Let's talk about Planners!! - the Paperclipping Roundtable

You can listen to us here!

I thought I'd share some photos of my planner :D

It's a faux-dori, or more specifically a fab-dori (made from fabric) and I got it from Cake Paperie on etsy :D  It came with a plain elastic but I added some ribbons and a Tardis charm to make the cover a bit prettier.  There's still a bit of elastic on the back so that it's easy to open.

There are 4 elastics inside to hold my books and right now I have a take along, and 3 moleskines. The take along is for my trip to Paris in a couple of weeks, one moleskine is for planning my days and household stuff and another is for projects, blog posts, and other ideas I have for products and classes.  The last one is empty but I'd like to use it to document fun things the children say and do. I covered the moleskines with patterned papers in my favourite colours and everything I add makes me smile.

And of course, what kind of planner girl would I be if I didn't plan for the recording ;) Here are my notes.  And even though I don't usually add things to my pages, I felt I should decorate these pages :D  I save the page decorating for my Heidi Swapp memory planner.

Thanks Noell and Izzy for inviting me, I had so much fun!
Paperclipping Roundtable

27 Ways you can use one of my Take Along memory keepers

As a Scrapbook:
These little books make great mini albums.  You can document as you go and the book can act as the scrapbook.  Or it can be the holding place for your notes, photos and memorabilia until you get a chance to scrapbook it.

Use one to document:

1.  a small event.
2.  a baby's birth story.
3.  a milestone birthday.
4.  a milestone anniversary
5.  a child's milestone.
6.  any theme.
7.  cute things your children or grandchildren say.
8.  day in the life or week in the life. aliedwards.com
9.  a trip.

10. Or give one to a child to use as a scrapbook.

As a Planner:
I love to use a Take Along to plan things, one time events as well as my everyday life.  It's ever so practical :D

 Use one to plan:

11. a small event.
12. a trip.
13. a scrapbook.
14. any project.

15. Use one to try something new before committing to it in your daily planner.
16. They are perfect to keep papers and things as a holding place if your daily planner is too big to take along with you.
17. They make a pretty addition to your midori, fauxdori or traveller's notebook :D 

As a Journal:
The Take Along books are great multi-media, multi-purpose journals. Lots of room to write, but the pockets and the photo album to make it all the more rich.

Use one as:

18. your daily journal.
19. an art journal.
20. a prayer journal.
21. a pregnancy journal.

As a gift:
Do you know someone who loves to papercraft?  Or maybe someone who you think might like it?  Give them a Take Along as a little present :D

22. Give an empty one to a scrapbooker, planner girl or any paper crafter.
23. Give one to a child going on a trip or staying away from home, especially if the child will be staying away from you.
24. Give one to someone who you'd like to turn into a scrapbooker, planner girl or paper crafter.  They make a wonderful 'gateway drug'!
25. Fill one with advice for a new mother and give it to her for her baby shower.  Better yet, take a blank one to the shower with cards that fit the photo pockets (or any of the pockets) and let the other guests write their advice.
26. You could do the same thing for a bridal shower. :D
27. Send someone one as a 'happy mail.'  Write a nice letter in the journal part, add some photos and papercrafting goodies in the pockets and make someone's day when they open their mailbox!

So, what are you waiting for? ;) Make yourself a Take Along today, or grab one in my etsy shop.  If you don't have my free class, you can sign up in the little green tag right below!

How you can make your own Adventures in your Everyday Life

Get your FREE Adventure Generator at Sarashotts.com :D

The children decided to create treasure maps for each other, they went all around the house and yard sticking up clues and maps leading each other to the treasure.  They had great fun!  Join, click of the image here:

I used random.org to choose my pages and determine my adventure!

I used a tip from my friend Richelle from theredscorpio.com and used one of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine.

Here are a few of the maps and clues they made:

Here are the children enjoying their 'treasure' - Cookies in a GOLDEN tin :D

 

How Creating Everyday can Teach You Things about Yourself

I know I usually start with the handwritten bit, but this post was supposed to go up last week and the reason it didn't is actually the topic of this blog post.  

Huh?  Wait... what?
Let me back up.  

I participated in LOAD (layout a day) throughout February, it kept me busy and I tried to post last week but repeat technical hiccups and less time than usual due to LOAD won out and it didn't get posted.  I hate that I skipped a week, but if I could go back I wouldn't do it over.

That's right, I would go back and FAIL at posting my blog post again!

It made me look at why I failed and what LOAD, or more precisely why creating something everyday for a short period of time, is important.

I've done LOAD many many times and every single time I learn something new and I confirmed many other things about myself and about my style and I tell stories that I wouldn't have thought to tell otherwise.  So I guess, short story is: The result of creating something everyday is well worth the little sacrifices necessary to make the time to create everyday!

Now I've written about this before and the lessons I've learned, but I'm saying it again, because no matter what your creative outlet is, no matter what you are creating, taking a month and dedicating a bit of time to it everyday is important to your growth as a creative.

 

This month really confirmed that I ADORE working with paper! I learned this little trick from Debby Schuh:

Santa flips up and there's a pop-up camera underneath:

Fun, happy, pretty colours will always have a place on my pages, so will white and white space!

 

These are the stories I probably would have thought to tell if it ahdn't been for Lain's prompts. Thanks Lain!!

This month also reignited my love for long mixed alpha titles :D