Birthday Planner Tutorial

Want to stay organised this year and keep up with all the birthdays you have to buy for? Why not make yourself a Birthday planner that you can keep in your bag and keep a record of presents you have bought and ones you need to get. This planner can also be made into a Christmas planner if you don't need a birthday one or maybe make yourself both!

You will need:
2/3x 12"x12" pieces Cardstock
Printer paper/light card
Patterned Papers (scraps will work too) I used Echo Park Dots & Stripes Candy Shoppe
Bone folder (or something to score lines with)
Brads
Chipboard or Greyboard (optional)
Planner pages (you can download from our website for free here)

1.Take a piece of 12x12 cardstock that you want to use as the base for your planner. You will need to make 4 score lines. 1 line at 3", 1 at 6" and 1 at 9". Then rotate your cardstock 90 degrees and make another score line 4" in from the edge.

2.Now fold the bottom edge of the cardstock on the 4" line into the middle. This will be the pocket.

3. Concertina the card on the other lines. Fold in half at the 6" line (so the pocket section is on the outside) then fold inwards on the other 2 lines.

You will end up with something that looks like this:

4. From another piece of cardstock cut 3 or 4 pieces measuring 2 3/4" x 7 3/4". These will be the inserts for the pockets. In my birthday planner I used the same colour as the base of my planner but in my Christmas one I used another contrasting colour.

5. Now you need to print out the calender, gift ideas, card list etc pages.

You can find the different printable pages here. Choose the ones that you want to use and print them on a light weight card.

6. Trim each element so you are cutting just inside the border lines. This will ensure that they fit onto the card inserts you previously cut. Attach the pages to the card inserts with a brad so that you can swivel the pages. 

7. As an alternative to having a 4th page element you can also create a pocket that you can store lists, receipts etc in. To make this you will need a piece of cardstock measuring 91/4" length x 6" width.  Score a line at 2 1/2" and 5 1/4" (from top to bottom) and another 1 1/2" from the top. Cut off the 2 corner pieces and then fold on all your score lines. 

Put some adhesive on the edge of the large flap and stick on top of the small flap. This will then give you a pocket that is open one end and with a flap at the other end. You can seal the bottom of the pocket by wrapping a piece of decorative paper around the bottom.

8. Now you can decorate your planner.
I kept mine quite simple and just stuck some patterned paper and stickers on the pockets. You don't want to add any bulky embellishments or you will struggle to close the planner!

9. For the covers I covered 2 pieces of 3" x 8" chipboard and stuck them to the cardstock but you could just use some card or patterned paper to decorate the front if you don't want to use chipboard or greyboard.

10. Add some ribbon so you can tie the planner closed (optional) and you are finished!

Here is my Christmas Planner example, you can also find all the pages to create a Christmas planner on the page with the Birthday planner pages here.

I hope that you will find this planner of use and if you make one I would love to see. Feel free to share a picture on our Facebook page or a link to it on your own blog in the comments below.

Happy Crafting,

Maxine

Please note: these instructions, photos and files are copyright of Creative Hobby Supplies 2015.  If you wish to link to this tutorial please feel free, but do not copy this and claim as your own. Thank you!

Christmas Planner Tutorial & Printables!

Welcome to our Free mini tutorial on making a re-usable Christmas Planner! With Christmas so close it may be great to get you organised or maybe something you can create as presents or for yourself for next year! (This was a tutorial I wrote a few years ago, so you will notice some of the dates on my photos are out!)

For this project you will need:

- 2x 6"x6" pieces of Chipboard (we have these precut and pre punched chipboard covers you could use but note they are only 5.75" square so slightly smaller than my example and you will need to adjust the sizes of the pages slightly from my suggestions below).
- 2x 1" book rings (you can also use 2" depending on how big you expect your planner to get!)
- Christmas Papers
- 1 sheet of 12"x12" Acetate (or several smaller pieces!)
- Letter Stickers (I used mostly ones that came in my collection kit)
- Plain white Card
- Printer
- Hole Punch (I used my cropadile)
- Optional Ribbon & Embellishments

Here is my example created using left overs from my last years Christmas paper collection. You can use any Christmas papers you may have in your collection (my papers were Echo Park) or we have a whole Christmas section in the shop here.



Step 1: Cover your Chipboard with your chosen papers (I was using part sheets so my front and back covers are different!).

Step 2: Trim your acetate down to size. You need at least 4 6"x5 1/2" pieces. I had printed acetate so used this. You can use plain acetate or create your own pattern acetate by stamping Christmas images onto it using acrylic paints. Your pages will be 6" high and 5 1/2" wide.

Step 3: Create tabs for each of your acetate pages by cutting a small piece of paper to approx 1 1/2" x 1 1/2". Fold in half and round the corners. Then attach to either side of your acetate piece. Repeat for each page but line up your tabs one below the other.



Step 4: Now punch your holes in the covers and acetate pages. I punched mine at 1 3/4 " from the top and bottom and 1/2" in from the side.

Step 5: Now you can decorate your acetate pages. I kept mine simple and just made a title block for the middle of each page. You will need a 'Gift List', 'Card List', 'Menu' and 'Shopping List' title. Also add a word to each of your side tabs so that you can easily jump to a section of your planner.

Step 6: Create or buy a small envelope. Mine measures 5" x 5". Punch holes so that the envelope is central in the book and add a 'Receipts' title block to it.

Step 7: Now you can print your inserts. I would recommend printing on some light card (I have used a plain white cardstock pack from Wilkinson!).

The following printables are PDFs and are sized to fit this album.

Click hereto go to the website and print the FREE printables!

Step 8: Trim down your printed elemants so that you have 1/2" on the right hand side of each table and 7/8" on the left hand side. This will ensure that your pages will fit perfectly behind each acetate page divider. (also make sure the height of each page is no more than 6"!) You only need 1 each of the calendar pages but you can print off as many of each of the others as you need.

Step 9: Now add your pages to your album using your book rings. You can choose the order you want your pages to go but for an idea mine is:

Calendar Pages
To Do List
Gift List Acetate divider
Gift list Pages
Card List Acetete divider
Card List Pages
Shopping List Acetate Divider
Shopping List Pages
Menu Divider
Menu Pages
Receipt Envelope



Step 10: Finally decorate the front of your planner. I simply took some card and layered it up with a snowman sticker and some alphas. I stuck this down with a piece of ribbon threaded through the middle so that I can tie my book closed and added some ribbons to my book rings.

By using acetate as your divider pages this will make your planner more durable as you will be likely to be turning pages quite a lot, if you used paper/card they would be more likely to rip.

Using book rings ensures that you will be able to put in more pages as you need them and for future years all you need to do is print more of the pages and you can use the planner all over again!

I really hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial and that the planner and our printables are of use to you. If you make a planner we would love to see, feel free to share on our Facebook page or leave a link in a comment here.

Maybe this planner is not your style? Then watch out for later in the week when we will be having another mini tutorial on a different re-usable style planner with no need for hole punches, chipboard or book rings!!

Until then, happy crafting,
Maxine

Please note: this tutorial and printables has been created by me (originally for Truly Madly Crafty, now for Creative Hobby Supplies) for your personal use only. Please DO NOT copy or reproduce this tutorial without prior permission. But please do feel free to link to this tutorial from your blog or social media if you think other people will find it of use. Thanks!