Make Your Own Calendar
A Step By Step Guide

There has never been a better time to make your own calendar, especially with online shopping increasing and personalized gifts becoming more and more popular.

Instead of buying generic calendars filled with pictures of puppies and kittens (as cute as they may be) you can now make a truly unique and personal calendar.

Personalized calendars make ideal gifts for others and are a great way to use the digital photographs sitting on your computer.

This make your own calendar guide gives you step-by-step instructions on how to make a professional calendar using Cafepress as an example.

Cafepress is one of several websites that allows the customer to design a calendar (and other personalized items) using your own images. It's free to sign up too!

Making A Calendar Using Cafepress

A Cafepress 'Calendar Print'

First go to Cafepress and type calendars in to the search engine. As you will see they also offer pre-made calendars alongside their make your own calendar feature.

Select the type of calendar that you want. There are four types of calendars to choose from:

Custom wall calendar, Oversized wall calendar, Vertical wall calendar or a Calendar print. (See choices below)

These products vary slightly in price. You also have the option of making and ordering these products in bulk for specified prices.

This is ideal if you are making a company calendar and need one for each employee, or if you have a particularly large family!

Once you have selected the kind of calendar you would like click 'Personalize this product'.

The format Cafepress uses to allow you to make your own calendar is extremely simple and straight forward.

For example, for the Vertical Wall Calendar you will need to select 13 images - one for the front cover and one for each of the months. Images must be in JPG or PNG format and you can upload five images initially to insert in to your calendar.

Selecting Your Images

A word of warning before you start uploading and ordering your images - the Cafepress calendar page will timeout if you leave it idle for more than a few minutes.

You will have to create the calendar in one sitting or use the 'save for later' button located under the box holding the images, even if you leave your computer only for a few minutes.

As the make a calendar feature is so easy to use it is a simple matter to complete the calendar in one sitting, however I recommend you know which images you want to use before you begin.

Select your first five images and wait for them to upload, this shouldn't take long. Don't worry about uploading the pictures in the order that you wish to use them, you can move them around until you are pleased with the result.

The make your own calendar page displays the blank page of the calendar you're working on. It automatically begins on the front page but you can easily toggle between pages using the 'previous page' and 'next page' arrows directly above the calendar page.

The images that you have uploaded are displayed in a box to the right of the calendar page. Selecting an image automatically puts it on the calendar page you're currently on.

You can edit the height of the image using the drop-down menu in the box where the pictures are located.

Once you are pleased select 'next' to move to the next calendar page or select a specific calendar page from the icons below the current page.

If you decide that you want to change the image on any particular page just select that page and click 'remove image' in the box where the pictures are located and select another image.

The Right Image Size

Once you are pleased with the positions of your first five pictures you can upload more. At this stage you can only add each additional image one at a time. This image will automatically be placed on the blank page that you currently have selected.

Again, you can always remove it and insert it on a different page if you wish. Go on to upload the images for the remaining seven pages.

All the uploaded images are stored in the box to the right and so you can move the images around until you are happy with them.

There are a few things you should consider when picking and ordering your images. Remember that the image will be considerably bigger when printed on the entire page of a calendar than it is on the screen of your digital camera.

What looks like a perfectly nice picture on camera may not be so flattering when blown up to several times the size. Also, don't be tempted to use any images that are even slightly blurry, even if they are your favorites.

It may not seem so bad on your camera or computer but it will be far more noticeable on the calendar and greatly take away from the professional finish.

Printing Your Calendar

If you are designing a calendar that contains pictures of your family or friends a good way to order the pictures is to select a picture that signifies an event in a particular month.

For example, put a picture of each member of the family in the month of their birthday (particularly useful for jogging forgetful memories).

Use last year's family Christmas picture for December and a picture of the kids in their Halloween costumes for October. This will give the calendar an organised and seasonal vibe.

Once you have all your images where you want them review your product carefully as it will be printed exactly as it is displayed. You may want to enlarge each page to get the best idea of what the finished product will look like.

Click the 'review and order' button under the box holding the images when you are done.

Click 'proceed to checkout' and then follow the on-screen instructions to enter your billing address, billing options and payment details.

You will see the estimated shipping date and delivery date beside the billing options drop-down menu. You have now completed your personalized and professional looking calendar. All that's left is to wait for it to arrive!

Sending Your Calendar As A Gift

Cafepress lets you make personalized photo calendars that are printed on thick 100lb cover weight paper and upload your own favourite pictures and artwork. This makes them ideal for gift calendars!

See the box above? Just click the 'This is a gift order' box and the calendar will be mailed to your recipient. You can even leave a little personal message for them too.