Category: Holiday

 

If you want to give someone a gift that they’ll actually use, consider giving them a calendar that you customize yourself. Calendars are gifts that are both useful for staying organized and adding to someone’s decor. They can also be personalized to make the gift particularly special, showing a lot of thought and care.
If you want to make a custom calendar as a gift, you can design that calendar with photos, text, and artwork that mean something to the recipient. By infusing your own content, you can create a one of a kind, unique gift and ensure that the gift is meaningful to the person getting it.
Here’s a step by step guide for creating a custom calendar that looks good and is received well by whoever you’re making it for.
Choose the Right Software Solution to Create Your Calendar
There are many options to choose from when it comes to selecting the right software to create your custom calendar. Consider your needs when you decide which calendar design platform you’re going to use.
Do you want to create a calendar of a certain size or with a certain number of images? Do you want to completely customize the calendar or do you want a framework design into which you can insert your images and design?
Decide what’s important to you, then look at options that fit your needs. Once you choose your solution, you can get started designing your custom calendar.
Choose the Calendar Layout
Select the layout or design of calendar you want to insert your images into. You can select the layout by the pre-made design that appeals to you, or you can choose the format that allows you to insert the number of images you are hoping to include. Mimeo Photos offers a variety of layouts to choose from, including calendars with full-page photos for each month, calendars with small photos interspersed throughout on specific dates, and calendars that feature two or three medium to large photos each month.
Once you choose the calendar layout you’re going to customize, you can start to think about the images you’ll put in the calendar.
Choose the Calendar Theme to Help Pick Photos
Decide on the overall theme of the calendar to get started picking photos. Will you only be using travel photos in the calendar? Or, alternatively, are you going for a specific mood? Narrow down the central idea behind the calendar, then you’ll have a better strategy for choosing for your photo.
Some theme ideas that can help you get started are:
Romance: for a couple on an anniversary or a loved one on Valentine’s Day. Choose romantic photos of the people being celebrated.
Travel and Adventure: Remember all the wonderful places people have traveled by creating a travel calendar. Select images showing famous landmarks and stunning sights across the globe.
Pure Happiness: The point of a calendar may just be to make someone happy. Choose photos that evoke happy memories and show people that they live with big smiles.
Select Images for Specific Dates or Events
When you design your custom calendar, you’re going to want to choose images of people or places that are meaningful to the person you’ll be giving the gift to. Sit down and make a list of all of the important people that you want to ensure will appear in the calendar.
Then, decide how you will arrange those people’s images. You may want to consider including photos of important people on the pages of the month of their birth, or during the dates that you know those people are planning to see one another.
Alternatively, you can choose photos of loved ones or beloved locations from past occasions and holidays, then use those photos on the specific dates of those events or on the month pages when those events happened.
There are countless ways to customize the calendar, so choose the design that makes the most sense for the gift you’re giving and the reason you’re giving it.
Insert Images into the Calendar
Choose the actual photo files that you want to use in the calendar. You should be able to easily insert them into the calendar once you’ve decided what images you’d like to include.
Most software solutions will walk you through the process of designing the calendar, by offering you slots where you can add photos or images in with simple clicking or dragging-and-dropping. With Mimeo Photos, you can choose to have your calendar automatically filled with your photos. Alternatively, you can deselect this feature and drag and drop photos into your layout.
When you’re trying to think of a creative gift idea, consider creating a custom calendar. Custom calendars give people a place to keep track of important dates and events, and they offer you a place to infuse personal content that will mean something to the gift’s recipient.
By using the right software solution, being precise about the photos and images you include in the calendar, and being thoughtful about how you present the gift, you can ensure it is a present that is enjoyed for an entire year–and beyond.

