Leafy watercolour planner

It takes me ages to do anything lately but I have been slowly playing around with a new planner.   I think this one is going to be the one I will use, so I’ve just been plugging away at it steadily.  As I made it, I’ll share it.

First thing is possibly useful for lots of people.  This is a three-year run of yearly One Sheets. Use them for planners (print as A5 or 8×5) or print as A4/US letter and stick them on your wall:

2017

2018

2019

Then I have the weekly planner pages, two to a sheet.  Cut in half and hole-punch. There are four colourways, salmon, peach. blue and dusty purple.   Just to keep it interesting. The blank area by Week Of?  I thought it would be a nice place for a small photo, or a place to clip or staple something like a business card.

Then there are the monthly sheets, across two pages. Some variation in colours.  Again, cut in half and hole punch the outside edges then shift so the days are in order. I stressed so much over these, so if there is an error in them do let me know!

Then, for those who need it, there are the Daily Diabetic sheets. Also in four colours, and two-a-page.

 

Next, the hourly planner page and the Notes page.  These are as single pages so you can pick which pages you will print them on the back of.  You can print them as A5/8×5 size OR as A4/US letter.  Just select the size in your printer dialog box.

Nearly done! A couple of pages of bits – print them on sticker paper if you like.

These tabs are for the months, and there are some with useful words or phrases.  Use them as tabs, or cut them in half and use as regular stickers.

These arrows and flags can be used anyway you like!

So there you go.  Hope they are useful and do let me know what you think.

I did spend some time organizing my planner bits in a top menu, so any old ones are up there, in case you were looking….

 

FAMILY book folding templates

I may have mentioned that my most requested book folding templates are for the word FAMILY.  I’ve also said that I would be adding a set for easy download.  Here they are.  Don’t worry about the overlapping bits in some of the fonts.  This is what I usually send with my templates:

The words/images are s t r e t c h e d so they will look in proportion when folded.  

Don’t worry! Overlapping lines show on the screen but not when printed 🙂 

The lines DO NOT tell you how many pages you need for your template, they are to help with the counting. Be sure to go back to my blog post for info on how to calculate the page count.  https://scrappystickyinkymess.wordpress.com/folded-book-templates/ has links to two different posts for how to do this. Be careful to count the alternating folds correctly!

Why I won’t tell you how many pages you need can be found here https://scrappystickyinkymess.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/book-folding-why-i-wont-count-them-out/

Here is the PDF for download.  The one inside the heart is one that had been requested.  As I had it I thought I might as well  include it.  I think it might work better as a cut & fold, but if you give it a go and it works, be sure to share a photo with me.

Hope you find it useful!

 

 

Another one to play with – the Pretty Cd calendar and 2018 re-post

OK, so I thought I would try offering the pretty CD calendar to play with:
Download that here.

I’ve created the month blocks and the blank circles.  Let me add them right now lest I get sidetracked and forget like yesterday!

I tested it out and yes, it is tedious and annoying to do, no question.  But, if you have any sort of simple editing program you can easily create your own month blocks. Once you have a basic set of seven in 31-day blocks, it is simple to edit away day 31 for 30-day months and 29-31 for February (except a leap year!) as needed for any given year, and reuse the basic set over and over again.

Here is another month block set.  When printed it will fit either the inky circles or the pretty CD.

I know this sort of DIY effort is not to everyone’s  taste, but maybe someone will take the ball and run with it. And the Pretty CD calendar is one of my most popular.  I’d love to see what great ideas anyone else comes up with!

 

 

 

Experimenting with editable calendars, by request

Note:  Clearly I was in a too much of a rush yesterday – the links to the PDFs are now included! I also replaced the start-days PDF with one that includes both a Sun to Sat block and and Mon to Sun block for the 2020 leap year February!

I had a request from Kelly, who liked my Inky Circles calendar.  She asked about an editable version.  I have mentioned in the past ways that you can edit the PDFs I make using Photoshop (although Photoshop has changed since 2015 when I did that post, so some things might be slightly different now)  but I wondered if there was a way to make a low-tech version.

Let me go thru the PS/PSE version first:

Here are the files so you can see what I am talking about:

There is a 6 page PDF that has 12 empty circles on a square that fits the CD frame

There is a PDF with the different start days, in 31, 30 and 28 day blocks, with a 29 day one for 2020. Remember, the thing about calendars?  There are only 7 options for start days, and the same blocks work for a Sunday start or a Monday start, depending on the day strip you choose.  Usually I make the 7 blocks all with 31 days, then edit out the days I don’t need on any given year when creating the PDFs.  I thought this would be easier for you and I had the space to fill on the sheet {wink}

There is a PDF with the Month names (in Black and in the colours that match the inky circles) and the years (font is Bonveno CF if it helps) as well as strips that start on a Sunday and ones that start on a Monday.

To edit, you need to open all three PDFs as well as a calendar for the year you want to create for. Nothing is locked and I other than to day blocks, nothing is grouped so it SHOULD be easy to edit.

