DIY Calendar: January

Happy 2015!

January is here, and despite not having many huge events, it always feels like one of the busiest months of the year. There's so much to catch up on after taking a break for the holidays, plus your New Years Resolutions tied to you like heavyweights when they should be lifting you up. If only you had something to motivate you, something to keep you organized and make you smile...

I've put together an easy and cute craft that goes on all year- a DIY calendar!
When I decided that I wanted to make a calendar for fun, my dad suggested that I just choose some pictures and send them to Shutterfly, to have it done for me. But I'm a control freak, and when I have an idea, I have this urge to do it all myself.

This calendar is really simple and fun. The finished product looks so artistic and creative, I'm really excited about it. So let's get started!

You can make the calendar all at once, but the way I chose to do it was to space it out. So I'm making the pages for February this week, and halfway through February I'll make the pages for March. The main reason for my doing this is so I don't use up all the colored ink in my printer at once- we were running low on ink and still had to print our extremely late holiday cards while I was making the pages for January, and I figured a mass printing wasn't going to help the matter.

However, I did plan everything all at once. The first thing I did was choose twelve photos. One from January 2014, one from February 2014, and so on. Then, using OpenOffice Calc(basically Microsoft Exel), I made a calendar-style chart. I admit to using a normal calendar as a reference. This part was a lot of trial and error, as I was new to the program, but I managed to make everything work out. Then, I made eleven more copies of it, and went through each ones, changing the dates on each one to fit each month. This didn't take as long as you might think, but if you want to use mine, I'll post images of them for you to use.

The calendar for January

For January, I chose an image of my
puppy all cuddled up in pink blankets
on a cold January morning.

Next, I printed the photo I chose for January, leaving a little space on the edges for embellishments, and a full-page of the calendar chart. I printed using normal printer paper, but for February I think I'll try cardstock to make it a bit more durable, so I'll let you know how that turns out.

Now comes the fun part- artsiness! You can decorate the calendar however you see fit. For me, January is a very yellow month, so I chose the color scheme of mostly yellow, blue, and purple, with a tad of pink. I also wrote in the holidays, adding a bit of color to them.

I blanked out a name for privacy. :)

Binding the calendar was a little bit difficult. First, I hole punched the picture at the bottom, and the calendar at the top, so that they lined up. I wasn't sure how to keep them together, but I ended up taking little paper clips- yes, paper clips-straightening them out, and then circling one through each of the holes. I was worried it would look trashy, but it turned out really cute and kind of vintage in style.

You can stop here with your calendar- or you can keep going. It's your choice. I just happened to have a sheet of cardboard lying around, so I decked it out with bright duct tape.
With the use of some of my decorated clothespins(you'll see more about these soon), I clipped the finished January calendar to the cardboard backboard.

It looks crooked in this picture, but it's not actually crooked. ;)

I'll post the February calendar sometime next weekend. I'm hoping I'll be able to post a new page each month. You can find each of them by clicking the tag "2015calendar" at the bottom of the page. You're absolutely invited to do this with me! It's super fun, and it makes you more motivated to stay organized and get things done.

I'm sorry this is so late into the month. I procrastinated. But I am well prepared for next month. I foresee a (finally)on time post!

So, with that, happy crafting and happy January!