Since we’ve been on the topic of color printers lately, I thought I’d share with you how I used mine to create a fun calendar gift for Chris’ birthday recently. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a huge fan of FD’s Flickr toys. I’ve created a mosaic of the daughter’s first four months of life, an inspirational poster and a cartoon cell. But the coolest Flickr toy I’ve used so far has been the fun calendar I made using photos of me, my beautiful daughter and my scruffy dog. Chris loved it, and it couldn’t have been easier.

First off, if you want to create a lovely calendar, go here. You don’t actually have to be a Flickr user to do this. (But why aren’t you?) You can upload pictures right from your computer or just insert links to your photos hosted on any photo sharing site. After choosing your pictures for each month, you insert them one by one and the calendar creator automatically adds the month, days of the week and dates. I chose my 12 months to go from April 2006 to May 2007. That’s what’s so cool — you can totally customize it to fit your needs.

After you’ve chosen your photos for each month, you can decide how you’d like them cropped and what size you’d like them to print out. You can choose between letter size (8.5×11), 8×10 or, my favorite, the option to display your calendar in a CD Jewel Case.

There are very easy instructions on how to assemble a calendar in a CD jewel case here, so I won’t go into too much detail. Basically, you just obtain a CD jewel case (easy for me as I have them lying around everywhere), gently remove the door/lid of the case, flip it around and put it back on, and then remove the cover and back inserts. You’ll save the calendar pictures to your desktop and print them so that they are 4.75 inches wide. Then just cut out the pictures and slip them in. Easy as pie.

I had a lot of fun making this, and I’m already trying to decide on which pictures to use for my next calendar project — a Mother’s Day present for Grandma!

Has anyone else tried cool craft or art projects with your photos and care to share?