What do you do with old calendars? Here are ideas submitted from the ThriftyFun community.
What I like to do with the old calendars is to cut out the photographs and then use them in various crafts such as decoupage or paper crafting. Of course I love to buy the pretty Victorian ones or cute fuzzy animals etc. Just an idea hope it helps.
By Melissa
I take them and glue them to a stained piece of wood, then take vanish and paint over the picture they make beautiful wall mounts sell them at yard sale and flea markets for about the cost of $5.00 out of pocket I have sold many for as much as $50.00 a piece and never have enough for the customers.
By anne
Cut out your favorites carefully and decoupage on round metal canisters, picture frames, mirrors, barrettes, chest of drawers, old wooden tables, nightstands, lamp shades, doors; almost anything you can think of. Use your imagination. Have fun with it. Sandi G.
By Sandra
I only buy calendars that I really love and frame the pictures when the year is up. They make really great pictures and you can make them even larger if you put a mat around them.
By Kathy
I can't afford to buy real good pictures for my walls so I use the calendar pictures instead. At the end of the year, I choose the ones I like, and get them laminated, use the doublesided picture-hanging tape, and hang them. This is really good with scenic pictures or offbeat ones. My friends in NZ send me a calendar each year, hung on the wall they're good for the homesickness blues! And you change them as and when you want.
By sharn
My 12 yr old daughter came up with this. Use old calendar pages for envelopes. Just fold them to fit your letter and glue. It is really easy and they turn out cute.
I too use them for envelopes, but I undo an old envelope, then trace it onto the calendar page, fold and glue.
By Linda
We use our old smaller calendars in making homemade cards.
By Laura
I use them for a couple of different things: (1) glue them to cardboard boxes I use to store crafts and tax records in and (2) I use self laminating sheets and make them into great place mats for the table and the dogs dish.
By Shazza
Buy an origami book. Use the calendars to make origami boxes and other items. The boxes are great because you can give people presents in them.
By Susan
I buy the cheap clocks at the stores that the face plate comes off. Then I take it apart and use the cardboard disk as a template. Then glue or tape picture to cardboard and reassemble clock. This is a great way to get a clock of your favorite things.
By julie
Sometimes they can be used along with your photo scrapbooking pages.
By Evelyn
I save the old calendars. It's easy on the web to find a perpetual calendar to find out when the next year is that is on the same schedule. For example, 2007 calendars are the same as 1990 and 2001. That way I can enjoy favorite calendars again AND I save money by not having to buy new calendars very often.
By DH
I always decorate my mom's door in a nursing home. This year, I put random old calender pages on the door and a huge 2006 and titled it "Days gone bye". I also added a folder with all of my extra 2006 calendars with a note to take or add your extras. This was quite a success.
By Marietta
They are sturdy enough to make bookmarks too!
By suzi_homemaker01
Glue the pictures to cardstock then create jigsaw puzzles by cutting into various shapes. These can be stored in a ziplock bag or small box. If the calendar also has thumbnail prints of the pages, these could be included to show the completed view.
By Charlotte
Let the kids make puzzles from their favorite calendar pictures. Paste them onto an empty cereal box, let dry, then cut them into puzzle pieces. Lots of fun.
By Linda Howe
You can take an old calender picture and if it is big enough cover it with clear adhesive contact paper to make pretty place mats. If the picture is a little too small, but take some poster board of a complementary color and add a border to it!
By COOKIEPOM
You can cut a off calendar picture then glue it to cardstock or sturdy paper and laminate it to use as placemats. At an art center I belong to, we keep old calenders to paint off of, maybe you could donate them to an art center near you if they are interested.By Gloria
I just covered the inside of my medicine cabinet with old calendar pages. I just used regular invisible tape, don't know how it will hold up, but it looks great! You could also use them to line dresser drawers, too.
By JOS
If you or anyone you know teaches a class in school or even a Sunday school class, you may use these to make a beautiful, cheap bulletin board display!
By Robin
I teach writing and calendar pictures or postcard pictures provide great creative writing prompts on dreary days. I ask the students to either become something in the picture and write from that perspective or put themselves into the scene and write from the first person.
By Judith
My children love Art. We use the numbered boxes on the calendar to paint or color in. Using a few "months", we study primary, secondary, and intermediate colors. If my daughter is using colored pencils, she sometimes experiments shading and color mixing in the little boxes.
By Cindy Ezell
If you really love one of the images, you could glue it to the front of a journal or notebook. The others you could put on construction paper with your grand daughter and help her draw a scene around them. [I remember doing a collaged city with my first grade class on a giant roll of paper.] If you're handy with Photoshop or other graphics programs, you could scan them and use them as a desktop background. That way you always have them without having to keep them around.
