Inspired Gifts Custom Calendar {Review & Giveaway - 2 winners!}

{This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, manthas24 and polly!}

Around this time every year I always seem to find myself halfway glancing at those stands that appear in the mall that carry calendars in every theme and category possible. I keep a main calendar magnetically hung on my refrigerator that does the majority of my family organization for me, so it's important that I find one that I like enough to want to look at pretty much every day for the next year.

But, even with all of my browsing, what ends up happening is that even though the calendars with puppies or flowers or beaches can be cute, they're just not what I want to see prominently displayed for 365 days. Instead, I find myself heading to the craft store at the last minute and buying a cheap clearance calendar that manages to fulfill the job, albeit not very attractively.

Well, 2011 is going to be different. This January 1st I'll be thrilled and excited to hang up my Inspired Gifts Custom Calendar and smile every day when I see the colorful, beautiful pages each month.

I was fortunate to write an Inspired Gifts review last July and not only loved the finished product (the cutest Day Planner around) but finding out more about Inspired Gifts and their wonderful company made me love it even a little more.

More than just standard photo gifts, this mom-owned company cares about each one of their customers, is eco-friendly (in everything from the paper to the ink to their print-on-demand technology) and, to top it all off, gives back a portion of their profits to the largest humanitarian organization out there that works to fight global hunger.

All that and I end up with a gorgeous calendar that inspires me both with my favorite photos and wonderfully moving words?

With nine different themes available (Sisters, Someone Special, Inspirational, Mothers & Daughters, Brother, Father, Friends, Grandparents, Mind, Body & Soul), creating a Custom Calendar from Inspired Gifts gives you creative options from the very beginning. You end up with a completely custom order created at no extra charge!

Deciding on the Inspirational Wall Calendar (since I knew I was going to keep this great gift for myself), this calendar can be ordered immediately without any personalization or, for a custom work of art, fill out the easy to follow order form right on the Inspired Gifts website.

After choosing the size (either 6" x 4.4" or 11" x 8"), whether I wanted 12 or 18 months and the month I wanted my calendar to begin, right away I loved that Inspired Gifts allows you to select which designs will appear in your calendar if you order the 12 month option.

As they have 18 beautiful illustrations and inspirational quotes, I was able to go through and read all of them, see the colors and select my favorites. Or, for people more creative than myself, you can even submit your own favorite words of inspiration and Inspired Gifts will incorporate them into their designs and put them into your calendar. How much more personal can you get than that?

Through photographs and names, of course. Right on the cover, Inspired Gifts makes their Custom Calendars perfect for gift-giving by allowing you to fill in and display "Created With Love for [Gift Recipient's Name] from [Your Name(s)]. Then, after choosing your favorite photos for the cover and up to two per month (meaning a 12-month calendar will hold between 1 and 25 photos and an 18-month calendar holds between 1 and 37 photos), you're ready to go.

A short while later, a well-packed box arrived at my door. Removing the packing, I looked in and found a reason to smile:

Flipping through each month, I couldn't be happier about the finished product and how much I'm going to enjoy displaying it for all of next year. The thick, durable pages and the strong binding have already proven themselves by the number of times that Big Sister E and Little Sister B have sat and looked through the pages and the bright, vivid colors make each month pop and grab your eye.

Did I mention that I love this calendar? I can't wait for 2011 to hurry up and arrive so that I can display it right up on the refrigerator and see it every day! Retailing for $19.99 for 12 months (and $24.97 for 18 months) this is the gift of monthly inspiration that would be a moving, cherished gift for anyone on your list.

Or, considering that Inspired Gifts has a wide variety of things like photo notebooks, canvas prints, memory books and so much more at affordable prices, there is definitely something for everyone to enjoy. In fact, their amazing personalized posters, normally only $4.99, can be purchased for 50% off ($2.50!) if you enter the coupon code Thanks50 at checkout. Now that's a deal!

Thanks to their generosity, Inspired Gifts will provide two people with a year's worth of custom, beautiful months (and they can choose whatever month they would like to start with!), because...

Two lucky people will win 11" x 8" Custom Calendars from Inspired Gifts! ARV $19.99!

To enter to win: Visit Inspired Gifts and tell me which of their products you would like to order and who it would be for.

Extra Entries (available after the mandatory entry above is completed; please leave a separate comment for each entry in order for them to be counted).

1 Extra Entry (per method) if you follow Inspired Gifts on Twitter, Like them on Facebook and/or follow the Inspired Gifts blog with Google Friend Connect.
1 Extra Entry (per giveaway entered) - Enter any (or all) of the giveaways running on Thanks, Mail Carrier for the duration of this giveaway.
1 Extra Entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway by copying and pasting the tweet below and leaving me the link. Tweet daily for an extra entry every day!

2 winners! #WIN a Custom Calendar from @InspiredGifts - personalized & beautiful for 2011! #thxmailcarrier http://bit.ly/hIqOXY #giveaway

2 Extra Entries (per follow method) if you follow me with Google Friend Connect, subscribe to my RSS feed, subscribe to Thanks, Mail Carrier by email or become a fan on Facebook.
3 Extra Entries if you put my cute button up on your blog. Please leave an address where it can be found.
3 Extra Entries if you blog about this giveaway linking back to Thanks, Mail Carrier and Inspired Gifts. Please leave an address where it can be found.

Giveaway will end on January 7th at 11:59pm CST. Do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile, I have to have a way to contact the winners. The winners will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

A big thank you to Inspired Gifts for providing a Custom Calendar for me to review as well as two for two lucky giveaway winners. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.