Off and on for the past 5 years, I have been making yearly 12×24 calendars for members of my family. I started back in 2014 and while I try to get it done each year, I have missed a few in this time frame primarily because I just have not always gotten myself organized enough to get it done. I am proud to say though that this year however, I got it done, in part to my new scheduling system with Lisa Woodruff’s Organize365 Sunday Basket approach. Yay me!
Making the calendars each year is a great way for me to share family history information because I make a conscious effort to add dates of significance in the family history – not only do I add living family members birthdays and anniversaries, but I also add birthday, marriage anniversaries, and death date anniversaries for those that are no longer with us. My family appreciates it because it serves as a reminder for us and I also use the dates as prompts to initiate discussions – particularly about family members that are deceased – it’s a great way to capture memories & stories. For example, December 20, upcoming here in just a few days, is the birthday of my great-uncle, George Robinson; he was born December 20, 1915, and passed away in 2000; I will very likely call my mother on his birthday and reminisce with her about him for I only have a very vague memory of Uncle George from seeing him when I was very young (about 8 or 9 years old?). My mother, on the other hand, has all kinds of stories and memories of her Uncle George and I always learn something new each time I speak with her about him.
Many online calendar creation services make it easy to create a yearly calendar, but I found a neat feature at Mixbook.com that has kept me a loyal customer to them for the past 5 years. When you create a calendar project on the site, you can create a schedule of dates that can be reused from year to year and reused from calendar project to calendar project. So, once I add, for example, the birthdays of all of my family members, I do not have to re-add it each year – I can just click a checkbox to include it on the calendar itself.
As shown in the image below, once you open up a project, there is a “Manage Events” button that opens up the list of dates. For privacy reasons, I’m only showing two rows, but the window shows about 15 entries and you can scroll through the whole list. At the end of the list, after putting a check in the box next to the event you’d like to include, you can Update the calendar, or you can Add Event if you have something else to include. It’s such a time-saving feature!
As the primary image for the top part of the calendar, I create 12×12 scrapbook pages using Becky Higgins’ Project Life app and import the picture in whole to use – 12 images for each month, a cover, and a back page.
I’m so pleased with my calendars! Unlike in years past, I decided to make the cover the same for all 4. It makes my life just a little bit simpler. Making these calendars has been such a great way for me to combine my interests in family history & digital scrapbooking. As I continue getting my pictures organized, gathering pictures for the calendar each year will be even easier. I really must think of more ways to do this throughout the year! Send me your ideas – I need them LOL!
Love your ideas and the execution of them. Where do you get the calendar framework (numbers,grid)?
Hi Peggy! The template is one offered through the Project Life scrapbooking app. The app has many different layouts available and all kinds of kits with digital art to use. You may be interested in this overview video from several years ago – https://youtu.be/t1Wpmm-wUmQ. The app has been updated since then, but you will get a feel for how it works overall. Let me know if you have any questions!