Every year I make calendar bookmarks for my clients, friends and family. On each side of the bookmark is six months of the year. The front side at the bottom I put the year and on the back side I put my website address. They are then laminated in a heavy duty pouch to ensure that they will last the year.

To start I first search online for a calendar that is already setup. This is used to confirm the days each month starts and the days that holidays are on. Some holidays are the same date year to year like New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, and Christmas to name a few. Other holidays vary from year to year and may fall on the second or third Sunday (Easter, Fathers’ and Mothers’ Days) or Thursday for Thanksgiving.

Based on the size of the laminating pouch I am using, my bookmark calendars are two inches wide by eight inches tall. Therefore I can put one side of five bookmarks on one sheet of paper and then use the reverse side for the back of the bookmarks.

Start by creating a new document and under the Page Layout Tab set the page orientation to landscape. Margins should be set to a half inch for the left and right and a quarter inch top and bottom. Then set the columns to five with no space between them. This will give you five columns each two inches wide by eight inches high.

In the first column seven tabs should be set evenly for the days of the week. As you can see from the image the tabs were set every quarter inch. Right aligned tabs were used so that the single digit days will line up with the double digit days. For the font I used Calibri 8pt. Start by centering and typing January. After hitting return go back to left alignment and then tab until you get to the first day of the month. In our sample for 2013 the first of the year starts on Tuesday. Keep tabbing and typing the number for each day of the month until you get to the end of the month. Hit return, center, and type in the next month’s name and repeat until all six months are typed out. Following the first six months add the year on the last line and center it. You will notice that there is some extra space at the bottom under the year. Make sure to double-check what you did against the calendar you used that you found online.

After the first six months are typed in and double-checked, you can now start to modify it by enlarging the names of the month or use WordArt to decorate the months and the year at the bottom. The days of the week can be boldfaced so they stand out, maybe make Sundays a different color and possibly do the same for holidays. Just make sure that your column doesn’t get too long and extend beyond the eight inches. When the first six months are completed, copy and paste them into the four remaining columns. Repeat the process for the next six months on the next sheet.

To print, print the first side and then the second side on separate sheets of paper. Put them back to back and to make sure that the columns line up. If they don’t line up exactly, adjust the margins on the second page until they do. You are now ready to print your calendars back to back. Heavy weight paper or light weight cardstock works best. If you are not going to laminate print on heavy cardstock so they will be more durable.

Laminating is optional. You can purchase bookmark laminating pouches and laminate each one separately, or laminate the whole sheet and then cut the bookmarks to size.

The calendar bookmarks I make I have been doing for many years and originally created them in PageMaker. For holidays and other special days I use little clip art images that I shrink down to fit within the space -- a heart for Valentine’s Day, a flag for Flag day and Memorial Day, an Easter basket, Christmas tree and a turkey for their respective holidays. Using the same file from year to year I just have to adjust the day each month starts, move my holiday images accordingly and keep aware of leap year every four years!