Make your 2021 Calendar now!

I was playing around with my pictures the other day and decided that I wanted to make a "Grace calendar" so I picked out 14 images and got to work.  I showed the calendar to my daughter, Autumn and my granddaughter, Gracie and they both wanted one, too.  It was quick and easy and a great gift.  I am replacing my "dogs pooping" calendar for 2020 with my Grace calendar for 2021 with the hope that the year will not be, well, as poopy, as 2020.

Here's how you get started to make your own personalized calendar!  Open Photos and start browsing for appropriate photos for you new 2021 calendar.  You will find a bunch that are right!   Now, you need to download the appropriate plug-ins for Photos.  Surf to Photos ->File->Create->Calendar->App Store.   This will open the App Store and show you all of the plug-ins that work with Mac photos.  I selected two, Motif and Mimeo but there are several to choose from.

Once you have downloaded that plug-in (I will use Motif for this article just because I used them and it was seamless and fast) you can create your new calendar.

Here you will start to have a number of options.  You can select how many months, which month the calendar starts and select language and holidays.  Motif offers a 10 x 13 inch calendar.  I chose to have only one picture per page but you can have multiples in several pre-programmed arrangements.   You can even set up an album in Photos and have Motif auto-populate the calendar.

Now is when you can start customizing the calendar by adding special dates, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  And for those dates you can even assign a picture to that date box to make it stand out! Your options are varied, you can plan up to 3 years ahead, you can have a 2-year calendar, you can add holidays for many nations, you can start your calendar on any month and you can start your week on any day!

Once you are ready and are totally satisfied with your layout, pictures, dates, etc. you can click the checkout button.  Before they take your money they will check your photos to make sure that their resolution will support a print out and then you can pay with ApplePay, PayPal or credit card.

The paper the calendar is printed on is sturdy high-quality stock and I was particularly impressed with the shipping container.  The package arrived in a corrugated shipping container and had a matte sleeve presents protecting your custom photo calendar.  At $22.99 it is a great bargain for a custom calendar.

Motif, Mimeo and other plug-ins will also allow you to create custom photo books, cards, wall decor and prints.  Mimeo's interface is similar but they also have a number of templates to choose from.