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 Moveable Paper Doll

by Linda | Sep 14, 2010 | my creative journal

Babysitting my niece is always a joy and an adventure in crafting. She’s in that wonderful creative stage of seeing something and asking if we can try making it, straight away. Just like that, no thought of it being too hard or if we might not have the supplies.

Let’s just do it because it looks fun! I absolutely love the enthusiasm.

This time around we saw a segment on TV on how to make a moveable paper doll which can be very easy for kids. You’ll need some paper, a marker, some scissors, a hole puncher and those bracket thingies that I can’t seem to think of the word in English… fermacampioni in Italian.

This is the easy way to do it, without having to print anything out, but I will be coming to the template soon…

The coolest thing that I learned, is how simple it is to draw the parts of the body freehand. It’s all about proportions and in presenting to the kids, we were told to draw two eggs, then a head with neck the same size as the two eggs. Then 8 big sausages and 4 little sausages.

How funny is that? It made complete sense to my niece, so I guess sometimes you just have to put things in perspective for kids. Totally easy peasy.

I cut out all the pieces and at this point I had to help my niece out a bit for the smaller pieces. Depending on the age of your kids, you might have to help out!

Now you can see the doll coming together, even though we just had simple ovals shapes. You simply connect all the parts together by punching little holes and attaching with those bracket thingies. You don’t want to secure them too tightly though, otherwise the parts won’t move as easily.

When you put it all together, you’ve got yourself a little moveable doll. Pretty cool, huh? The bracket thingies I had on hand were really large, so you can see them sticking out all over… but it still works for positioning the doll.

I remember creating a template for dolls before, but this way is so much easier, completely freehand! [Note: I created a brand new printable doll template – check it out here]

I thought this was a really fun exercise to learn about proportions of the body and drawing the figure as well. You can use your doll as a tracing template, putting it on top of paper and creating a pose. Then just trace!

This is especially cool with kids because it’s easy for them to put the doll into different positions and trace for a variety of images to color up.

Wah-lah! Just like magic, huh? You can imagine the possibilities!  It’s like a paper version of the dummy that you usually buy in art stores for drawing.

So the process of creating the doll was pretty fun in itself, but it’s cool to play with it afterwards, too. We found that if you throw or drop the doll on the table, you’ll end up with some pretty funky positions.

Just hold it up and let it fall on the table… you never know what position you might come up with! You might have to loosen the brackets a bit if your doll doesn’t move enough.

My niece was playing and having fun for a while and she came up with some cool dance move positions. After making this little version, I realized it would be even cooler if we went bigger! You can use some cardboard and make a larger doll to play with!

I hope you enjoyed this idea – enjoy!

National Letterwriting Month in April

by Linda | Apr 1, 2010 | my creative journal

Did you know it is the month for letterwriting?! I think a heartfelt handwritten sentiment goes a long way any time of the year, but having a whole month dedicated to the art gives us pretty good motivation as well.  If you are  cardmaker like I am, it’s a good time to send them out to friends and family. RedLetterDayZine has a great post all about this April month of National Letterwriting. There are great links for more information at the end of the post as well.

I can’t believe April has already started because I feel a bit behind in my letterwriting already! I have my dip pen and wax letter sealing kit ready…but want to create some new stationery for the occasion. Watch out for some more lovely printable stationery here – I will be posting my designs! Also, stayed tuned for some hybrid cardmaking print-outs or kits, because sending a card counts as well. Let me know if you have any themes of topics in mind…until then!