Calendar Workshop 2025

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/29/2024 at 10:41 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

Donna I love all those Thailand pages, each month is so vibrant, and those colors suit you perfect!

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I agree, each page with it's glory of color is like celebration.  I love color so there was so much to discover in Donna's pages.  it really has that "wow" factor.  So many different calendars that had me going "WOW" that's fabulous.   

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/29/2024 at 11:05 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

And here are the next 2. I tried to have some texture on the background layers for just that little bit extra and each month has a clipart on the empty space that goes well with that month. It is time to go to sleep now, I forgot initially to include the months💤💤💤

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Corrie, I'm blown away by your calendar, it's just stunning (like everyone else's I see, this is just like opening a present on Christmas morning!).  I really like the dates starting on Monday, it makes the weekends look really nice in the calendar.  I like how the mushrooms have a gradient, how did you do that?

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/29/2024 at 11:30 PM, Mary Solaas said:

This is my May for the 2nd set. This pic was taken at my daughter's and my favorite city park on a May day. The Memphis (Canadian) Geese were taking their youngsters out for a swim.

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perfect colors in this layout Mary.  I love what you did with the main frame part of the mask.  

[Donna Sillia]

  On 10/30/2024 at 11:26 AM, Susan Ewart said:

I agree, each page with it's glory of color is like celebration.  I love color so there was so much to discover in Donna's pages.  it really has that "wow" factor.  So many different calendars that had me going "WOW" that's fabulous.   

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Thank you so much,, Susan. I used Adobe Express and Filter Forge a lot for the backgrounds.

[Donna Sillia]

Can someone give me advice on how and where to have my calendar printed? I keep reading that you have to convert to CMYK colors and 300dpi.

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/30/2024 at 2:49 PM, Donna Sillia said:

Can someone give me advice on how and where to have my calendar printed? I keep reading that you have to convert to CMYK colors and 300dpi.

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I'm interested too in what people do.

[Mary Solaas]

This is my May for the 1st set. I created the photo with a CF watercolor of the jumping fish, and added a background using one of my papers I made with AbstractCurves and adjusted it with HSL, and then added PSP Instant Effects - Watercolor. Then I worked with it to get the softened effect (think I used those extra tools with brushes - push, smudge, etc.

Edited October 30, 2024 by Mary Solaas

[Donna Sillia]

  On 10/30/2024 at 3:43 PM, Susan Ewart said:

I'm interested too in what people do.

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Today I am converting all my pages to 300dpi and then copying them into Photoshop to convert them to cmyk. Since Photoshop won't save them as png, I am opening the psd file in Paintshop and saving it as a png. After I am finished, I will be contacting a printer.

[Cassel]

  On 10/30/2024 at 2:49 PM, Donna Sillia said:

Can someone give me advice on how and where to have my calendar printed? I keep reading that you have to convert to CMYK colors and 300dpi.

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I think it all depends on where you get your calendar printed. Some places will offer a template and you just fit your JPG or PNG file in that template. You might want to change the resolution to 300dpi, but for some printing places, that is not even necessary, so check what is required.

I have had books printed and was never asked for a CMYK version, so again, check if it is required at all.

[Ann Seeber]

  On 10/30/2024 at 2:49 PM, Donna Sillia said:

Can someone give me advice on how and where to have my calendar printed? I keep reading that you have to convert to CMYK colors and 300dpi.

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@Donna Sillia I took my calendar pages to a local Staples Stationary outlet. They printed it, punched holes and added a comb to the top so it could be hung on a wall. It cost me under $20 and the results were awesome. I just used the full-size pages as jpgs. Here's the cover and back page I made last time... 

Edited October 30, 2024 by Ann Seeber
added back page

[Ann Seeber]

  On 10/30/2024 at 3:58 PM, Donna Sillia said:

Today I am converting all my pages to 300dpi and then copying them into Photoshop to convert them to cmyk. Since Photoshop won't save them as png, I am opening the psd file in Paintshop and saving it as a png. After I am finished, I will be contacting a printer.

