Should auld calendars be tossed out, and never brought to mind?

December 28, 2008 10:21 AM

As 2009 approaches, you’re taking down your old calendars and wondering what to do with them. You still enjoy those Monet/Jeff Foxworthy/rose garden/Playmate images so much you hate to throw them in the recycling bin. Don’t worry, there are ways to reinvent that calendar so you can enjoy those images for years to come. For starters, you could make envelopes and notecards out the calendar. Though perhaps you won’t want to use your new Playmate stationery to write to Grandma.

Calendars can be turned into recycled wrapping paper and bows. If you’re a real packrat and have a ten-year-old calendar kicking around, you may be able to turn it into a calendar for the current year. Calendars can become lampshades or mobiles. If you’re into decoupage, you know that you can decoupage practically anything, from a waste basket to old suitcases to flower pots to your shoes. And there are lots of other possible project ideas. If you’ve got an old planner you liked, you can make one like it and reuse the old cover. And as you craft on New Year’s Day, you can savour the irony of using the act of memorializing the old year to try to forget your alcohol-enabled indiscretions of the night before.

posted by orange swan (7 comments total)

Oh! I have made envelopes out of calendars (among other things)! I don't really use them to keep track of the date though, so I just try to get them for cheap for this purpose in late January.
posted by aubilenon at 11:05 AM on December 28, 2008

ThingsThatLookPrettyWhenDoneByOtherPeopleButAlwaysLookLikeCrapWhenITryToReplicateItFilter. Sigh.
posted by naoko at 11:25 AM on December 28, 2008 [4 favorites]

There being only 14 different calendar permutations in 28 year cycles, your 1981 Olivia Newton-John calendar is accurate for 2009.
posted by jayCampbell at 11:25 AM on December 28, 2008 [3 favorites]

naoko: It's pretty easy to make envelopes come out good. Using a bone folder or ruler or something to fold the edges really sharp is important. Also, this is pretty much a perfect application for rubber cement, which is the best glue ever if you know how to use it properly (apply to both surfaces, let it dry completely, and then mash the surfaces together), on account of how it doesn't make paper wrinkle.
posted by aubilenon at 12:00 PM on December 28, 2008

Sounds like an excellent recycling project except that I write appointments/reminders all over my calendars. However, I do have a pristine Georgia O'Keefe. Now all I need is talent.
posted by Cranberry at 12:17 PM on December 28, 2008

However, I do have a pristine Georgia O'Keefe. Now all I need is talent.

[Insert Alfred Stieglitz joke here]
posted by Rock Steady at 8:09 AM on December 29, 2008

I do have a pristine Georgia O'Keefe.

I made envelopes out of my Georgia O'Keefe calendar for granma and ones out of parts of my Plamates calendar for cousin Larry and now I'm not sure which one was which!
posted by Pollomacho at 8:27 AM on December 29, 2008 [1 favorite]