The great thing about a creating your own personal styled photo calendar is that, firstly, it's a practical gift that people will look at and use everyday. You'd be hard pressed to find a home or office without a calendar of some sort in it. In fact, they're almost a required tool for every online entrepreneur, home business enthusiast, or stay at home mum. Basically, everyone uses (and needs) a calendar.



The next great thing about a custom photo calendar is that you can add your unique flavor or personality to it through the image you choose to put on it. When it comes to choosing an image style, your creativity is unlimited. You could use images of family or friends, favorite pets, animals, vehicles, motorbikes, abstract art, amazing landscapes, humor, and so on. Go out and create the photos yourself, use a stock photo, or borrow a friends.

So, how then does one create a custom photo calendar?

There's lots of ways to go about this, so we'll show you one basic way to quickly create your own photo calendar. The first thing, before any designing happens, is to make sure you have prepared the photos that you want to use in your calendar. These photos don't have to be stunning masterpieces, but just a theme that you want your calendar to be about. For a full year calendar, choose 12 photos, or otherwise you can just start with one photo.

After you've decided on your photo theme, rummaged around and got the photos you want to use, you'll want to choose an online service to create the design and eventually print out your calendar. There's lots of options out there. Either do a search for calendar photo gifts or use a calendar printer like PhotoBox or CafePress. You can see what I use here: www.martinhurley.com/photobox.html

From then on, it's just a simple matter of exploring the online calendar service to find out the what, wheres and hows of creating your custom photo calendar. For example, you'll want to sign up (usually for free), upload the photos you want in your calendar (usually in a high resolution), and check out some different styles of calendars.

There's also different layouts to consider. Do you want your photo calendar to have a horizontal format or vertical? Do you have a special image in mind for the cover? One important thing to note is to try and get your photos looking good on-screen (the right colors, brightness, sharpness etc) before you go ahead and print it out.

You can build yourself desktop calendars, large over-sized calendars, one page calendars, or beautifully presented 12 page calendars with an inspiring calendar cover to go with it. A rule of thumb is the simpler the calendar, the lower the cost, and the more complex the calendar, the more it will cost you to create. Once you're signed in, spend some time getting your photos positioned carefully and skillfully and make other essential changes.

Once you're happy with how your custom photo calendar looks, you can order and pay for it online. Have it sent to yourself, or for an unforgettable surprise and thoughtful giving, send it as a gift to a friend. They'll be amazed.

? Copyright Martin Hurley 2007