Bust Your Scrapbook Paper Stash and Make Your Own Life Planner

I love my scrapbook papers. Period. I love looking at them, and thinking of all the fun things I want to make with them. Scrapbooking and cardmaking are at the top of my list--but, scrapbooks stay closed and cards are given away.

I needed a new academic-style planner recently, which made me think: I look at my planner every day. And that's when I decided to make my own life planner, a little inspired from those wonderful Erin Condren planners, using my gorgeous patterned papers that I'd also like to look at every day.

The front and back covers are upcycled

Here's part one of my DIY Planner post--all the things you could pull together to make one and how to begin. I wanted an expansive planner, tailored to my life, wouldn't travel but stay on the desk at home, utilize pretty scrapbook papers, and keep my home life organized and my creative pursuits motivated. I decided to tackle the basic calendar part of it first.

To make your own homemade 8-1/2X11 life planner, here's a few supplies you might want to include:

• Hole punches: three-hole and crop-a-dile
• Patterned papers--I used a 200-page pad of 8-1/2X11 coordinating patterned papers
• Patterned paper scraps
• Printer paper
• Stamps and stickers
• Plastic pocket folders
• Markers
• Ruler
• Paper cutter
• Rings 
• Washi tape

I decided to create weekly pages, by hand at first, on my typewriter, on printer paper I had cut down so that when attached to the scrapbook paper there would be that pretty border of the patterned paper. Just decide on a size and then trim your 52 papers if you're doing a weekly layout. On each week I have the days of the week on one side, and a to-do list on the other.

Doing this on my typewriter with hand-drawn lines was fun for an hour. But after a couple of hours I took this to the computer. I created a table in Word, and inserted little online pictures--different ones for each month--and I like the look of this better. So much faster this way. It's all good though, and it all works either way.

I found some great monthly layouts at scatteredsquirrel.com along with some creative planner inserts as well, and it's free. Funny the things you trip onto when you're working on a project.

Yes, it's huge and I use it every day.

Finally, for today's DIY Planner part one--the covers. I really wanted sturdy covers, but I'm making my own thing here. So, I dug out some old office planners and realized what great covers they had--spiral bound. I trimmed them and was able to punch my holes with the crop-a-dile. The trimmed edges were a little sharp, so I covered them with decorative masking tape (orange with polka dots from Target). I added some cute stickers, and some scrap paper to eventually title this thing, and some washi tape here and there. The one thought in my mind: why didn't I do this before?

See you Thursday for the rest of this monster DIY Planner part two!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Plan