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December 7, 2018 By Dru Cortez

12 Essential Planner Supplies for Planner Fans

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.

Happy Friday planner fans…I wanted to take some time and get you ready for those last minute “what should I get for______”  or for other planner fans on your Christmas list by sharing a list of basic planner essentials.   This list can pretty  much work for all year round but in this Christmas season, some of these ideas might make your planner #bff reallly happy and put a smile on their face.  You want to make sure it’s a thoughtful gift idea, of course.

Here’s the list of the individual items:

1. Frixion Eraseable Pens (.07mm)

These ink pens are such a hot item because they are eraseable.  If you are a neat nik, there is nothing worse than a planner filled with nasty pen cross outs and pen smudges.   They come in a variety of point sizes .  The pens pictured come with  a cap but there are retractable pens available which makes it a great item for those who are always losing pen caps.  They also come in a variety of colors.

2.  Pilot G28 (.038 fine point)

This pen is my absolute personal fav  black point pen for all my writing.  I buy these by the pack and also purchase the refills.    I tend to write very small and this pen is super smooth, super fine and does not bleed through.  It also helps that it is retractrable. They are not readily available at your regular department stores.  I usually buy them online on mazon.  If you are a pen geek or are buying for a professional, I would suggest that you check out JetPens which has a great collection of specialty pens and stationery items.

3.  Staedtler Fineliner

I absolutely love these multi color pens.  They are reasonably priced, have a .03 point nib  (make sure they are the point nib that you want before buying) and are great for color coding your  planner or journl.  The plastic case they come in folds back and can be used to stand the case on your desktop. They are also not so bad for doodling and adding hints of color to your planner layout.

4.  American Crafts Slick Writer

This pen is a planner essential because as it’s name suggests, it writes perfectly on slick surfaces and can write on washi.  It has a solid marker type of pen stroke and does not soak through or smear whereas even Sharpie fineline permanent pens do.  I haven’t tried it using it for this purpose yet,  but I think it would also work to label photographs which tend to have a slick surface. 

5.  Mildliner Highlighters

I love, love these highlighters because they lay down a soft color on whatever text your are highlighting.  They are double ended which gives you the option of having two pen nib sizes in one pen.  They are reasonably priced and come in the colors of the rainbow.  I own the pastel highlighters.

6.  Rose Gold paperclips

These paperclips are rose gold but they are also available in gold.  These are functional as well as beautiful and they are reasonable priced.  They are a step up over your everyday office paperclip and they will glam up your photos on Instagram.  They are like little pieces of stationery jewelry.

 

7.  Arc Punch

If  you love notebooks, journals and planners with discbound binding, i.e. the Happy Planner or Martha Stewart’s journals, this is the tool to have.  It can turn any scrapbooking paper, planner or notebook insert into an insert that will fit into your discbound planner or notebook.    If you are interested in a much more robust arc punch, I would suggest you try Levenger for their arc punch.

8. Discs by Mambi

These are the discs that make the discbound system work.  They come in a variety of colors and sizes.  In general the larger the disc, the more paper you can store in your notebook.  If you want upscale discs made of metal or other luxury materials, you might want to try Levenger’s  online stationery store for their Kyoto discs.

9. EK Success Scissors

These scissors are a planner or crafter’s essential.  I own a pair of these and I love them because they are a small size, they are lightweight, the rubber handles reduce hand fatigue when cutting multiple items by hand and the tips of the scissors are shaped so that they can snip small pieces of paper.  The cap is provided for safety,  an important feature, especially if you have little ones around.  I would prefer them in pink but I believe  EK only sells them in pink as a promotion.

10. EK Success Scissors

This is a great sturdy brass ruler that is small enough to carry within a smaller planner or in your purse.  It come with inches and millimeter rules. I think a great gift idea would be to purchase this type of ruler and if you can swing it have it engraved with the recipient’s name.  I own a similar 12″  brass ruler from the Nate Berkus Office   stationery line at Target.  I absolutely love mine and use it to measure all those planner sticker printables I create for my planner  fans.

11. Washi Storage

This handy plastic bin holds up to 45 washi tape rolls and would be a great gift if you fill it with a couple of really lovely washi rolls as part of your gift and some pretty pens.  There are also acrylic drawer type of boxes that can be used as washi storage and look lovely on a desk top.

 

12. Washi

Okay, washi is almost a no brainer.  In order to add a little or a lot of pops of color to your planner this is the essential tool to have in your planner stash.  They can be used for a variety of crafting uses besides planner decor.  But I warn you buying washi can be addicting, it’s like that old TV potato chip ad jingle “betcha, you can’t stop at one”.

