sure that you understand which side and end of the paper your printer begins to print from, to avoid mistakes with page orientation. If youre using a special calendar software program, look for specific directions and tips for printing your calendar. Alternatively, many copy shops can print and assemble your finished photo calendar for you from your saved copy on disk. Be sure to check with them before starting to see what file formats they accept. Add Finishing Touches After youve printed and double-checked your finished calendar pages, you may want to take them to your local copy center to have them spiral-bound for a more professional look. Alternatively, use a paper punch and bind the pages with brads, ribbon, raffia, or other connectors. Enjoy your custom family calendar. And make sure youre prepared to repeat the project next year, because people will definitely ask!