Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
I Finally Made a Custom Photo Calendar That Beat Hallmark's Price
49
items Every December I'd grab a Hallmark calendar at the register, pay $16 for someone else's golden retriever photos, and wonder why I didn't just make one with my own family pictures. This year I actually did it, and the whole thing cost less than that g...
Sections
7
Photo Printing Supplies That Actually Look Professional
Cardstock and Paper for Calendar Pages
Binding and Assembly Tools to Hold It All Together
Calendar Templates and Planning Printables
Photo Editing and Display Accessories
Decorative Touches That Make It Look Store-Bought
Photo Printing Supplies That Actually Look Professional
My first attempt at printing family photos at home looked like a watercolor painting left in the rain. These supplies fixed that completely, and now people think I ordered prints from a lab.
Grab this if you want to print photos at your kitchen table instead of driving to a kiosk. I printed 40 calendar photos in one evening while watching TV. Zero smudging, zero hassle.
Customer reviews for HP Sprocket Portable Photo Printer
Stock up on these before you start your project. I burned through my first pack just picking which photos to use because the quality made me want to print everything on my phone.
HP, Sprocket Glossy Photo Paper, 2x3 inches, 50 Sheets
Switched to this after my old inkjet made everyone look slightly green. Skin tones come out accurate and the prints feel like real photos, not printer paper with ink on them.
Canon SELPHY CP1500 Wireless Compact Photo Printer
Get this alongside the SELPHY. 108 sheets means you can mess up a few times without panicking. I wasted maybe ten sheets learning the right settings and still had plenty left.
Canon KP-108IN Color Ink and Paper Set
Use this if you're going the inkjet route and want that drugstore-photo-print feel. Ran my holiday group shots through a regular Epson printer and the results actually surprised me.
Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy, 8.5" x 11", 50 sheets
Swap your old cartridges before you start printing a whole year of photos. I tried to squeeze life out of half-empty ones and the November page came out with pink stripes through everyone's faces.
HP 63XL Black High-Yield and 63 Tri-Color Ink Cartridges
Perfect for the person who wants to stick photos onto cardstock instead of printing directly on it. Peel and place, no glue mess. My seven-year-old helped with this part without destroying anything.
Avery Sticker Paper, 8.5" x 11", Glossy Clear, 7 Sheets (4397)
Cardstock and Paper for Calendar Pages
Regular printer paper buckles the second you look at it wrong. Finding the right cardstock took me three failed attempts and one crinkled April page before I landed on these.
Pair different colors with different months. I did light blue for January, green for March, orange for October. My mom said it looked like something from a boutique shop and I just smiled.
Astrobrights, Colored Cardstock, 8.5" x 11"
Use this as your base if you want a clean, classic look. Thick enough that photos don't bleed through and sturdy enough to hang on a nail without flopping over by February.
Neenah, Bright White Cardstock, 8.5" x 11", 250 Sheets
Grabbed this on a whim and it turned out to be the perfect weight. Not too thick for my printer, not so thin that it curled. Sometimes the boring choice is the right one.
Recollections, Cardstock Paper, 8.5"x11", 50 Sheets Pink
For anyone making this project with kids, let them pick background colors. My daughter chose purple for her birthday month and honestly it looked better than my sophisticated neutral palette.
Crayola, Construction Paper, 240 Pages
Try this if you want slightly larger calendar pages. The texture holds up to glue, tape, and marker without warping. I used it for the photo pages and it felt almost like a real art print.
Canson, Mixed Media Pad, 9x12 inches, Side Wire
Keep a stack of this around for test prints. Before committing photos to expensive cardstock, I'd run a draft on this first. Saved me from wasting at least five sheets of the good stuff.
Hammermill, Color Copy Paper, 8.5"x11"
Toss this in your cart if you want a smaller desk calendar instead of a wall one. The paper handles both inkjet printing and hand-drawn doodles, which is how my kitchen counter calendar ended up looking actually cute.
Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Pad, 12 Sheet
Binding and Assembly Tools to Hold It All Together
The first calendar I assembled fell apart by March because I used a single staple in the corner like a college essay. These tools made it look like a real product someone would buy.
Slide these through punched holes and suddenly your stack of cardstock looks like an actual calendar you'd see hanging in a kitchen. The click when they close is weirdly satisfying.
