A Simple Insert or Booklet Tutorial for You

Let's make a fantastic little booklet that you can use to corral print outs, in a cute and organised way.

Have you ever printed off planner pages, or a document or even a workbook for an online class, only to have the loose pages stay in a pile on top of your desk? They eventually pile up so high, along with other printouts, that they slide off onto the floor into a massive mixed-up mess? Or maybe you hole punch them and put them into an ugly office supply store binder. A binder that you found in the back of your husband's office shelf. It has a coffee stain and the corners are ripped and curling back to show the cardboard inside. This binder not only makes your otherwise super-cute work area look nasty, but it's so bulky and takes up too much room and keeps getting in the way.

I've got a great solution for you to be able to print off those planners or workbooks and keep them neat and small. It's portable and can slip easily into your traveller's notebook.

I'm going to be using my printable Commit30 file as an example, but it works with any print out. It's no secret that I adore the versatility of the Commit30 and the fact that it comes in a printable version makes it perfect for this TN loving, lefty, planner girl.

To get your own printable Commit30 PDF so you can play along, you can head to this webpage. Jenny, from Commit30 is giving away PDFs for the Oct-Dec pages, you simply need to share it out! If you are looking for the 2017 printable planner you can find that here, it's only $5 so it's a no brainer!

This video will walk you through my process and below I've written the steps out for you:

 If you are more of a step by ste person, you can follow this simple process:

1. Once you have the file that you want to print, the only other thing you need is Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download here for free. Then, you can open your PDF there. 

2. In Acrobat Reader, select FILE and PRINT to get the following window:

3. If you are not printing the entire file then you will want to add the range of pages under 'Pages to Print' and then click on 'Booklet' under 'Page Sizing & Handling'. Please pay attention to any pages that should end up facing each other. Left side pages should be even numbered pages in your new booklet. You can double check this on the bottom right with the miniture image of your booklet.

4. Under 'Page Sizing & Handling', the default settings should show 'Booklet subset' as 'both sides', 'Binding' as 'Left' and 'Orientation' as 'Portrait'.  If not change these.

5. Also under 'Page Sizing & Handling' the 'sheet's from' blanks will tell you how many sheets of paper to add to you printer if you want to use a different (thicker) paper than the ordinary printer paper. 

6. Hit Print :D

7. Trim a piece of patterned paper to the size of your sheets and line up the pages so that the first page of your file ends up facing the inner side of your patterned paper.

8. Fold the centre page in half, this will automatically give you the centre of the page so you won't have to measure. It will also give you a stitching guide that you can follow with your sewing machine needle, as long as the light on your machine is bright enough to see it. If not, trace it lightly with a pencil.

9. Stitch the pages together and trim threads. An all purpose or 'jean' machine needle work best when you are sewing through a big stack of thicker paper. You can also sign up for my free class here, if you haven't already, to learn different binding options, if you don't sew or don't have a sewing machine. 

10. Fold all the pages towards the centre, one or two at a time, alternating from the front to the back to get a nice evenly folded booklet.

11. Using a paper trimmer (or scissors) trim off any page edges that are sticking out. 

12. Round your corners if you that's your thing

And that's it!!

Enjoy your book and HAPPY PLANNING!