You Already Have Calendar Art on Your iPad

I have talked to so many artists over the years who say that they would love to design a calendar, but they just don’t have the time. My response is that you actually already have calendar art on your iPad, you just need to put it in a calendar template!

Calendars are one of my best selling products, so it is more than worth it for me to spend a few minutes popping some art in a calendar template to make the designs for sale. Today I’ll be showing you the example of my upcoming art print calendar and giving you some ideas for art you may already have lying around!

the art

There is truly no limit to the kind of art that you could put on calendars, but here are some ideas that you may already have on your iPad:

illustrations
patterns
lettering compositions
doodles/zentangles
sketches that just need to be inked!

the sizes

Depending on what calendar provider you use, you will likely have a variety of format options to choose from. This year I am making three different calendars, and each one has a different format, so don’t worry if your art doesn’t seem to fit into the “perfect size” for a calendar because you can really make calendar art at any size since you determine the layout!

Note: I created a pack of dated 2026 calendar templates (12 months) for all of the Gelato sizes for my membership The Studio. Come join us using this free trial to grab these templates (it took us 20 hours to make all these and we did all the work so you don’t have to)!

the format

Some people love two-page calendars where the art is on one side and the numbers are on other, others love a single page calendar that’s really big to hang on their office walls. All this to say, there are a wide variety of options to choose from and you should go with what speaks to your style and makes it easy to repurpose what you already have.

This year, I am adding to my calendar selections a calendar with pages that double as art prints!

This way, everyone who buys one of my calendars is really getting a stack of six art prints (not 12 since the calendar pages are two sided)! This is a huge value for my customers and allows me to reuse some artwork I already had on my iPad.

the style

Of course, there are calendars that are made in a wide range of styles so I don’t think it matters what your style is, but it is important to have a consistent style throughout the calendar.

The cover should be a sort of summary of the style, so I always do the cover last after I finish the pages and have a really good idea of what the feel and vibe of the calendar is.

The payoff

The biggest benefit of reusing your artwork for calendars is not just that you get to sell some art, but that the time you spent on that artwork is not wasted. I know from hearing from many of you that you have a lot of artwork languishing on your iPad, and wish you had a way to sell it. This is one of my most-recommended ways of selling your art (and one of my personal top-selling formats!), so jump on it if calendars inspire you!

The work

Assuming you already have some art that can be reused or re-colored to be put in calendar pages, all you have to do is save all the images and plop them into a calendar template. You can use a free template from a source like Canva, you could make your own in the app Affinity Designer, or you can come grab the ones I made for Studio Members using this free trial.

Whichever option you choose, don’t let another calendar season pass if this has been a long held dream for you. Once you dig into the process, it’s literally a matter of hours before you have a finished calendar, ready to sell.