homemade calendar

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

I always wonder why anyone would spend $20 on having Kinkos make a personalized calendar. Even if you wanted it bound with comb binding- you can take it in and they'd only charge a buck or two for that part.

Here is a sample of the calendar I made for my mom for Christmas- I used this FANTASTIC template from Microsoft Word that I think gives it such a classy, professional look.
Link to template

It does take a little monkeying around to get your photos in to it and adjust the color of the borders. Basically you want a horizontal photo (or one cropped to fit that way) for the forefront, the background is the same photo lightened considerably (you just lighten it in Word, no need for Photoshop) and stretched so it fills the page top to bottom, this obviously cuts a bit off on the sides, that's ok. The calendar is just a table, so you select that and change the line color. Not every photo will look just right in this format- be patient!

I made the entire calendar from the photos I took when we went to the Botanical Gardens when we visited last.

EDITED TO ADD:Don't forget, you can easily add birthdays and anniversaries to the calendar as well- or add info or quotes to the photo with a text box. I find it easiest to have the drawing and photo tool boxes out the whole time I work on it so I can just click away for color changes, text boxes, etc.