Fast and Fun Calendar to start the new year

If the new year is near and you’re wondering how you can easily design and print next year’s calendar fast, wonder no more! Every year, I buy digital calendar templates and get quickly overwhelmed by the number of layouts needed to finish the project. Then it dawned on me – I can showcase already-completed layouts by simply placing them in my calendar! Plus, it was so much fun revisiting layouts and kits I haven’t worked with in a while.

I chose the ScrapSimple Calendar Templates: 11×17 Blenders 2017. To insert a completed layout into the template, I did one of two things:

I clipped a completed layout into the template’s photo mask (example below).
I dragged in portions of the layout and moved things around to fit the template.

Example of how a completed layout can be used in a calendar

Once my layout was in place, the creative process began! The blender backgrounds allowed me to beautify my layouts by blending patterns and textures that complemented the original design. Sometimes I swapped out backgrounds and embellishments and used new products to change things around. I modified the calendar template until I got the results I was happy with. Here are a few things I did:

I used the festive Birthday Cake brush (included with the templates) to remind my family of our special days.
I personalized the calendars by adding school calendar days.
To give a consistent look throughout the calendar, I added a glitter border on each month’s word art (January, February, March, etc.).

To print my calendar, I sent the JPG files to Office Depot to print on 11×17-inch, 110 lb. cardstock and added a clear coil binding. The colors were vivid, and there is a thin white border around my image so it appears that the images were not cropped at all. The cost of the completed calendar project was $22.

Don’t be this afraid to start your calendar project – just follow my tips and get more mileage out of your finished layouts by enjoying them next year, too!