The Inside Scoop on Mary's Calendars

Every year, Mary's calendars are among her most popular items, so we thought you would enjoy a little peek inside the development of these classic products loved by hundreds of thousands each year! By July 2003, two of the 2004 calendars were already in their second printing!

Mary's 2004 Wall Calendar

Let the Development Begin!
Andrews McMeel Universal (AMU), located in Kansas City, MO, is our calendar publisher. Nearly two years before the calendar year, we work with AMU by developing the themes for each calendar (such as friendship, encouragement or even hats) which drives Mary's creative process. It generally takes Mary about ten months to create all 12 calendar images for her big wall calendar. Every other year, Mary creates new artwork for her big wall calendars. On the odd years, we use our favorite archived images and add fresh borders and illustrated quotes. Mary's 2004 wall calendar featured all new artwork.

Fun Fact
When Mary is sketching the concepts for her illustrations, she often misspells or misattributes her quotes. So she pencils them in, and we send them to our copy editors for clearance before moving on to ink and colored pencils.

Putting Together the Calendar
While most of the images are drawn in their entireties, sometimes the backgrounds are drawn and other elements are added. For example, "Arrive" was drawn in two parts and combined for this adorable image ...

Most of the new images, though, are drawn in their entireties, like these ...

What's In A Day?
We help make your scheduling cute with special borders, lettering and spot art
hand-drawn by Mary and her artists.

Calendars are some of Mary's most cherished and collectible products because they showcase her full illustrations so beautifully. Now that you understand how we work with Mary to develop them, we hope you enjoy them even more!