The Planner Addict Craze – Intro and my Happy Planner

So how many of you out there are planner addicts?  You know, a planner for work, a planner for home, a planner for Bible study, a planner to keep track of memories. For as many categories as you can name in your life, it seems like there is a planner for it, or a planner hack.  I’ve tried using planners in the past, but for one reason or another, I didn’t use them as efficiently as I could have.  Well let me tell ya…there is a whole world full of people out there like me and it turns out there’s a whole community of planner addicts online that have grouped up and share ideas and supplies with each other.  What makes this planning attempt different from the others?  Teamwork, networking, sticker and freebie sharing, a plethora of Etsy shops dedicated just to planner stickers, and communities of crafters who use electronic cutting machines like the Silhouette (my personal choice -the Cameo… LOVE my Cameo!_  and the Cricut.   If you’re like me and dabble in computer graphics, you can design and make your own stickers and notes, etc.

The idea is basically to decorate your weekly spread and customize it for what works for YOU.  There are a lot of different planners out there and sticker shops online that will create and sell to your choice.  I like to make my own and have been thinking about my own shop. I’ll offer a few freebies soon and see how the interest is first, I think 🙂  I did download a number of freebies to get myself started in my Happy Planner

Yep, the planner bug bit me hard back in late November and the very next payday I bought my first Happy Planner by MAMBI (Me & My Big Ideas) from their Create 365 line (with a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby).  Here’s mine.  It came with the black cover with the gold heart in the middle and says, “My Life” on the front. Everything else is stickers.  I laminated the cover again once getting all my stickers on the front so they wouldn’t peel off (all but the cross bling):

My Happy Planner Calvary Couponers

and this is one of the first weekly spreads I created. It’s mostly BTP (before the pen). Before I wrote most of my info in the squares:

My First Happy Planner Spread Calvary Couponers

and here is my New Year’s Eve spread (before the pen):

Happy Planner intro 01 Calvary Couponers

The Happy Planner by MAMBI. Is really customizable too.  It’s bound on arc discs allowing you to take the pages out and back in very easily.  It comes with a set of discs that are smaller than the ones you see on my planner,but MAMBI offers bigger discs you can buy (as I did) and switch the rings out for larger ones to hold more pages. Here is a picture of two of my planners, the first of which you’ve seen and the second is specifically for this blog to try to keep myself organized and functioning well (it’s working great so far and I think it will grow with me as I grow the blog):

Happy Planner intro 11 Calvary Couponers

As you can see, I made my own cover for my blog planner.  I just took a piece of glitter card stock, printed out the header for my blog and a label titling it Blog Planner 2016, glued the card stock images to the glitter card stock (which does still glitter) and laminated it.  I don’t have an arc punch yet (MAMBI is coming out with one next month!) so I just punched round holes where I marked where the holes are (using the black one I bought as a guide) and then cut slits from the hole to the edge of the cover and it popped right onto to the discs. There are portable versions of the Levenger Punch you can buy. The normal sized arc punches are super pricey! (I’m looking forward to getting MAMBI’s punch when it comes out!)  I’ll post about that once it’s on the market.

Speaking of discs,  they come in a variety of colors both with their respective planner and also as separate discs you can purchase . They have a cute little heart cut out as the hole too:

Happy Planner intro 04 Calvary Couponers

As far as the inside (the guts of the planner itself), it comes with a monthly spread for each month and a weekly spread for each week.  It’s a vertical layout (similar to Erin Condren planners…same size squares actually):

Happy Planner intro 02 Calvary Couponers

Some people decorate the monthly spreads and others don’t  This one isn’t till September, so the only thing I’ve done is put a planner inspiration card between the spread pages. MAMBI carries a really cute line of these.  I recently made several of my own.  The one above has sparkly letters (super cute!)

The weekly spread is really the heart of the planner.  It’s where you’ll spend the most concentration.  This is where you will keep track of appointents, places you need to be, holidays, birthdays, and also things that you want to keep track of like how to do lists, how many glasses of water you’ve drank for the day, your weight if you are trying to drop a few pounds, reminders to drop library books off, video rentals…any number of things.  People track nearly anything with their planner. Here is the weekly spread:

Happy Planner intro 06 Calvary Couponers

It’s become a popular thing to put washi tape over the horizontal categories (morning, afternoon and evening) although the new line of Happy Planner for 2016 don’t have those anymore (yay!). But washi tape (decorative paper tape that’s adhesive) is still a huge part of decorating your planner.  Some people create their own margin strips to put on the left side. Decorative or functional. It’s really up to you.  MAMBI carries a full line of the MAMBI washi tape (you can view here) but you can get washi tape just about anywhere these days.  Lots of planner addicts shop the Targer dollar section religiously for supplies.  Stickers is a huge part of decorating your planner and you can see the MAMBI line of those here and you can find stickers everywhere.  As I said, many Etsy shops carries stickers specifically for planners and you can find freebies all over the web (check Pinterest).

There are several expansion packs to turn your planner into a Home Planner (think cleaning schedule, budget, etc.), Recipe Organizer, Fitness Planner, a Wedding Planner, and to add an extra six months to your planner.  They have a whole selection of accessories to customize and personalize your planner to make it your own. They have folder pockets,  pre-punched note and graph paper packs, dividers, pre-punched note pads (great for shopping lists) and tons of their own Create 365 line stickers.  They even have a cute carrying bag to carry your planner supplies with you to plan and decorate on the go.

The months are separated by pretty and inspiring dividers:

Happy Planner intro 03 Calvary Couponers

And there is a page before each month to jot down birthdays, important dates, goals,etc.:

Happy Planner intro 05 Calvary Couponers

You can add laminated dividers and stick some sticky notes and page flags onto it to have handy (called a dashboard):

Happy Planner intro 10 Calvary Couponers

YouTube and other sites and groups also share hacks to customize your planner further.  Here I took a plastic zipper pouch I got at Staples, punched the holes and put sticky notes and a pen in there.  (It was too tall, so I cut off the difference and sealed it shut with glittery washi tape).

Happy Planner intro 08 Calvary Couponers

This is a neat hack I did.  I laminated a blank to do list and punched the holes and keep it at the place I’m currently in. You can use a regular marker and write down your tasks.  Then when you are finished and want a fresh list, just take a dry-erase marker and draw over it and then it wipes off with a baby wipe or alcohol wipe.  Cool trick!

Happy Planner intro 07 Calvary Couponers

I guess that’s it for this post.  I’ll be posting plenty of planner posts in the future as well as some freebies I look forward to creating.  (I have some things created already, but want to have a good selection before posting them).  So I leave you with a few pictures of weekly spreads others have done who have been at this longer than I have to give you some closing inspiration.  Have a great weekend!

HP layout 01

HP layout 02 In this layout,she is keeping track of memories so she can easily scrapbook them later on. (This one is an Erin Condren brand planner):HP layout 03  HP layout 05HP layout 04

HP layout 06

I hope to post another planner post tomorrow showing you other brands and types of planners and how people use them and decorate them.  I love my Happy Planners and had to showcase what I’m familiar with in my planner into post 🙂  In the meantime, you can just google “Happy Planner” and get lots of results for layouts and products people use as well as do a search on YouTube.  There are LOTS of tutorials there demonstrating the products and hacks and tricks people use.  I could sit here watching those videos all night 🙂   Grace and peace be yours in Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Bye bye for now!

 

 

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