Hands-down, my best handmade gift this season was the calendar I made for my brother, with pictures of Zowie Darling. In the months leading up to the holidays, everytime she came over to play I would snap a few pictures with this project in mind. Most of them ended up being her snuggling down in all the blankets I have on my bed, which is her favorite thing to do!
I did some researching and Costco was by far the cheapest for digital printing, and extremely convenient. I submitted all the jpgs online and picked up the packet of prints a few days later. Even though some of the pictures were from a camera phone, and the website warned that the small ratio of pixels wouldn’t yield the best quality print, I was really pleased with the results. I laid them all out to get an idea of which complimented each other the best. I knew that I wanted to have a main image, and then a smaller cut out one, on each page.
*Notice the other cutie in the pics – Zowie actually has a brother, Rufus! I knew I wanted him to make at least a cameo in the calendar. I trolled Zo and Rufus’s mom’s facebook (thanks Jenna! :)) for pics of him.
All supplies came from work, on a budget – I used black cardstock to make the base pages, and to mat everything. I used alphabet stickers for the months and the front cover. Even after supplies, photo printing, and binding, this project was still under $20. I’d estimate that I spent around 10 hours, over the course of a few days, working on it.
I put my favorite/the best picture on my birthday month, naturally.
For an extra little touch, I cut out this piece of script for Zo’s name on the cover. I wrote it with a highlighter on white paper, cut it out with an exacto knife, and then colored it with a sharpie. Ha!
I took the calendar to Office Max and had it bound with a plastic ring – it only took about 10 minutes and cost under $3.
Here is a little video I made of the calendar, so you can see all the pages:
The best part was that Andy LOVED it. Success! He couldn’t stop looking at it, and smiling, exclaiming about how cute his little baby was. Some of the pictures he hadn’t even seen himself. Another really great thing about this is that even after the year is over, it doubles as a photo album. Honestly, it was hard to part with. It turned out really great, and now everyone in my family wants one. This was really such an easy project that with a little time, a paper cutter, and some great pictures, anyone can have a wonderful keepsake and an extremely personal and meaningful gift.
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