August Planner Pages and a Wonderful Pen Find!!!

 Well, I know it's September, and I know I'm late, but here they are, my August pages.  I just wanted to share with you how I am altering my Create 365 Happy Planner and using it to suit my needs.  Above is the monthly planner, filled out.  I am trying to be better about writing down my work hours, so this seems to be a good spot for that.

 On the back of the calendar are the start of the planner's vertical planner pages.  I don't like that format.  It just doesn't work for me.  So, I used a little washi tape and covered the headings, I also used a bit of graph paper to cover the day headings.  I was thinking I would use this for some sort of something.  However, I didn't.  I haven't figured out what to use it for yet.

 The dashboard is cool, a look ahead to see what you need to get done to prepare for the next month as well.

 Again, I covered the weekly page with graph paper and washi.  Maybe I'll figure out what to do with it.

 My pages.  I did write a post and include a link for one of my wonderful readers to print out this format for your own use.  (Yes, I did figure out how to do it!!)  I used my usual stash of stickers to decorate the pages, along with MAMBI's number stickers that come with the expansion pack.

 Another week...

 And another...

 And another...

I really like my own format…so I just print it in the size that fits this planner format.  I do love the bigger pages…more room to write and decorate.

I did have some problems with the stickers that MAMBI sells.  I could NOT find a permanent marker that would not smudge on them.  I tried several kinds, and had given up that I could use these stickers in my planner without using scissors to them, but I tried yet another permanent marker and it WORKED!

I found these in the craft section at my local Fred Meyer.  I have no idea who else sells them, but they write on the MAMBI stickers beautifully and do not smudge at all!!  YAY!!  Yes, sometimes it is the little things…pens that write well and work like they are supposed to make me happy.

That's all for today…Stay organized, my friends!

My Happy Planner and How I'm Using It

 I decided on a plain cover for my planner, and I decided that the pink disks that came with it weren't going to be big enough, so I changed them for the bigger gold ones.

 I needed a day page turner bookmark, so I used one that was meant for Project Life, cut it down and punched it.  It works great.

 I bought both of the sticky note pages, and put one in the book.

 I added my own sticky notes on the back of this for more options.

I used the stickers that came with the system to label my tabs.  I also covered them with a little laminate paper to toughen them up.

 I had these cute sketch papers and punched a few to put in my book for added note pages.

 This system does not come with contact pages, so I made them.  I love having an address book, and I think it's necessary.  What happens if you lose your phone???  I used the graph paper that comes with the system, put washi tape down the middle to make columns, and added letters to the pages.  Taa Daa!

I made a dashboard for my planner that I saw here, on Life In Print.  I thought it was a great idea, so I did it.  I made a mock up with a file folder, cutting it 9 1/2" tall,  one side 7 1/2" and the other 7".

 I used a hanging file folder that I had because I loved the color...

 Cut it...

And covered the inside with these papers by American Crafts.

 I laminated the whole thing, then punched the sides with my Arc punch.

 I put it behind the current month's weekly pages, and will fold it inside the pages.  You could place it anywhere you want!  The lamination makes a great spot for sticky notes too!

I trimmed one of the shopping lists from the MAMBI system, and clipped it into the dashboard.  Now I have a great spot to keep a list so that I can fill it out and remove it easily when I get to the store!  Sweet!

Stay tuned, there will be more to come.

Stay organized, my friends!

A New Planner

So I have been using the ARC Planner system for a while now, and I still LOVE LOVE LOVE the disk bound system.  All of my notebooks are now mostly bound with disks.  MAMBI has come out with their version of a planner, the Create 365 Happy Planner.  Their web site is here.  I decided that I wanted to try it out, and I bought one.  I thought I would do a post about it, and what I like about it.

If you are interested you can go to the site and see the pages for yourselves, if you haven't already seen this planner system.  It is similar to the Erin Condren and other vertical planning systems.  I have wanted to check them out, thinking that they would be cool.  The days are divided up into three sections, Morning, Afternoon and Evening.  For someone who is super busy and has a lot of job deadlines and kids going to and fro, it would be awesome to plan out an entire day. For me, not so much.  I don't have a lot of variation in my routine.  I have the same days off.  I don't have meeting but once a week, at the same time.  I am empty nesting, so I don't have kids at home to shuffle around.  So this doesn't really work for me.

I decided to create strips of stickers on my Silhouette to cover up the headings of the boxes, and make my own boxes.  The top was for appointments.  You can see it's pretty bare.  The middle I made my specific things to do on that particular day.  The bottom I left open for anything else extra.  I used stickers from MAMBI to decorate it.  The "to do" stickers for checking off tasks I made on my Silhouette.  I've seen a lot of these online for free, to print and use for personal use.  I have them pinned on my Pinterest board "I'm a Planner Geek", if you want to check it out.

I don't know if I am just used to my old planner pages or what, but I don't really think the vertical planner style is for me.  I decided to try a different style for this month (July) and give it a go.  I designed my own pages for the Happy Planner, using the top two boxes as I did above, but also having a huge note section on each of the pages to do with as I please.  I added my daily checkbox for my exercise, meds, etc.  I also added a Menu Idea spot to jot those ideas down.  I usually buy stuff for the week, then pick and choose as the mood suits me, so meals aren't always assigned to a specific date.  I used planner sticker printables I found on the web,  and you can find the links in my Pinterest board.

