Planner Cuteness.

My daughter Ashley is into the planner craze…and why not, it is so fun :)
The other weekend we were working on our planners and she decorated hers for Christmas.

She made her divider with a greeting card and some pattern paper.
Isn't it adorable!!
I also love her string of Christmas lights running down the front of the planner.
And how about that adorable Santa paper clip…too cute!!!

I loved him so much, that Ashley made me one as well.

She made these ol' school….yup, just paper and hand cut with scissors.

I am going to put Jolly ol' St. Nick in my Christmas planner :)

I hope you all have a very Creative Day today :)

Tracy :)

I love my planners

Boy, am I a sneaky one ;)
I told myself I can't buy any crafty supplies for the whole month of November.
When Ashley asked me to go to Michael's with her, I told her I couldn't go with her because of my goal.
She guilted me, by telling me that she just wanted to spend time with me.
We have had snow most of the day….but when my girls need me, I'm there.

Ashley and I are both planner girls and we both loved this one from Heidi Swapp.
I reminded her that I wasn't suppose to be buying myself crafty goodies for this month.
Well, being the clever girls that we are, we came up with a genius idea.
My girls would give this to me for Christmas.
This way I still get it without breaking my goal.
I then grabbed one for Ashley for Christmas….pretty slick eh?

Kristy suggested they get me these for Christmas as well…but on the way home, I convinced her to just give me them now, teehee.

I need another planner like….well like I need more scrapbooking paper, teehee.
But there is just something about planners, the excitement of decorating the pages, dreaming of how much more organized I will be when using it….and just looking at it, lol.

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Planner Day

Today is Planner Day :)
Every Sunday is my day to figure out my week and fill in my days.
At the start of each month I decorate my planner days for the month with washi tape and fill in important dates…like Kristy's birthday :)
I like to do this monthly instead of weekly, it is just easier for me.

I then add in my Personal, Home and Creative time management for each day.
Lastly I write in my Home Cleaning or my Zone tasks in each day, as well as what I am going to do with my personal time and my Creative projects I want to work on.
That is the fun and easy part…its fulfilling those tasks that is the hard part :)
Do you plan your weeks?

Onto My Day:

I got in my work shed today to cut the wood for one of the centrepieces for Ashley.
I had to move things around…..I have to really organize my work shop this summer when it is warmer.
It was cold today, but I plowed through.
I couldn't get the power to work in there…I did everything and was so frustrated.
I kept coming in the house to tell Wayne, and he would suggest resetting the breaker…which I did repeatedly.
Finally he came outside to help me out.
Guess what he did…..he reset the breaker and it worked.
Even though I did it many times, it worked for him…..so he felt like the "man".
I was just happy that I got to use my miter saw, so much easier than using a hand saw, teehee.
I just cut enough for a one as I wanted a prototype to make sure Ashley likes them before working my butt off to make them all, lol.

I hope you all had a very Creative Walking Day Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Creative Journal/Planner

I have shared with you how I am keeping my personal journal, with my "Fauxbonichi".
I have shared with you how I am keeping my home planner, with my "Day-Timer planner"
So today I thought I would share with you how I am keeping my Creative journal.
I used this same book last year, but it kind of took a backseat in my creative planning.
But when I look back to what I did do in here, I knew I wanted to add this to my planning set up for 2015.
If you take a good look, you can see I added tabs to the top for 2014 and also for 2015.

I used the 2015 Creative Calendar from Scrapbook & Cards Today.
I love this planner, as I had one last year as well.
Now how to combine both the calendar/planner pages into my planner.
I did this last year as well. If you want a closer look in how I did this, just click on the link here "My Creative Journal Altered".

Like I mentioned above, I just love the Scrapbook & Cards Today  planner and wanted to add it to my Creative planner.
Not only do I love the calendar, but I also love the blocks on the back of the pages…but I won't be showing that today, teehee.
Today I am showing you how I tweaked the Goals page up to suit my needs.

I wanted a page to record my Creative Goals for this year.
This page was perfect…well almost perfect ;)
The heading on the banners didn't suit my creative planning needs, so I had to alter them.

