The Backstory
For Christmas this year my two sister-in laws, Summer and Allie, and I wanted to give our family the PERFECT PRESENT! All three of us LOVEEEE to be creative, and what better way to express that then creating a themed calendar with our favorite little people!
About three years ago, we collaborated for our first cousin calendar in Summer’s home office. (At that time there were only four cousins born and in hind site way more manageable to photograph lol )! We had the best time collaborating and developing something so cute together! When we gifted the final product to our parents/ in-laws, the response made all the hard work pay off!
Fast forward to present day, with three more babies in tow. We decided the famous family calendar needed an update. However, this time around, it needed to be bigger and better! We rented out a photography studio and my sister- in-law, Summer, who is a professional lifestyle photographer here in Houston, photographed and edited all the calendar images you see below. Find here at @summerdays.photography on instagram or find her website here to book her!
Together we created the cutest themed backdrops for each month! We planned outfits, gathered props, and created each monthly decor as a team. It was A LOTTT of work, but in the end- SO WORTH IT!!! These images will last forever and the memories made while working together were priceless.
Props
Most of the prop items featured were found in the Target dollar spot, or collected from around our homes. If you want to re create our calendar; I directly linked or linked similar items under each month.
Please note: Separate images were shot of my kids because I gifted a calendar to my side of the family as well.
The Calendar Cover
Shop the number balloons here, silver backdrop here, champagne flutes here, and disco ball garland here.
January
Shop pretned snow balls here, snowflakes here, fur rug here, sled here.
The fake snow you see in the air is cut up tissue paper, and the bears belong to my mother in law.
February
We even brought my HUGE lemonade stand!! If you would like to create your own lemonade stand read my blog post here.
Shop this month here and here.
March
To create this balloon rainbow we used these balloons. Next, we taped the balloons together and to the wall using packaging tape. The clouds were made out of white poster board.
Shop a smaller rainbow balloon option here.
Shop the artificial turf here.
April
For April we decided to took an extra image for my mother-in-laws birthday. The shirts spelled out her “Grandma name” and they also wore her favorite color.
Shop the felt ball ice cream banner here.
Shop raindrops here, and the kid umbrellas here.
May
Shop turf grass here, balloon options here, pinata option here and festive banner here.
June
Shop this month: pool, banner, blow up pineapple, small blow up drink floats, letterboard, and balloons here and here.
July
Shop this month here, here, and here.
August
Shop this month here, here, here, and here.
September
Luke was the NAKED COWBOY & Scarlett was a tourist! I made the taxi cab out of foam board from Hobby Lobby and checkered duct tape!
I got the taxi to stand up by anchoring it with two kids rain boots and duct tape! LOL
Scarlett’s outfit is from here, here, and here. She also borrowed Summer’s Fawn Design fanny pack and cousin Sawyer’s camera!
For Luke’s outfit he borrowed some of Scarlett’s dress bloomers. Shop the rest of his “outfit” here and here.
October
Shop Luke and Scarlett’s outfits here and here.
Felt ball banner here, spider web here, skeleton here, and broom here.
November
Shop November banner options here and here, similar pilgrim hats here, and turkey hat here.
December
Shop December’s banner options here and here, letter board, banner, and Santa’s mailbox.
Printing Your Calendar
We ordered our calendar through Minted. Minted offers a ton of custom designs and layouts for you to pick from. We loved our calendar selection because we were able to customize the dates of important birthdays and events for each family.
We selected this product here.
Closing Credits
After our photo shoot was over, a full SIX HOURS LATER, WE WERE ALL EXHASUTED! I highly recommend breaking up your photo shoot up a few months at a time. I hope you guys enjoyed this post and feel inspired to create your own calendar! Leave a comment and tell me what month is your favorite!