DIY Calendar Craft

Happy New Year!!

(Imagine me standing in front of you with my arms over my head yelling Happy New Year and throwing confetti!)

Here we go into another year… one more time to try again… another chance to dream big and achieve!

I love giving gifts! Do you? I love making people happy! I love being the hostess so I can “do” for others.

(But, of course, I love to be pampered too!)

As a gift of thanks, I made y’all something to get you started in the new year.

A calendar! Not just any ole’ calendar, an accordian fold calendar you can print and build yourself. I’m going to show you how to do it.

Side 1 - Jan thru June

Side 2 - July thru Dec

Do you like it? I think it turned out super cute!!

So, let’s get started making it…

To start, simply print the pages I designed. (Download available at the bottom of the post.)

Two calendar pages per 8-1/2x11 sheet. Total of 5 sheets. I printed mine on card stock.

Depending on the quality of printer you have, you can either print this on the text with graphics setting or photo setting. My printer is high quality and I just use the text with graphics setting.

After you’ve printed, gather your tools.

You'll definitely need a ruler, exacto knife or scissors and good quality gluestick. I love Elmer's!

I recommend by starting to trim each calendar. Only trim the left and right edges, not the top and bottom.  Each calendar has a right tab which will be used for gluing. (Masking tape? Oh, I always have that handy.)

Your pieces should look like this.

After all your pieces are trimmed, you’ll want to score the tab so the calendar will easily fold into an accordian once it’s all together. You can score if you have a trimmer that has a score edge included. Or if you are using an exacto knife, you can turn it over and lightly run it down the card stock and it will score your paper.

To score: Hold the exacto knife upside down and be careful, press lightly.

Once all your calendars are trimmed and scored. It’s time to glue. I use the pieces of paper cut from the original under the tab so glue doesn’t get everywhere on my cutting mat.

Glue the tab and make sure your glue dries clear.

Next, position the next calendar in order onto the tab and use your fingers or a bone folder/burnisher to secure the two together. I burnished mine on the top and flipped it over and did the same on the back.

Make sure when you adhere the two together you are lining up the top, bottom and fold areas.

The back of the two calendars glued together using the tab.

Lining up the calendars is critical all the way down the line.

Here's the line-up all glued together.

At this point, you can decide if you want to continue gluing the last six months of the calendar right in a row, or do what I did and add them on the back. I have a shelf above my desk where this will sit and this size works well for me. If you do continue on and just make it one long calendar, you will need to add  card stock to the back to add to it’s stability.

Both sides are done and ready to assemble back to back. The tricky part!

The reason I asked you not to cut the top and bottom is that at the end we will cut those off and it will be a seamless finish. This way it’s a lot easier than trying to line things up. It’s a lot harder that way and never looks good. (Believe me… I KNOW.)

To help me line things up easily, I drew a pencil line across the back.

(As you can see from my picture, I used scrap paper for printing. I’m a big believer in not wasting. Sincethis project is double sided, using something already printed on will work.)

Additional steps that help with this process…

Only glue one panel at a time.

Work slowly!

Burnish lightly!

Side one and two glued back to back.

Now, it’s time to trim this baby down to size!

If you don’t have a long steel ruler or straight edge. I do have thin guides lines on the project, so you could simply use scissors carefully to cut the full calendar.

Here is the final project. In fact, here’s lots of pictures of the final project.

My cute little glitter house is in this picture. It’s the second one I’ve made and have another one in the works now. I blogged about making one here and gave it to my Mom.

There you go! I hope you enjoy having this little beauty on your desk as much as I will!

I have also done two more designs of this accordian calendar. I am working on getting those finalized, print and assembled to sell in my Etsy shop. So, stop by the shop the later part of next week and check them out. I’ve did a geometric pattern and a red/turquoise version.

Before you download my printable paper calendar craft, I’d love for you to subscribe to my blog. You can either subscribe via e-mail or RSS feed (in your favorite reader.) And, share me with your friends by linking this blog post to your facebook or twitter. And, of course, I’d love for you to stay connected with me by using your favorite social media… facebook, twitter and pinterest (links on my sidebar.)

Have a great week! And I truly hope the start of your new year is amazing!!

Vicki

Download: 2012 Accordian Fold Calendar

Comments are always welcomed and appreciated!

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