Plan/Prep Now: Make a Calendar You Can Use Over & Over

 With the start of the month, I was swapping out decorations around the house.

Right now I also have a 2024 calendar that I made a few years ago. How did that happen?

Calendar: reusable every year

I know that it may seem pretty early to think about 2025, but the crafting world has to plan ahead! I remember "Christmas in July" sales at craft stores, because crafters need time to handcraft items. 

I always love the thought of making my own calendar, but I'd rarely done it. Stampin' Up! once had a Paper Pumpkin kit to make a small calendar, and I LOVED it. Unfortunately for me, they focus pretty much on just cards in those kits now.

Then I saw that Taylored Expressions offers a variety of calendar crafting items. I got calendar pages with a blank area on the top, and I had a great time making my own calendar pages, thinking about the theme I wanted to use for each month. I also got this stand from TE (I think it was for storing stencils, but I got these page protectors (also from TE) and put my calendar pages in them. 

I only had 6 of the page protectors, so I put January & December back-to-back, then February/November, March/October, and...you get the idea. Each month I flip the page over so the next page is visible--on July 1st, I turn the stand around and keep going.

My calendar pages

So how is it reusable, when each year the dates fall on different days of the week? Ahh...

Removable adhesive! I use removable adhesive on the back of the images, then adhere them onto calendar pages for the new year.

Of course, with my luck, Taylored Expressions stopped carrying the calendar pages that I used that first year. Since then, I've been able to order digital calendar pages (with a blank top) to print--I get them from Etsy. I did have to trim the sides off of my original designs in order to fit the smaller calendar pages, but they still look great after 3 or 4 years now.

TE does offer 5x7" calendar pages--I would use those now if I were to make them again. They don't have the stand I got, but you can likely find a variety of calendar stands. I think I got mine the second year I used these images--the first year I just propped the current calendar page on a mini easel.

I do have the TE perpetual calendar, which they do still sell. I haven't made that one yet!

Happy crafting!