Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's Kristine with you again today, and I'm sharing my planner spread for next week, February 29 through March 6.  I definitely need my planner to be functional, so there is plenty of functional stamping in it, but I also like to decorate it so that it makes me smile each time I look at it.  Check out the finished product:

I just adore those dragon stamps from Sweet Stamp Shop, so I was super excited to be able to use them in my layout this week.  Let's get started so you can see step by step how I built this layout!

First off, here's what the planner looks like with nothing done to it.  I use an Inkwell Press Livewell Planner in the flex (horizontal) layout:

The first thing I usually do each week is choose washi tape.  I was very happy to see the teal color scheme for March, as the February pages were all done in a sort of peachy color and I was ready for a switch.  I chose some of the washi tape from Michaels' new Boho line and laid down strips to the left of the teal boxes. For me, the washi was a little too wide, so I used a metal ruler and a craft knife to cut it so I could peel half of it off.  (If you do this, be very careful not to press to hard with the knife - you don't want to cut through the page, just the washi!)

I did that on both pages, then added a coordinating washi tape at the top and bottom of each page, also cutting it to make it a bit thinner.  Here's what the spread looks like with all the washi in:

I use my planner for both work and home items, so I like to split the weekdays in half on the days that I have school.  I put my work to-do's and appointments on the left, and my home to-do's on the right.  To separate each day like this, I use a ruler as a guide and put black dots down the middle of each day's row (note that there are no dots on Tuesday - we don't have school that day because of the primary elections):

Next, I decided to fancy up the dates a little.  I used the banner stamp that comes in Sweet Stamp Shop's Dragon set to make new date banners.  I stamped those on sticker paper, then cut them out and stuck them down onto some patterned scrapbook paper that coordinates with my color scheme:

Leaving a little border around the outside, I cut those out again and ran them through my Xyron sticker maker:

Then all I had to do was peel them up, stick them over the existing dates in my planner, and write the dates on them in black pen.  I think the finished dates definitely coordinate better with my dragon theme!

Once the dates were done, it was time to add my functional stamping.  On the left side of each day, for my work items, I used a stamp from Sweet Stamp Shop's Cuppa Coffee set to put "the daily grind" at the top.  I also used a check box from one of their retired sets to make the to-do boxes (though you could probably use a the check boxes from their Feeling Today set to achieve the same result):

For my home to-do's on the right side of the dotted line, I again used the check box stamp and a stamp from Sweet Stamp Shop's Basic Tabs set that I use to track my daily language practice (I'm attempting to learn Italian for an upcoming trip to Rome!).  I used the globe from the Plan School set to make it cute.  For interest, and to further separate the work and home items, I used two ink colors that coordinated with my washi.  Once all those items were stamped, I used a black pen to write in all the to-do and appointment items:

Moving to the right side of the spread, I used one of Sweet Stamp Shop's Weekend Flags stamps and letters from their Mixed Alpha set to create my weekend banner:

I used the same stamp sets as on the left side of the spread to put my to-do's in for Saturday and Sunday, also adding in stamps from the Plan Craft, Plan Fitness, and Plan to Eat sets.  (Since I do many of the same items both days, I found it was easier to stamp each activity once and put two check boxes next to it - one for Saturday and one for Sunday.  This has really saved space in my layout!)

To finish off my functional stamping, I used icons from Studiol2e in the top two teal boxes each day.  In the top box, I track the steps of my skincare routine.  For that, I used the little banners from the List It set (four banners, one for each step - as I complete them morning and night, I check them off).  In the center box, I track chores I need to do that day.  For those, I used a variety of icons from the Iconic and Iconic Activities sets.  In my bottom teal box, I like to write in a few short words each evening to describe how my day was.  For this, I used the "today" stamp from Sweet Stamp Shop's Title Script set.  Here's how the spread looks once all my functional stamping is done:

Now comes the fun part: filling in the cracks with some decorative stamping!  I knew that I wanted to use the stamps from Sweet Stamp Shop's Dragon set, but I decided to add a little twist by paper piecing my dragons to add pattern to the dragons' bellies and wings.  To start, I chose two coordinating papers and some white sticker paper and stamped the dragon three times:

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Next, I cut around the sticker dragon and then cut off his wings and cut out his belly.  I have to admit, this part was a bit nerve-wracking!

