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May 23, 2017 By Dru Cortez

Get Started With Planning for Under $20

 This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive a commission, at no cost to you, when you choose to use the links provided. See the full Disclosure Policy for more information.

Day Designer

 

If  you spend any time on Pinterest, you must  have seen all the “planning” pins, and maybe you are interested in jumping on the planning bandwagon.  Let’s suppose though that  you are not interested in  shelling out several dollars for your initial planner,  especially if you are not sure that the planner’s  format or layout will work for you?

Then, I suggest you find  inexpensive ways to take advantage of comparable but less expensive planners made available by top planner designer brands  in order to “get your feet wet”,  so to speak, or to  try out a planning system to see if  the format is the right fit for you.

That’s what I did when I decided on this Day Designer planner  because I was interested in trying out  a weekly layout that had an hour by hour format.  I had been using my Mini Happy Planner for blog tasks because it was portable, had a weekly layout and a monthly view.   I could easily pop the planner in my purse, if I needed to take it with me.  That worked fine for awhile but now my  blog tasks and activities  or To Do List have since doubled.

In addition, my new blog tasks now require that my tasks need to be a lot more structured and time sensitive; so,  I needed a format that would help me  set up tasks connected to specific times of the day.  The two choices I looked at were the Day Designer and the Erin Condren Hourly Format which are both  great options.

However, since it is the middle of the year and I am still not sure if the hourly format is what I need, I purchased this DayDesigner planner by Blue Sky at Target.    I decided I would also list a few other supplies for anyone who is basically starting from scratch and wants to get started without a huge cash layout.  The sum total of my purchase was under $20 not including taxes.

Daydesigner - open layout

Supplies:

Day Designer Planner for Blue Sky (“Spotty” Cover; dimensions 6″ x 8″)      $11.99

Da yDesigner Magnetic Bookmarks    $3.99

Page flags (Target Dollar Spot)           $1.00

Pencil Set (Target Dollar Spot)           $1.00

Black Pen Medium with/Stylus (Target Dollar Spot)   $1.00

(Optional) 3 Gold Paper Clips (Michael’s)       $1.99

Here’s what I think are the pros and cons of this planner.

Pros

  • Great layout or format, will help you  get used to the system before investing more money, lines are college ruled and time slots are based on hourly portions
  • Hardboard cover is sturdy and the Day Designer has beautiful cover patterns especially in their Flagship planners.
  • Inexpensive
  • Get started right away
  • Smaller personal size with 6″ x 8″ planner, but you can also purchase a larger daily planner at Target for $29.99
  • Dollar spot items were surprisingly of better than expected quality.  The medium point black pen wrote fairly smoothly.  (My preference is a fine point)

Cons

  • Metal on coils on planner and stylus pen is thinner, cheaper, and may not bear up under rough handling
  • Planner paper is thinner  50% PCW recycled paper, may bleed through,  difficulty turning pages ( Original Day Designer brand has 160 gsm paper)
  • Lines may be too small for some individual’s handwriting
  • Sticker possibilities may be limited due to formatted pages.

Closeup of the stationery supplies  and Day Designer hard cover.

Day Designer, stationery supplies

Close up of  Magnetic Bookmarks.  They come 5 to a package, so they cost roughly $.80 each.  The patterns on the bookmarks are patterns available as covers on the original Day Designer.

 

day planner stickers

Close up of the interior of the layout and how the magnetic bookmark works in your planner.  You can also see the metal rings that serve as the binder for the planner and  the metal corners that protect the corners of the planner.

Day Designer - close up of magnetic bookmark

This image shows the  comparison in  size of the Day Designer to the original Erin Condren planner.  It’s about 1.5  inches shorter all the way around as well as half the thickness.  It also begins in the academic year.    The Xyron tool, of course, I included as an optional item you might be interested in including as part of your planner supplies and  tools. (Note:  For full disclosure, this Teresa Collins Sticker maker was provided by the manufacturer.)

