Let’s Make A Weekly Planner

by Linda | Dec 27, 2010 | my creative journal

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend! Although perhaps many of you are traveling or still on vacation – lucky! The holidays are falling on weekends this year, sort of reducing the amount of vacation time my husband gets…so it’s pretty much a normal week in our household. I suppose it’s a good thing, as I need the time to catch up on many projects. Nevertheless, every December I make myself a weekly planner for the new year. I always make my own planners, sort of like a date book that just keeps me aware of deadlines and events as well as my list of tasks per week. It’s really a simple process to create your own planner and the best part is customizing it to your particular needs. I never like to buy them because the calendar layout will not suit me or the lines are too close together for my giant handwriting…little things here and there. In terms of planner pages, there are so many variations possible – that’s why making your own tailored to your needs really helps to maximize usefulness.

I like to have a weekly view for my planner pages, just so I can see any major events and deadlines at a glance. Then I like to have a task list, so actionable items can be written down in small bits making it easier for me to accomplish and cross out with full satisfaction! When it comes to project notes or art sketches, I have journals and sketchbooks for those purposes because it’s something I will keep in the long term. My planner gets recycled at the end of the year as I use them for date keeping only. Although there are lovely digital calendars on our computers…I still like the old fashion pen and paper. It just works a whole lot better for me. Maybe I’m an old-fashioned gal, but everyone needs their old school date book, right? I created a custom page for my planner using my diary project graphic submission for the task list and boxes for the week at a glance.

It’s a simple grid and you can readily create your own grid by hand and just photocopy or create it in a graphic program to print out. There’s also many freebies out there like Amanda Hawkins’ DIY planner templates – many are free. Using a regular sheet of paper, I’ve just printed my planner page on both sides of 27 sheets of paper,  giving myself enough space for 2011 and beyond. If you create a whole stack printed front and back, you’ll notice that the left half will match up with the right half of the page when folded. So no special order or binding method is required, just stack ’em up, fold in half and attach somehow. You can see that I’ve used regular copy paper which is a bit see-thru being printed on both sides. If that is something annoying for you personally, think of using a heavier weight paper.

The binding I chose is a simple longstitch, nothing fancy. Since all the papers are stacked and folded in half, you could also just staple the center fold or punch a few holes and tie tightly with string. The important thing is to bind in a tight fashion as your planner will be used every day. If the middle binding that cuts through your planner page bothers you, just make sure your design is on the left side and right side with ample margins. In my case, I’ve purposed arranged my boxes so the center is the line between the date boxes…so it blends in nicely. If you choose to bind in a different way, just make sure your pages and ordering will turn out right in the end.

For my cover I used a thicker cardstock paper, but when you fold so many sheets of paper together, you’ll notice the inner sheets sort of sticking out over the edge of the cover page. To expand your cover paper, I usually just add another tab of paper around the edges. This makes your cover slightly larger and reinforces the paper edge as well, protecting the planner for everyday use.

I also decided to print out a little manifesto type of write-up for the opening page of my planner. I like to have a little statement or word at the beginning of planners, so everytime I open it I’m reminded of that thought. If you like mine, feel free to download as a freebie printable JPG below. I chose the Pantone color of the year, honeysuckle as well. I think it’s a very sweet color 🙂

Download 2011 manifesto ZIP file of JPG image

Finally, I decorated the cover of my planner with decorative paper, a tag and my own Home on the Head Rose artwork…as you saw in the first photo. Wah-lah! A simple DIY planner that is totally tailored to my specific needs. I hope you’ll try it out and make yourself an old fashioned datebook or calendar item. It’s easy to use the same idea and make a hanging wall version or desktop version calendar as well. A fun and easy project that will be very useful for your date keeping, I’m sure. Have fun!

Let’s Make A Nutella Tree

by Linda | Dec 21, 2010 | my creative journal

The other week I was at the grocery store, a big chain called Coop here in Italy and they were selling these tiny bottles of Nutella, ornament-sized so you could decorate your Christmas tree. My mother-in-law thought it would be cute to make a Nutella Tree since my husband is addicted to the stuff! Of course, I wasn’t willing to pay 2 euros an ornament, especially if you aren’t going to eat it afterwards…yeah, I’m frugal like that. So an idea was sparked, to use one of the big jars of Nutella – we go through many of them in a year and I use them as pencil holders – to make a Christmas-ish tree. It definitely has a holiday look to it, but also something I can just leave on the shelf all year round.

