2010 Planner Kit: Instructions

Hi Everyone! These are the instructions for the 2010 Planner Kit.

I am going to share with your the specific steps I took to assemble my planner. Please remember, though, that these planners are meant to be customized! Feel free to take out things your wouldn't use and add ideas to make your daily life more organized! 

step one: unpack your kit and line the back of the page dividers with a contact paper or scrapbooking paper (it's much easier if you do this before you cut them out!). Next, cut our your dividers. 

note: i picked up this wood grain laminate from a local hardware store. 

Next, choose which font (typed or handwritten) you want to use for your monthly tabs, shuffle your cards however you want and add the tabs. 

Next up: adhere your monthly calendars to something sturdy (I recycled boxes from my house for this step!). Any type of chipboard or heavy card stock would work. It makes me feel *really* happy to use my stash or food packaging boxes for something like this! 

Then, just cut them out. :) 

The Next step was the most fun for me. 

Make extra pages to fit your fancies. I made a page for pencils and pens... 

the felt on this page is about 4x4 inches. You'll need about one inch for each single pen spot. I decided to make one small spot and one larger one for colored pencils (you can fit a few more in that way!). 

I also used a little bit of my scrapbook paper stash to decorate my planner. That was fun! Here are a few more inner pages...

I used a lot of the little seasonally themed stickers on the backside of the tabs. :) Also, I really like using these little kraft paper tabs like the 'To Do' one. Great for list making! 

and a made a little mini sewing kit/button collection for the back of my book! 

i also added envelopes to all my months because i thought it would be fun to cut up the monthly embroidery patterns and save them here for each and every month! :) 

here's what Janel did with one of her embroidery patterns... 

i cut 2010 from a polaroid photo for my front cover. and Janel used this sticker.... 

SO adorable!! 

add as many pages as you'd like.... it gets thick REALLY fast! 

next, you need to punch holes. I used my crop-a-dile punch, but any paper hole punch will do! I would punch one page and then use those holes as a 'guide' for the rest of the book. 

PLEASE: take your time on this step. ;) 

I used a needle to get my yarn though all of the holes on all the different pages. 

Then... also important, when you tie the yarn, make sure the book is opened at the middle, like the photo above and that you still have plenty of room to turn pages! :) 

yay! the inside of your book is complete... next step is the cover. 

the cover: 

first you'll need to choose your pattern. I loved the little tree. I did crewel style embroidery (for more info on that, see the post below!). I sort of free handed my pattern, but you could also trace it with something like a pen or paint pen to get started! 

i just did a quick stitch to mark the space off my my colorful tree design (mostly because i couldn't find a white paint pen and my fabric was super dark blue felt. 

i stitched the inner part of the tree with colorful yarn and then added a piece of felt for the trunk before i did the outline of the tree top with super heavy yarn.

Ta-DA! 

this is what my little embroidered piece ended up looking like on the cover! 

Ok.. a few more things to note: 

my cover is make of 2 pieces of felt (double layer to hide stitching and add durability!) the measurements are 8x17 inches. i also added hand cut rounded corners! 

next i stitched the embroidered piece onto the cover and added a a piece of yarn and button to fasten the book! :) 

you will also want to stitch the yarn that holds the inner pages of your book to the inside piece of felt. I recommend doing this *after* you've already stitched the two felt cover layers together (i am waiting to use a machine!). 

enjoy!!! & please post your pics in our flickr group! 

XOXO. Elsie 

ps. if you have questions, please post them in the comments here. :) 

Comments

[janel]

Oh my goodness!! I am in love with the felt cover!! I guess I know what I will be working on today :) Your planner is soooo cute. Thank you for all the inspiration.

[Elaine R]

this is making me REEEEAAAALLLLLY tempted to buy one of these.... hahaha you really do know how to sell your work! haha

love it. love it.

[little t jane]

wow!!! i love your planner!!! may i buy it? ;D thank you so much for sharing- this is an awesome tutorial & big time crafty inspiration for me. fantastic!!! cheers

[thefastener]

wow just found this via threadbanger and twitter - isnt technology fab?! Thanks for sharing, i wanna make one now - will put it on my to do list.. (to be added to my planner later!)

[Amanda H.]

This is amazing! I make planners and templates too and am completely obsessed!

Great job.

[camelcutza]

omg this is so cool!the idea is great and the result amazing!congrats!

[Marie]

elsie, what kind of glue do you use to adere the calendars to the chipboard ??

[katie]

you have completely inspired me.

[lizette espina]

you're really great. thanks for giving an idea how to make an awesome planner.

[Margie Silva]

Hi, I was wondering if this sale, I want one for 2012

[Angela Nebinger]

any chance we can get a 2012 planner kit.. a pdf of the printables :)

[manolo blahnik]

Thanks, I'm going to have nightmares tonight.