Category Archives: Planner Junkie

I am absolutely obsessed with work.  I love what I do. My family thinks I’m a little crazy when I describe my workday as “fun.”   When planning became a “craft” it was like winning the lottery – now I could blend my work in organization and the process of staying organized with my second passion – crafting!!!

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen the short video I posted showing the papers I purchased for my February planner pages.  Finding the right paper for creating planner layouts can be a little challenging.  I like everything to be “matchy-matchy” – but papers also need to be fairly light in color so I can write over the top of the designs.  This month I found a nice variety of pinks, perfect for February and perfect for planning.  Most of these are American Crafts papers available at Joann stores. (Most of the images in this post can be clicked on to produce a larger image.)

I’m trying to stay a month ahead when creating pages, so today, I put on the football game and got crafty with my planner – here’s the result.

Oh, before I jump into February, here’s my last January page, I haven’t had a chance to post it yet.

One of the things I look for when I’m choosing planner paper are designs that I can cut out of the paper.

I run these through my Xyron and use them as stickers and sticky notes.

I also try to add a “page turner” to the edge of each page so I can easily turn to the exact day/week I need to view.

Okay, on to February…

This month I started on the full month calendar page.  My idea was to add a few stickers to each week on the this page that would match the theme I used on the “weekly” pages.  I also went a little crazy with glitter tape this month.

In the picture on the right, you can see the stickers I used on each of the monthly calendar weeks repeated on the page turner tabs for each of the corresponding weeks.

Something to keep in mind…

When you’re choosing things for your planner keep in mind that layers of things create “bumps” on your pages and can make it difficult to write neatly.

I used quite a bit of glitter tape on these pages, which I may regret as I fill in my planner, but I do love the way it looks.

Week 1 – Flowers and patterned paper

Nothing very unique or exciting here, but I do like the way it looks.  One fabulous side-effect to decorating your planner is that you get to enjoy what you’ve created every day.

One challenge – remembering that your work is only temporary – so I try not to spend too much time decorating.

It’s a little difficult to see in the photo, but I used pink glitter Nuvo drops to “embellish” the flower on the page turner tab for this week.

If you’re adding these tabs keep in mind that they may take a lot of abuse, so try making the base pieces of them out of heavy cardstock and they’ll look better longer.

Another tip – add the page turner tabs first.  You’ll see in a couple of my pages I added them after I was done decorating and that resulted in covering up some of what I had done.

Week 2 – Valentine’s Week, hearts of course!

If you’ve looked at previous planner page designs, you’ll see that in general, I try to work within the column lines for each day of the week.  I don’t know why it took me this long to realize I didn’t have to stay within the lines.

Gel Glitter Pens!!!

As you know, I try to use pens that match my planner layouts, part of the matchy-matchy”ness” that I love so much.  I was thinking that black would be a good choice for this page, on my search to find the perfect fine point black marker I stumbled across my glitter gel pens – perfecto!

I added a bit of Valentine’s ribbon to the page turner tab for this page.  To make it double sided, I ran the little pieces of cut ribbon through the Xyron X and then stuck them together.

Week 3 – Donuts, Damask & Dots

I love how this turned out! there’s something about combination of something as sophisticated as damask combined with the simplicity of donuts that just makes me happy!

Who doesn’t love donuts???

I just think – “YUMMM” every time I look at this paper.

I use a Happy Planner punch to punch out the rectangle boxes I use on my pages.  With this layout my original idea was to layer the hearts under the rectangles, but I forgot and stuck down all of the rectangles before putting the hearts down, another epiphany – use the punch to cut a perfect corner out of the heart.  This solved 2 problems – 1) I was able to get the layered look I wanted AND 2) I didn’t actually create another layer or “bump” in the page.

Week 4 – bring on the SPRING!!!

I live in the Pacific Northwest, which means that fall and winter are particularly grey and dreary. By the end of February, I’m always ready for SPRING!!! A little sunshine, earlier sunrises, birds singing…

“Weather” spring arrives early, at the end of February or not, scheduling my life on these pages will help me feel like spring has arrived.

A little birdy told me…

“Perfect is the enemy of good.” As I mentioned above, it’s easy to get sucked into spending lots of time designing and decorating your planner. Although you can turn it into a journal or scrapbook, most of us will just be using it as a planner.

Keep your designs fast and simple.  One way to do this is to select papers and embellishments that can be used over a period of weeks or a month – mix and match papers to create a consistent look from week to week.

My favorite planner design tools

There are 3 tools I’ve used every time I work on my planner.

Xyron sticker maker – I actually use three of these, but I’m counting them as 1 tool.  This is the simplest way to turn your paper into stickers.  In the picture below you’ll see the 9″ Xyron and the Xyron “X”.

Diamond Press die cutter

Yes, you can use any die cutting machine to cut shapes for your planner.  I like the Diamond Press for 2 reasons.

1) It’s small, which means it’s easy to move around with my planner supplies, and it fits easily into my Ditto tool bag.

2) Any die that fits through the Diamond Press is also going to fit well in my planner.

3rd tool, punches

Circle- 2 sizes, Square 2 sizes and Rectangle.

Each of these is fast and easy to use when I’m working on planner layouts.  The double sizes of circles and squares make it fast and easy to layer things like page turner tabs.  The large square is the same size as the day squares on the monthly calendar page.  Again, really easy to add layers as well as to cover up mistakes.

The rectangle punch from WeR will create a variety of sizes, I usually just leave mine set as the size of the rectangles on my planner pages.