Day Designer & EC comparison

This is the whole “under $20.00 kit”, and I will be thrilled to share my review of how the hourly format works for me in a future product review update.

Day Designer & stationery, Get started with planning


 

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April 14, 2017 By Dru Cortez

Neon Bright Planner Stickers – Free Printable

It’s Fri-yay… and a special Friday for those of you, like myself,  who celebrate Easter.  I hope you have a special day with you and yours.  Today’s planner stickers printable is all about bright, neon colors. I used a two page layout that will pretty much cover your whole weekly spread with this design.

These planner stickers are specifically designed for fans of the “Classic” MAMBI Happy Planner (vertical) or similar Week At A Glance Planners or other vertical weekly planners such as the Plum Paper Planner or Erin Condren Life Planner. The functional planner stickers, especially the box stickers, are sized to fit within the vertical columns and boxes specifically for the Happy Planner. Keep in mind that the full boxes are sized at 1/4″ taller than your vertical boxes for the Erin Condren Planner and sometimes the designs can not be scaled down for your Erin Condren.

Free planner stickers printable for the Classic Happy Planner, for personal use only

Also, if you are new to this site, I wanted to let you know that I have a board on Pinterest that you might want to follow that has several pins (ideas) by other planner designers, stationery, home office decor, office supplies and planner freebies pins that are mostly planner related. You can view that board and/or follow here, Home Office | Planners & Stationery Favs.

There are 90+ planner stickers or elements total in today’s release. As always, these stickers and elements can either be used for journaling in your project life projects, smashbooks, art journals or other types of memory keeping and papercrafting but these were made specifically for you Happy Planner and Erin Condren fans. Note**Please see my Terms of Use below before downloading if you have not to been to this site before.**

How to Use this “Planner Stickers” Printable:

There are several ways you can use this printable to create your stickers and I have included a few in the following instructions:

1) The easiest way to use this printout is to print it out on a full sheet of white sticker paper and if you own a Silhouette Cameo or Silhouette Portrait or other digital cutter you can cut out the to-do lists or planner stickers using their designer software. ( **Please note: You must have the Silhouette Designer Edition software upgrade to open pdfs in your Silhouette. I also have redesigned the template so that the margins are within the “registration” area of your silhouette. You will have to spend some time creating the cutlines for the silhouette but this should make creating the cutfile a lot easier.)

2) Also another method, would be to use heavy bond printer paper or you can use 65 lb. white cardstock depending on how thick you want your sticker and then place adhesive via a snail tape runner or with a Xyron sticker tool or machine.

3) The most tedious way is to print out the planner stickers on sticker paper and “fussy cut” out by hand, I have spaced the elements so that you can use a pair of good craft scissors to get a clean cut and handle the fussy cutting. You should probably use punches for the circle stickers. I try to make the circle stickers at standard punch sizes.

Facts about the freebie:

A set of 90+ planner stickers on an 8 1/2″ by 11″ pdf file.
File size : 144 KB + 98 KB
These elements were created at 300 dpi, so your printing results should be very clear and sharp with a smooth lay down of the ink color. The preview pictures both on the blog and on Google are at 72 dpi, so you often can not see all the detail accurately or colors are sometimes distorted.
Color scheme: neon green, pink, orange, lime green

As usual these freebies are free for personal use, (check my TOU if you haven’t previously.) If you have been here before, you know the drill. If not, you might want to read the quick TOU below before you access the printable.
Some things you should know before downloading:

* Vintage Glam Studio printables are for PERSONAL USE ONLY.
*You MAY NOT RESELL, redistribute, or claim the original or derivative (redesigned from the original) designs as your own. That includes redesigned as a free printable.
*Please do not remove the watermark or modify the design in any way other than for your own Personal use.
*If you post this on the internet, please give credit to Vintage Glam Studio & link back to my blog (www.vintageglamstudio.com), so others can obtain the resources. If you use this printable on Instagram or other social media platform, tag me with #vintageglamstudio or @vintageglamstudio. Thanks!

>>>>>Page One pdf file is here.