Acalendar is so much more than a list of forthcoming events. It can double up as a photo album, recipe book, or curated collection of inspirational quotes.
A calendar doesn’t have to sit on your desk either. Pin it to a wall and make your calendar the centerpiece of any interior space. Here are 5 calendar ideas for Apple Photos users who want to get creative in 2019.
1. Collect Your Favorite Recipes
If you’re a foodie, you’re probably always on the lookout for a good recipe. Now you can keep all of your best recipes in one place. Hot meals, delicious desserts, colorful cocktails — create a personalized recipe calendar that will make your mouth water.
There are so many ways you can utilize your calendar. Use it to showcase some of your best food images or hang it in the kitchen to reference when deciding what to prepare for dinner. You could even incorporate holiday recipes that feature the best seasonal food for that month!
2. Print Out Some Inspirational Quotes
An inspirational quote can provide you with a much-needed boost first thing in the morning. Why not feature some of your favorite quotes from influencers, authority figures, and historical leaders in a wall calendar?
3. Make Your Pet Into a Work of Art
If you’re a pet owner, you probably have hundreds of images of them on your devices. What better way to show appreciation for your furry best friend than by putting them in a calendar! You can create a pet calendar with Mimeo Photos that features some of your favorites images.
Choose your favorite snaps and create customized collages for every month of the year. Pick as many photos as you like — after all, we know it’ll be hard to narrow down photos of your beloved pet.
4. Showcase Selfies With Friends and Loved Ones
The average millennial will take 25,700 selfies in their lifetime — that’s a lot of photos. You could keep selfies on your phone, but printing your favorites and putting them on display will constantly remind of you of your best nights out, vacation spots, and cherished moments with friends and loved ones.
Why not create a selfie calendar? Choose 12 of your favorite images of the people you love and celebrate your best-ever memories.
5. Create a Calendar for Your Special Someone
Surprise your partner with a calendar of your favorite moments as a couple. Use images from your Photos albums and create a calendar that your loved one will cherish for the next 12 months.
Choose a mix of photos from your time together as a couple. Vacations, date nights, cute couple selfies — incorporate all of these images to create the perfect personalized gift for your special someone.

Each Christmas, I spend hours upon hours looking for the perfect gift for each person on my list.
After I got married, the pressure to find the best gift grew to a whole new level. Our first Christmas as a married couple, I spent an incredible amount of money (that we couldn’t necessarily afford) on gifts to impress his family. I wanted them to like me and think we had it all together. But months of paying off those gifts taught me a lesson in remembering what gift giving at Christmas should really be about.
While the Christmas season is often marked by joy, family time, and generosity, if we aren’t careful it can also be a time of jealousy, resentment, and competition. I stressed myself out mentally, physically, and financially trying to impress people. I wasn’t searching for gifts to make others happy; I was gift-giving to bolster my personal appearance and be accepted by my new family.
Giving gifts isn’t about the amount or value of what we give. It’s about the motivation of our hearts as we share with others what Jesus has given us. Giving from an overflow of Christ’s gift for us allows us to experience the joy of generosity instead of feeling the pressure to measure up.
Three Guidelines for Gift Giving
1. Understand why we give presents at Christmas.
In Matthew 2, three wise men travel from a far away land to visit baby Jesus. The Bible says, “They bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh”. Many believe that today’s custom of giving gifts is because these wise men, the Magi, gave gifts to Jesus. But the Magi weren’t the only ones to give gifts in the Bible.
The most important gift ever given was God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. We give others gifts out of the thanksgiving and generosity God first showed to us.
2. Be generous, not jealous.
tells us that being generous is a way to bring our thanks back to God. When we give generously and sincerely to others, we are pleasing God.
But if we aren’t monitoring our motivations, our “generosity” can be a result of jealousy and competitiveness instead of thanksgiving. Philippians 2:3 says to “do nothing from rivalry or conceit.” This includes gift-giving. Our motives for giving to others should not be about us or how others will perceive us. Our generosity should always point back to Jesus.
3. Remember gifts are blessings, not burdens.
Gift-giving often causes stress and burden to both the gift-giver and the recipient. People spend large amounts of time and money choosing gifts that will impress, and recipients are often overwhelmed with the need to give gifts in return that measure up. The cycle becomes one of comparison and competition, and we often lose sight of the reason we give gifts to begin with.
Gift-giving isn’t meant to be a burden. It’s meant to be a blessing for both the giver and the recipient.