Enter my Nutella tree! Sort of Charlie Brown Christmas tree-ish, no? I basically stuffed the empty nutella jar with brown fabric to imitate the color. Then I sealed it up and covered the rim with some festive ribbon. For the top, I cut a hole and stuck in some branches I found outside to form the tree. All the leaves are just freehand cut felt pieces, with a sewn line through the middle. I realize now they are a bit limpy, so perhaps adding a wire center or stuffing them might create a perkier version. The ornaments are actually just buttons glued on top of each other.

It turned out really cute in the end, even if it’s all a bit limpy. I added some Kinder chocolate bars to the bottom of the tree for more decoration and love how all the colors just match up. Maybe you can make your own Nutella tree…or peanut tree? Whatever kind of cut jar you have around! Ciao ciao!

Pensieri Issue 3 Reflections…

by Linda | Dec 15, 2010 | my creative journal

My creative time has definitely been filled these past works. From doing my paid project work to subsidiary design projects and commitments, the third issue of Pensieri really started to weigh down on my  back. After finishing I’ve come to realize more important points about self-publishing and just physically getting a zine together. I might have realized this before as well, but maybe I didn’t take myself seriously enough…

TIMELINE
I totally understand why magazines have such future deadlines for submissions. I suppose the bigger the organization and the more people involved, the more time it will take. But even working alone, there is time needed for proofing, printing and construction. There are certain things that can never be an all-nighter kind of situation and I’m way past the age of all-nighters. Just can’t do ’em anymore. Also, if something personal were to come up, working ahead of time gives you the cushion for unforeseen events. I was actually sidetracked for a while in the printing of Pensieri because of our new puppy, not to mention it’s the holiday season. Eeek, there’s never enough time! So I should be already working on issue 6 of Pensieri already now…

PRINTING AND CONSTRUCTION
I’m still not totally satisfied with the printing quality of the zine and dealing with printers out there, suddenly the paper is too thin, then too thick… then you have to change to this other paper for another printer….ugh! I haven’t found the right combination yet, but I have to say this something that I totally did not consider beforehand. I mean, it seemed so simple – just get it printed at a shop, what’s the big deal? Unfortunately, lots of details start to pop up and you have to get the right combination for your needs. Balancing, cost, paper, printing sources and construction methods as well as considering the timeline from the point above – even to packing envelopes! I think it’s one of those things that looks simple and fine from afar, but when you are actually doing it, you realize it’s a lot of work.

POSTAGE
One of the aspects I’ve really struggled with living here in Italy, is the cost of postage to the rest of the world. It’s not too bad within certain weight ranges, but if you go 1 gram above to the next level, suddenly it’s double the cost. No such thing as a flat rate envelope or such like in the USA. I want to keep the price of the zine into the postage, because then it’s all up front. But at the same time, those farther should have to pay more… but… I dunno. I find it sad when I want to purchase something from far away but the shipping just costs soooo much. I suppose this is why real magazines have supplies and get it all over the world so folks can buy locally. It’s something I think about a lot, but don’t really know how to deal with. Besides working to keep things under certain weight limits and trying to account for the pricing…I don’t know what else to do. Someone should invent a teleporting machine already.

Finally, the big time suck in issue three was actually illustrating the knot patterns. I didn’t realize it would take so long, but it got confusing. In the end it might have been easier to just draw it by hand, but I had already gotten too far digitally. I suppose this goes back to the original point about working really ahead of schedule, because that makes everything more tolerable.

All in all, I am super happy with the latest issue of Pensieri and have knot projects left and right all over my desk as well. It’s super fun and I’m glad to be able to share it with others.

Thank you again for everyones’ support 🙂

Pensieri Issue 3 – Decorative Knots

by Linda | Dec 13, 2010 | my creative journal

Hi folks! Even though there were some production issues regarding my zine, but finally it’s out and ready to ship! Pensieri issue three is all about decorative knots, specifically with a Chinese knotting emphasis since that is what I learned myself.

This issue is packed full with a bit of story regarding how I started with decorative knotting, some general history and facts as well as going through some of the basic and cool-looking decorative knots out there. I then go through a huge section of project ideas to provide you with inspiration and a big list of resources to turn to.

As with many crafty techniques, it can look complicated from afar, but when broken down seems very approachable. I hope I can share with you my crafty journey in the artform of decorative knotting. One of my favorite knots is the monkeyfirst knot shown below… so cool especially with a larger rope type.

And of course with every issue of Pensieri you get a back pocket full of goodies to craft along. See the various cord types you receive to knot along with the zine…

You’ll find issues of Pensieri available in my Etsy shop – so check ’em out and enjoy! Thank you for all those who pre-ordered! As with every issue, there have been so many learnings in self-publishing and creating a handmade zine. I will be blogging about my experience and offering up a poll as well…to help me make it better each and every time 🙂 ciao ciao!