Don’t throw out that 2007 calendar just yet. It might be 2008, but there is no reason to let something like that go to waste. After you have recorded the dates and other information you want to remember, follow these creative and clever ideas to use that old calendar in a new way.
Nearly every calendar has a pretty picture for each month, here are some ideas to use those pictures.
They make a fun and creative gift wrap for small packages. You would wrap the same way you would wrap with wrapping paper leaving the date part on the inside. Calendar pages are much sturdier than gift wrap too.
Cut certain dates out and use them in your journal or scrapbook. The months can be titles, or you could cut out a date and include it right on a scrapbook page. Perhaps you wrote that on January 12th you were going to the zoo. Do you have pictures of that? Include a cut out of that date on your page.
Frame them and hang them in a child’s bedroom or other area of your home. My daughter got a horse calendar last year for Christmas. Her room has a horse theme and we chose several of the calendar prints to frame and hang on her wall. It looks amazing and it also looks like we paid a fortune for a print when it cost as much as the original price of the calendar and cheap frames from a discount chain.
Mount them on card stock and turn them into puzzles for your young children. If you mount them first on a sturdier paper they will last longer. You can decoupage over the top of them to keep the pieces from peeling apart and they can be used for a long time. I did a ton of these when I was still teaching and I still have them all in great shape.
When I was a preschool teacher, we turned them into place mats by laminating them. Allow the children to decorate then if they want, laminate them and then allow them to use them for lunch or dinner. If you have multiple calendars and they have a theme for a month, you might wind up with a set to be used on fourth of July or even Christmas.
Any type of paper craft can be made more creative by using these large beautiful pictures. My oldest step daughter is an origami expert and loves to collect large pieces of colorful paper and pictures to fold into tiny creatures and objects. Envelopes can also be constructed out of these large sheets. Portions of calendar pages can be used to create greeting cards too.
Nicole Humphrey writes articles for the Scrapbooking Blog and for the Frugal Blog. She also guest blogs on a variety of topics. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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