The prompts were:
Personal Goals
Things to do
Places to go

I was just going to use my label maker with the white tape to cover up the words.
Turns out, I used up the last of my white label tape on my other planners this weekend, teehee.
I went to my paper scraps file and found a pretty close match to the banners.

I then used my clear tape in my label maker and typed out my prompts.

They are:

Creative Goals

Monthly Challenges

New Techniques

I then started to fill in my Creative goals for 2015!!

I have been working in my planners and working on my goals in detail this weekend.
I have also worked on some time management, to better achieve these goals this year.
I will be sharing what and how I have been working towards them this week :)

Did you make goals this year?
If you did, did you organize your goals to make them more manageable so you can succeed with them?

I hope you all had a very Creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

January Planner insert..dissected

Today I was getting my planner ready for the New Year.
I know a bit late to the party, but I didn't have time to get to them before the holidays.

If you remember from a previous post, I didn't like the monthly inserts that came with my new planner inserts, that I received for Christmas.
They were 1 month on 1 page.
I like 1 month on 2 pages.
The reasons I prefer 1 month on 2 pages, is I think they are more fun to decorate…..and I love to decorate my planner.
The second reason is, I have bold primary writing and need the space.

I thought I would just go with the flow and try 1 month on 1 page for this year.
After decorating it, I changed my mind, lol.
That didn't last long, did it, lol.
See how tight everything is, plus not too much room for adding my personal touch.

I found some inserts I liked and copied them out on my photo copier…I did 2 sets just in case I needed them for next year.
But they didn't work out how I thought they would, so I scratched that idea.
Good thing I didn't use them, as I can now return them :)

I received a full planner with inserts included, for Christmas…I will share that planner at a later date ;)
What I am going to use my new planner for, I won't be needing the inserts.
The inserts were dateless, besides the month header.
Because I wasn't going to use them in the new planner, I thought I would try them in Yearly planner.
I just needed to alter the left hand page.
I cut the header off, as I like the font in my 1 page month inserts more.
I then cut off the sides and a tad off of the bottom.
So I was left with just the calendar.

In this photo my 1 page month insert is on the bottom, and my left page (cut up) of my 2 page inserts is on the top.

Then I adhered the insert, that I cut to size, to the insert of the month on 1 page.
I didn't have to do anything to the right hand side of the 2 page month calendar.
Looks good so far…except there are no numbers on the blocks.

In other years I have added the number with my label maker :)
But this year I picked up a couple of Heidi Swapp monthly number rub-ons.
Thank you Heidi….I love these!!!
A tip for working with these is to cut the numbers in a strip so you are only working with one month of numbers.
Also pull back the backing sheet for only the number you are using, cause once the paper touches the rub-on part, it sticks….this includes sticking to your fingers ;)
Last tip for working with these, is to cut off the numbers you don't need. If a month only has 28 days, cut the last numbers off. Once you get going, you may just keep rubbing those numbers and not pay attention to stopping at 28 ;)

If you are wondering why I went though all of this trouble, instead of just using my new monthly inserts..I will tell you.
I like the colours of the tabs, I like the font in the header and I like the other side, where the month title page is shown.
Yes I am particular in what I want, lol.
And if I can make it happen, I will.

Now after all of that work, I got to the fun part of decorating it :)
I changed up how I am going to mark birthdays.
Last year I stamped cupcakes on a sticker sheet, coloured them up with markers and fussy cut them out.
One thing with my planner pages (I have had this planner for 3 years) that I don't like, is when my markers and inks bleed through…this really irks me.
Last year I used many sticky notes to solve the bleed through problem.
This year I will use chalk inks to stamp (as it doesn't bleed through) and just regular ink pens.
I would rather write in markers, but I will have to get over this ;)

Now if DayTimer would only make 1 month on 2 page inserts that are prettier, and use a better quality paper so bleed through is no longer an issue…my life would be perfect, teehee.

I hope you all had a very Creative Saturday.
I did, and I have the mess to prove it ;)
Do you keep a planner?
If you do, do you prefer 1 month on 1 page, or 1 month on 2 pages?

Tracy :)

Fauxbonichi: New month New Year :)

Remember my "Fauxbonichi" from the other day?
I am finished with that journal and started my new one.
I have seen so many using this grid journal made by Miquelrius from Barns and Noble.
I picked 2 up on our last trip.

