Every year it’s the same. I promise myself I’ll design a few simple, pretty little calendars for our place and then curse my way through an entire year without any. Not this year! While I still have plans to whip up something fun using some 2013 Instagram shots and some of the funny quotes I’ve collected from the last year (and Brian and I have sworn we’re going to do a honeymoon one with shots from Hawaii), I decided that a freebie printable can be my placeholder in the meantime.
How gorgeous is this one? I found it over on Oh the Lovely Things, which is quickly becoming a favorite morning read. I was swooning over her recent post, 14 Resources for Foodies. Check it out! I also found a nice round-up of other freebie 2014 calendars over on The DIY Dreamer, too.
Sometimes I struggle with printer settings for items I’ve gotten free offline so I thought it might be useful to share exactly how I printed my calender. I used 110 lb., standard letter-size card stock in white. I bought it a while back for different design projects, like card making, etc. For example, if I’m printing an art piece for my gallery wall and need something a little sturdier than plain old floppy printer paper, card stock is my go-to. I think it cost $15 at Staples for $250 sheets. (I have the same in ivory too, leftover from wedding projects.)
The tricky part is really the printer settings. You want to make sure you adjust your Quality or Media settings to be the highest option available. On my Canon Pixma printer, I adjusted my media type to “High Resolution paper” and my print mode to “Printing a top-quality photo.” Don’t worry about the fact that neither is exactly correct, it just works for my printer and I’d bet it would help improve the quality of your printables too.
The actual calender design is 4.5 x 7 ” — basically just too wide for me to be able to squeeze two/page. If I’d had more time I might have saved them out like that in Photoshop, but wanted it expedited, so I opted to just print one/page and am really happy I did. The color on each is vivid and crisp and since there aren’t two squeezed to a page, I’ll be less nervous cutting each month out with my slightly dulled Exacto knife.
I can’t wait to post mine over my desk! Hope you find one you like, too! It is only mid-January, right?
Married with Style 