March 2016 Recap

Hey There!

Hope you didn't mind the lack of Thursday posts during our Spring Break. I said I would be back in April but I've been thinking of ways to make it easier for some of you to follow along and thought I would try out Monthly Recaps. Since today is the last Thursday, I figured now was as good a time as any. My goal would be to eventually transition them into a monthly Newsletter. I'm not sure how well these will be received so I'll see how it goes.

This post is picture heavy so to keep the content to a minimum you can click on the image headings to read the original posts. 

March 2016 Planner Layouts

Week# 9

 

Week# 10

 

Week# 11

 

Week# 12

 

Week# 13

 

I share my weekly layouts, #beforetheink, every Tuesday using both an A5 Carpe Diem and a Happy Planner. I haven't been consistent in sharing my resources in my posts so they're listed below, with any applicable links.

Resources:

* Simple Stories Carpe Diem Planner

* PrettyFiloPlanner Printable Inserts

* MAMBI Happy Planner

* GingerPaperCo Stickers  

* PlannerMania Stickers

* The Planner Society Kit Stickers

* Target / Dollar Spot

* Dollar Tree

Printables ~ Freebies

These posts have proven to be my most popular so far. No doubt everyone likes to get their hands on freebies but this really helps me to know what to keep offering in the future. I love creating my own printables/stickers for my planners and general home organization. Now that I know they're useful, I'll continue to offer a variety of stickers and inserts. Here's what rolled out this month:

Planner Appointment Freebie ~ with bonus stickers

 

St. Patrick's Day Planner Stickers

Easter Planner Stickers

Note: These planner stickers were designed to allow for use outside of their holiday theme. Just skip the colored eggs and leprechauns and you're good to go. And yes, clovers are a Spring element.

I really hope you've enjoyed this little recap. Overall, I think March has been my most productive in all areas.  I'll be sharing an update soon on how things are going with my "Word of the Year"; you can read up before then by checking out this label on my sidebar. See you next week.

2016 Planner Layout, Week# 13

Hey There.

Spring Break is in full swing here! It's been kinda mellow so I'm waiting for the chaos to ensue. This will be my last post until I start up again in April. I hope you had a chance to grab your Easter Stickers and pretty up your planners too. I can't wait to share my own so let's get started with my CarpeDiem.

CarpeDiem Week# 13

I have a confession, I just added this green polka dot washi to my stash. I said I was gonna use what I have but this was missing from my collection so I had to add it in. I waited too long to decide to grab Easter stickers so this was literally the only set I found that I liked. I'm really loving all the bright Spring colors. 

Ideally, some of these eggs would have been smaller. I used them to cover up the preprinted hydrate glasses; see the Friday set peeking through? Maybe I should go back and cover it up. You'll notice that my plans are very sparse. That's because of Spring Break; I like to complete what's on my list and little can happen with both boys in the house.

I am still digging this printable from Pretty Filo Planner but the more I use it I think of how I want to change some things about it. I like to decorate the outside corners in my layouts so if I could swap the Weekly To Do check boxes and lines it would be just to my liking. I might just have to get on the ball and make my own printables again. Let's move on to my Happy Planner so you can see how I used the Easter Stickers.

Happy Planner Week# 13

Speaking of mellow, how calm is this layout!?! Everything is so light and fresh yet still so colorful. I intentionally left out printed washi so I could use up some of my pastels. I really love the orange washi against all the other colors.

As I was putting this layout together I wasn't too sure I would be happy with the end result. With such a limited amount of elements, I really had to push myself to make it work how I wanted it. I also realize that I forgot to make a calendar cover so I winged it by cutting a full box and adding a quote. Not my favorite, but it will do. I also had an excessive amount of arrows when I was done so I used them up on my sidebar.

This set had a plethora of quotes that I really liked for this layout. I only had fifteen Easter stickers so I'm really surprised at how far I was able to make these stickers go and keep the theme throughout the week. I also found myself wanting more of the list flags for layering so I'll keep that in mind for future freebies. Take a look at a few of my favorite closeups.

