DIY Planner Layouts: Now with DIY Washi-Tape.

I have a few more pages of layouts.  This will bring my layouts to current and even show a blank layout for this week.

I glued in a sheet that I printed from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/ then stuck in a piece of scrap paper from a previous project.  I did some minimal decorating with a stamp and a small doodle.

I tried something completely new this week.  I painted the right side of the page with hot pink acrylic paint.  I did glue two pages together to ensure the page would be sturdy enough to handle the paint since this is a Moleskine and it doesn't always behave well. The paint worked amazingly well.  I was actually surprised.  I used a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen and it wrote just fine over the acrylic paint.  The top border is a fabric sticker, cut to size.  I did have to go over the word "August" about 5 times for it to show up well enough.  On the paint, the pens tended to bleed.  The pen that worked the best was fine point sharpies and the Sakura.

Due to my current love of all types of mint green, I wanted to just keep this week super simple.  I only used mint green-ish inks and black ink.  Specifically black Sharpie pen, Copic Multiliner in turquoise, and the Uni-ball Signo Angelic pen in green.  I also tried a different layout on this week. This is new to the planner, I haven't used this layout before and I like it a lot.

I also want to point out this washi tape....I made it!  I bought a roll of green masking tape and using a rubber stamp and Staz-On black ink pad, I created my own custom tape.  I just used the stamp all willy-nilly.  I wasn't trying to keep the pattern perfect, just pretty.  Has anyone else made their own washi-tape?  If so, I'd love to hear about what ink works the best for you.  Staz-On ink seemed to work the best out of what I had.

This is the mostly finished and undecorated layout for this week.  Again, this is a totally new layout.  The majority of the tape is some cheap stuff I found in a dollar bin at Walgreens.  It isn't paper tape it is more slick than regular washi tape. 

Since I usually only have a few layouts worked out ahead of time, one of the main things I find lacking is the ability to plan several months ahead.  I have no idea why I just don't add calendars since I am the one making this thing....but I never have.  So again, like for summer I put in a few printables from Ahh-Design for planning out the upcoming fall and winter.

Mint green!!

For the past year or so I have been in love with all things mint green/seafoam. I've wanted to paint my bathroom this color, my pedicures are often this color and I'm constantly looking for mint green clothes.  

So it is no surprise that I have a bazillion mint green pens. The lamy is filled with Diamine Soft Mint Green ink, so don't let the lime green barrel fool you. 

Interestingly, the ranges of ink color are very broad. And some range from more of an emerald to light limeish, rather than a true mint. 

My favorites are the Pilot Juice and both sharpies. After I took this picture I found about six more pens that fit this color range. Clearly, I'm mint green crazy. 

The journal is from Urban Outfitters. It is a beautiful color and a very nice, soft leather.  The paper is heavier than moleskine for sure. I haven't done a pen test, but I don't anticipate too many problems.  I know some will love the pen/pencil loop. I won't utilize it, but it does add to the aesthetics of the journal.  I picked it up in a store, but it is still available on the website.  I kind of want to buy another one because I love this one so much. 

Layouts through August!

I am nearly caught up for the year!  These layouts should take us to almost current.  Then I will just try and post one update per week.

One additional note, I had a comment that the pictures are too small.  Since I am loading these from my phone, I can't seem to adjust them, but I am easily able to use ctrl+scroll on my mouse and make these more than large enough to see more details.  If anyone else is having problems, let me know.

On to the layouts....


I love this layout, there is so much space, but I just really don't have too much going on and I lack the time to properly doodle journal my activities. 

This layout is kind of unique.  I honestly can't remember where I found it.  But it does feature one of the mint green pens I have.  I am in love with mint green right now and would use nothing but mint green if it wouldn't be so boring.  Maybe I need to do one week where everything is in mint green and the various shades of that!

This layout comes from an excel sheet I made several years ago.  I made a friend a planner for Christmas with all different weekly layouts, so I just glued this in.  The yellow and white paper I taped in came from an old Kate Spade notepad I had hanging around.

Same with this layout, a glued in sheet from that same planner.

This week just features some tape and stickers!!

Another glued in sheet from that planner.  The strip of little designs around my to-do list are tiny hippos and not really tape a tape at all. It is the Plus Deco Rush Decoration Pen from jetpens.com. Sadly, it is no longer available. 

Overall, this next week is my favorite so far! The dotted paper is a page I tore out of my smash journal.  I know a ton of people love them, but I wasn't able to make it work for me, so I have been cannibalizing pages form it here and there.  So glued the page in and used two different washi tapes down the side to fill in the gap space and I bit more tape on the top and right side, just for something different.  I used stamps for the days of the week and a sticker for the word August.  Obviously, this is per-decoration, but I wanted to show the page in the empty form.  The currently reading sticker is on a label from some Martha Stewart labels I got at Staples on clearance.

In general, I feel like I almost have more fun designing and creating the layouts than I do decorating them each week.  I have been thinking about taking a blank book and just doing a whole self-made, undated, one of kind, DIY planner for 2014.  If I do that, I might try and sell it on etsy or somewhere like that.  There is no way the money would make up for the time and supplies I put into it, but I love the idea of someone using something I have made.

It would definitely be a giant project and very eclectic, so we will see.  Maybe it wouldn't take as long as I imagine it would.  I'm also worried that by the time I am done making it I wouldn't be able to part with it!  Has anyone else hand designed and sold a completely DIY planner?

Today's Jet Pens Delivery!

Although today was a typical, awful Monday, I did have one great surprise awaiting me at the end of a long day.  My latest shipment from JetPens arrived!  I am in love with anything colored Mint Green right now, hence the three mint inks below.  It is kind of funny just how much variation there is within the ink colors, but more on that another time. 

The three mint pens together... (I do have a holder the Kuratake Refill but the current refill is firmly stuck in there.  Any tips on how to swap them out without damaging the refill or the holder is appreciated.)

Tip of Pilot Super Petit.  I think I will like these pens for journaling, mostly.

I also purchased some fabric tape that was on clearance and a glue pen.  I normally use the glue dots that come in the little plastic thing like white out tape. I am interested to see if this causes rippling on the page.  I have had trouble with liquid glue doing that in the past and then have always thrown it away.

I am excited to try the fabric tape, I plan to use it in my next set of planner pages.