This year I’m assembling all of my wall calendars in-house myself and it’s been fun and relaxing!
Fun fact: I actually really like doing repetitive work. I can just get in a zone and work, work, work.
In my former corporate marketing life I assembled many reports so I actually know what I’m doing which is rare and wonderful.
So know that each one has a little extra love put into thanks to yours truly ♥️
I still outsource the printing part (here in the USA) as my fancy printer I use at home is awesome, but it would have taken an eternity to print them all, wait for the ink to fully dry, then print on the backs.
First thing I did after receiving the printed calendars was count and separate and check the quality.
Then I started punching holes and I had to do about 3 different punches per calendar because the paper is pretty thick.
Next I loop the twin spiral binding wire and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze for the perfect bind. None of the pages will fall out and it’s not too squished so you can’t flip the pages.
The binding wire is longer than the calendar itself so I have to gently trim it down.
I do a quick flip through to make sure it flows correctly, and voila!
With this added process, I have a real sense of connection with each one and feel a little more proud of each one.
Each month’s artwork is hand painted by me, then scanned into my computer where I import it into Adobe Photoshop and remove the paper background, color correct to get it as close to the original as possible.
I designed the layout of the calendar itself, myself. Every date, every holiday, every grid is manually added by me. And then triple checked to make sure I got the dates, seasons, and holidays right.
I send a PDF to a few close pals who look it over for me before I send it to my printer and then many upfront dollar$$$ later, I receive them at home.
In the new world of AI taking over artwork, know that each one is handled with care by a real life person each and every step of development.
So all in all, thanks for supporting the little gal.