I'm in the process of perfecting my planner. I made one with a 1/2 size black binder but the rings are too big, and it's hard to lug it around. So i transfered everything to a thinner binder which is a little less wide, and a little taller.
I bought a light-reflector with the initial "y" on it for the spine so it doesn't get confused with everything else. Then, I got a mini translucent pocket that I can slip a cool photo into. I'm thinking about sewing a slipcover for the binder, but I don't really know how to sew.

Hopefully, I can borrow my dad's digital camera so I can show it off when it's done.

Dawn, thanks!

I think I am going to do something like this as a gift - make calendars (year and Month) and put pockets between the pages for bills and/or cards.

I want the pages to have enough room to write in the boxes, so they will spread the two pages.

April

i got a small agenda for 5$ from dayrunner at this.. discount outlet. NICE. im gonna disect it an put my own little thing together. WOOOO!

Bloomeenee!
I was wondering if you had any success with the experimental revamping of your old binder?
any pictures?
thanx

My planner went pretty well... it's a bit wonky, but you cant tell when it's closed... no pix yet, but i'll be adding them to shinycraftypeople when i get roud to taking them. it was *so* easy, but from what i've picked up from ythis thread and looking at pix, US binders have a long metal spine all along the length of the binder (is this making sense?), whereas in the uk they usually only have two rings on a short spine in the centre of the binder, making it easy to cut down to a smaller size... hmmm i'm rambling now!
Hope this makes sense!
Bloo

ok, so for using the 5.5x8.5 paper in the 7x9 binder.

So I get my hole punch and measure how far in that goes before I make my templates?

Thanks! Oh, is there any kind of resource for buying largish quanities of paper in multiple colors, instead of buying reams I'll never get though?

I use a 3 ring 7x9 and the best thing I ever did was to get a hole-punch that clips in to the binder. I am a compulsive paper-saver, so now when i get a newspaper article, band flyer etc I punch it and file it. I think dayrunner makes them.

I have a project section to track everything I'm working on, and a someday/maybe section. My reference section has a list of friends and family's birthdays, a chart of my menstrual cycle and I recently printed out a list of digital cameras that I can compare when shopping.

I haven't decided yet which calendat format I like best, I was using a simple lined page with 31 spaces. Now I am trying the half-page printout in Outlook, and the hole-punches are a little close to the printing so I will see if I can live with it.

jchinique, I use something like the 31 lines for my calendar. I have 15 on one page and 15/16 on the second page. Each day has 2 lines to it's easier for me to write things down.

ziza, I bought a 50 sheet pack of scrapbooking paper and then had those cut in half. You can get 8.5" x 11" scrapbook paper at places like Wal-Mart, Michaels, etc.

Hey, bloomeenee, can you send me a copy of the old thread, since it sounds like you have it?

*BUMP*

Because threads like this should never die.

I ended up purchasing a planner but have some other category pages I'd like to fit in. Does anyone have any thoughts of how I can do that? I have a master grocery list, master chore/errands list, nutrition chart, mood chart and 'books to read' list already typed on 8x11 pages - the planner I have is 8x11 as well & has spiral rings (like http://creativehardwarestore.com/GBC9775028.html ). I suppose I could just staple them to one of the covers, but I'd really like it to look nicely finished - and even for the extra pages to look as though they fit right in with the others.

Any thoughts?

Jolie,

I got a spiral bound planner after I had previously made my own, but I got sick of not being able to put my own pages in it, so I stopped using it.

I realize that this is no help at all, but now you know you're the only one who couldn't figure out a good enough way to nicely add pages to a spiral planner.

jolie:
what is the spacing between your spirals like? are they quite big? i once used a spiral bound sketchbook for a planner and the spacings were quite wide, so if i ever wanted to put in anything, i'd line the paper up, pencil in where the holes would be and use a one-hole hole punch to put in all the holes, then slit the holes on one side and fit it in. it worked quite nicely. this is probably confusing but i can't think how to word it better. if you'd like i can try and post some pictures?

