Calendar and Tutorial

Now that the holiday festivities are over I took today to play.  And while I was blog hopping I discovered this adorable calendar idea over at Write.Click.Scrapbook and knew I wanted to make my own.

So I popped over to Design House Digital and purchased their Monthly Bits- Funky Version for the calendar piece.

Knowing myself, when I see things like this I want to know how to make my own.  So I thought I'd give you a bit of a Photoshop Elements Tutorial.

To begin go to File...New...Blank File.

You can name your file at this time or choose to wait until you save it at the end.  To determine the size of your canvas change the pixels to inches and then make your canvas 8 in wide by 3 in height and click ok.

I always turn on the ruler and grid to make it easier to line things up.  Go to view and click ruler, then go to view again and click grid.

 On the left select the rectangle tool.

Draw a rectangle, the color doesn't matter, just make it so you can see it.  You won't see the color in the end.  I left a 1/4 in white around the top, left, and bottom edges.  I pulled the right side over to 2 3/4 in.

If you have any digital papers now is the time to choose one.  I used a kraft paper.  If you don't have any digital papers you could just pick a color and use the paint bucket in the square you drew.

File, open the paper. Then double click back on your canvas.

On the right hand side click on the shape layer.  Then drag and drop the paper onto the canvas.  (Be sure the paper is above the shape in the layers area)

Then with the paper selected go to layer...create clipping mask.

Then your paper just goes behind the shape.  You can move it around and resize as needed.  When you have it where you want select the paper and the shape and merge only those two layers.

Create another shape.  I choose to have mine line up exactly with the kraft paper, but you could leave a bit of white between if you wanted to.  Again I left 1/4 in border on the top, bottom, and right edges.

Next I added the calendar piece.  File...Open...January.

With the canvas selected drag and drop the calendar on.

Where the calendar layer is does matter.  If it is below the paper on the list of layers (right side) it will be below it on your canvas and you won't see it.  So drag the layer above the paper.

Then resize the calendar until it fits where you want it in your square.  I chose to have mine fill the space.

Now open the photo you want to use.  File...open...photo

Select the shape where your picture will go.

Drag and drop the photo onto the canvas.  Then click layer...create clipping mask.

You can move and resize your photo until the picture fits in the shape the way you want it.

When you have things the way you want them click the checkmark.

At this point I like to turn off the grid to see how things look.  View...grid.

And you have a finished month.  Click on any of the layers and choose flatten image.

Then go to file...save as

Name your file and save.  I chose to name mine for the month that I made.

I like to keep the quality of my file large, so I usually leave it around 10.

At this point do not close out Photoshop or your calendar.  Go to Edit...undo flatten image.  Then delete the picture layer and the calendar layer.  This should leave you with a canvas that has a kraft square and the rectangle shape (mine was blue).  Then you can start again adding in your month and picture to complete the next month in your calendar.  Once you have flattened an image you can't change it.  When you are at the point of a kraft square and rectangle shape you could also save your calendar as a template.  Be sure the layers are not flattened and it is saved as a .psd file.

Here is your finished calendar page.  I actually made this again so that I could take screen shots for the tutorial and like how it came out this time around better than when I made it the first time.  :)  I used a mat instead of a square of kraft paper.  I hate the way the drop shadows of the mat looked in my finished product.  But as I've said many times on this blog, once I make something I don't go back and redo it!  So here is how my calendar turned out.

I ran out of printer ink so I couldn't print Feb, Apr, or Aug.  I decided to back each calendar with coordinating paper instead of the kraft paper used in the inspiration calendar.  I cut my cardstock to 3 1/2 by 8 1/2 in.

And here is how it looks at my scrap table where I plan to keep it.  I propped it on a cheap picture stand I got at Hobby Lobby.

So cute!  And so easy!  Hope my tutorial helps you make your own!