Planner Embellishments Tutorial...

Welcome, and Happy Friday!

Today I'm bringing you a fun tutorial which is for the ever growing and popular “Planner Community”.  Planners have made a real comeback in the last while with the twist of now decorating in them.  Some are used as actual planners for appointments, etc. and some people choose to use them for memory keeping.  “Planner kits” have also become all the rage and today’s tutorial is to show you how you can create your own kit embellishments with decorative papers and stamps that you already own.  So if you're one of the many planner girls out there, I hope I can inspire you to create some original embellies for your planner using bits and pieces from your stash!  Today I will be using the "Berry Cafe" Collection by Heartfelt Creations!

Let us begin with the creating of your very own sticky note pads.  These cute and highly sought after items are easily created with stamps and dies that you will already have in your craft room!

Begin by stamping the image that you would like to use for your sticky notes in a light colored ink onto a good quality copy paper.  I’ve used a light grey ink on this adorable ice cream themed version.  (Don’t ink with a heavy hand as you still want to be able to write some notes over the image!)

 

Proceed to color your images ever so lightly using colored pencils. 

Next you will want to die cut all of these images.  Using a little washi tape, adhere the die to the image and die cut using your manual die cutting machine.  

 

For our next step, let’s give our sticky notes a little elegance by adding some glitter to the whipped topping on the cold treat!

 

 Moving along to our next step, once the glitter has dried adhere some repositionable adhesive to the top of the back side of the image and then stick the image with adhesive to the top of one of the other images.

 

Continue layering the images in this manner until you have a nice little pad of sticky notes!

Of course a planner would not be complete without a dashboard on which to place the sticky notes so they are  readily accessible…as well as some cute paper clips!

For your dashboard, select a piece of double sided decorative paper that has the images you would like to use for both the front and the back and measure your planner to find the size you want to make your dashboard.  I cut mine slightly smaller than the pages in my Happy Planner.  The great part is that you get to design your dashboard any size you want.

  In this first image, I have chosen the paper with the fun strawberry filled pocket because the reverse side had a subtle pattern that worked for the second side beautifully.  I’ve added a sentiment strip along the side for some additional visual appeal.  Be careful not to layer too much onto your dashboards as it does become difficult to laminate.  Another thing to keep in mind when decorating your dashboard  is where the addition of  holes will be placed for adding to your planner!

 
 

 …and here’s the opposite side!  I have fussy cut a decorative piece from another decorative paper and added a sentiment strip to this side as well.

 

(We’ll finish off the dashboard lamination further on in this tutorial along with the paper clip lamination.)

To begin preparation for the paper clips, die cut three images from the paper collection that coordinate with the dies in the collection.  Then choose a lightly patterned paper and die cut a second piece to match the images you’ve chosen.  Collect some paper clips.  (I love to use gold colored paper clips because I think they provide such an elegant look!)

 

 Next, grab your dashboard and all of the paper pieces for your clips and slip them into a laminating pouch and laminate.  (I just have a cheap laminator from Walmart and it works great!)

 

Once you’ve run them through the hot laminator and let them cool a bit, it’s time to grab a pair of scissors and start trimming.  I follow the outline of the lamination lines close to the items.

 

(You can also punch the holes into your dashboard at this time!)

Now it’s time to break out the hot glue gun.

Place glue where you want to adhere the paper clip to the laminated image.  Check the front once you’ve positioned the clip to make sure that it appears straight and looks the way you want it to.  Then adhere the second plain die cut to the back of the paper clip image so you have a clean look from the back as well.  This simple step is what will keep your pages in your planner from getting damaged.  

Now don’t you just love those adorable clips?  (If you find that these images are too large for your planner, you can always fussy cut from the paper collection as well!)  

Lastly here’s a picture of all these fun embellishments being put to use in my memory keeping Happy Planner!

I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial!  If you're a planner girl I hope I've encouraged you to try creating some of your own embellishments from paper crafting stash that you already have tucked away in your craft room!  If you missed the planner spread earlier this week that I created to coordinate with this tutorial, be sure to check that post out here.  (You'll find the instructions in the previous post to create the planner pocket page shown here on the right!)

 Until next time...

Project Supplies
HCDP1-265 Berry Café Paper Collection

HCPC-3733 Berry Delicious Cling Stamp Set

HCD1-794 Berry Café Die

HCD1-795 Sweet As Honey Die

159723 Art Institute Glue Dries Clear

352854 Metal Glue Tip Art Institute

85-glitter Crystal Ultrafine TransparentGlitter

 Other Products Used:  higher quality copy paper,  Derwent colored pencils, Staples Arc hole punch, Staples repositionable adhesive, scor tape, scissors, paper trimmer, BigShot die cutting machine, laminator, gold paper clips, MAMBI Happy Planner