Learn How to Create Personal Photo Calendars

A photo calendar is a great gift that can be personalized for each recipient. They are fun and easy to make, and with just a little bit of time, you'll have a one-of-a-kind gift that will be used and appreciated all year. It's a thoughtful way to share special moments and photos with friends or family members. You can either create the calendar yourself at home or do it online at several sites.

Creating a photo calendar at home is simple and enjoyable to do with just a few tools. All you need is:

• Your favorite digital photos

• Photo editing software

• A software program that creates calendars

• A color printer

• Quality paper

Follow these steps and you'll have a foolproof photo calendar all ready for wrapping up.

1. Choose your photos. Select 13 of your favorite images, one for each month and one for the cover, and consider the recipient of your gift. For grandparents, they might like photos of the grandchildren, while the family historian would love cherished family photos, and a parent would love photos taken by their children.
2. Edit your photos. Use photo editing software to remove red eye, change the colors, add effects and text. If you don't have image editing software, consider downloading one of many free photo editing programs.
3. Create the calendar. Open your calendar or word processing software, and create a calendar for 2009. Your word processor may offer calendar templates on their website for their users.
4. Print the photo calendar. Print out the calendar on good quality paper. Choose a double-sided paper, used for printing flyers and brochures. You may want to add a page with a dedication or gift message to print for the inside of the cover photograph. After your calendar prints are dry, load them back into the printer and print your photos on the other side. You may want to do a test run to make sure your photos are not printed upside down.
5. Assemble the photo calendar. Take your calendar to your local copy center and have them punch holes and bind it for you.

If you'd prefer to have someone do most of the work for you, a number of popular photo sites offer calendar creation services. The particulars of each site work slightly differently, but the process is basically the same for each site. You upload your digital photos, choose what type of calendar you want to create, add any effects or add-ons they offer, preview your calendar and then press the "Create" (or some variation) button.

Here are a few of the sites that offer calendar creation online:

• Shutterfly
• Kodak
• Snapfish
• Zazzle
• American Greetings Photoworks