Hello, friends, and welcome to Planner - Stay Focused Blog Hop!
The Waffle Flower design team is hoping today, along with some friends, to bring you a fun hop about planners! We want to share tips on using a planner to help us get things done so we can have more time for the stuff that really matters.
You should have arrived here from Candi Billman's blog. If you got lost, you can find the complete blog hop list at the beggining. Just go here.
We are featuring the brand new Planner - Stay Focused stamp set. This set? It's genius! Imagine being able to stamp and personalize you own planner, according to your needs. Right?
I use a year round pocket sized Moleskine, and although the small size is very convenient, I've found I need way more space so I can get 100% organized and remember everything I need to. So I decided to try another method: a monthly custom planner. You just need a pretty *and inexpensive* notebook with blank pages.
The best about this is that you can change the design every month: different colors, a different notebook... and also meet your needs, because a planner for a busy work month won't be the same as one for any of the Summer months, or the December one. And just imagine the fun you can have embellishing it with seasonal stamps, stickers, washi tape...
Ok, enough talking! Let me show you what I did. Here's the cover:
The design is so cool that I kept things simple and just added a cardstock strip with the stamped month. I used Calendar stamp set for this.
And this is a full look of the first pages. I decided to use two pages per day to have more space (more on this later). You can click on the pic for a closer look. This is my planner for November, so I still haven't started writing on it.
On the left, I adhered a stamped calendar to have a complete overview of the month, as well as the highlight dates/main events I know in advance. The calendar was stamped in a tag die cut from Surface - Tag Die - Starter Kit and I watercolored over it. I combined stamps from both Calendar and Planner - Stay Focused stamp sets and color coded the events: yellow for blog posts, blue for school appointments and charcoal for job meetings.
On the right you can see how I decided to organize my planner pages. I used narrow washi tape to divide the space, so everything has it's place.
I kept the same color combo that I used on the tag. Above, I stamped one of the squares from the set, and inside I stamped the day with numbers from Be My Guest stamp set. There's also space for the weather forecast. The cute weather icons are from Planner Add-on: Weather 1. Eeeek, look at that tiny termometer!
On the top of the page I also added space for deadlines, birthday reminders (cupcake from Calendar set) and important things for the day.
Below, I saved space for the day activities, calls to make and emails to send. On another area I placed the evening/night activities and I also reserved a place for the To Do list. Because, let's face it, there's always To Do stuff. I also added the check list squares because my favorite thing aboust lists is checking off stuff ;)
As I said above, I wanted to have enough space, so I decided to have 2 pages for each day. This is how the second page looks. Half of the page (on the left of the pic) is dedicated to miscelaneous notes and the other half (on the right of the pic) to blogging related stuff. I thought it would be fun to use the Tiny Word Bubble die here, layered on a strip of washi tape. I love that I'm finally putting to good use all my hoarded washi rolls!
And as a final touch, I wanted a place where I could place important things like bills, receipts, etc. I used the Surface - Tag Die - Scallop Add-on die cut from patterned paper and layered over vellum to make a pocket that I adhered on the inside of the planner back cover. The Tiny Word Bubble die makes another stellar appearance here :) As you can see, Nina didn't forget a single detail on this set, and all the bases are covered! There's a perfect stamp for each and every planning need.
Phewwww! If you made it to the end of this looooong post, thank you so much! I had a lot of fun designing my own planner, and I hope I inspired you to make the same!
Your next stop is Kristina Werner! I got hooked on cardmaking in 2009 because of her videos so it's a special thing for me to be linking to her blog today :)
And now, for the Grand Prize...
One grand prize winner will receive all 5 of the new planner sets! The winner will be drawn from comments left on all of the blogs taking part on the hop and announced on WF Blog on Friday, October 10. I am also giving away a Waffle Flower set of your choice from the comments left on my blog! Remember you can double the chances and leave a second comment if you follow me on Bloglovin ;)
Thank you so much for hopping with us!
these are awesome stamps - thanks for the chance to win
Posted by: Tanja | 10/06/2014 at 01:15 PM
Your planner is adorable! Love how you used the stamps!
Posted by: Misty | 10/06/2014 at 01:39 PM
Your planner looks so lovely!
Posted by: Lenora | 10/06/2014 at 02:07 PM
love your ideas, thanks for sharing your ideas,
thanks for the chance to win
Posted by: kirti | 10/06/2014 at 02:13 PM
Neat planner and great colors
Posted by: Shirley | 10/06/2014 at 02:34 PM
Very cool on how you created your own monthly calendars.
Posted by: Ana Balcarcel | 10/06/2014 at 02:44 PM
Great calendar. Very creative and nice colors
Posted by: Deb L | 10/06/2014 at 02:54 PM
Nice planner idea. Great release.
Posted by: Sandy Small | 10/06/2014 at 03:21 PM
i love the color of this plannr and i love that is so flat that you can put on your college folder in purse or even on the desk and not be a hindrance
Posted by: Paola Vasquez | 10/06/2014 at 03:22 PM
very sweet!
Posted by: kris | 10/06/2014 at 03:31 PM
Love the calendar stamps.
Posted by: Bev | 10/06/2014 at 03:35 PM
Really cute and can't wait to have my own planner to incorporate all the cool stuff!
Posted by: Kimberly Russell | 10/06/2014 at 04:05 PM
Following on BlogLovin'
Posted by: Kimberly Russell | 10/06/2014 at 04:06 PM
Lorena, this looks fantastic!
Posted by: Jingle | 10/06/2014 at 04:52 PM
Beautiful planner! I just love all these different ideas :)
Posted by: Helen Bisesi | 10/06/2014 at 05:00 PM
Great ideas! Thanks
Posted by: CeCe | 10/06/2014 at 05:10 PM
Thank you for the opportunity to win one of these awesome stamp sets!!!!! This release is perfect for the card makers that have paper planners!!! I was wondering when the two hobbies would collide! I have been carrying a paper planner forever and now I can spruce it up with these amazing stamps! Just perfect!
Posted by: Dani Beckman | 10/06/2014 at 05:15 PM
Thank you for all the new ideas. Now if only I could get myself organized.
Posted by: Jennifer DYkes | 10/06/2014 at 05:16 PM
your design looks professional! Great job and thank you for sharing
Posted by: Stacey | 10/06/2014 at 05:17 PM
Super cute!!!! Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: KellyC | 10/06/2014 at 05:19 PM
The notebook is great. It's so hard to keep track of what/when/why. These stamp sets really make that a lot easier. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: marylouh | 10/06/2014 at 05:32 PM
This stamp set is so cool and so versatile. I love it.
Posted by: Tammy Joyce | 10/06/2014 at 05:32 PM
Great collection of stamps to make your own planner.
Posted by: juan j martinez | 10/06/2014 at 05:36 PM
Love the washi tape and "bubbles" ideas.
Posted by: Lanie | 10/06/2014 at 05:39 PM
Oh my goodness, I LOVE your ideas! My favorite is that tiny November calendar in the front of your book with important dates color coded! Awesome!
Posted by: Audrey Tokach | 10/06/2014 at 06:08 PM