Planners can be fun!

 

 

 

I was introduced to the idea of combining my planner and art journaling into one location by Suzi Blu.  I have always been extremely unorganized and the thought of making my planner fun never entered my mind!  So, after reading Suzi's posts about making a planner, I decided to give it a whirl.  I chose the Kikki K planner after doing quite a bit of research on Filofax and other planners.  It had similar features of the Filofax, but was not as costly.  Plus, they had really good reviews.  When it came in I was soooooo excited, like I was eight years old again and it was Christmas morning! It came wrapped in the cutest white tissue paper that had images of envelopes all over it.  I saved that for my art journals. One of the easiest ways to take your boring calendar pages and make them exciting is with stickers. I had forgotten how much I love stickers. And you can find some super cute ones in the clearance section of craft stores.  Stickers are NOT just for kids, by the way.  The dividers that came with the planner were plain navy blue, so those had to be changed.  I used them as a template and made my own dividers out of cardstock from Hobby Lobby.  I also used washi tape that I got from Office Depot to reinforce the edges.  I didn't buy a fancy six hole punch.  I just used my plain Jane single hole punch.  It took longer, but it wasn't a big deal.

 

Here's a picture of the first thing you see when you open my planner.  I wanted it to be fun and pretty! 

 

 

It makes me smile every time I open it up!

 

 

I found these cute little envelopes and stickers in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby.  I just love them!

 

 

 

Here is a picture of my typical week.  I love the two page week layout.  Everything is color coded to make it easier.  My work stuff is green, yellow is my personal stuff, pink is for my oldest daughter, blue is for my youngest, and orange is for my husband.  It has really worked out well.  I have become so organized that I don't even recognize myself!

 

 

 

 

Lastly, here is a picture of my dividers.  Before I made them I sat down and made a list of what types of things I wanted to keep track of in my planner.  I settled on 5 sections.  My calendar and weekly pages, my notes, birthdays, prayers, and passwords.  Then I added an envelope in the back to hold more stickers.  The prayer section has worked out awesome.  When I'm out and about and someone asks for prayer, I can just put that prayer down so that I don't forget to lift it up to God later.  I also enjoy highlighting the prayers that God answers.  It is really eye opening to see just how much God listens and responds to our pleas. 

I hope this helps to inspire you to get creative with the everyday "have to's" of life.  It has really made a difference for me in how I look at planning my life.  It is definitely much more fun!!!