Methodically copy and paste the Month name, the strip of days, the block of days that matches the start day and number of days for the year you want, and the year number onto the blank inky circle.  Do the same for the 2nd inky circle on that page, save as a PDF, then print.

You can instead type the Month name and the date if you want.

For the Low Tech version, you can look at the calendar for the year you want.  Identify the day blocks that match the 12 months of that year and print enough of the sheet so you have what you need.  Cut out the month blocks, the day strips, the Month name and the year, and glue them to the printed inky circles sheet.

Even easier? Print the inky circles, grab any right-sized little calendar and cut out and stick a month to the sheet.  Or print out a calendar and use the month blocks to do a cut&paste – I already have some 2018 and 19 samples up.  I don’t have time to check them now (off to the Dr in a bit) but I think some of the  one sheet and/or 3 x 4 cards will have month blocks that fit.  Ink the edges and it will look like you meant it to be that way! You can punch them with a circle punch or a die and use that too! You can resize a PDF just within your printer options (like print two pages on one to make things smaller, and that works with any PDF, not just mine) to make it fit. Check out the Tear-Off versions.

And LOL!

Your 2017 calendar is reusable in: 2023

So you can just change the year! 2018 will take till 2029 before it is reusable.

No mater how you slice it, it is all pretty tedious.  I know – I’ve been making calendars for years and it can be mind-numbing.  But fun too.  So there yo go.  Feeling adventurous?  Have a play and report back.  I don’t know what other programs might allow you to edit – Adobe Acrobat and Inkscape come to mind, and I love Intaglio, despite it’s bugs.  I’ll have a go with the version of PSE I have (10 and 14, I think, for Mac) when I get back and report back.

 

Planner pages – to go with the mandala calendar

I have been working on a new planner for myself.  To go along with the Mandala birthday calendar, sort of.

One page that I have used over the last year or so is a blood sugar level monitoring page.  I’ve always controlled my tendency towards diabetes thru diet and exercise, especially since the heart attack. To keep myself on track, much better than just relying on the 3-month HbA1C, I track things using this page.  I’ve updated the design to go with the mandalas.

I have a Huawei smart watch that I use to track my steps.  I find that making note of my steps thru the day helps me stick to my 10,000 step per day target. I note the time I spend on the treadmill as Exercise.

Unfortunately I have some sort of inflammation making me weak in my large muscle groups at the moment, which is wreaking havoc with my ability to exercise. So my BSL has become more important to track at the moment. And if the treatment for whatever ails me is steroids (hands up if that made you say Oh no!) it’ll be even MORE critical.

Weak or not, one thing I can manage is sitting in front of my Mac! So I figured I would go ahead and tweak a few of my planner pages so they work together.  I know some people like a jumble of pages from various planner styles, I do too, but I figured I might as well make a few to match.

I did the 2017 and 2018 year-at-a-glance ones – and I had already created the .jpg before I noticed the bottom row of mandalas were misaligned. DOH! Fixed now…

I made a set of monthly calendar pages:

The apparently-mistaken ordering is intentional, as most printers automatically create a wide upper and lower edge border.  Flipped as these are, they print so the holes can be punched for two facing pages, to fit an A5/8×5 planner! The downside is they don’t work for people who use an A4 notebook sideways. Sorry. Do be careful when printing on the back, if you decide too do so.

I did a weekly pair too, which could be printed and used full-sheet sideways:

and that file has a bunch of colours:

As always, I learned a few things while creating these.

So, if any of these appeal to you, feel free to grab them:

Year at a Glance for 2017 and 2018.  Two to a page.

Month sheets for 2018 only. If you want 2017 month sheets, check out the post here for some mix&match pages to print

Weekly Planner Pages – 10 colours.

Daily Diabetic Tracker pages – seven colours, x2 so two weeks of sheets at a time.

Every person I know uses their planner in a totally different way, and uses totally different sheets. For example, I have zero interest in trying to plan my cleaning/housework or my yoga schedule, or my kid’s sports events.  So I don’t make pages for that sort of thing.  I prefer the week at a glance pages for overall organization, and I probably would use the monthly sheets rarely and the birthday ones not at all.  But that’s just me.

One thing to note is that these are all one-sided prints.  I tend to use the blank backs of the pages for notes or  a daily hour-by-hour list.  Here are those two files.  

Daily Planner (hour by hour)

Notes page

And just in case it is useful, a sheet with Notes and Hours

Well.  That should keep you busy for a while.

{wink}

Half-Sheet birthday calendars – and stickers

OK, so I started these the other day, got super busy yesterday, but here they are.

Both half-sheet Mandala birthday calendars, although I did them as a straight 2-a-page file.  One comment suggested that the booklet style PDFs won’t work universally for every printer, so it is easier for me to just do them this way.

B&W (for colouring in) 

and colourful ones to print and be done.