Thanks Sprung! I really had a hard time buying it because I knew you could do so much with one you make yourself ~ I had made a few months worth of weekly sheets but just wasn't happy with my result; I do LOVE the other fun pages I typed out filled with the great ideas from this thread though! Hopefully someone has found a way to add extra pages!

Taffee - Makes perfect sense! The spacing is kindof tight tho. The holes are a little more than 1/8" diameter and they are spaced 1/8" apart. I looked a little more closely and I'm able to take the cover off - so I might attempt to punch the holes (although I think the punch might be a little too big) - the extra paper would have to go in the front, but that's okay. Thank you! This would be great for the pages that don't change often (like books to read and nutrition guides) but I still wonder what to do with the sheets that I'll need to add & replace often (like chores/errands, grocery master list...)....

Jolie - maybe you could just punch 3 holes into the pages you made yourself, and since you figured out how to take the cover off of your planner, you could do some sort of Japanese binding technique...Like you'd have your planner's pages with all of the millions of holes, and you would just thread those together with the 3 holes you've punched into your own pages. That way you could also make your own cover, make it really personalized...?

i skimmed the list and didn't see this mentioned but the thing i lovelovelove about my slingshot planner is the Menstraul Calander. I mark it every month and it's proven to be very handy. good luck on your planner!

I ended up buying a Franklin Covey planner at Target for just $12. I'm working on re-doing the inside pages because they're pretty plain and the lines are a tad too small for me to write in.

An idea I came up with for the dividers to make them stand out is I took some watercolor paper I had lying around the house. I didn't want to go to the trouble of buying cardstock, because both are about the same texture. I searched around online and have found various black and white illustrations from children's books. i.e. for my "to read" section on the divider I printed on it a b&w illustration from "Alice in Wonderland". It turned out really well, then i traced the outline of the divider, punched holes and i have my own. I plan on doing the months probably w/ more illustrations. It's a diff. approach and it snazzes up the planner quite a bit. Anyone have any more illustration ideas?

kasey - I love Franklin Covey! Their system is like a cult for organizers...my dad works for the city and actually got paid to go to this class on how to use Franklin Covey products. He got a certificate and everything.

Anyway, I used a lot of Franklin Covey's pages as inspiration for my own, and as nerdy as it is, I figured out a way that fits me best for staying organized.

Maybe if you really liked the artist who did the Alice in Wonderland print, you could look him/her up so your illustrations would all be a similar style.

Just a few suggestions for DIY planner peeps:

1. cafepress has a publishing service now that you can send a PDF to and they bind you up a little book in perfect bound (like a novel), stapled or spiral (you can do those at kinko's too)
2. there's a neat thread at crafter about making notepads that you might be able to apply to this >http://www.craftster.org/yabbse/index.php?board=18;action=display;threadid=722
3. i have "workout cards" (basically just 3x5" index cards with various weight exercises written on them) that i just punch with holes and hold together with a binder ring ... that's a thought for a planner sort of deal

Personally, I use a PDA. I wrote my own software for it so that it's totally customized ... a very very very geeky solution.

Microsoft has calendar and planner teplates you can download (for free I think) I have yet to try this. They also have clip tons of art.
>http://office.microsoft.com/templates/category.aspx?CategoryID=CT061993171033&CTT=4&Origin=ES790000301033

another idea for something to include (my planner is going to be the size of websters dictionary at this rate!) is an envelope of postcards,stamps and an address list so you can jot off and send a quick note to someone out of town. people love getting mail & I'm notoriously horrible at writing.
if you're really ambitious you could take the idea further and sketch, paint, collage, etc some notecards and diy your own postcards, hole punch them to hold them in your binder but perforate them (as previously mentioned) to have tear-off, personalized postcards that will make you the best friend ever!
hope someone can use this idea~
fantastic thread by the way!

does anyone know where to find 2" half size binders? my 1" one from staples is getting crowded!

*Bump* cause its a great thread!

I managed to find a two inch binder at Office Max. Some stores have them and some don't, even if it's the same chain. Very frustrating.

Personally, the two inch binder is HUGE. I use it to keep my extra pages in, and try to keep my smaller binder weeded out.