When I was in middle school, my daily planner was a pretty big deal. It’s where I wrote down my assignments, after school practices and all of the important things that 12-year-olds deem worthy of tracking. But more than just being a holding station for all of the important dates and to-dos of my hopping preteen social life, that planner served as a showcase for one of my first solo crafty endeavors. That planner served as my introduction to decoupage. Swoon.
The first year I decided to decoupage my planner, I gathered photos of all sorts of things I loved at the time to slap on the front cover (think pink flowers, *NSYNC and nail polish). I used lots of photos from my favorite magazines in all different colors. It was pretty chaotic, as I remember. But I was 12, so I loved it.
In the subsequent years, I began to refine my planner-coating craft. By year No. 2, I decided to go with a black, white and pink theme, so I printed black-and-white photos of my friends and me and added pops of pink with images I cut out from magazines. This look lasted well into sophomore year of high school. Yep, I continued decoupaging my planner until I graduated. Crazy, crafty, cool.
Now that I’m happily seated in the exciting world of adulthood (no, watching Disney Channel on a regular basis does not negate one’s adult status), my planner and digital calendar are not as well suited for my decoupaging escapades. So this year, I’ve decided to revisit my DIY-date-book roots with a new take on the personalized calendar. Woo hoo!
I decided to go for something super clean and streamlined (visual decluttering for the New Year, pals). So I went into InDesign and created a basic 8 1/2-by-11 document. Then I used a 7-by-5 grid to fill in the dates, added the month, year and a seasonally appropriate little ditty on the top of each month. Easy as pie.
Oh, and here’s my favorite part. Because I planned to stick with the same font for the entire calendar, I wanted to find something fun, modern and new. And after a quick search on fontsquirrel.com (the site has tons of great fonts that are free to download), I found this gem of a typeface. It’s called Aaargh (download it here). Really! Aaargh. Doesn’t that just make you want to try it out?
For a little extra personalization, I added my fave monster-sized polka dot to the bottom right corner of every page and changed the color of special dates (i.e. birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc.) to match. And when all is said and done, I plan to print it out on white cardstock, punch a hole on top and hang it in a place of honor. The refrigerator, perhaps? We shall see.
So there you have it: a simple DIY calendar that keeps on giving the whole year long. And just in time for New Year’s. Pretty nifty, don’t you think?
What kind of calendar will you use for 2011? Do you go DIY-style with InDesign or a photo site like Snapfish.com? Does store-bought strike your fancy? Or maybe you’re all digital? Here’s hoping you’re saving the dates in style!
XO,
Katrina
Cute!!!! I like the way you do the quotes!!!!!!!!
Thanks! It’s a fun and super easy way to make it a little more personalized. Glad you like it!