2012 Sofia Calendar

Every year since my daughter was born, I've made 'Sofia' calendars for family and close friends.
This idea started when I was on maternity leave and had so much time on my hands that I embraced Arts and Crafts projects of all kinds.  OK, fine!  That's my excuse, the truth is, I've always loved to do Arts and Crafts Projects.

Sofia Calendars since she was born

2008 Sofia Calendar.  Scrapbook format.
New born, bikini baby, joey for halloween and in her christmas snowman hat

2009 Edition. Mostly smiley and takaw pics.
Still in Scrapbook format.  What can I say?  I'm a hoarder.

The 2010 Calendar was fairly low-key.
Pictures taken by The Picture Company in Podium
I did the layout on Powerpoint.
Good thing the flower pot picture holders went with the theme.
My hoarded scrapbook sets were gone with Ondoy!!!
I probably still had a year or 2 in stock covers.

The 2011 Calendar was also easy.
My sister took pity on me, and the people on our calendar list,
so she worked her magic and prettified our calendar.
I just used 4R Ikea Clips Frames.
Pictures taken by The Picture Company in Greenbelt 5.

We almost did not have a 2012 Calendar.  We did not have any pictures professionally taken in 2011, and I could not find any easy and reasonably priced ideas!!!  I was really pressuring myself to think of something, because it's not easy for me to admit defeat... and just do nothing.  Thankfully, two days before the New Year, I remembered an idea that I saw online which I filed in my mind under future projects.  I remember seeing DIY CD Calendars!  I immediately googled it, so that's how our 2012 Calendar made it just in time.

This is how a CD Calendar looks like.

Photo Credit:  © 2011 Lesley Shepherd
from miniatures.about.com

My limitation was that I wanted to make it easier... by having the whole year AND some of my favorite Sofia pictures in one page.  The second limitation was that the slim CD cases sold in CD-R King... DO NOT actually stand up like this!!!  And you only find out about it after you've bought 20 cases!!!  But thanks to the combined creativity of my sister and me... we managed to make it work.

Step 1: Lay-out your favorite photos as 4.75x4.75 and get them printed as 5R
(Php12 or SG$0.33 per photo in Photoline)
My sister did the layout for Sofia's 2012 Calendar
I took all the photos using my old Canon camera that started smoking then died for the blue picture
and my Canon Powershot s-95 for the red pictures
It goes without saying, Color Accent is my favorite Canon feature

Step 2: Cut the picture to size, and ensure it fights snugly in the CD Case
(Slim CD Case Php6 or SG$0.18  from CD-R King) 

Step 3: was kinda tricky because we needed a calendar to fit the CD slot,
that would work with  a non-colored printer.
We also realized that the easiest way to make it stick was to find recyclable CDs
(sticker paper is only Php31or less than SG$1 from National Bookstore for 10 sheets)

Good thing my sister has a spindle of DVDs of all the shows that have already been back-up in her mega-hard drive
She also made animal print labels to stick in front of the CD,
and sticker tags that say THIS CD IS RECYCLED.
(Recycled CDs are FREE, but just make sure you do not give out confidential information)

Sofia even helped us with the assembly
(Child Labor is also FREE, only if it's your child)

Voila! Our finished 2012 calendar.
For the inside, you can refer to the picture in Step 3

I love being an Arts and Crafts mommy.  I think it helps the Work-Life balance which is forever a challenge.  So I hope ideas like these just keep on coming!!!