>>>>Page Two pdf file here.

Image Credit

Most images in this printable are original illustrations by Vintage Glam Studio and under copyright. Other images are under commercial use license.

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October 9, 2014 By Dru Cortez

Doodled Floral Daily To-do List II – Free Planner Printable

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive a commission, at no cost to you, when you choose to use the links provided. See the Disclosure Policy for more information.

desktop, to do list

Hello…today’s freebie is a light turquoise  daily to do list planner page in two sizes!

This is a  variation on two of my favorite themes, whimsical/doodled style and a black, white, turquoise  and grey color scheme.

Facts about the To Do List freebie:

This freebie is a slight revision of my previous  daily to-do list planner page freebie; however, I did make a few changes in the design and the floral doodles.   I snagged the  idea for this to-do list from some of my blog visitors’ Filofax boards that have pins mixing scrapbooking or smashbook goodies with daily planners.

The interesting note, ironically,  is that  I published my first planner page to-do list approximately about the same time last year! Wow…time flies!

This free printable has been designed as an 8 1/2″ by 11″ pdf file.  The freebie’s file size is  approximately 78 KB.  The design layout was  created at 300 dpi, so your printing results should be very clear and sharp.

While I designed this printable on an 8 1/2″ by 11″ page, I did try scaling it down to 5 1/2″ by 8 1/2″ to test it out in my planner.  The results were okay if you are able to write small and still be legible, otherwise you are better off using the larger size.

You Might Like:

You might be interested in my original “to do list” planner insert…

Doodled Floral Daily To Do List

Thank you for your Pinterest re-pins.

I’d like to say thanks to all those taking the time to comment, I sure appreciate the gracious “thank yous” and the legitimate “link love”.  Thank you for your pins on Pinterest as well as a few Facebook links.  I also appreciate mentions in your blogs with appropriate link backs and active links.

My traffic keeps increasing from visitors from all over the world, and from generous pinners who have great social networking influence.   I hope you don’t mind when I check out your Pinterest boards, and repin some of your pins to my Pinterest boards, these pins usually provide inspiration for new designs of my own!

As usual these freebies are free for personal use, (check my TOU if you haven’t previously.)  If you have been here before, you know the drill.  If not, you might want to read the quick  TOU below before you access the printable.

a5 planner printable,desktop

Terms of Use

Some things you should know before downloading:

* Vintage Glam Studio printables  are for PERSONAL USE ONLY.
*You may not re-sell, redistribute, or claim the original or derivative designs as your own.
*Please do not remove the watermark or modify the design in any way other than for your own Personal use.
*If you post this on the internet, please give credit to Vintage Glam Studio & link back to my blog, so others can obtain the resources.  Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook are great social media sharing platforms, it’s the  sharing without a link back to the original blog post that can be a problem.

You can access the pdf file>>>Doodled Floral Daily To Do List .

Or if you like, CLICK on the picture below for the download.   Hope you like this list! 🙂

Doodled Daily To Do List

 

2 Per Page  To Do List Planner Size:

After reviewing the request regarding one of my previous planner freebies, someone asked if there was a way to print two of the above pages on one 8 1/2″ x 11″ page.  While I couldn’t duplicate the A5 size exactly,  by readjusting the calendar by 1/2″, I was able to put two 5″ x 7 1/2″ inch pages of the doodled calendar on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ pdf page.

Make sure you adjust your printer for Landscape view and Actual size.   Hope this satisfies those of you who do not want to waste paper, but have a little flexibility with the page size.

You can access the PDF download here >>> Doodled Floral Daily To Do List.

Or, click on the preview picture below.

Doodled Daily to do list - 2 per page

Image Credit:

Commercial Use Doodle Images by Pathy Santos used for this planner design.  Most of my elements are made from commercial use or public domain sources.

However,  if any designer feels their copyright has been infringed upon the freebie will promptly be removed and the freebie will no longer be available.  Designers vary in their restrictions for their terms of use (even for CU items), so although I try to be scrupulous, I may miss some.

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