Close your eyes and picture the perfect Christmas. The smell of fresh-baked goods filling the house. The tree glistening with perfectly hung lights and a fire crackling as the kids play with new toys.
We start December with high expectations, but all too often our quest for the picture-perfect day leaves us frazzled and stressed. The Christmas season becomes flooded with anything but joy as we race to find the perfect gift and open our homes to family, in-laws, and friends.
This year can be different! Follow these two simple steps, and you can finally have the best Christmas ever.
How to Have the Best Christmas Ever:
1. Make the main thing the main thing.
The best way to avoid turning into the Grinch this Christmas is to remember the point of the holiday. Christmas isn’t a task to complete or a burden to endure, it is a celebration of the burden that Jesus carried so that we could be freed from sin and death!
We often hear “To us a child is born, to us a son is given,” and conclude that Christmas is a birthday party for the birth of Christ, but Christmas is a birthday celebration for us all because it marks the day Jesus was born so that we could be free!
Don’t let the stress of making a list and checking it twice keep you from celebrating the salvation that came with Jesus! Make the main thing the main thing this season by remembering that Christmas is a celebration of God’s ultimate gift of salvation.
2. Choose peace over chaos.
In a letter to the church in Colossae, the apostle Paul wrote about what it looked like to be alive in Jesus. He instructs the Colossians to, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful”. This instruction is true for us today. We are called to live in peace, looking at our lives with thanks for what we have instead of complaining about what we don’t have.
When we let peace rule in our lives, the stress of life slowly begins to fade away. The chaos of the holidays is put into context and suddenly becomes null compared with the grace of God and the joyful peace He brings to our lives when we seek Him.
So put down the cookie cutters, step away from the gift wrap, and take time to rest in God’s peace. Your house may not smell like fresh-baked goods and your tree may not sparkle, but seeking Jesus and His peace this holiday season will ensure you to have the best Christmas ever.

The most important family events in life are always remembered — but not always in great detail. This is why creating a family photo album is so important. Seeing those special images from years ago can trigger long-buried memories, and take you back in time to some of the happiest times of your life.
Whether you’re creating a family photo album as a gift or as your own memento of a great occasion, there are a few tips that can help you to make it extra special.
1. Use Descriptive Headings
Whether your family photo album covers a specific event (such as Christmas) or a review of a particular year, it’s always a good idea to divide it into sections. Tell a story in a logical way by grouping relevant images together. You can do this very easily with descriptive headings. Describe the time in one sentence, and your photo album can become a heartfelt storybook.
2. Describe the Scene with Text
How often do you look at a family photo and forget when it was taken? You may even have photos that include people or places you don’t recognize.
A photo from 40 years ago is often filled with secrets and surprises — but you need to make sure they can be discovered by future generations.
Just under each photo, include a few lines of text to describe the scene. Start with the time and place, and list the people in the image. If there’s a particular anecdote to go with the photo, all the better.
3. Stage the “Milestone” Photos
Imagine you’re creating a forever family photo album to commemorate your child’s graduation. While it’s great to go with the flow on the day — and capture spur-of-the-moment images — it’s also a good idea to take an image that captures the essence of the day. And to do this requires a little forward planning. There may be a particular teacher or lecturer you want in the photo or a particular backdrop you want to feature.
Talk to everyone you want to include in the photo well in advance. Give them a time and a place to meet, and ask them to wear the most appropriate clothing. This image is going to last several lifetimes, so every detail needs to be planned.
At Christmas, for example, staged photos could include the carving of the turkey or the opening of presents. Some memories are just too important to be left to chance.
4. Review Your Social Media Accounts
Particularly if you’re creating a family photo album to commemorate a year, your social media accounts contain a wealth of information you can use. Review the likes of Twitter and Facebook for those bib “moments” of the year.
You’ll be surprised at how many details you can gather, and how many great photos you can use in your album. The average social media account is like a personal journal, so utilize it fully.
5. Use a Digital Photo Editing Suite
You don’t need to be a professional photographer or digital design expert to create stunning family photo albums. There are online platforms, design suites, and apps that make the process quick and simple.
Need some help putting together a professional family photo album? Take the first step towards having your own forever photo album by creating a photobook from the comfort of your home.