Well today being the first of the month, I got to work on mine.
Believe me when I tell you how much I was over thinking this, lol.
This book has 300 pages (yes I counted them), so that means 600 sides.
But I like to washi tape 2 pages together, so that equals 150 pages, or 300 sides.
Which also means not enough for the full year…plus my monthly calendar pages.
I really don't need a calendar page…but I want one, teehee.
So after hours of over-thinking and whining to my friends, I think I may have figured it out :)
I am going to adhere my pages together with the washi tape, but for some months I will put pattern paper on one side (as I don't really care for bleed through and don't like to worry about which markers I can use) I will also add washi tape to the edges of those pages so they all look cohesive from the edge.

Now that wasn't my only problem…
I had to figure out the spacing for the blocks, as this is a different size than my Moleskine journal.
After I was happy with the spacing of the blocks and added my (overpriced) week day stickers, I grabbed a calendar to get the numbers on the blocks correctly.
Well look at this….Yup, I got distracted and just started add the Heidi Swapp rub-on numbers.
Now these suckers are here to stay.
I tried to scrape them off with the tip of my scissors…nope they are stuck good.
But how to fix them?

There is a blank page in the front of this book.
I added some personal information, so if anyone finds this in 200 years they will know who's journal this was ;)
On the back side of that page I added some pattern paper and this quote I printed up.
I love this statement.
It had 2014 for the year, but I just covered it up and used my label maker to write out this year :)

Now lets take a closer look at these over-priced stickers I purchased at Typo.
I think they do work perfectly for this space though ;)

I just used my stamps for the Date at the top.
See how I corrected my rub-on error.
I used another set of rub-ons and adhered them to some snowflakes on some pattern paper.
I then punched out the snowflakes with my Martha Stewart snowflake corner punch.
I really like how they look :)
A mistake isn't always a mistake, it is just a way to be more creative ;)

I have done a bit more stamping on my days, but I will share that on a video come month end.
I will also add my goals to the left of the page :)

Are you keeping a journal this year?
I have really enjoyed writing in my Fauxbonichi these last 2 months.

I hope you all had a very Creative 1st day of the year :)
I did, I have all my supplies scattered around me and on the couch to prove it, teehee.

Tracy :)

Planning Fail

Today my plan was to organize my planner for the New Year.
My honey bought me planner inserts for my Day Timer and I was so excited to get them in and start decorating.
That was until I realized that the Month is on one page.
My eyes are not as (shall we say) crisp as they use to be, and I have huge primary writing, that I like the bigger boxes to write in.
We went to Lowery's to see if they had these same inserts, but with the Month on 2 pages.
I know they used to sell them, as I had these a couple of years ago.
But the store was closed this evening and they are closed on Sunday's, so I will have to wait until Monday.

Here is my Month on 2 pages for December, just so you can see the size difference :)

So what may you ask did I do today then?
I sat on the couch and scanned Pinterest, Facebook and more or less was a sloth.
I have to tell you, sloths live a pretty good life, lol

I hope you all had a very creative day :)
The only creative thing I did today was paint my nails, teehee.

Tracy :)

Happy Mail

I received some happy mail yesterday!!!
Now I know why so many people internet shop, its so fun to get happy mail.
I ordered these at the Crop & Create event.

I am so so excited to get my planners organized and ready for the new year.
This planner (which I had last year) is going to be dedicated to my creative ideas, challenges and and deadlines :)

I won a couple of e-cards from a challenge and as a winning.
Here is one of the reasons internet shopping isn't for me.
If I don't know what I want, I don't like shopping through photos.
Plus I have to click on supply categories and then the manufacturer….if you know me I really don't care about the brands.
Then I find something that I get excited about only to see it isn't in stock.
And lastly the most important of them all…I am a touchy person.
Yes I am a hugger as well, lol.

I wanted to finally use my e-cards before year end.
But one e-card didn't work, and the other e-card I needed to ask a question about shipping.
I left an email at both stores…no reply.
So I phoned both stores, no answer.
I did finally get replies from both stores…days later.
And they were both friendly and one of them went above what I expected.
But unless I am looking for something specific, internet shopping isn't for me.

Do you on-line shop?
What are the pros and cons for you?

I hope you all had a Creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)