Making birthday calendars - instructions and ideas

• Muffin garland for children
  • manual
• Annual wheel with photos
  • manual
• Birthday calendar box for the desk
  • manual

Birthday calendars are a great idea to never forget the big days of loved ones. This useful memory does not have to cost a lot and is also a pretty decoration. Three DIY tutorials show models for the little ones in kindergarten and elementary school as well as for larger students and adults.

Muffin garland for children

The motley garland of delicious looking muffin tartlets is a great decoration for the kindergarten or classroom in elementary school. Of course, she also looks pretty in the domestic four walls. In addition, this appetizing birthday calendar can be done so easily that the little ones will have a lot of fun to help diligently. Twelve colorful treats line up and announce in their little bag the respective month, while the candles sitting on top carry the names of the birthday children.

Difficulty: Very easy
Time required: about one hour
Material costs: under 5 euros

You need this:

• Clay board or similarly strong paper in different colors *
• Glue
• Scissors or cutter
• optional: glitter for decoration
• easy to read and resistant pens for labeling
• 12 brackets
• hot glue
• Working creatively

Tip for paper and color choice *

Decide for yourself what your cupcakes should look like. In any case, you need twelve pieces, one for each month. The bottom (or the bag that surrounds it) could always have the same color, such as a natural brown. The juicy upper part could then come in different, matching the respective season, tones. Cool blue and gray gradients are suitable for winter, while warm orange, red and yellow naturally harmonize excellently with the warm season. Alternatively, fantasy muffins look great too. For this variant, you combine two different colors for a muffin, such as a pink ground with light pink bonnets.

In addition, make one to two sheets of yellow paper for the flames, as well as a different from the selected muffin colors tone for your candles. Here a bright nuance is recommended, so that the information entered in the finished birthday calendar can then be read well.

manual

1. Print out our craft template at the beginning. On it are two sizes for the muffin cups. Cut out the desired variant with scissors.

Click here: To download the craft template

Tip: In kindergarten or primary school, the format is as large as possible, simply because of the larger premises. Especially reading and writing beginners also benefit from the more readable letters.

2. Then transfer the outlines of the little mold, as well as the cap, 12 times each to the clay or sample paper.

Tip: Keep your trapezoidal trays close together to save paper.

3. Cut out the muffin bottoms and icing.

4. Same procedure with the candles. You need as many candles as you would like to mark birthday children.

5. Now glue each bonnet to each floor by rubbing it with glue in the lower area and lightly lapping it in the ground. The flames are glued on top of the candles.

6. Then label each little chick with the corresponding month. This can be entered by hand along the bottom line or written across the ground.

Tip: For small kids in kindergarten or elementary school, you can instead work with the monthly numbers, or think up suitable symbols.

7. A wooden clamp is now glued to the back of each muffin. With this you can easily clamp the muffin on a thread.

8. Then write in each candle name, birthday and possibly age. Example: If Lena on September 8th, the September muffin gets a candle with the inscription: 8. Lena

9. Now stick the candles comfortably on the muffin cap. This works with glue as well as with practical Tesafilm. In this way more and more anniversaries can be added to your birthday calendar!

Tip: If the calendar is to remain flexible, you can just like the cupcakes with a small wooden clamp. So the candle can be changed.

10. Now the muffins are stapled in the right order on a string. Done is the birthday calendar!

Annual wheel with photos

The birthday calendar in the form of an annual wheel is a beautiful wall decoration dar. Moreover, he can interpret intuitively even with low reading experience, which is especially useful for the little ones in kindergarten or elementary school.

Difficulty level: easy
Time required: one hour
Material costs: under 5 euros

You need this:

• robust white board, A3 format (base)
• colored cardboard or solid foil paper in the desired color (arrow)
• compasses
• Scissors or cutter
• Edding and at least 12 strong crayons
• a pattern clip
• ruler

manual

1. First, print out our craft template. Decide on one of the three pieces of cake and the matching arrow. Cut out these two elements with scissors.