What do you consider an absolute essential planner tool?  Please comment below.

 

So, these mugs are not essential but they can be used in a two fold manner, as something to put your stationery gifts in and something they can drink out of after the holidays are over or as a pencil cup.  The mugs featured are available at the following  Etsy Shops.  You can preview the pics via the gallery below or in the links to the shops listed.

 

 

Etsy Shops with featured planner mugs:

1. Boss Lady mug from GirlsStuffDesigns

2. Planner Life mug from HappilyEverEtchedInc

3. Planner Girl mug from ShopPBC

So, this was a round up of my ideas for planner essentials.  Since it’s the Christmas season,  I think it would be nice to add that you try to make sure that you take a little time to add some attention to how you wrap your  gift to make it extra special.

Here are some tips:

  • Make sure the packaging is just as pretty as the gift.
  • Personalize ( if you can or have time) the gift item.
  • Pay attention to the recipients personal tastes and likes to  jazz up your gift and shows you care to pay attention to their preferences.

Here’s a gift tag freebie to “glam’ up your gift.

You can access the Freebie >>>>HERE

christmas gift tags printable

You might like:

Shabby Rose Labels and Tags

Image Credit

Most images in this printable are original illustrations by Vintage Glam Studio and under copyright with a few that are under commercial use or creative commons licensing.  Other product images are the copyright of the individual owners and are being used for marketing purposes only.  Header image vector from Vecteezy.

essential planner supplies

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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February 27, 2014 By Dru Cortez

Vintage Office Supply 2 Journaling Elements – Free Printable

Hello peeps…I hope your week has been  great and that you will have a chance to craft, write or do some other relaxing hobby with the upcoming weekend.

Today’s freebie is a follow-up of a previous vintage-office-supply related project life journaling cards  and  elements freebie I had posted a few months ago.

I have a board on Pinterest dedicated to  vintage and retro office decor and office supplies, so check it out when you can. The color scheme for today’s freebie is one of my favorites — a variety of neutrals in tan, beige, ivory and black.

I was inspired by a beautiful office and craft storage organization pin that I saw on Pinterest.  I really loved the organization, the color scheme and of course, the collectible vintage typewriter and vintage  clocks. So, I scouted Etsy and other online shops to get images from vintage office supply advertising to create these journaling elements.

As for the details about the freebie, there are 20 elements in all.  You have four journaling cards, and several elements as well.   As always, they can either be used for journaling in your project life projects, smashbooks, art journals or other types of memory keeping.

You Might Like:

Free Printable Download – Vintage Office Supply Elements

Facts about the freebie:

  • This free printable has 20 elements on an 8 1/2″ by 11″ pdf file.
  • The file size is  2.27 MB in size.
  • These elements were created at 300 dpi, so your printing results should be very clear and sharp.  Although I try to keep the shapes simple, so that you can cut them out easily with a good pair of scissors, I couldn’t resist the fancy shape chalkboard-like number tags.  You might just need a crafting or x-acto knife to get around the edges.

Thank you for all your Pinterest and other social media 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, thank goodness for Google translate!

I hope you don’t mind when I check out your Pinterest boards, and repin some of your pins to some of 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.

How to Use this ” Vintage Office Supply” Printable:

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

  1. The easiest way to use this printable is to print it out on a full sheet of white cardstock and if you own a Silhouette Cameo or Silhouette Portrait or other digital cutter you can cut out the journaling cards and journaling elements using their designer software.
  2. The most labor intensive (or time consuming) way is to print out the journaling cards or journaling elements on 65 lb. white cardstock and “fussy cut” out by hand, I have spaced the elements so that you can use a pair of good craft scissors or a slide paper trimmer  to get a clean cut and handle the fussy cutting.

Terms of Use

Some things you should know before downloading:

* Vintage Glam Studio printables (formerly under the name Vintage Glam Collectibles) are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. (I own the domains for both names and will be dedicating this blog to more design related articles and printables. Don’t be concerned if you have posted it under the previous name, my traffic boost  and other factors are contributing to the name change.)
*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, Youtube and Facebook are great social media sharing platforms, it’s the  sharing without a link back that can be a problem.

You can access the pdf file>>>> Vintage Office Supply Journaling Elements

Or if you like, click on the picture below for the download.   Hope you like them! 🙂

Vintage Office Supply 2 | Journaling cards printable

Image Credit:

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.

Related Posts You Might Like:

Free Printable Download – Vintage Office Supply Journaling Elements

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