By Mary
I have a 4 year old daughter and she is learning how to write her numbers, so I am using are old calendars for her to copy the numbers that are in each box from 1 to 28, 30, 31. The number in the box is small and she has a nice size square to put that number in.
By Darlene
I have cut out various pictures from them and put them in a scrapbook for small children to look at when they come over. I have grandchildren from 22 down to 2 and all loved them at the appropriate age. Even the 4 year old loves them. I also have put some on plain white paper and put them in plastic page savers and put them in a loose leaf notebook. Easy to change if you wanted to with only having one or two books. Hope this helps. Actually some very elderly, incapacitated individuals in nursing home that can no longer read might appreciate this as well. (I am a nurse and have worked in nursing homes.) Could also be used to put birthday reminders on to give to various people in the family that do not remember all the necessary days. we have done that as well.
By Sheila
Send them to your local elementary school. They are always looking for pictures to cut out. Calendars could have golf courses, scenery, pets, etc. Magazines are also needed with guys' stuff. My husband's engineering and construction magazines are a big hit, tractors and guys' stuff in it. Boys at school like to cut out of car magazines, too. Most of the magazines the school gets are ladies' magazines.
I work in a nursing home and have coworkers that are speech therapists. I frequently see them cutting pictures out of calendars to use to help residents identify objects to work on their memory and so forth. So, consider donating the pictures to nursing homes or any other facility that could use them as teaching tools - even pediatric therapists could put them to use!
By Brenda
Do you have any ideas? Feel free to post them below!
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I love the "Plan Ahead To Reuse Calendars".
Here's the link to find what years are the same:
www.timeanddate.com/
I personally use them to make sturdy, reusable pattern pieces of purses, hats, etc. for sewing.
I used an old Thomas Kinkade calendar to decorate the inside of an unfinished tray. I painted the tray cut the pictures and glued them onto the tray.Then I had a piece of glass cut the exact size to place inside. I completed the tray with hot gluing florals onto one side of the handle. The bed tray turned out exceptionally lovely .
It was given as a gift and she loved it.!
Love all of the ideas here and have done a bunch of these myself - ONLY have one thing to mention about putting them on wood and selling them, just be sure they are not COPYWRITED! It can get you in a lot of trouble if they are, like a law suit.
My late mother always bought beautiful art calendars for her desk at home. She never threw them out, and after she died I found a bunch of them. I use them, without cutting them up, as mini-scrapbooks for recipes I clip out, comic strips I want to save, news stories I want to read again, anything that can be stuck down to a page. As I fill the pages, I enjoy her art again, and I'll see a calendar entry and remeber something about that day, or that event, and I remember once again what a wonderful life she had!
When my son was growing up, I wanted to keep track of everything he did, but almost gave up since I always failed to have time or forgot to record each incident. The calendar saved my day! I decided to jot down things he did on the day's square. I'd also record news: who was elected president, the deaths of famous people, info about our vacations, hit songs, when family members were born, got married, and died, sport events he played in with scores, etc. This was so convenient, since the calendar was always there and I never had to look for it. At years end, I just tossed it in the cedar chest. I now have a 'journal' for each year of my son's life. It's so much fun to look back and remember what he did on what day, along with all the major events of that year. It's a time capsule of memories.
I often use old calendars as wrapping papers for my gift. Kids especially love vibrant and colorful ones.
I'd find boxes of suitable size to use as dry trash cans that I put under the desk or work area, then use large calendars to wrap around it. That way, i never buy trash can, reuses my boxes and my old calendar pages beautifully.
I also uses other calendar without pictures to write things or as my children's art supplies for drawing, pasting etc on the empty back page of calendars.
Make or find a frame you like, attach a cardboard backing leave the top opened. You can change the picture according to seasons, or favorites. I also use some of mine perpetually according to repeat years. I really like the ideas presented on this topic!
Our high school had tons of leftovers from a fundraiser. I suggested that they give the calendars to the pre school where each student can take one home and practice writing their numbers.
I use a monthly business calendar for paying my bills. I pay all my Jan bills and write down each bill and the amount on the Jan page. I divided the page into half and use the calendar for 2 years worth of bill paying records. I write down the passwords and account numbers I may need on a blank page. It works out well as I pay all our bills on the first of each month via my computer but I also want my own visible record.
Years ago I used the beautiful pictures on bulletin boards when I volunteered at a local hospital.
Had a large collection of different subjects that covered the holidays, seasons, and other topics such as mountains, seashore, flowers, pets, family etc.
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