Easy DIY Planner Tutorial

I’ve been wanting to show you my super easy DIY planner for years and I have finally got around making a video. Phew 🙂

When the planner craze started, I got super excited by all the pretty journals on the market… So many styles, so many layouts…
And then the stamps, and stickers, notes, covers and accessories! My goodness, sooo much stuff. All very pretty but not cheap.

Anyway, I was using my phone to keep notes of everything I needed to do so why bother?
But… The stamps, and stickers, notes, covers and accessories!!! I told myself I didn’t need something I could make myself, so I made my own as I couldn’t really find something ready made that worked perfectly for me. I used it every day for well over a year and it was packed full of stuff and colour and happiness (I show it to you in the video).

I resisted the ”pretty planners” for a very long time (or at least it felt very long to me) until I got to the point when I didn’t have enough time or energy to make my own planner pages.
And then I found another excuse called ‘my birthday’ 😉

So I gave in and bought the Happy Planner, with the pretty mint ‘leather’ cover, the carry bag with the little pockets inside for all your planner goodies.
Then some stamps and dividers and refills. I had a really fun time with it all, decorating all my planner pages, eager with anticipation to use it.

And I did, use it. But not for long! At the end of the 18 months (I got a really long one), I thought maybe if I buy another one I’ll get back into it.
Nope!

So I thought I’d go back to my easy DIY planner in an effort to ”get back into it” because I really enjoy keeping track of my tasks visually rather using my phone all the time. It helps me keep track of mementos too!

Maybe you’re like me and it is my hope to inspire you to make your own too because it’s so easy, and you just need supplies you probably already have (see list below).
And the best part is, you can make it really work for you and customise it fully to your needs with your own paper, layout and style.

Some things I forgot to mention during the video:

• I only prepare pages for a month or 2 at a time
• I use a simple A5 ring binder to carry only the current month and a month (or 2) ahead to keep the binder small and light to carry around
• When the binder is getting a bit full, I take past monthly pages out and store them on 2 large loose binder rings so I always only have 2 or 3 months at most in my binder
• When the year is finished, all monthly pages are stored on the 2 big binder rings. I make a front and back cover when I have time during the year

This was a long video I’ve been meaning to do for years so I hope you’ll watch it all (it’s in 2 parts because it is almost 1 hour long) and…
Show me some love in return by leaving me a comment at the bottom of this page 🙂

xx mimi bondi

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List of supplies:

I included links to as many products I could to make it easy for you to find what I used in my video.
Most links are to my store, The Mixed Media Store and whenever possible, I have also included links on Amazon.com

• White cardstock
• Pencil, ruler, hole punch
• Day & Month stamps (I don’t remember the brand I use, it could be Kaisercraft, but there are plenty on the market)
• Permanent black ink pad like Stazon Jet Black (Amazon) or Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black (Amazon)
• A few water soluble pencils or crayons. I use Caran d’Ache Neocolor II (Amazon)
• Eyelets (clear or any colour). You can find these at stationery shops or on Amazon
• Binder rings (get the biggest ones you can find so you can fit a whole year, easy to find on Ebay)
• A5 binder with 2 rings like this one (that one is even better than mine because it has a slip cover on the front to create a fun cover or store bits and pieces)

Grab a cuppa and watch Part 1…

Then watch Part 2!