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My last planner!! (I hope…)

9 Jul

Warning…photo-heavy post ahead…you have been forewarned! 😉

Ever since I was in middle school I have loved planners…back then they were usually Lisa Frank, hot pink, covered with rainbow-spotted dalmatians, and used mostly for doodling rather than planning but they were always a staple in my back-to-school shopping cart!  As I’ve gotten older I’ve become a little better at actually using a planner for it’s intended use but I’ve always hit a huge brick wall somewhere along the line.  I have NEVER been able to find a planner that actually works for me.  I’ve tried everything…I have an Erin Condren planner, a Midori Traveler’s notebook with DIYFish inserts, a Papertrey Ink planner, editable inserts from Kristina Werner, and a boring old Day Planner from Staples…there are definitely aspects I like of each one; but ultimately I find that I have to modify them so much that I no longer enjoy using them.

So for the last few months I’ve been wanting to make my own inserts but I didn’t really know where to start.  I tried using Word and Excel but found both to result in a planner that was so aesthetically unpleasing that I was totally not interested in using it.  Then one night, a few weeks ago, I found this tutorial online…of course it was like 3 am in the morning when I watched it; but I immediately got out of bed, downloaded the free trial of Adobe InDesign, and started playing around!  It took several days of teeth gnashing but I finally designed the perfect planner for me!  I spent another day laboriously printing it page by page (I couldn’t quite figure out the whole duplex printing thing…a project for another day) and then a final day creating custom dividers and a dashboard before assembling the entire planner.  But it’s finally done and I LOVE IT!!

So I’ll start off by saying that my planner is huge…and probably way more detailed than most people would want but it’s exactly what I’ve always dreamed of having and I thought it’d be fun to share my creation!
I knew I wanted to use my Filofax Saffiano Aquamarine A5 Planner to hold my custom inserts so I went ahead and purchased a hole punch that could accurately punch the six holes for a Filofax.

I purchased a font package and used the Angelline font along with Century Gothic for the majority of the planner.  I love the loose, relaxed look of the script.  To start off with, there’s a 2-page monthly layout.  There’s a space for notes and I added poetry quotes from my favorite poet, Pablo Neruda:

Next there is a 2-page weekly spread:

Each day is divided into work, home, and blog so that I can easily see what tasks I have lined up for each day.  In the home category I added water drops so I could track my daily water intake.  I also included a monthly calendar in the corner for easy reference and a space for dinner planning, notes, and a to-do list with a column for checking off completed tasks:

Now here’s where I went a little crazy…there are lots of planners that have space for menu planning, or financial tracking, or fitness tracking, or shopping lists…but I have never found one that has ALL of that and has a weekly spread on 2 pages.  But mine does! 😉 Ha, and that’s why it’s so thick.

So after the weekly spread there’s a full weekly menu planner with three meals a day plus snacks, a finance tracker, and a fitness tracker:

Here’s a close-up:

Then on the next page I have space for my weekly grocery shopping list.  I usually do my shopping on Sundays between church and lessons so I usually have less than an hour to finish shopping, get home, unload the car, and put everything away before my lessons begin.  I really wanted to keep my grocery list in my planner and organize it by the layout of the store to make shopping more efficient.

After the grocery list comes the following week’s spread.  Each week has a total of 6 pages with a 2-page spread of lined paper between months.  At the back of the planner I also made matching grid paper and contacts pages.  Everything is done in shades of teal and I used a swatch from Sherwin-Williams to select the various shades.

Once the inserts were printed I took an extra copy of one page to Michaels to select coordinating patterned paper for the monthly dividers.  I ended up with this gorgeous pack of papers from the Dear Lizzy collection by American Crafts.  I trimmed the papers down to 8.75″ by 5.75″ and then added a divider label.  I printed the months onto a piece of teal cardstock from Bazzill, cut them down to small rectangles and used my 1/8″ corner chomper to round the corners.  I used my ATG gun to adhere the dividers to the patterned paper and then laminated them for durability.

While I was at it, I also cut a strip from the patterned paper and laminated it to create a bookmark to mark today’s date.  You can see the top of it peeking out of the left side of the pages on the above photo.

My planner dashboard was also created with a piece of laminated patterned paper.  I wound two of my favorite washi tapes around the laminated card so that I can easily tear off a piece as needed.  I adhered a stack of pink post-it notes to the same card with removable glue-dots and then slid a fun pack of cat post-it notes into the inside pocket.  Behind that inside pocket are extra removable labels and other decorative notes for my planner.

On one section of my craft desk I have a little area devoted to planner supplies.  I found this cute organizer at the Container Store that holds post-its, sticky notes, planner stamps, all of my colorful erasable pens, and blank labels.  I also have a small acrylic container from Target that holds my die-cut planner banners from Papertrey Ink that I colored with copic markers and cut from removable blank labels.  Here are the various drawers of the unit.

And the various planner stamp sets I use throughout my planners:

So there you have it…my very own custom planner!  I am SO excited that it’s all put together now and I can finally start decorating and making it my own! 🙂

Thanks so much for visiting!!

