Saturday, October 29, 2011

Planning for Christmas!


While looking at other blogs last week, I saw several ladies that were making Christmas Planners to get organized with the Christmas holiday that is "just around the corner".  I fell in love with these planners and decided to make one for myself.....and also the ladies at work, sister and a special blog friend!  I got started by looking up "Christmas Planner" and got several tutorials on how to make them.  The one I chose to use was made from a plain, manila office folder. 


This is what the outside of one of them looks like.  I used retired SU! Christmas DSP to decorate this planner, along with some cute winter decorations that coordinated so well with this paper.  You may not be able to see in this photo but the red on the stripes has glitter on it and really sparkles.  I added some SU! rhinestones to the label that I printed off of the computer to add even more sparkle.  Blushing Bride and Bashful Blue cardstock matches perfect.

When you open the planner, you get this:



Again, I went to "Mr.Google" and searched Christmas Planner inserts and it brought me to a site that had calendars, gift list pages, Christmas card pages, shopping list pages, holiday party planning pages etc. You can pick and choose whatever you want to add to your personal planner.  For the ones I made I printed off the current October, November and December calendars (below the calendar is a spot for things to do this month), shopping list pages and gift list pages.  I had some snowflake embellishments that I purchased last year on sale that I added to some of the folders pockets.


The last pocket, I took an ordinary envelope and changed it into something to hold my receipts.  I added some scraps of my paper I was using and added a pretty red ribbon to the front.  I punched part of the top with a circle punch and added some pretty paper to the inside and printed off on the computer the word receipts.  I think this is a great addition because you can put all of your holiday receipts in one spot and have them if you need to return anything.  No more looking for the lost receipt!

I used my Crop-a-Dile to add some eyelets and used the same red ribbon that I had on my receipt envelope to go around my planner to keep it all closed up when not in use.

I had lots of Christmas paper that I bought on sale last year for 70% off and made 6 more planners:



This is the inside of one of the red and green planners:



I hope you enjoyed looking at all of my holiday planners and maybe I have inspired you to make one for yourself (or even a couple to give away!) 

Happy holiday planning :)

Gail S.


3 comments:

Debbie Fisher (debbiedee) said...

WOW! I can't believe you posted this! I am working on making these this weekend! Great minds must think alike, cuz I've been googling Christmas Planners as well.

I love yours! I figured this would be a good way to use up all that paper I've been hoarding (esp my Basic Grey) and make some early Christmas gifts for friends and family.

This would have been a fun project to have done together.

I see that you don't have tabs on yours. Did you cut them off or did you find file folders without tabs? I saw one you tube tutorial where she didn't have tabs on hers either.

Pam Speidel said...

I agree with Debbie, this would have been a FUN project to work on together!! Maybe next year we should plan on it. I *love* this idea and you did a great job of explaining the process.

kay said...

These are awesome planners, Gail! Very helpful for organizing :) Thanks for sharing and visiting my blog always :) Hugs, Kay!