As some of you may know, I started a (very) small online shop. In it, I carry greeting cards, stickers, and a 2025 calendar. 

I had no intention of making a calendar. I was happy just doing illustrations and drawings on my iPad. Then one day, I happened to see a video of someone making a printable planner page. 

I could do that, I thought. Since I don’t use a planner, I decided instead to make a calendar for myself with the things I’d been drawing. 

It wasn’t as easy as I imagined. These things rarely turn out to be. 

Because I knew no other way, I figured I’d hand letter everything from the days of the week to the dates — 1-31.

Writing Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday, Saturday twelve times. Ugh! 

Writing out numbers 365 times? I have no words to explain how miserable the thought made me. I’ve always been terrible at calligraphy so the project immediately felt daunting. My writing never looks right. Something’s always too big, or too small or tilting in the wrong way. 

After an entire day of trying to get the numbers and letters to the same size, I was almost in tears. I’d have to make a digital stamp brush with the days of the week, and another with the dates. 

Scratch that. I’d have to make several stamp brushes. One stamp brush with the 1st of the month staring on a Sunday. Another stamp brush with the 1st of the month starting on a Monday. Another stamp brush with the 1st of the month starting on a Tuesday. 

Well — you get the idea. 

This meant I had to first learn how to make a stamp brush. Surprisingly, that was the easiest part of the process. Fast forward, one painstaking week later, the stamp brushes were made. Yay! 

Now the fun part. 

– Choosing which image I’d use for each month. 
– Creating the overall palette for the months. 
– Sourcing the right local print shop. 
– Deciding on the perfect size of paper
– Choosing the right paper weight
– Getting proofs. 
– Editing the images
– Getting more proofs.
– Imagining how to package the calendar plastic-free
– Finding an envelope that would fit the size of paper you decided to choose and then realizing that perhaps choosing a non-standard US paper size, while being the best aesthetic choice, may not have been the best logistical one. 
– Designing the seals for the envelops. 
– Ordering the envelopes. Returning the envelopes because you ordered the wrong size. 
– Ordering new envelopes. 
– Ordering sticker seals. 

Now, I get that some of you may be thinking what’s the big deal about the getting envelopes and seals? When you buy something, you rip away the packaging to get to the thing itself. And that’s okay, too. 

But I grew up in a country and at a time when we rarely had pretty things. Having access to beautiful things in stores was as rare as the money in my country’s coffers. Thoughtful and beautiful packaging means something to me so I wanted to create something that is both of those things.

So that’s what I did. I made something I, myself, would want to receive.

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