Whirlwind Weekend!!!

Whew -that was a crazy busy weekend! Hope this finds you having had a restful and blessed weekend...and a Happy Easter, if you celebrate it. We had a wonderful time away and enjoyed seeing family and friends, but I am ready for things to calm back down again this week so that I can get back to my stamping desk, lol! Until I can get down there, I wanted to share with you the April Planner spreads I have been working on for the last week and finally finished up just this morning...Happy Spring!

For my dashboard, I used a pocket page from Simple Stories, patterned paper from Basic Gray, the Die of the Month set for March from Spellbinder's, vellum, sequins, glitter glue, rhinestones in several colors, clear Wink of Stella pen, white and clear glimmer gel pens, and a word die-cut set from Peachy Cheap.

Back of the Dashboard...

For the front of my monthly divider page, I colored it using alcohol based markers from Sharpie, Bic and Spectrum Noir and accented it with white gel pen. 

For the back of the divider and the "remember" page I colored using Prismacolor pencils. I accented with washi tape & a Happy Planner "grateful heart" sticker... 

...at the last minute I added one last butterfly die-cut from black glittery cardstock. 

March: Everyday Life Planning

I am finally on the ball with getting my planner up to speed at the beginning of the new month, instead of the middle of the month! I am working in my Close To My Heart Everyday Life Planner and used retired CTMH papers and photopolymer stamps, along with a pocket page from Simple Stories. I will warn you now -this post is rather picture heavy, lol...but I am really pleased with the results-Enjoy!


Front of  Dashboard:

Back of Dashboard & Monthly Divider Page (colored with Spectrum Noir Marker Pens)

Monthly Notes done using washi tape and Prismacolor pencils.

March Calendar Spread: Made using a Creative Memories Hexagon Punch and stamped shamrock stickers

First March Weekly Plan Spread (done with MAMBI Happy Planner Stickers)

And now for some closer shots of the stamped and embossed details...the creamy water colored background was done with Distress Ink and the flower was embossed in white.

This flower was embossed in black on vellum and fussy cut out. Both vellum and the patterned paper were embossed with a blooming vine embossing folder for the background.

White paper flower custom colored with Spectrum Noir pens and hot glued onto a paperclip

Bow diecut  from ribbon using a "Your Next Stamp" thin metal die set and hot glued to a paperclip.

The shamrock's were stamped on sticker label paper with a retired TAC stamp in Antique Linen distress ink and colored with Spectrum Noir pens...fussy cut out and adhered to the layout.

February Planning

How did it get to be the last day of February already?!? I realized just this morning that I don't believe I showed you any of my February planner stuff here on my blog yet...boy, I am slacking! So, to make up for that, here is a bit of how I planned this month:

First I'll share with you the front and the back of the pocket page Dashboard I created using a Simple Stories SNAP page protector and a few cardstock stickers, retired printed papers from Basic Grey and retired stamps from The Angel Company. I added some glimmer by embossing many of my stamped images with gold embossing powder and made some heart diecuts with my monthly Spellbinder's die club kit. Getting the papers trimmed to just the right size for each pocket was super easy by using the Pocket Cuts die set from Fun Stamper's Journey...it even includes the smaller postage edge squares that I used for the layers you see on both sides. Some of the decorative clips were made with stamped images and then felt backed, and some are several different types of ribbon and/or yarn...super cute!

For my monthly spread, I again used stickers from Simple Stories -this time from the Love and Adore sticker pack.

Too many times this month I'd start writing on my pages before taking the pictures, so I don't have them all to share -but here are 3 out of the 4, lol. These were made using some basic stamping in black archival ink, washi tape from ACMoore, more Love and Adore/Simple Stories stickers and Happy Planner stickers from the large sticker value packs that I bought at Michael's and Hobby Lobby.

I will try to do a better job of remembering to take pics before the actual pen goes to the page for the month of March! I usually remember to post them on Instagram first -so if you'd like to stay up to date on my planning, just follow me @create.365 over on IG! (follow the link at the top right of my blog to get there quick and easy)

A Planner's Gotta Plan!

Well, it's been years since I've used any kind of a planner, but it feels good to get back to being organized and having the opportunity to combine it with papercraft arts -what could be better?!? Who knew there is a whole world of creativity out there within the Planner Community!

I am starting out with the basic black and white Everyday Life™ Stripes Album & Planner Pages Bundle from Close To My heart...They had a Boxing Day sale that I just couldn't resist and I was sold once I realized it came with monthly coloring-page dividers, lol. Of course, I had to take it one step further and bling out the cover to personalize it with die-cut gold glitter paper words. I also wanted to do a pocket page dashboard with a new theme each month.

My package finally arrived on Wednesday, 10 days after it was first shipped from Utah -after getting placed on the wrong truck and sent to all the way to West Virginia by Fed-Ex last Friday when it was docked only a half hour from my home in south central PA and supposed to be delivered the very next day...needless to say, I was very excited to get started! The first thing I did was make a clear acetate sheet for the front and back of the album to keep everything protected and in it's place. After that, I set out to make a removable "Today" page marker using the same acetate, some gold scrapbooking stickers and glittery washi tape.

For the opening dashboard, I used a pocket page by Simple Stories from FSJ that I added some additional hole punches to (so that it would fit in my planner's 3 ring binder). I used long retired coordinated papers from CTMH, stamps and ink from TAC, glitter and diecuts from both SU and FSJ, and liquid glass glaze from CTMH. The paper clips are backed with felt and attached with hot glue. I took lots of pictures of the progress as I went...so here ya go: