Daily Planner with a Personal Touch

journal entry:

Most women love planners.  Not people who plan but books called planners.  That is because women are always planning.  Planning on paper that is pretty or behind tabs that are funky is more fun that writing things down on a scrap of paper or in a regular notebook.  We all know that.  I was ready for something new to take with me in the car.  Something I couldn’t easily forget at home or decide to leave on the seat when I went into a store.  I made something new and it was FUN !

I used paper from the Que Sera Sera collection by K&Company.  I bought the pad of 12×12 paper with a 50% coupon at Jo Ann’s Crafts.  I especially loved it because it was two-sided and had a “mixed media” look. I knew that I could use it for many things.

 

I had a BIG TAB download in my Silhouette Cutting Machine file so I used that.  I trimmed the 12×12 to 8 1/2 x 11 and fixed it onto the cutting mat.  I was able to cut two tabs out of  each sheet.  They are such great tabs.  I have used them before.

 

 

I layered patterns and textures and sizes of paper.  I made pockets out of paper to hold things like coupons or note cards.  One of my favorite craft supplies has long been 9×12 clear sheets which I am holding in the photograph above. They are actually made for binding machines. They punch easily and provide protection for another page that otherwise might not hold up very well from frequent handling.

I made only four tabbed dividers because I had one purpose for the binder and  I wasn’t trying to make a filing system.  I was simply trying to be prepared when I went somewhere and needed a coupon or to write down an idea.

 

I chose four tabs.  Coupons, which I easily leave at home on the magnet board in the kitchen.  Ideas which I often have when I am somewhere without a piece of paper or a pen.  Notes which might include a grocery list.  Other which is other. And Other was shorter than the over-used Miscellaneous.  Since Ideas, Notes and Other seem a lot alike, we’ll see how well I do differentiating between them.  It might be that Coupons and Other would have been just fine.

 

 

I put pockets behind a couple of the dividers.  I used a tiny punch and embroidery floss to secure the  pocket paper to the divider paper.  When all was said and done, I trimmed the dividers about one half of an inch on the left and reinforced the holes with some colored reinforcements I found at Wal-Mart.  By trimming the dividers, they didn’t stick out beyond the right edge of the binder when it was closed.  That was important because the binder I chose had a fun elastic which had to wrap around the closed binder.  If the tabbed dividers weren’t trimmed, the elastic would squish them.

 

 

The binder came from Office Depot.  It came in Pink, Brown, Blue and Brick Red.  I had these little flowers which I had made out of lace.  They are teeny tiny.  I sewed them to the elastic and was finished.  Oh.  I punched holes in some light brown paper I had in my stash and put a little behind each tabbed divider.  And, yes.  I have taken it with me ever since I made it. And yes, I have used it. And no, I haven’t left it on the seat of the car.  So far, so good.