A record of Free Annual Calendar Download

This time of year we tend to feel behind on simply about everything: projects, emails, present wrapping, cleaning, proper hygiene… but by some miracle, we are in fact ahead in one department: making our homemade family calendar.

As many of you know, for the last five years we have whipped up a plain-yet-colorful calendar in Photoshop. A few of you (like Lauren and Alexandra) have even asked if we had this year’s ready yet (since we like to share the customizable template, in case you need a last minute gift). So I am relieved to exclaim “the deed is done!”

It does not typically serve as our note-riddled family calendar (that is what Sherry’s desktop planner is for) but it is more of warm & fuzzy overview of the month that we can glance at and smile while swiftly checking dates or counting down to certain events. Each year we inject some meaningful elements – inside jokes in 2010, family stats in 2011, Clara pics in 2012, and sort of a hybrid of those in 2013.

We enjoyed 2013’s pairing of Instagram photos with funny Clara quotes so much that we chose to go that route again – simply with a new design. And for the first time we designed around a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper to eliminate any need to cut off excess, and to allow for a bit more space/function for the actual date part of the calendar.

The bigger size also made room for a bigger picture size: 4 x 4″ – which simply so happens to be a standard print size for sites like Snapstagram or PicPlum. So if you do not trust your home printer to do your photos justice, you can spend $6 on real prints and stick them right on to each page. That is what we are planning to do, so we have printed all of ours with simply a gray placeholder box while we wait for our prints to arrive (we ordered from Snapstagram this time).

And as usual, we are sharing our template so you folks can download the calendar and tailor it to your own photos/quotes/worldly desires. I have tried to make it less complicated this year (i.e. fewer layers to mess with), so…

1. 1. If you can edit .PSD files, you can simply download the Photoshop version (click that link to do so) with ready-to-edit text in the quote area (you may need to download both fonts used: Adamas and Multicolore).
   2. If Photoshop is not your jam, you can download a PDF version (click that link to do so) where the quote area is left blank (that way you can hand-write in your own text).

In both versions, you will need to add your own photo either digitally or by attaching a real 4 x 4″ print like we plan to do with ours.

And simply for kicks, here is a look at the quotes and photos that we chose for each of our 12 months this year. Kinda makes us wish there were more months in the year, cuz Clara can be fairly quotable. That and it’d likely give me more time to squeeze in a shower.

What are your calendar plans for 2014? Do you have a go to source every year? Do you prefer a purely functional planner or wall calendar with plenty of space to scribble? Do you go for something sweet and decorative, simply for checking dates at a glance? Are you one of those 100% electronic folks with everything on your phone? Or do you fall somewhere in between? One more question. Who knew there were so many questions to ask about calendars?