Click here: Download the craft template

2. Now take pieces as a template for 12 Pie Pieces of the Year Wheel. Draw out the outlines with pencils on colored cardboard or pattern paper 12 times. We use two different papers, which are then changed.

Tip: Draw the outline on the back of the paper. For example, you will not see any pencil lines at the front later.

3. Also trace the outlines of the arrow on the desired box.

4. Cut out the pieces of cake and the arrow clean with the scissors.

5. Now pick up the cardboard. This should be big enough to fully cover the birthday wheel. Place the pieces of cake on the cardboard to check that the entire circle stays inside the cardboard.

6. Now glue the first piece of cake onto the cardboard with double-sided adhesive tape. Repeat this with the 11 other pieces until the circle is closed.

7. Then cut the circle clean with the scissors - any bumps that may have been created during gluing can now be repaired.

8. Now label each piece of cake with a month, starting at January. You can use colorful pens, a noble fineliner or even a white pencil - depending on the design.

9. Now use the tip of a scissor or a nail to prick a hole right into the center of the wheel. Repeat this process at the end of the arrow.

10. Then attach the arrow to the wheel using a sample clamp.

11. Now it is time to paste the photos of the birthday children into your birthday calendar. About the picture you write the number of the big day or leave it easily.

The birthday wheel is now ready and can be hung or simply placed on the table. At the beginning of the month, the pointer is simply turned a bit further. The photos reveal who has a birthday next.

Birthday calendar box for the desk

Never forget to write a birthday card to your loved ones! This quick and easy to design birthday calendar in practical box shape keeps everything under control so that the greeting card arrives guaranteed on time. Behind the monthly riders inform you about the upcoming birthdays and the corresponding postal addresses. The special feature: Collect pretty cards every month to have the right thing at hand. While with instructions 1 and 2 rather smaller craft friends in the age of kindergarten or primary school were in focus, the DIY box offers a great birthday calendar for older students and adults.

Difficulty: very easy
Time required: about 30 minutes
Material costs: depending on the box between 5 and 15 euros

You need this:

• a nice box of at least 16 cm wide (better a little more so that even larger greeting cards find space)
• colored cardboard in 12 colors
• 12 index cards
• Pens for labeling
• Scissors or cutter
• optional: laminator

manual

1. Cut 12 cards of 12 × 15 cm from your cardboard box - one color each for one month.

2. To reattach each of the cards, divide the top edge into three equal 5 cm areas. Underneath, at a distance of 1 cm, draw a parallel to the upper edge.

3. For four maps, cut the two right-sided areas along the 1 cm line. This creates a 1x5cm rider on the far left.

4. Four more cards should get the rider in the middle. Thus you cut off the left and the right area.

5. Finally, remove the left and center areas to provide the last four cards with a rider on the far right.

Tip: In this way, the tabs remain large enough to be able to advertise the month names well.

6. If you like, you can round off the upper two corners of each rider with scissors - depending on your taste.

7. Now write the month names in the tabs. Make sure that always a left, then a middle and finally a right-sided rider alternate so that the division later makes sense in the box.

Example: January on the left, February on the middle, March on the right and April on the left again.

8. If you have a laminator, it is recommended for optical and durability reasons to laminate each of these cards - with the smallest possible film.

Important: Who decides to laminate, should measure well whether the tabs even with a few millimeters more easily fit into the box. Otherwise, cut the cards in advance again by this value.

9. Now the rider cards can already move into the birthday calendar or in its box.

10. If you already have some greeting cards in stock, you can arrange them according to seasons and also give them to the respective month.

Tip: Alternatively, arrange the greeting cards according to the people they fit best, and then insert the respective department.

11. Of course, at least one tab still has to be prepared for each month. If there are more birthday children, add more cards to continue labeling only the front. So it remains clearer.

12. The outline of the index card can be done as follows:

• Above the title of the month again as headline in a beautiful color to prevent confusion when removing.
• Then complete the day and the name of the birthday child in chronological order. Behind it can find place of birth as well as mailing address.

13. Assign these cards to your months in the birthday calendar box and you're done!