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Comments:
3 Comments
Categories:
crafting, home, organization
Tags:
organization, planner

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Comments

  1. Pam Spicer says

    July 9, 2015 at 4:08 pm

    Wow! I’m impressed! I hope to have something like this someday. Thanks for sharing all your great ideas, design and thoughts that went into putting it all together!

    Reply
  2. MichelleW says

    August 1, 2015 at 7:05 pm

    WOW Jessica! Love it!

    Reply
  3. Kathleen Mc says

    August 4, 2015 at 8:38 pm

    this is great! well done.
    maybe if I make a start now I might get one done by the new year!!!
    Kathleen Mc xx

    Reply

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Jessica About Me Photo
Hi, I'm Jess! Thanks for visiting my blog where I share my adventures in cardmaking and papercrafting! I hope I can inspire you to craft with a little sparkle!

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The new My Monthly Kit from @heroarts is now available and it’s Bee-utiful!! 🐝💛🐝 I’m sharing four cards from one watercolored background over on my blog and YT channel! Head over for more details and snag your kit before it sells out!! 💛💛💛 ••• LINK - https://shrsl.com/2ph6v (clickable link in profile) ••• #heroarts #mymonthlyhero #mijellomissiongold #hydracolour #watercolour #watercolor #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb

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Jan 4

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Instagram post 17980797202329692 The new My Monthly Kit from @heroarts is now available and it’s Bee-utiful!! 🐝💛🐝 I’m sharing four cards from one watercolored background over on my blog and YT channel! Head over for more details and snag your kit before it sells out!! 💛💛💛
•••
LINK - https://shrsl.com/2ph6v (clickable link in profile)
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#heroarts #mymonthlyhero #mijellomissiongold #hydracolour #watercolour #watercolor #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb

jessicafrostballas

We have a new Lawn Fawnatics challenge to kick off the new year and we’re creating cards for Outstanding Occasions! 🎉❤️🎉 Today I created a wedding card featuring an adorable squirrel party! 😉 Head to my blog for more details and join the challenge! 🐿🐿🐿 ••• LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/lfch92/ (clickable link in profile) ••• #lawnfawn @lawnfawn #lawnfawnatics #inkblending #copicmarkers #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb

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Jan 4

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Instagram post 18184726213057099 We have a new Lawn Fawnatics challenge to kick off the new year and we’re creating cards for Outstanding Occasions! 🎉❤️🎉 Today I created a wedding card featuring an adorable squirrel party! 😉 Head to my blog for more details and join the challenge! 🐿🐿🐿
•••
LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/lfch92/ (clickable link in profile)
•••
#lawnfawn @lawnfawn #lawnfawnatics #inkblending #copicmarkers #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb

jessicafrostballas

🐝 Today we’re kicking off the countdown for the @heroarts January My Monthly Hero kit and it’s the perfect cheery way to welcome a new year! 🐝🌸🐝 Head to my blog for a closer look and comment for a chance to win a kit before you can buy it! 💛🐝💛 ••• LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/hacd121/ (clickable link in profile) ••• #heroarts #mymonthlyhero #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb

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Jan 2

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Instagram post 17938042399439973 🐝 Today we’re kicking off the countdown for the @heroarts January My Monthly Hero kit and it’s the perfect cheery way to welcome a new year! 🐝🌸🐝 Head to my blog for a closer look and comment for a chance to win a kit before you can buy it! 💛🐝💛
•••
LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/hacd121/ (clickable link in profile)
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#heroarts #mymonthlyhero #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb

jessicafrostballas

Starting off 2021 with a clean and simple card featuring one of my very favorite companies! 🖤💛🖤 I love the new Lovely Letters alphabet set from @concordand9th and how nicely it pairs with the other alpha sets to create this card! Lovely Letters is a stand-alone alphabet set that looks like hand lettering and it’s designed so you can stamp and build whatever sentiment you want! Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! 🎉🎉🎉 ••• LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/hny21/ (clickable link in profile) ••• #concordand9th #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb #happynewyear

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Jan 1

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Instagram post 17856831182398826 Starting off 2021 with a clean and simple card featuring one of my very favorite companies! 🖤💛🖤 I love the new Lovely Letters alphabet set from @concordand9th and how nicely it pairs with the other alpha sets to create this card! Lovely Letters is a stand-alone alphabet set that looks like hand lettering and it’s designed so you can stamp and build whatever sentiment you want! Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! 🎉🎉🎉
•••
LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/hny21/ (clickable link in profile)
•••
#concordand9th #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb #happynewyear

jessicafrostballas

🎆 HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE! 🎆 Today I’m sharing a look back at my favorite cards from each month of 2020 and hosting a $50 crafty giveaway over on my blog! I am honored and thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with so many of my favorite crafty companies this year! These companies are the heart and soul of this industry and I love to support them! ❤️❤️❤️ Swipe for a closer look as well as a look at my favorite cards from 2015-2019! 😳 It is really fun for me to look back and see my growth as an artist and cardmaker (and it shows me that there’s always room to keep growing)!! 😉 I hope you have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and I’ll see you in 2021! ❤️❤️❤️ ••• LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/mfc2020/ (clickable link in profile) ••• #allthesparklejfb #inkblending #alcoholink #distressoxideinks #copicmarkers #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas

