Happy new year! It’s 2017! The ball has dropped, and I have another DIY project for you.
Materials
- 2 sheets of black 8.5″ by 11″ paper
- 3 hinged snap rings (or keychain rings)
- 26 index cards (3″ by 5″)
- 12 2.5″ by 2.5″ monthly photos
- Glue or double-sided tape
Steps
- Create your pages. I used Microsoft Word, but there are many other software programs that would work perfectly. (You could even do it by hand and print out the photos separately; I just used a computer to make sure everything was centered.) Make the page size 3″ by 5″, or the size of your notecard, and create 26 pages. Make sure you have 26 index cards in total; you could also gather a few extras just in case.
- Choose which photo(s) you’d like to use for each month. Insert these photos into the first 12 pages of your document, filling most of the page. Near the bottom of each page, write the abbreviations for the corresponding months.
- Set aside 4 index cards for the tens digits of the dates. On these, write the numbers 0-3.
- For the ones digits of the dates, write the numbers 0-9 on the remaining 10 index cards.
- Create the base. With 2 sheets of black cardstock paper, you can design a sturdy base with a folding bottom. I folded one sheet in two, with the bigger portion being about 5.5″ wide, and the smaller portion being about 3″ wide. Fold the smaller side in half, accordion style. With the other sheet of paper, you can fold a corresponding backside to the stand. You can make a flap near the top of this one to help attach it to the front. Put it together with any adhesive material; I used double-sided tape. (I must admit that my instructions are pretty unclear; but the exact steps for making the stand aren’t that important in this project.)
- Punch holes in the index cards, approximately 0.25″ from the top. Try to punch the holes in the same place in each card. When you’re done, punch 3 holes near the top of your stand. I recommend using a notecard to help you eyeball where you should put the holes.
- Put it together. Sort the cards into three piles; month, tens digit, and ones digit. If you’re using hinged snap rings, simply put the cards on the rings and then attach the rings to the calendar stand. If you’re using keychain rings, this may be a little harder; one way to do this is to attach the rings to the stand first. Then, turn the calendar stand around and put the cards into the rings last to first, facing backwards. They will flip in the front automatically. (I had to deal with this issue as well; the easiest solution would be to just get hinged snap rings.)
So that’s it! Hope you like it!
Turtledesk 