the gift of a (TinyPrints) calendar
Last month, I had the bright idea to create a calendar for my mom. Every year, I buy her a tropical calendar which she hangs either at home or at work (she usually buys one as well, so she has beach photos to look at wherever she is.) I did buy her a cheap $1 calendar at Target before I thought to make a calendar. I’ve never actually made a calendar through any program. I saw a $10 promo code for TinyPrints and when I was trying to decide what I *really* wanted to order, I knew I had to go with a calendar….using photos from our trip to Hawaii this past March.
So I logged on, and had the difficult task of choosing a layout and then enough photos to fill an entire calendar. While the upload time took a while (you really need to upload high-res photos), the laying out 12 months of pictures and adding captions to some should have taken less than an hour. But I’m a little indecisive and couldn’t decide on photos for each month. I think I spent about 3 or 4 hours creating the calendar. I was afraid the code might expire at midnight, and I hit order at 11:58 p.m. Nothing like a little procrastination, right?
TinyPrints did such a great job this past summer with my business cards – and I knew they would come through for me on this project. And they totally did. I’m actually a little sad that I didn’t order one for myself (but then I came across a real Hawaii calendar I bought when I was there. It’s my fifth calendar for 2011. I think I’m covered.)
Here’s the cover: 
It’s on cardstock, with the spiral binding – it’s a really great quality and it looks SO GOOD. My mom even said she cried when she finally figured out it was pictures from our vacation. š (I had her open it when we were out of town. I wanted her to have something nice to open on Christmas morning!)
I bought several pretty big gifts for family members this year. I think this might have been my most favorite gift to give, though, and it was one of the smallest.
It’s just too bad that we’re not planning another tropical vacation so I can use this idea again next year!
(TinyPrints didn’t ask me to post about this. I just LOVED this product and felt the need to share. That said, you can get 10% off of a purchase of $49 or more with the promo code TPCHEER until January 17. And check their site on Thursdays – they tend to have a daily deal posted.)
I actually made a book of our first year together from my publisher for my boyfriend on our anniversary and he cried when he read it! it took me SO LONG to do the layout, I totally understand. Glad she loved it! š
Calendars from Shutterfly have been my favorite gift to give the my parents and in-laws for a couple years. My in-laws are so hard to buy for, but they always use our calendar. You’re right – it takes a while to go through the pictures and decide which ones to use!