When I was doing research on some planner stuff I came across ahhh-design.com. 

The most inspiring thing about this site is that all of the planner pages are made with hand drawn images. Most of the planner printables I've come across are created with perfect digital lines and graphics. 

But the printables on ahhh-design are so fresh and different--they look like they just came from the artist's desk. Seeing this gave me the confidence to try creating printables using my own hand drawn doodles.

So I took on making some tab separators for my planner, and I love how they came out. I'm sharing this in-case anyone else wants to give creating hand drawn style pages for their planner a try.

Materials needed:

An old tabbed planner page

Card-stock Printer Paper

Permanent Marker

Scanner

Scissors

Hole punch (one that works with your planner)

Step One:

Trace around the old tabbed planner page onto a blank sheet of card-stock with a marker or a pen with a bold line. One note: The tabs don't always have to be square. Check out these adorable tabbed pages from lucy-wonderland.com.

Step Two:

Doodle whatever you want on the card-stock that the planner page was traced on to. Literally--draw whatever. I went ahead with random mushrooms, hearts, and other things.

Step Three:

Scan the page to your computer for editing. This step is only necessary if you're planning on editing and adding color digitally. Coloring in the art traditionally and the making copies of it can also work. 

Step Four:

Add color and edit lines in a photo editing program, if you wish. For an extra touch, I labeled the tabs using a font I made from my own handwriting.

Step Five:

Print it out onto card-stock paper and cut.

Step Six:

Punch holes in it and insert the divider in your planner.

That's it! If you want to get a closer look at the tabs I've made, I've made the printable of them available as a free download--for personal use only. The tabs are for half page size (5.5" x 8.5") planners.  It's best to download it using Chrome or Firefox. I have Windows 10, and I tried downloading it with Edge, but it was all crazy and stuff. Since this is my first set of printables, let me know if you have any issues and I'll try my best to give some help. Enjoy! 

**Download Planner Tabs from Google Drive**

 

The stuff I create is typically for myself. I craft for myself, write stories that I enjoy, and create art that makes me happy. I think it's good to create things with myself in mind--it keeps me motivated. However, creating something that makes me happy is different from making something that's purposely designed to boost the happiness of someone else.

And when I say "Make someone else happy," I don't mean creating stuff that's riding on the latest trend just get attention and please a lot of people. I mean in the sense of creating something for a friend. Like making a cake for someone who needs one or drawing a comic for someone who could use a smile at that moment.

I like social media because it's a great way to share stuff with people. I can share what I made and wrote for myself. But sharing on Twitter or Facebook isn't the same as giving. And it's not nearly as rewarding as creating something for a specific person, and seeing their face light up in person. It's more than a thumbs up.

I think it's sad how sometimes my shyness makes it hard for me to give.  I fear giving the wrong thing, or that the other person won't like it. But when I do get out of my comfort zone and try anyways--I'm usually happy with the results.

I want to try to give more often. I want to surprise those I care about with entertaining short stories, artwork, or a craft that they didn't expect. Little, simple things that show that I care and that hold meaning. 

Creating a dash page is the first step to creating a themed planner.

Lately I've been browsing Pinterest for some planner inspiration, and I've come across some beautiful things.  Some of these planners blew me away, leaving me wondering  how does someone even get started with theming a planner (???)

Well, I stumbled across a clue. Lately many planner enthusiasts have been into creating what they call a "dash page."

A dash page is basically a plastic sheet near the front of the planner that holds stickers, sticky notes, and other decorative items that will be used in the planner. Having a dash keeps these different parts easily accessible. For example, here's the dash for the disc bound planner I'm working on.

My dash page is basically a plastic pocket with some cool artwork on the inside and stickers, watashi tape, and sticky tabs on the outside. Also in the pocket are more stickers and 3D scrapbooking items. Although it is a mix of stuff, they all have the same general feel and similar color scheme.

This is my new DIY diskbound planner, BTW.

As I was creating the dash, I was going through my collection of scrapbooking stuff to see what fits the atmosphere of this page and what didn't. In the end, I had a clearer idea of how I wanted this planner to feel. The main colors ended up being orange, black, and purple, with highlights in bold shades of blue and pink. No pastels in this one.

The theme of the dash also inspired the hand drawn tabs I created.




(Post coming soon about this)

Creating a dash page helped make my planner more of a work of art and less of random things here and there.

Creating the Ultimate Most Organized Creative Notebook Ever Part 1

Creating the Ultimate Most Organized Creative Notebook Ever Part 2
Creating the Ultimate Most Organized Creative Notebook Ever Part 3

This bag reminds of furoshiki style bags. It's totally shapeless until stuff is added to it. I did cut one of the holes for the handle a tiny bit too big, so I stitched it up a little to keep the handle secure.


I'm looking forward to carrying this super cute purse around!

