I love themed calendars with full-color photos and plenty of space for writing notes, and the end of each year I think what a shame it is to throw away those pricey calendars with photos and graphics that are still perfectly good. I stopped throwing away my old calendars year after year and came up with various ways to reuse them. The following are ways to reuse your old calendars, and hopefully you’ll be able to salvage some if not all of the interesting pictures that adorned your walls for the past twelve months.
Love the Photos? Make New Calendars!
With the massive amount of free printable items available online, finding free printable calendars isn’t very difficult. If you visit PrintFree.com you’ll find free calendar pages that will enable you to reuse the old calendars you care bear to part with. Simply print a free calendar page for each month of the new year, and use double-sided tape to attach the new pages to previously used pages. If the print shows through, use cardstock instead of printer paper. You’ll still have the pictures you love and brand new calendar squares to keep track of dates, bills, holidays, appointments, and special events. This is a great way to recycle and reuse!
Frame Them
Not all calendars contain photos worthy of framing, but some calendars have beautiful landscapes, flowers, cute and cuddly pets, barns, lighthouses, and much more. Photos such as these are worth framing and displaying, so if you like the pictures, don’t throw them away. Buy a precut mat to match a secondary color in the photo along with an attractive frame. Create a grouping, or choose your favorites if you can’t frame them all. For the price of a calendar, a precut mat, and a frame, you’ll have a beautiful work of art that will last forever.
Make Handy Gift Tags
Gift tags can be somewhat expensive, especially when they’re embellished with glitter and other add-ons. The fancier the tags, the higher the price, and the less you get for the money, but you don’t have to purchase ready-made gift tags. Simply cut out portions of pictures from old calendars and reuse them. Glue on some sparkling glitter, attach them with double-sided tape, and you’ll have gift tags unlike any you’ll find in the store.
I had an old calendar that I wanted to reuse, and I had several birthday gifts to wrap. Instead of making mini cards from pieces of wrapping paper, I cut out several pretty flowers from my old calendar. I outlined every other petal with glue and iridescent glitter, and they looked outstanding. On another flower I glued yellow and orange seed beads in the center. This was a great way to reuse my old calendar, and the fancy tags made a great impression.
Kids love craft projects, and what better way to reuse old calendars than with creative craft projects? If you have kids, give them your old calendars and encourage them to use their imaginations to make beautiful greeting cards, collages, and mobiles. Have them cut out their favorite shapes, and provide them with glue, paper, string, ribbons, and other craft supplies of your choice. You’ll be amazed by the beautiful works of art they create, and your old calendars will serve a creative new purpose.