So far, if I am going to use a vertical planner style, I would do this one.  Also, I do not like that the planner pages that come with the Happy planner start with Monday.  I am used to, and want, my planner weeks to start with Sunday, just like the monthly calendar does.  (I LOVE MAMBI's  MONTHLY CALENDARS!!!)  Also, since I designed the pages, I can customize them however I want to.  Nice.

 I am so picky about my planners.  Aren't we all?  I don't like that the weekly spread starts on the back of the monthly planner, so I just covered it up with a piece of notebook paper and used washi tape to decorate it.  Now I have extra not pages for the month if I need them.  I could do a gratitude journal for the month here, for example, or keep track of coupon savings, whatever I want.  I did the same with the back of the page that has the next months summary.

 For August, I am going to use my old system that I resized for the new planner.  The pages are 9 1/4" high by 6 7/8" wide.  And, by the way, the ARC punch works great with this planner…you just have to trim added pages by 1/8" on the width because the punches on the purchased pages have longer "tails" that fit on the disks than the ARC punch does.

For the Month of August I decided to just cover up the headings of the boxes with decorative tape, and I added strips of graph paper above them to cover up the dates.

Have you looked at this planner?  What do you think?

Stay crafty, my friends!

April Arc Planner Pages

 OK, y'all, here they are, and they aren't too late this time either!!  My Arc planner is still doing a great job for me, and I am loving the decoration of it.  I am using up a lot of my stash, as well as getting some awesome new stickers that I may not normally use.  It is so much fun.  I loved the yarn stickers.  These made for a colorful week. 

These stickers are newer, by Heidi Swap for her new planner line.  

 This week I was celebrating my hubby's birthday, so I got out the old birthday stickers.

 For this week I didn't know what to do, and so I just used these stickers.  I was string to get myself in the mood for gardening.  (That is not my favorite thing to do.)

That's it for this month.  Thanks for looking.

Stay crafty and organized, my friends!

February and March Pages

If you all aren't tired of these, here are my February and March planner pages for your viewing pleasure.

I still love my Arc planner, and use it every day.

 This wasn't a very good page, but that's what happens when you are in the hospital.  :(

 This page is better…I liked it a lot.

 My dachshund, Ace, wanted to help...

 Here he is, ready for his close up.

I loved this page, I loved the October Afternoon line of 9 to 5!  It worked very well for my planner!

I have been doing a lot of sorting of things, and ran across these that I had in my stash, so used them.  It just felt right.

 This page was a hodgepodge of weirdness.  I put the Llama sticky note on it, and added the "I'm a Llama not a Narwahl" because of that commercial.  I can't get that song out of my head.  I guess I was trying to do that.

 Decorated for St. Paddy's day.  I had to do it.  I had a checklist on the right page for turning my brisket, that I was corning myself.  The unfortunate part is I totally spaced out and didn't buy it in time, so we ate it on Saturday after St. Patrick's day.  It was DELICIOUS!

These old Mrs. Grossman's stickers were in my stash, and I felt like using them.  I made the Treble Clef sticker on my computer, imported it into my Silhouette, and made the stickers with my sticker paper.  I also made the gnomes.  Can you see them?

Stay organized, my friends!

A fun find for my ARC planner!

 I was at my local scrapbooking store and found these awesome little calendar cards for 2015.  My brain got all excited and I got an idea…

I punched the edges with my envelope punch board to creat a file tab top.

 Then I punched the sides with my ARC punch and created a tab for my weekly pages.  I have wanted a mini calendar to put in my weekly pages so I can see the month dates easier.  This works perfectly.  The back is blank, I could write birthdays on the back to help remind me when they are coming.

This is what it looks like from the tip, with all of my tabs sticking out.

Thanks for coming by!

Stay organized, my friends!

December ARC Planner Pages

Happy New Year!  

I hope everyone had a wonderful December full of love and fun!  We sure did.  We had so much fun this December visiting with our family.  It was so nice to have all of our children and our 4 grandchildren in the same house at the same time!  I'm so glad we moved so we had room to accommodate that!!

I have been behind on any sort of crafting/blogging/tutorial-ing!!!  I am going to try to get caught up now.  Today we are going to see my December pages.  I am going to finish the book making tutorial this month.  Then, when I get the December Daily done, I will show you that.  Bear with me.  I am trying to get everything done.  It seems that time is flying away from me a lot faster these days.

This is the start of December.  After I decorated it, I realized I should have done a Christmas theme.  Oops.

 Getting ready for the kids and grandkids to show up.  We had no vacation time this year during December, so it was hard.  That's why things are so blank in my planner.  I worked too much.

 I am playing with different configurations on my notes page.  I am thinking about changing it up, but I haven't come up with a definite plan yet.

All of the stickers came from my stash.  It is a mix-match of a bunch of different things.  I, of course, just last night found some awesome Santa stickers that were hidden.  I was bummed, but I guess there is always next year.

Stay crafty, and organized, my friends!!