I cut off the wings from the polka dot dragon and cut out the belly from the teal dragon, then pieced those parts together with the sticker dragon.  I dry fit them first to make sure they'd look okay.  Omg, you have no idea how happy I was to see that this actually worked!!

Once I knew the pieces would fit together all right, I ran the two wings and the belly piece through the sticker maker:

And then I peeled the backing off the main dragon body and stuck all four pieces down in my planner where I wanted the dragon to be:

LOVE!!  That dragon made me so happy that I made another one for the other side of the planner spread. The last thing I did was stamp two eggs and some fire (all from the Dragon stamp set) on sticker paper, cut out and stick them all in, and color everything (including the functional icons) with Prismacolor colored pencils blended with gamsol.  I added a couple of the sentiment stamps from the Dragon set to complete the look, and voila, it was done!

I can't deny that it took some work to get this layout done, but I also can't deny that I can't WAIT to open up my planner tomorrow and look at this gorgeous spread all week!

I hope you like the paper piecing technique and decide to try it! Please feel free to leave us a comment down below and let us know what you think about this post.  And if you do try paper piecing, tag us on Instagram (@teachplancraft, @jes_planning) so we can see your creation.  Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  It's Kristine back with you today, and I have a quick, easy, CUTE solution to a birthday party problem!

Last week, my dear friend's son turned 6 years old, and she was having a birthday party for him.  The budget was tight, but my friend wanted to give all the children a fun, personal favor to remember the party by.  We were trying to come up with possible ideas, but nothing would work for her.  I was thinking about all my card-making and planner stamps, wondering if I could make something with them instead of buying something.  And then inspiration struck!

I have been using these do-it-yourself buttons at Michaels for a couple of years now - I'm an 8th grade math teacher and I make buttons for the kids who score 100 on tests to wear around school:

I had just given a bunch of buttons out a couple of days before, since we'd just had our unit 5 test, so I had these buttons on the brain.  And I realized that I could use my stamps to create fun buttons for my friend's son's birthday party!

Here is what the package of buttons looks like when you buy it.  I found them in the children's crafts section of Michaels, and they were $4.99 for the package of 12.  Not a bad deal!

The backs of the buttons pop off the front fairly easily, though you do have to be careful not to crack them.  The first thing I did was pop off all the backs and remove the paper inserts.

The inserts are not quite big enough to completely fill the buttons; if you look at the photo of the buttons still in the packaging, you can see a bit of clear space around each blue insert.  So I used a compass to draw a circle that's slightly smaller than 2.25" in diameter on an index card and cut that out to make my template.  Then I used that to trace 12 circles on smooth white cardstock (I have also found that plain paper works just as well - budget win!) and chose images to stamp on each circle. (This party did not have a theme, so I chose generic images all from Sweet Stamp Shop so that the images would all have the same general style and feel. You could certainly use any stamps you have, mixing and matching to create a set that works for your party theme, if you have one.) Since the kids going to the party were fairly young, I decided to go with a few large images on each button and stamped them in black ink.  I purposely did not add any sentiments to the buttons.

Once the buttons were stamped, it was quick and easy to cut them out, put them in the buttons, and pop the backs on.  I left them black and white on purpose; one of the activities my friend planned for the party was for the kids to each choose a button and color it themselves.  Then they'd truly have a personal party favor to take home and wear!

I decided to also make her son a "birthday boy" button that he could wear for the whole party to make him feel extra special on his big day.  Are these not completely adorable?

This project cost only $0.42 per child, since I already had all the stamps and ink on hand.  You can't beat that for a budget project that's unique and totally cute!  And really, the possibilities are endless for these buttons. Let your imagination fly!