 

 

Well, that's it for now. I really hope you enjoyed these and would love to see how you use your sticker sets. If you want to share with the rest of us, you can use hashtag #ahcfreebies so we can all take a peek. Don't forget, quantities on ready to ship product will be limited when GingerPaperCo opens, so if you want to be notified by email of the opening you can sign up here.

I'll see you back here in April.

2016 Planner Layout, Week# 12

Hey There!

Here we go again! I hope you're on board for some St. Patrick's Day fun. I shared my freebie in advance so today I'll be sharing how I put it together in my Happy Planner. But first, as always, we start with my CarpeDiem layout.

CarpeDiem Week# 12

I wasn't in love with this spread when I first finished it but it's growing on me. Maybe it was the many mishaps that ensued just to get to this point. Ugh! Long story short, I punched the holes using my Personal size punch and didn't realize my mistake until I was done and went to put them in my A5 planner! Yep, that happened and I was not regurgitating this spread just to make it photo perfect.

These stickers really look so much better in these shots because they're very toned down. There's lots of shine and a bit of gold all over! My green sheets look pastel blue against all the bright green, don't they? I was really admiring that mug of beer after having to repunch these pages.

I just noticed that I forgot my dates, headers, and tasks! Did I mention all the mishaps already? Actually, when I tried to reprint them on clear paper they jammed twice!! That's when I stomped off and forgot to hand write them before taking these photos. Never a dull moment here folks.

Happy Planner Week# 12

"Be Present In All Things"; that quote just jumps right out at you doesn't it? I mentioned in my freebie post that I kept the color scheme muted to give a soft, feminine feel to the set. I never coordinate colors when I create a sticker set so it's always a nice surprise when they match this good.  

How fun is that calendar cover! That was the final touch I added to this set; I love it. When I style these sets for you, I try not to be too uniform so that you're encouraged to think outside the box.

I know I say this every time, but I really love this set. I would definitely use this for Spring. I hope you got your freebie and love it too. I'll be back next Tuesday with another layout post then I'll see you in April.

Don't forget, quantities on ready to ship product will be limited when GingerPaperCo opens, so if you want to be notified by email of the opening you can sign up here. 

2016 Planner Layout, Week# 11

Hey There!

Welcome back for week# 11 in my planners! I'm working like mad to get ahead on posts this week because Spring Break is right around the corner and I don't plan to have much free time to keep up. It's raining cats and dogs today so what better way to spend some time than watching a movie with my little and sharing with you. So let's jump right in with my CarpeDiem.

CarpeDiem Week# 11

 

Here's the full spread for the week; it makes me want to go out for a picnic and plan. I made a personal goal to see how many weeks in March I can use green washi in honor of St. Patrick's Day/Spring. Any little bit helps to get me using up my stash instead of running out to get the newest and prettiest!

It seems that when I'm busiest I need to keep my spread as simple as possible so this week is really just used washi and my DIYs. Most of these stickers debuted last week but the "Dentist" sticker is the newbie this time. That particular set of stickers was printed on my inkjet that was giving me trouble with the black ink. It's a little faint compared to the ones done on my laser printer. Did you notice my little Silhouette machines? Last week's said "sticker time". 

 

You can really see the difference in the printer types in these closeup. Don't hold it against me that some of my cuts are off. These were test prints but no reason to waste them. I preprinted my dates for February thru March so I plan to use those up too then I'll make the fixes for the sizes and shapes or just go clear.

I have had both of these washis for over a year and have barely used them. These mason jars look like they have fireflies in them, one of my favorite parts of Spring! It's always nice when a washi is designed in a way that you can trim it up to use different ways. I am still loving this printable but the Weekly To Do has way too much empty space. A quick fix could be to line them up along the right to make room for my daily water intake. It only has five lines but I don't track during the weekends anyway, win/win.