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Dec 31

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Instagram post 17866448675260868 🎆 HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE! 🎆  Today I’m sharing a look back at my favorite cards from each month of 2020 and hosting a $50 crafty giveaway over on my blog!  I am honored and thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with so many of my favorite crafty companies this year!  These companies are the heart and soul of this industry and I love to support them! ❤️❤️❤️ Swipe for a closer look as well as a look at my favorite cards from 2015-2019! 😳 It is really fun for me to look back and see my growth as an artist and cardmaker (and it shows me that there’s always room to keep growing)!! 😉 I hope you have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and I’ll see you in 2021! ❤️❤️❤️
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LINK - https://www.allthesparkle.com/mfc2020/ (clickable link in profile)
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Today I’m sharing a card over on the @heroarts blog for the newest Stay Crafty with Hero challenge! We’re challenging you to create a card using a creative team member’s card as inspiration for your card! If you swipe you can see the beautiful card @thecardgrotto created that I used as inspiration for my card! ✨🌌✨ I hope you’ll play along with the challenge! 💙💛💙 ••• LINK - https://heroarts.com/blogs/hero-arts-blog/galaxy-focal-point-inspired-by-michelle-short (clickable link in profile) ••• #heroarts #staycraftywithhero #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas #allthesparklejfb

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Instagram post 17915304478546934 Today I’m sharing a card over on the @heroarts blog for the newest Stay Crafty with Hero challenge! We’re challenging you to create a card using a creative team member’s card as inspiration for your card!  If you swipe you can see the beautiful card @thecardgrotto created that I used as inspiration for my card! ✨🌌✨ I hope you’ll play along with the challenge! 💙💛💙
•••
LINK - https://heroarts.com/blogs/hero-arts-blog/galaxy-focal-point-inspired-by-michelle-short (clickable link in profile)
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So earlier today I posted the most liked alcohol ink work from 2020 and here are the cards you liked the most this year! ❤️ There are definitely some surprises in there 😂 but it’s fun to see what you liked best! It appears that ink-blending is popular! 😉❤️😘 ••• #allthesparklejfb #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas

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Dec 30

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Instagram post 17855338049408350 So earlier today I posted the most liked alcohol ink work from 2020 and here are the cards you liked the most this year! ❤️ There are definitely some surprises in there 😂 but it’s fun to see what you liked best! It appears that ink-blending is popular! 😉❤️😘
•••
#allthesparklejfb #cardmaker #cardmaking #cardmakersofinstagram #papercrafting #papercrafts #diycards #handmadecards #cardinspiration #cardideas #cardmakingideas

jessicafrostballas

It’s always fun to look back and see what posts you liked most over the year. And often I’m surprised by what is or is not liked. I’ll be sharing my annual favorite cards series in a few days but I thought I’d share your favorite 2020 alcohol ink posts and cards today! ❤️ Surprisingly alcohol ink art and ink-blending are more liked than most of my cards 😅 so I thought I’d share them separately! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 It does make me wonder if I should change a bit of my art focus for next year! 😂🤔😜 ••• #alcoholink #alcoholinkart #alcoholinkartist #fluidart

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Dec 29

684 34
Link to display lightbox
Instagram post 17893561561794477 It’s always fun to look back and see what posts you liked most over the year. And often I’m surprised by what is or is not liked. I’ll be sharing my annual favorite cards series in a few days but I thought I’d share your favorite 2020 alcohol ink posts and cards today! ❤️ Surprisingly alcohol ink art and ink-blending are more liked than most of my cards 😅 so I thought I’d share them separately! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 It does make me wonder if I should change a bit of my art focus for next year! 😂🤔😜
•••
#alcoholink #alcoholinkart #alcoholinkartist #fluidart

jessicafrostballas

It’s always fun to check out my @yearofcolour at the end of December and see how it’s changed from the previous year (swipe to see 2019)! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 Apparently I’m getting a little bolder in my color choices and still avoid greens and browns as much as possible. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️😂 #yearofcolour #yearofcolour2020

View on Instagram

Dec 28

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Instagram post 17889601042865245 It’s always fun to check out my @yearofcolour at the end of December and see how it’s changed from the previous year (swipe to see 2019)! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 Apparently I’m getting a little bolder in my color choices and still avoid greens and browns as much as possible. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️😂 #yearofcolour #yearofcolour2020
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I design for several companies because I truly love their products! Anything I recommend on my blog is something that I genuinely love and regularly use. I do not get paid for product reviews and I will never recommend a product that I do not like or would not use.

I am affiliated with several of my favorite crafty companies which means I receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you!!) when you click on one of my links and make a purchase through the store.

You can find my full disclosure as well as a list of the companies I am affiliated with HERE. Thank you so much for supporting me!

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