 


While working on this project, I decided to take a look at the very popular Project Life scrap booking system. Before I had only heard of it and had a hazy idea of what it was. When I did more research on it, I quickly saw that it didn't fit my needs. A Project Life album would be too much for me to carry around in my bag, and it was more for scrap-booking, not note-taking. Besides that, I prefer paper pages over fully plastic ones.


Still there was one thing I absolutely loved about it. I thought it was awesome how photos and other visual items could be added to a Project Life album without worrying about layout. So I cooked up my own way of doing something similar.


I've always enjoyed creating artist trading cards. They're a simple way to make art, and they come in a standard size: 2.5" x 3.5" These cards fit perfectly into plastic sleeves that are used for trading cards. Also there are all kinds of papers designed to fit into the sleeves, from watercolor paper to scrap booking style paper.Variety was what I was searching for.


Using double sided tape I attached the plastic sleeves to the notebook pages, creating a simple layout. I've found that it's best to have the sleeves near the edges of the pages instead of near the inside. The closer they are to the spine, the harder it is to close the notebook. The mixed-media notebook I chose is designed to handle an expanding book, so that was helpful.


Another bonus to using the 2.5" x 3.5" sleeves is that it makes it easy to add photos from my Instax Mini 8 camera.





I'm fortunate to be married to a guy who enjoys designing games for fun. He had a MS word template I could use to print out even more cards to slip into the sleeves. Using that and Canva as a design tool, I realized that these tiny pockets are perfect. It's a daily scrapbook/planner that's easy to carry around, and very simple to customize. Besides I don't have the time to create larger pieces of art that covers a whole page. A 2.5" x 3.5" card is plenty.


I was pretty happy with the results, and the pages look nice. However I noticed that after four months I would run out of pages and need a new notebook. I was a little disappointed. Having a notebook that could last all year would be ideal. Also I realized that I would like to have a calendar in my notebook too.


Turns out I needed more than a notebook. I needed a high powered planner. The next post in this series is about how I used what I learned from creating this Ultimate Notebook to design my Ultimate Creative DIY planner.

Another method is marking the edges of the pages. Here's the Lifehacker post about that. I like this because all I have to do is look at the side of my notebook to see where certain entries are. Using different colors on the edges of the pages instead of just black has worked out better for me.

(To compare look at these tutorial pics. Maybe I tried making my fabric bowl too big. It was collapsing on itself. Also it it reeked of Modpodge. In the end, I threw it out.)

Anyways, sometimes I think DIYs need to come with a disclaimer: Don't expect results to be perfect the first time. When I look at these tutorials, everything is so pretty and perfect. What's missing is how much work the blogger had to do to get everything to turn out right. I learn more from tutorials that show the creator's first try, and then go on to show how their second try turned out better. That approach fits the reality of creating stuff. 

How I'm went about organizing this notebook is another thing. I'll explain that in more detail in a part two post, but as a sneak peak check out this site about creating a  Bullet Journal. It really influenced how I decided to put this notebook together.

I think that's part of the reason why I like dabbling into making cute, little, random print zines once and awhile.

Right now I'm working on the second and most likely the last issue of a zine I was doing for my Etsy Shop called Blanket Princess.



I say it's the last issue because I'm shifting my main focus to my manga right now. I will probably make more zines with different themes and titles in the future. Blanket Princess is a zine made up of random stories, artwork, DIY projects, and parts of manga I've already published. The second issue simply finishes off those stories and introduces some more DIY and art. 

Sure, making an ezine is probably a little easier, but print seems more private. Print is tactile and intimate, and I enjoy creating things on paper. Overall I feel like reading print books involves more senses than ebooks do.

Reading an ebook only involves my eyes, and if it's an interactive book--maybe my ears too. But with a print book, I'm using my eyes, my nose (you know, that awesome new book smell) and my touch because of the texture of the pages and the physical motion of turning them.

It's funny how when I was younger, the activity of reading physical books was not noteworthy to me. Now it is.


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Recently I've found this awesome cold brew technique for making iced coffee. I love it because it doesn't require a coffee machine, and it's simple. This time of year I usually go for the iced coffee because the weather is so hot where I live. Besides all of that, it tastes really good. I was amazed how well it turned out.

The tutorial for making it is here: http://smallnotebook.org/2009/06/04/the-secret-to-great-iced-coffee/

I'm one of those people who don't follow the rules all of the time and like to experiment. So here are some things I learned while making this coffee:

Use a glass jar. I tried using a plastic container, and the coffee almost stained it. Not good.

Don't use a coffee filter to strain out the coffee grounds. It's very messy. Obviously, I know nothing about coffee machines.

Reusable coffee filters work great! The ones that are made out of metal wire mesh. I used that instead of a typical metal strainer, and it worked perfectly.

I like adding almond milk to my coffee. Adding some whip cream is still on the list. 

Iced coffee + working on art = Total Ultimate Bliss!

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When I was little my mom would tell me, "You can do anything that you put your mind to."

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