Daily Planner for 2014 - Part Two: Pages and Tabs

Now for the inside, the pages and tabs.

Note: This is a three part series, CLICK HERE to see 

Part One: The Cover

I heard about the altered moleskin planner project when Roben-Marie Smith posted about her group   Art to the 5th and their planner  The Documented Life Project.  It looked crazy-fun but I knew I probably couldn't just figure out all the inserts and such myself so I also signed up for Lorraine Bell's mini-class, Journal Play which is limited in scope to building this planner. I LOVE classes that are focused like that. No tangents, no wandering off. Just getting what needs to be done, done.

Just to clarify, you can participate in The Documented Life project using any notebook at all and you don't need the class. I just thought it would be fun to try it as the creators intended.

For the inserts it was suggested that you use watercolor paper but you could also use any ephemera you liked. As a long-time mixed media maker I had scads of painted backgrounds just waiting to be used so I cut them down to fit into the journal.

One word of caution I've figured out the hard way. If you're using all sorts of random project in a journal you need to do a bit of detective work and remember what the background was made with. My first insert had lovely bright circles strewn about and it turns out they were pastel. So whenever I applied heat it melted and I couldn't write over it. I love a challenge but it was a little time consuming and I'd probably steer clear of pages with pastel in the future.

Here's a close up of an insert with a failed project on it. The bunny was cute enough so I saved that bit.

For the tabs, the instructions said to use a tab punch and a laminator. I don't have either so I made due with what was on hand.

I found a great downloadable sheet of butterfly tabs  and printed it on card stock. I cut the tabs apart in rough rectangles and then glued gelli-printed paper to the back (the unprinted side) cut them out, with scissors, along the printed lines. Then I typed the months, cut them out and glued them to the gelli print. Next I 'laminated' them with packing tape. To attach them I ran them through my zyron sticker maker as I still had adhesive left from Christmas card making. But you could use any adhesive or even staples.

 I love how it turned out.  So bright and cheerful!

And here is the journal filled with 52 additional pages perfect for art making.

Thanks for the visit. Tomorrow we'll be talking about closures and how to keep all that loveliness contained.