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All my classwork is done in 300dpi so no conversions were needed. Staples didn't ask for CMYK. I was working in .jpg and that was fine.

Edited October 30, 2024 by Ann Seeber

[Donna Sillia]

  On 10/30/2024 at 4:40 PM, Ann Seeber said:

@Donna Sillia I took my calendar pages to a local Staples Stationary outlet. They printed it, punched holes and added a comb to the top so it could be hung on a wall. It cost me under $20 and the results were awesome. I just used the full-size pages as jpgs. Here's the cover and back page I made last time... 

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Thank you for the information, Ann. I will try them.

[Donna Sillia]

  On 10/30/2024 at 4:27 PM, Cassel said:

I think it all depends on where you get your calendar printed. Some places will offer a template and you just fit your JPG or PNG file in that template. You might want to change the resolution to 300dpi, but for some printing places, that is not even necessary, so check what is required.

I have had books printed and was never asked for a CMYK version, so again, check if it is required at all.

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I will follow your advice. I have the files saved in both formats, just in case. I worked on a book for one of my friends and have contacted his printer for advice, although it will be a small order and I don't know if they will print it. I am also contacting Staples and UPS printing. I have a very good experience with UPS when a needed a card printed fast.

Edited October 30, 2024 by Donna Sillia
More Info

[Corrie Kinkel]

  On 10/30/2024 at 11:30 AM, Susan Ewart said:

Corrie, I'm blown away by your calendar, it's just stunning (like everyone else's I see, this is just like opening a present on Christmas morning!).  I really like the dates starting on Monday, it makes the weekends look really nice in the calendar.  I like how the mushrooms have a gradient, how did you do that?

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Thank you so much! After a lot of experimenting this is what I found out. I made a simple dark brown mushroom (used a clipart mushroom turned it into a black silhouette, colored that dark brown) and then used the cass-Custom Calendar script. I put the results on the pages and that didn't looked good, but I had used the background or foreground gradient for the background layer of the page. Then I selected the inside of the mushrooms with the magic wand and simply colored them with that same gradient set to 7, 9 0r 11 repeats. After that you can merge both the mushroom layers if you want or keep them linked. For the weekend colors I selected both rows and put them on a separate layer (delete the on the date layer) and used a blue color with the same number of repeats for the gradient. Hopefully you understand my explanation.

[Rene Marker]

  On 10/30/2024 at 5:19 PM, Donna Sillia said:

I will follow your advice. I have the files saved in both formats, just in case. I worked on a book for one of my friends and have contacted his printer for advice, although it will be a small order and I don't know if they will print it. I am also contacting Staples and UPS printing. I have a very good experience with UPS when a needed a card printed fast.

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I've never done a calendar but I've used Shutterfly for books and I believe they have calendars as well. Then I use Persnickety Prints for my 12x12 prints and they also have calendars available in various sizes. Both Shutterfly and Persnickety Prints print from jpg files (never tried png) and I can't complain about the quality. Both are great in my opinion. One thing about Shutterfly, if you get on their email list, they send out coupon codes all the time for various things, some as high as 50% off.

Like others I create everything I do in 300dpi.

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/30/2024 at 3:58 PM, Donna Sillia said:

Today I am converting all my pages to 300dpi and then copying them into Photoshop to convert them to cmyk. Since Photoshop won't save them as png, I am opening the psd file in Paintshop and saving it as a png. After I am finished, I will be contacting a printer.

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I just had a lesson learned about pngs.  I am doing the wedding suite and i took the files to Staples just for test prints...well, it considered pngs a photo and would not size at 100% or at actual size (same as 100%), wouldnt even give that option.  I lost 1/8 of an inch off the size of the cards in the suite.  Doesn't sound like much but it really is,  in the design of the card.  So I had to convert to PDF (I had to ask Corel how to do that, I'm still such a newbie - and they were great and gave me directions.  who knew it was so easy - not me).  The calendars are like photos so I'm curious to see how they turn out for you Donna.  I really want to print stuff and know that there won't be cut off parts,  like I get when getting prints at a photo lab.  

