This time of year we tend to feel behind on just about everything: projects, emails, present wrapping, cleaning, proper hygiene… but by some miracle, we’re actually ahead in one department: making our homemade family calendar.
As many of you know, for the last five years we’ve whipped up a simple-yet-colorful calendar in Photoshop. A few of you (like Lauren and Alexandra) have even asked if we had this year’s ready yet (since we like to share the customizable template, in case you need a last minute gift). So I’m relieved to exclaim “the deed is done!”
It doesn’t usually serve as our note-riddled family calendar (that’s what Sherry’s desktop planner is for) but it’s more of warm & fuzzy overview of the month that we can glance at and smile while quickly checking dates or counting down to certain events. Each year we inject some meaningful elements – inside jokes in 2010, family stats in 2011, Clara pics in 2012, and sort of a hybrid of those in 2013.
We loved 2013’s pairing of Instagram photos with funny Clara quotes so much that we decided to go that route again – just with a new design. And for the first time we designed around a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper to eliminate any need to cut off excess, and to allow for a bit more space/function for the actual date part of the calendar.
The bigger size also made room for a bigger picture size: 4 x 4″ – which just so happens to be a standard print size for sites like Snapstagram or PicPlum. So if you don’t trust your home printer to do your photos justice, you can spend $6 on real prints and stick them right on to each page. That’s what we’re planning to do, so we’ve printed all of ours with just a gray placeholder box while we wait for our prints to arrive (we ordered from Snapstagram this time).
And as usual, we’re sharing our template so you guys can download the calendar and tailor it to your own photos/quotes/worldly desires. I’ve tried to make it less complicated this year (i.e. fewer layers to mess with), so…
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- If you can edit .PSD files, you can just download the Photoshop version (click that link to do so) with ready-to-edit text in the quote area (you may need to download both fonts used: Adamas and Multicolore).
- If Photoshop isn’t your jam, you can download a PDF version (click that link to do so) where the quote area is left blank (that way you can hand-write in your own text).
In both versions, you’ll need to add your own photo either digitally or by attaching a real 4 x 4″ print like we plan to do with ours.
And just for kicks, here’s a look at the quotes and photos that we chose for each of our 12 months this year. Kinda makes us wish there were more months in the year, cuz Clara can be pretty quotable. That and it’d probably give me more time to squeeze in a shower.
What are your calendar plans for 2014? Do you have a go to source every year? Do you prefer a purely functional planner or wall calendar with lots of space to scribble? Do you go for something sweet and decorative, just for checking dates at a glance? Are you one of those 100% electronic folks with everything on your phone? Or do you fall somewhere in between? One more question. Who knew there were so many questions to ask about calendars?
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