GBC CombBind Binding Spines, 3/8 inch, Black, 125 Pack
Worth every penny if you plan to make more than one. I made five calendars as holiday gifts and this machine paid for itself. Punches and binds in about thirty seconds per calendar.
GBC CombBind Manual Binding Machine 7706171
For anyone who doesn't want a binding machine, three-hole punch your pages and use binder rings. Simple, cheap, and it actually looks intentional. My sister thought I planned it that way.
BOSTITCH, Three-Hole Punch
Snap three of these through hole-punched pages and you've got a flip calendar. I hung mine from a single nail and it's been flipping smoothly since January without any pages ripping.
100 Pack-1 inch Binder Rings, Loose Leaf Binder Book
Get refills before you run out mid-project. Nothing worse than being on the August page at 11pm and realizing you're out of adhesive. Learned that one the hard way last year.
Scotch 085-R ATG Advanced Tape Glider Refill Rolls
Use this instead of a glue stick. No wrinkles, no wet spots, no waiting for anything to dry. I ran a strip along each photo edge and pressed it down. Done. Clean every single time.
3M Advanced Tape Glider General Purpose Refill
Ditch the scissors for straight cuts. My hand-cut edges looked like a toddler did them until I grabbed this trimmer. Now every page lines up perfectly and the blade lasts forever.
Fiskars, Portable Trimmer, 12 inch, SureCut with Recycled
Calendar Templates and Planning Printables
Staring at a blank page trying to remember how many days are in September is not how you want to spend your Saturday. These made the number grids the easy part.
Grab this as a reference so you don't accidentally give February 30 days. I kept one open next to my project and just matched the dates. Cheap insurance against embarrassing mistakes.
2025 Hanging Wall Calendar, Space, 12x12 by Blue Sky
Use the grid layout as a template to trace onto your own pages. The spacing is clean and even, which is exactly what I couldn't achieve freehand no matter how many rulers I used.
2025 AT-A-GLANCE® Monthly Desk Pad Calendar
For anyone who wants a larger format to copy from. The big squares gave me room to see exactly how the layout should flow. Returned it after the project was done. Just needed it for reference.
Mead? All Calendars
Write in the dates and month names with these. They don't bleed through cardstock, the colors stay bold, and my handwritten ‘JULY’ actually looked like a font. Practice on scrap paper first though.
Sharpie Permanent Markers, Fine Point
Perfect for the person whose handwriting is too shaky for Sharpies. The fine tips let you write small, neat numbers without the ink spreading. My grid lines came out surprisingly straight.
Crayola, Fine Line Markers, 10ct, Classic Colors for Kids
Keep this next to you the entire time. Drawing date grid lines freehand is a disaster I've lived through. This ruler plus a fine marker equals a calendar that looks printed, not homemade.
Walmart Westcott 12 Inch Acrylic Ruler Same-Day Delivery
Stick these on your draft pages to mark birthdays and anniversaries before writing them in permanent marker. I skipped this step once and permanently wrote my brother-in-law's birthday on the wrong date. He noticed.
Post-it Super Sticky Notes Limited Edition Pack
Photo Editing and Display Accessories
Straight-from-the-phone photos had weird lighting, someone's eyes were closed, and my thumb was in the corner of the Thanksgiving shot. A little editing and the right accessories fixed all of that.
Toss your edited photos onto this before printing so you're not scrolling through 4,000 phone photos at the printer. Organized everything by month and the whole printing session took half the time.
SanDisk 64GB Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive - 130MB/s
Use this if your phone storage is maxed out and you can't even open the camera app anymore. Moved all my old photos here, freed up space, then actually had room to take new calendar-worthy shots.
SanDisk ImageMate microSDXC 128GB, C10, U1
Bigger screen made editing photos so much easier than squinting at my phone. I could actually see if everyone's eyes were open before committing to a print. Worth borrowing one if you don't own a tablet.
onn, 10.1 in Tablet, 32GB, Android 14, Blue, Metal
Pair this with a tablet and suddenly you're typing month names and captions without pecking at a touchscreen. Typed out little memory captions under each photo and it added a personal touch that made my mom cry.
Logitech K380 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard - Black
Clip your finished calendar pages to these lights and display them as a garland before binding. I did this at Christmas and guests kept asking where I ordered them. The answer was my dining room table.