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/30/2024 at 4:27 PM, Cassel said:

I think it all depends on where you get your calendar printed. Some places will offer a template and you just fit your JPG or PNG file in that template. You might want to change the resolution to 300dpi, but for some printing places, that is not even necessary, so check what is required.

I have had books printed and was never asked for a CMYK version, so again, check if it is required at all.

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I still don't get where we change the calendar templates to 300 dpi.  I only know when we open a new image it asks us there, which is set to 300 dpi on mine.  Can you show that to me on the next Q&A.  Sorry, I'm not being the sharpest knife in the drawer on this.

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/30/2024 at 4:40 PM, Ann Seeber said:

@Donna Sillia I took my calendar pages to a local Staples Stationary outlet. They printed it, punched holes and added a comb to the top so it could be hung on a wall. It cost me under $20 and the results were awesome. I just used the full-size pages as jpgs. Here's the cover and back page I made last time... 

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Wow, Ann.  In Canada you can pretty much double that.  My staples where I live used to be good, now the advice i got when asking if I could use my own paper for the wedding invite printing (and pay as if it's their paper - I did this before for my nieces wedding invites - they were totally cool with it, almost 100% profit for them as I they didnt have to supply the paper but got paid for it!), was to buy my own printer or borrow one from a friend.  BIG eye roll.  I use staples because they have really black blacks (even though my laser printer has black settings - it just doesnt compare).  So I'm quite disappointed, are they not a printing company?  Just asking them to do their own job.  they have two kinds of white....white  and another white that is the same.  So nothing slightly warmer, just plain bright white.  There is big advantages to living in the US! 

[Susan Ewart]

  On 10/30/2024 at 6:34 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

Thank you so much! After a lot of experimenting this is what I found out. I made a simple dark brown mushroom (used a clipart mushroom turned it into a black silhouette, colored that dark brown) and then used the cass-Custom Calendar script. I put the results on the pages and that didn't looked good, but I had used the background or foreground gradient for the background layer of the page. Then I selected the inside of the mushrooms with the magic wand and simply colored them with that same gradient set to 7, 9 0r 11 repeats. After that you can merge both the mushroom layers if you want or keep them linked. For the weekend colors I selected both rows and put them on a separate layer (delete the on the date layer) and used a blue color with the same number of repeats for the gradient. Hopefully you understand my explanation.

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I'm going to give this a try when I get some down time.  thank you for the good explanation Corrie.

[Donna Sillia]

  On 10/30/2024 at 7:21 PM, Susan Ewart said:

Wow, Ann.  In Canada you can pretty much double that.  My staples where I live used to be good, now the advice i got when asking if I could use my own paper for the wedding invite printing (and pay as if it's their paper - I did this before for my nieces wedding invites - they were totally cool with it, almost 100% profit for them as I they didnt have to supply the paper but got paid for it!), was to buy my own printer or borrow one from a friend.  BIG eye roll.  I use staples because they have really black blacks (even though my laser printer has black settings - it just doesnt compare).  So I'm quite disappointed, are they not a printing company?  Just asking them to do their own job.  they have two kinds of white....white  and another white that is the same.  So nothing slightly warmer, just plain bright white.  There is big advantages to living in the US! 

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As I explained to Carole, I was helping a friend with his book using Canva, and he introduced me to Jane, the woman who owns the local business that does all his printing. I have contacted her, and we are discussing printing and formats. I will let everyone know how that turns out. I would rather support a local business, if possible.

[Corrie Kinkel]

  On 10/30/2024 at 7:23 PM, Susan Ewart said:

I'm going to give this a try when I get some down time.  thank you for the good explanation Corrie.

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My pleasure

[Corrie Kinkel]

Mai and June. @Susan if you look closely on June you can see even on this resized version that I used a texture you made for Donna (I think) with a blendmode. I used it on a couple of pages.

Edited October 30, 2024 by Corrie Kinkel

[Corrie Kinkel]

[Corrie Kinkel]

[Corrie Kinkel]

For all the pages I used a clipart from my stash that suited the month, but I kept them simple because the photos are the stars of the calendar.