My New Bullet Journal

Yes, I joined the fad. 

After seeing post after post on Pinterest of beautifully crafted bullet journal layouts, I was finally seduced. If you don't know what a bullet journal is, then just type the term into Google and within seconds you will see thousands of meticulously arranged Instagram shots of perfectly organized notebooks. At its most basic, a bullet journal is simply a contain-everything notebook where you draw out your own agenda pages and scribble down notes. However, the DIY community has turned it into a fancy work of art. I'm not convinced that I will be all that more productive with this system. Sketching out layouts is time-consuming. I know that I could just ignore making it look pretty but considering that is the main reason why I wanted to start one...I can't really do that, can I? We shall see how long this lasts. 😉

I chose to use a Blueline NotePro A44C.81 notebook because it has a hard black cover, lies flat, has both grid and regular lines, nifty plastic pockets and colourful indexing stickers. 

I started with basic pencil sketches which I inked in.

I decided to colour with coloured pencils for now. This is just the initial colour blocking. Maybe I'll experiment with markers later on. 

The finished October month-at-a-glance page! 

I made a few other pages too including a year-long overview and a week-at-glance page.

There are so many doodling and lettering possibilities on Pinterest. Over the next few months, I'll be trying some of them out and sharing with you my progress. Until next time! 

Onward to a More Organized 2017!

Happy New Year!

I love starting a new planner - I get to indulge in these lovely delusions that somehow, I will be more organized and productive from here on out. This year I'm using a Brownline Daily planner since, sadly, I don't have the time any more to design, print and assemble my own from scratch. However, you can see that I'm trying to make up for the lack in brightly coloured tabs, stickies and pens. I also splurged on Black Friday and bought myself a pack of craft tape and have been extensively decorating my monthly spreads.

I finally understand why crafters like this stuff so much!

Will this result in a more productive year? I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

A New Year, A New Planner

Happy 2015! *Throws glitter and confetti into the air*

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with friends and family. Now that the Christmas decorations have been packed away, the turkey leftovers have been polished off and the guests have been waved home, it's time to get back to the daily grind. 

Do you remember the planner I made back in July? If you don't, that's it on the left in the picture above. Sadly, it wasn't quite up to the rigors of resident life and you will notice that the edges and corners look a little worse for wear. That's why, I really couldn't pass up the chance to make a new one for New Year.  

I decided I needed a better core for this one. Since my bookbinding skills weren't passing muster, I thought to start with a book and build from there. 

Conference swag is awesome for crafting because it is usually quality stuff that I don't mind altering and best of all, it's free.

I really like the clear plastic covers for the front and back - they will protect my designs nicely.

Even though the covers were laminated, I decided to reinforce them anyway to make sure that this one lasts the whole year. 

I designed the calendars again on Microsoft Word, keeping things simple. This time, I cut out each of the calendars and glued them to the pages of my notebook.

During one of Michael's open paperstock sales, I picked up some lovely floral patterns. I decided to do the same thing as my previous planner and picked two different patterns for the front and back covers.

The key to any professional-looking paper wrapping is in the corners.

So what earth-shattering organizational system am I using now? Well, I have developed a love of sticky notes and a realization that I do not need to keep a record of every minute thing in my day. My to-do lists are going to be written on stickies which are stuck to the first page of my agenda. As things are accomplished, I will have the satisfaction of ripping up said stickies. 

Major events will be laid out on my month-at-a-glance calendars. All the rest of the pages in the notebook will be for other lists, notes or even some impromptu journaling.

I have collected so many stickers over the years and never seem to know what to do with them. Time to add a little colour and fun to my agenda!

And that's it! Of course, an organizational system is only as good as the person who is using it and I am hit-or-miss at best. We shall see how this year goes. 

Allison and I want to wish everyone who has been following our blog a very happy new year. It's been a lot of fun sharing our hobbies with all of you - 2014 was an awesome year for crafting. As I glance back at my first post of last year, I am happy to note that during this last year I posted 'work in progress' shots, created a tutorial, and got Allison to post some of her creations - all things that I said I would do. I fell short of my goal of having a post up per week but I posted twice as much as I did in 2013 - progress!

So what are my crafting goals for 2015? I'm aiming for a total of 52 posts this year and a lot more crafting afternoons with friends. So get your scissors and glue ready - it's going to be another amazing year!

Happy New Year!

DIY Planners

I love planners.

Ever since I got my first planner in grade 3, I have used one every year. Now that I am out in the workforce though, planners are no longer provided. Sadly, the fancy ones that I am most attracted to are all so pricey (Yep, day-timer and Franklin planners, I'm looking at you).  For the past 6 years, I have been making my own and have been experimenting with many different layouts. As my life changes, so do my planning needs. I tried using just my ipad for keeping track of my schedule for about a year but something always felt a little off. I guess I really am a paper-person.

For this coming year (my work term extends from July of one year to June of the next), I decided to go back to making my own agenda. I focused a lot on the planner layout in previous years (to do lists vs. schedule, one day per page vs. two days vs. one week) but this year, I decided to keep things simple.

The basic skeleton of my planner on my work table.

I printed out full page calendars on ordinary printer paper and then I glued the pages back to back. Making a paper planner, was an impulse I got on call one night so obviously, things had to be basic. I did everything in Microsoft Word.

I carried around the stack of glued paper for about a week while trying to decide how I wanted to design the rest of it. Should I make a fancy folio with pockets and slots? Should I try to make it refillable? In the end, I decided that I should stick to my original plan of keeping things simple and so I glued two pieces of cardboard to the front and back and gave my stack a cover.

It took two weeks to overcome my innate laziness and finally make the whole thing pretty. As I have mentioned several times before, I have amassed a very healthy collection of scrapbooking paper. My problem is, I always feel like saving my favorite craft supplies for some mythical penultimate project which never actually materializes. It took some self-debating but I finally convinced my inner hoarder that beautiful things are useless unless they are used and so I picked some really fun designs.

I struggled, at first, with the sizing of my covers because I did not have any sheets large enough to wrap around both the front and the back. My sister then suggested that I just use two different designs for the front and back and then cover the spine with patterned craft tape. Spicing things up with a little variety! :)

While rummaging through my scrapbooking kits, I came across this "Inspire Me" chipboard and because it was so uplifting, I made sure that one of the papers I chose would work with it.

I made my corners as neat as I could.

Some were a bit more successful than others :P

My inspirational front cover...

...and charming back cover!

Holding the finished project in my hand is so satisfying. I just might go back to making this a yearly thing.