Happy Planner Week# 11

What a contrast my Happy Planner is to my CarpeDiem! They both represent my style but I really lean heavily towards this one because it caters to my need to craft. I've been using this planner exclusively to test out my DigiScrap Planner Stickers that I'm prepping for my shop opening. 

As I mentioned in my week# 10 post, I try to offer at least a few different sets with each kit. This is the demo for my add on Pink and Brown set. I used some of the bits from the original set so there's a lot less white space compared to my usual setups. I really wanted to show how the kits can be mixed up.

This weeks layout is a great example of how DigiScrapping works; it's basically digitally overlapping elements to create a unique design. I only do a little grouping in my kits then cut out the rest so that your creativity can take over. A few examples are the double arrows, the calendar overlay, and the "Be Daring" quote. They wouldn't add much bulk if layered as individual stickers but I feel they offer inspiration for the rest of elements. In contrast, if the weekend banner were individual stickers you would be adding lots of bulk to a concentrated area. It's really fun to come up with different ways to put these together. Take a look at some of my variations in these closeups.

  

 

 

I really hope you like these and are getting as excited as I am for the shop opening. Don't forget, quantities on ready to ship product will be limited when GingerPaperCo opens, so if you want to be notified by email of the opening you can sign up here. 

Also, if you haven't signed up for my giveaway take a look here; it ends at midnight on 3/19/16. I'll be back on Thursday with an Easter Sticker Freebie.

2016 Planner Layout, Week# 10

Hi Friends,

I can't believe we are already in the double digits for weekly layouts! Every week seems to be going faster and faster. We are so close to Spring and we have temps in the upper 60's this week. I'm so excited I even worked some Springy elements into my layouts.

CarpeDiem Week# 10

After last weeks lack of enthusiasm to sticker search I think this one more than makes up for it. These little critters are the cutest and I would love to see a few of them run across my lawn. These cuties came in a sticker pack from the Target Dollar Spot. I'm terrible at tracking where my washi comes from so I can't say for sure who the source is. 

As I was putting this spread together I realized I have no cloud washi so I used watercolor and floral tapes instead. Each of these stickers, other than the critters, were made by me for GingerPaperCo. They have been on my list to get into rotation so they're finally here! I love those little laundry baskets and at the last minute I changed them up a bit by adding the "Wash Today" label. Now I can use one to represent whats washing and the other as a reminder to put laundry away. 

There isn't a whole lot to share about this side but you can see I changed up the headings again. I am so glad I came up with these clear header labels but now I need to change my weeklies over too.  If your interested, I ordered these printable sheets from PrettyFiloPlanner on Etsy. Here are a few more mini closeups; just click the image to enlarge.

 Happy Planner Week# 10

It's Happy Planner Time! These layouts are my favorite to create every week. I've been using demo sticker sheets from my shop as I increase my inventory. This full week spread shows my newest set in Green and Tan to coordinate with last weeks set. If you would like to see Week# 9 click here.

Now that I've created this add on Green and Tan set I can see how neutral last week really was. I'm good with neutrals but color is even prettier. I decided since these are coordinating sheets I would incorporate some of the stickers from the first set. My goal is to build kits that offer lots of elements that help extend the sets to at least 2-3 layouts. 

This layout a has new weekend header and even date stickers for the top of the page. It looks so feminine with the wooden numbers. I may need to make a set of just date headers to add to the kit too. I think I'll be adding more dark metals to this sheet to balance it off a bit. Now for more mini closeups.

I really hope you loved these as much as I do because these are so fun to create and share. I'm working on something different for my Etsy shop to keep things moving forward for my launch this summer. I'll keep you posted but don't forget, quantities on ready to ship products will be limited when GingerPaperCo opens. If you want to be notified by email of the opening you can sign up here.

I'll see you back on Thursday with a St. Patrick's Day Sticker Freebie and a Giveaway Announcement.