You should be able to click the image for a closer look. Nope, sorry

I also had a go at making some banners.  You can print them on full-sheet sticker paper and cut them out.  Here is a close up.  I noticed a little tweak I could make, to do with the alignment, but no time now.  I might fix it later, when I do have time. There are two sheets – one with plenty of Birthday/Anniversary/Milestones ones, and some blanks, then a whole 2nd sheet of blanks.  There are also little triangular flags too.

Grab that PDF here

To be honest, I am not sure how useful they are for the BIRTHDAY calendar, but more for planners.  And that makes an interesting point that you might not have thought of – the half-sheet calendars can be hole-punched along the side and integrated into your A5/half US letter planner!

Cool, humm?

So there you go.  Have fun with them and LMK how YOU use them.

Decorate it yourself birthday calendars, 2 styles

Having fun with this!  So I’ve done two versions.  Most of the birthday calendars I see are long and thin.  Fair enough, but it really doesn’t leave a lot of scope for decoration.  When printed, the thin version leaves you with just about 2 inches x just over 2 1/2 inches.  I made it, but probably not what I would use. You can download that one here. I think topping it with scraps of pretty scrapbooking paper would work nicely and if you print it on the plain-ish side of double-sided cardstock then just top it with another scrap it would look nice with little effort.  I may end up making a sample of that, just for fun, and to show you how it would look.

 

What I think is preferable, is the half-sheet version.  I split the days into two columns, and that leaves you with at least 3×5 inches of decoration space.

Note that I made February just one sheet but denoted the leap day in red.

These will print two to a page and you can cut them in half, just like the thinner version. Or you can fold them in half and stick the blank backs together to form a booklet.

Download the 6 sheet PDF here

BUT, and it is a big BUT (I like big buts and I cannot lie… tee hee) if you know how your printer works and you know how to load the paper so the print on the reverse of the sheet is oriented correctly, these two PDF will allow you to print and create a little folded book of birthdays. I use the rear tray, as I know the pages have to be rotated and flipped a certain way for it to work.  So long as you use reasonable weight cardstock you won’t see the printing on the reverse thru the paper.

Part 1 – January and Notes, March and December, May and October, July and August

Part 2 – Notes and February, November and April, September and June

The first page, January and Notes, form the first and last pages, with the blank backs forming the front and back cover.  Here is what you will end up with:

January  Notes  –>> bank on the back

March  December –>> Notes and February

May  October –>>  November  April

July  August  –>> September  June

You can print the sheets one at a time but again, you need to know your printer! I think this version would be super cute as a gift, a little nicer than just the loose sheets.

Birthday Calendars!

You can all thank Kathryn, who commented that she would like to see a birthday calendar.  The biggest struggle was to decide which of the decorative elements would be nice.  I decided to do the pretty lace one and then decided to do once using the gradient, slightly thinner and with, I think, fewer cuts.

Download the Lace one:

or Download the gradient one:

You will note there are more than 12 months.  That is because I wanted to both make the sheets full, with no blank spots, and so I could include alternatives.  For example, February (with and without the 29th of a Leap Year – people with birthdays on the 29th have it hard enough LOL!) and so I could offer Red/Green for December, AND for the first time cater to those who would prefer BLUE for the festive season.  I found this little breakdown, which is surely the result of people like me who have only the vaguest idea of how to spell it, and depend on Google to auto-correct!

Hanukkah : 8,470,000 hits.
Chanukah : 3,390,000 hits.
Hanukah : 862,000 hits.
Hannukah : 677,000 hits.
Chanuka : 335,000 hits.
Chanukkah : 274,000 hits.
Hanuka : 192,000 hits.
Channukah : 128,000 hits.
Chanukka : 116,000 hits.
Hanukka : 86,300 hits.
Hannuka : 51,400 hits.
Hannukkah : 37,300 hits.
Channuka : 33,600 hits.
Xanuka : 992 hits. (even I know this one is crazy)
Hannukka : 686 hits.
Channukkah : 508 hits.
Channukka : 489 hits.
Chanuqa : 25 hits. (and this one!)

But again, people who don’t celebrate Christmas might be I bit tired of only seeing Red or Green for December.

So basically, all you need to do is print and cut.  There is a NOTES section, so if you have too many birthdays on a single day you can use that for extras.  Or you can add Anniversaries or other milestones like retirement, make special note of the big birthdays (18, 21, 50, etc) or jot down gift ideas that might come to you at any time during the year.  Really whatever you think you need.

I still want to do one that is more clean lined and graphic, possibly using this one as the style:

but it would be handy for anyone who wants a particular style to make note of it as a comment, preferably with a link so there is no confusion.  Also please comment if you prefer the two-to-a-page style or the thinner 3-to-a-page style.

Oh, and I had thought I might do a Decorate-it-Yourself version, like the calendar blocks that people seem to like:

Does that appeal?

Jeez.  I disappear for MONTHS and return full of questions…..

{wink}