I wanted to make calendars for years before I finally did. Every time I looked into it, I ran into the same problems: I couldn’t find the orientation I wanted, the quality was giving home improvement mailbox spam, or the MOQ was way too high. (MOQ = minimum order quantity)
I didn’t want to purchase 100 calendars up front. I definitely didn’t want to buy 500 calendars. I have limited space and approximately seventeen thousand hobbies competing for it.
So when I realized I could finally make the exact kind of calendar I wanted, sell it through my own shop, and have each order printed and fulfilled as it came in... YES. That was the setup I’d been searching for.
And I’m going to show you exactly how I do it.
I’m going to walk through how I build my calendars in Gelato, how I connect them to my shop, and I’ll also give you three low-lift ways to design one using artwork you probably already have (because making a calendar does not need to mean creating twelve brand new masterpieces and losing several nights of sleep in the process).
It can be a curation that comes from sketchbooks, earlier artwork, individual motifs, and work you made months ago and completely forgot about. Honestly, that’s one of my favorite things about this kind of project. It gives old artwork a second life.
So before we get into printing, templates, or setting up a product in your shop, let’s start with the fun part: what the heck do you actually put in a calendar?
💡 Idea 1: Remix the artwork you already have
If you have a collection of individual elements, even really simple ones, you can stretch them much further than you might think. Flowers, food, animals, lettering, tiny painted objects, icons, leaves, shapes, little characters... whatever tends to accumulate in your files.
Instead of assigning one finished piece to every month, start rearranging those elements. One month could use them as a scattered pattern, another could turn them into a border around a quote, another could feature one motif blown up to steal the show, and another could group several elements into a wreath or cluster.
You can keep going by changing background colors, recoloring the motifs, rotating them, cropping them, or changing the scale. A small collection can go surprisingly far once you stop thinking of every element as attached to the composition it originally came from.
This is especially helpful if you already have a bunch of little assets from past projects but nothing that feels like an obvious “calendar collection.” You may have more than enough to work with already... it just needs to be recombined.
💡 Idea 2: Make a sketchbook sampler
This might be my favorite. Scan your messy sketchbook pages. Seriously.
The pages with scratchy studies, experiments, drawings that never became anything, the notes in the margins, the pieces you liked but never knew what to do with... those could be SO interesting in a calendar.
You could use a full sketchbook spread for one month or arrange several smaller sketches together. And I would leave some of the handmade evidence in there: torn paper edges, tape, smudges, pencil notes, crooked bits, all of it. Let it feel like someone is flipping through your actual sketchbook.
I have always loved seeing the process behind finished artwork. As a kid, I was obsessed with old animation sketches because you could see the blue pencil drawings and the loose structure underneath everything. There is something really special about artwork before it gets polished within an inch of its life.
💡 Idea 3: Turn your calendar into a mini gallery
This is probably the most obvious approach. Choose one finished piece for each month and keep the overall page layout consistent so the calendar feels intentional. And if the artwork comes from different projects, styles, or points in your creative year, that’s completely fine! A shared color palette can tie everything together beautifully.
Even if the artwork comes from different projects, styles, or points in your creative year, a shared palette and consistent page layout can make the whole collection feel intentional. Sometimes the layout does that work. Other times, it’s the palette or simply the way you present each piece.
Sometimes the layout does that work for you. Sometimes it is the palette you use and sometimes it’s simply the way you present the artwork.
Look at your artwork differently
Before you make anything new, go digging.
Open old Procreate files. Flip through sketchbooks. Look through abandoned collections. Find artwork that never became a product. Revisit pieces you dismissed because they felt unfinished or disconnected from everything else.
Then start asking different questions:
- What happens if you crop this?
- What if you pull three elements out of that piece?
- Could a different background color make it feel new?
- What if you pair two pieces that were never meant to go together?
- What if a sketch becomes the artwork instead of the rough draft?
You likely have far more material than you think. And once you know what you want the calendar to look like, the next part is actually pretty simple.
How I make my calendars without carrying inventory
When I first wanted to make calendars, one of my biggest sticking points was printing. I had specific dimensions in mind, and I had absolutely no interest in ordering 50 or 100 calendars at once.
I have limited space. My hobbies already have dibs on it.
So I started using Gelato, which lets me create the calendar as a print-on-demand product. That means I can sell the calendar through my shop without keeping a giant stack of inventory here, and when someone places an order, it gets printed and fulfilled automatically.
That setup is a BIG part of what made calendars feel doable for me.
Step-by-step: how I build my calendar in Gelato
Here’s the actual process I use from start to finish.
1. Choose your calendar format
Inside Gelato, go to the calendar section. There are single-sided and double-sided options, and I use the double-sided version because that’s where my favorite size is.
I choose the Ledger size, which is 11 × 16.5 inches, which is the format I like best for the balance between artwork and calendar space. Once you select the product, you can start building it right inside Gelato.
2. Design inside the editor or upload finished pages
Gelato gives you editable calendar layouts so you don’t have to design every spread externally. You can choose from different grid styles, change the font, resize elements, move the calendar area around, and adjust how much room the artwork gets.
If the default artwork area doesn’t fit your composition, you can also remove it and place your artwork at its natural size instead. It’s fully customizable!
3. Customize the actual calendar settings
This part is easy to overlook, but there are quite a few things you can adjust.
You can change:
- which day the week starts on
- whether week numbers show
- standard holidays
- custom events or holidays
- layout and styling details
I once added all kinds of random national and international days to a calendar because apparently I needed National Hot Dog Day represented with the gravity it deserves. (But then I got in my head about whether every single date was accurate, even after triple checking, and never even sold it. I’m talking weeks of work… classic Peggy move.)
4. Connect your calendar to your shop
Once the calendar itself is done, you can turn it into a product.
- First, save the finished calendar as a template. That gives you a reusable version you can come back to, order from, or connect to a store.
- Then, choose your store integration. For example, I have Gelato connected to my Shopify store.
Once your integration is set up, you can select the store you want to add the calendar to and continue through the product setup, like applying mockups, writing product details, setting your price, and the best part, publishing your awesome calendar!
5. Order a sample
I highly recommend ordering a sample before you publish. My first one caught a truly impressive mistake: I had included two Septembers. 😅 I still don’t know how that happened, but there they were.
A sample gives you a chance to check the crops, colors, paper, and date grid before customers ever see it. Plus, holding your calendar for the first time is VERY fun. Gelato currently offers 30% off your first order, and you can get started using my link 👉 https://try.gelato.com/peggy
Remember: the best part is that most of the creative work might already be done!
That is really what I want you to take away from this. Making a calendar does not automatically mean giving yourself twelve new art assignments! You can absolutely create a brand new collection if that sounds exciting, but you can also make something beautiful by revisiting the work you already have and using it differently.
A sketchbook can become a calendar. A handful of motifs can become twelve compositions. A year of unrelated experiments can become a gallery.
Sometimes the real project is finally noticing how much beauty you’ve already made.
And I made not one but TWO 2027 calendars:
