You will need time for the photo selection, slide/software work, printing time (possibly including shipping), cutting time, and adhesive/glue drying time. Please read all steps before embarking on this project. A nice large pair of scissors could work okay, but only if you're a very straight cutter.) - a small sheet of card stock (at least twice the thickness of cereal/tissue box cardboard, like the back of a legal pad) - a few small pieces of dense uncrushable cardboard, fiberboard, or thin plywood (no more than 1/8 inch) - clamps large enough to fit around a 2-inch stack of paper - the plastic back/stand off an old page-a-day calendar (or you could make your own from thick cardboard) - hot glue gun and glue, or an all-purpose glue capable of bonding plastic and cardboard - money to pay for the printing costs (and cutting costs, if you choose to have the pages professionally cut) (You could also use a paper cutter if you own one. If you're on Macintosh, there is a workaround in steps 7 and 8.) - a copy of the Adobe Reader (or some other PDF file viewer) - an image/photo-editing piece of software like GIMP (may not be required, but is useful when needing to resize photos) - notepad padding compound (can be obtained at a craft store or ordered online) - a small craft paint brush - a cutting mat/board, pen knife, and metal ruler. This bug in version 4 has been noted.) - a PDF file creator/printer utility that produces compliant PDFs for professional presses (I used CutePDF Writer for Windows and had no problems. You can, at the time of this instructable, still download version 3.4.1 of Open Office since photo insertion doesn't seem to work correctly in version 4.1 and above. (Note: I originally used Open Office 3.4.1 to first make this calendar and the screenshots in the instructable will show the Open Office screens, though the process is similar in PowerPoint. (My process is also possible with Macintosh, but will require a few workarounds.) - 366 digital photos (one for each day of the standard year plus an extra photo for leap year, when applicable) - a copy of PowerPoint or OpenOffice 3.4.1. You will need (or at least what I used): - a Windows PC. This probably is not the only way to make a DIY page-a-day photo calendar, but I'm pleased with the results, amount of work, and cost, and my family members are thrilled to get these each year. I've improved the steps in each subsequent year since. This instructable is how I first achieved these requirements in 2012 and made a 5.5 x 4.25 inch custom page-a-day calendar for Christmas. My requirements for success were: - A finished unit price (per calendar) of less than $20 US - in a size similar to off-the-shelf page-a-day calendars - in full color - printed in at least 300dpi - and preferably 600dpi - quality - all using free software - without having to do anything uber-technical like write code. I wanted to have a page-a-day full-color photo calendar, but couldn't find this offered as a photo service and certainly didn't want to pay a professional print shop to do a custom job. 12 pictures for an entire year seems like too few given how many digital photos we shoot now-a-days. This is how to make a full-color page-a-day photo calendar, where there is one photo per page for every day of the year, with the pages adhered together at the top so that every day the previous day's sheet can be peeled/torn off (just like the page-a-day calendars you can buy.) Photo calendars make great gifts for relatives, but most photo services only offer 12-month custom calendars with one photo for each month.
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