Merkury Innovations LED Photo Clip String Lights, 15ft
Print an extra copy of your favorite month's photo and frame it. January's snow day shot looked so good I put it on the mantel. Now it's just permanent decor that happens to match the calendar.
Mainstays 8 x 10 Black Step Program Tabletop Picture Frame
Seal your cover page with one of these so it doesn't get dinged up hanging in the kitchen. Grease splatters, kid fingerprints, coffee steam. This cover survived all of it for twelve months.
Pen+Gear Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets, Clear
Decorative Touches That Make It Look Store-Bought
Plain photos on white cardstock looked like a school project. Adding a few decorative details took it from ‘oh that’s nice' to ‘wait, you actually MADE this?’ in about twenty minutes.
Peel and stick month names instead of handwriting them. The gold foil caught light and made my kitchen calendar look like something from an Anthropologie catalog. Nobody needs to know they cost four dollars.
Recollections Gold Foil Alphabet Stickers, 12 Packs
Run a strip of this along the border of each page. Takes ten seconds and suddenly the whole thing has a theme. I matched floral patterns to spring months and solid colors to winter.
Recollections Petite Floral Crafting Washi Tape Set, 12 Packs
Let kids decorate their birthday month with these. My son went wild on September and honestly his sparkly dinosaur drawings made it the best page in the whole calendar. Embrace the chaos.
Crayola Glitter Markers, 6-Colors
Punch rounded corners on every page and the whole calendar feels more polished. Sharp square corners kept catching on things and bending. Rounded ones slide past each other when you flip months.
Fiskars The 3-in-1 Corner Punch
Stick little turkeys on November, pumpkins on October, snowflakes on December. Visual cues that make the calendar actually useful at a glance. My husband found his fantasy football draft date sticker hilarious.
Recollections Day of the Dead Holiday Stickers, 12 Pack
Write birthday names and anniversary notes in colored gel pen so they pop against the cardstock. White gel pen on dark cardstock especially. My aunt's birthday in white on navy blue looked incredible.
Customer reviews for Sakura Gelly Roll Gel Pens - Gift Set
Wrap a strip of this around the binding edge for a finished look. Five minutes of effort and suddenly the spine of your calendar looks intentional instead of like you just punched holes in some paper.
Scotch Expressions Glitter Tape, Gold, .59" x 196", 1 Roll
Gift Packaging for Handing Them Out
Handing someone a loose stack of bound paper doesn't feel like a gift. Wrapping them properly made people react like I'd given them something expensive, which is exactly the energy I was going for.
Slide your finished calendar into one of these and watch someone's face light up. The irony of using a Hallmark bag to gift a calendar that beat Hallmark's price was not lost on me.
Hallmark Medium Gift Bag (Solid Blue)
Use this instead of regular tape on wrapping paper. No shiny tape lines showing through. My wrapped calendars looked like they came from a gift shop and people kept turning them over looking for a price tag.
Scotch Gift Wrap Tape Dispensers, Satin Finish, 3/4 in. x
Stuff a few sheets around the calendar inside the bag so it doesn't just sit at the bottom looking lonely. Presentation matters. My mother-in-law commented on the tissue paper before she even saw the gift.
Pen+Gear Ivory Resume Paper, Laid Finish, 8.5" x 11"
Print little notes on these like ‘Made with love and also a lot of printer ink.’ Tie one to each bag. Personal touch that takes two minutes and makes people feel like you spent hours on their gift. You did, but still.
Avery Printable Tags, 2" x 3", Kraft Brown, 80ct
Wrap flat calendars in this and tie with twine for that handmade boutique look. Brown kraft paper makes everything look expensive and thoughtful. My coworker literally said ‘this is too pretty to open.’
Jillson & Roberts Gift Wrap
Tie this around kraft-wrapped calendars instead of using ribbon. The texture contrast looks rustic and intentional. I had enough twine left over to wrap about forty more gifts so this spool lasts forever.
BambooMN 75 Yard, 2mm Crafty Jute Twine Thread Cord
Tuck a card inside each calendar with a note about why you chose those specific photos. I wrote little memories on each one and three different relatives called me crying on Christmas morning. Worth it.
American Greetings Christmas Card Bundles