Making a Scrapbook Calendar

Creating a scrapbook calendar can be both fun to make but also wonderful to give. If you have a binding machine at home, you can make the calendar from scratch. If you don’t have a binding machine, you can either take the pages to Kinko’s and they can bind the calendar, or you can by a blank calendar for under $10 from many different sources. Check at both calendar shops and also scrapbook shops for product availability.

You also can make a template on your computer using any calendar software. You then can add in special dates such as birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. If you make the calendar at home on your computer, you can take the finished version to Kinko’s and have them enlarge it to whatever size you like. I generally like 12x12 or somewhere in that vicinity. This gives me a full 12x12 space to scrapbook on for each month.

Now it’s time to decide what you want to put on each page. You can choose a theme for the entire calendar, or you can choose a theme for each page. I find it fun to choose a theme for each month. For example, maybe you are making a calendar for your parents. If your child has a birthday in January, put some photos of that child on the January page. Maybe in February, it’s your mom and dads anniversary. Put some photos from last year’s anniversary on that page. There are endless ideas on what you can put on each month. I suggest using photos that are duplicates of other photos.

Create these pages just as you would create a scrapbook page. Add stickers, diecuts and embellishments. If I use a 12x12 calendar, then I can cover the page completely with scrapbook paper to create my base. Then I add the photos and any "extras" right onto the scrapbook paper. I am very careful to add the photos by using mounting stickers so that at the end of the year I can remove the photos or the page itself. Use dental floss to get under the adhesive and lift the photos right up. It’s harder to lift the paper up as it’s much thinner than the photo, but I love the dental floss technique.

Scrapbook calendars make wonderful gifts and are so much fun to create.

About the author:
Audrey Okaneko has been scrapbooking for several years. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com