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting today!  We'd love your feedback on this post, so please feel free to comment below.  And if you decide to make your own stamped buttons, tag us on Instagram (@teachplancraft, @jes_planning) so we can see your awesome creations. Have a great day!

Stamp sources:  All stamps from Sweet Stamp Shop:

Gnome

Dragon

Royal Wish

Elements

Unicorn

Pizza Cake

Mixed Alpha

Hey everyone, its Jes! I'm here today to show you how I plan each week in my Inkwell Press Flex Planner.  I love sticky notes. They are my third favorite planner accessory, the first being stamps and the second pens. Whenever anything comes up that I need or want to remember I jot it down on a sticky note and pop it in place.

After a lot of practice and working through what I actually took the time to write down from week to week, I came up with a basic layout style that works well for me.  I like a bit of washi in the bottom for decoration and occasionally a strip of skinny washi down the side.  My planner mainly tracks habits.  I used the Basic Tabs stamp set to add in boxes for three of my habits. I like to set three goals for myself every day. I love the Plan Script set from Sweet Stamp Shop (retired) for setting this up.

Then I used several of the Plan sets from Sweet Stamp Shop to finish setting up my planner (see end of post for links).  I track my piano practices, language practice (I'm learning Italian), art projects, and the book I am currently reading in the main spread. In the three boxes to the side I track chores, daily activities with my four year old daughter, and finances. 

My notes section varies from week to week.  If I have a lot of things I want to accomplish I use it as a running to do list for the current week and the following week. Other times I'll add a quote or stamp some decorations.  This week I needed the to do lists. 

I love the look of the gorgeously decorated spreads with tons of color,  but I found that they just don't work for me.  I'm a very functional planner. I use a bit of washi and a bold ink color to make my planner pretty, and keep it clean enough that I'll actually use it.  This is the final spread. 

Supplies:

Planner- Inkwell Press Flex

Stamps- Sweet Stamp Shop

• Basic Tabs
• Plan Everyday
• Plan Home
• Plan School
• Plan Summer
• Plan To Eat
• Plan To Go
• Plan To Work
• Plan Script (retired)
• Plan Travel (retired)

*Piano Stamp from Mommy Lhey

Ink: VersaFine Smokey Gray and VersaColor Turquoise (10777530)

Hi everyone! Jes here, with a quick little birthday card tutorial. I used the Super Boy, and the Happy Birthday stamps sets from Sweet Stamp Shop to create this cute little card for my husband's birthday.

I knew when I started that I wanted to have the little super hero on a background of stars or clouds.  While flipping through my rather embarrassingly large collection of paper I found this lovely starry paper from Lawn Fawn. It was perfect.  

I used a blank card from Michaels that I've had in my stash for a while. I measured an inch from the top and two inches from each side and used my paper trimmer to cut out my rectangle fairly quickly. After a few practice runs with a blank sheet of paper it was pretty easy to cut out my shape. 

I then cut a matching piece from my star paper, but just a bit bigger so that it could be glued to the inside of my card. 

After attaching the starry background to the inside of my card, I used the Happy Birthday stamp set and some white card stock to create the little banner sentiment, and glued that in place as well. 

After stamping out my little super hero with Lawn Fawn Black Licorice Ink, I fussy cut him out and used my Tombow Dual Brush Markers to color him in.  

My final step was securing him in place with a few foam dots to add a pop of dimension. 

All in all, discounting time to take photos the card took about twenty minutes start to finish.


Supplies Used.

Paper- Lawn Fawn Beachside Collection and a card base from Michaels
Ink - Lawn Fawn Black Licorice 

Markers - Tombow Dual Brush Pens
Stamps - Happy Birthday and Super Boy from Sweet Stamp Shop
Acrylic Block - Sweet Stamp Shop Round Block

Paper Trimmer - Fiskars 12 IN Paper Trimmer (Not the one I have, but this one is better)

Adhesive - Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue

Good morning, friends, and Happy Valentine's Day!  It's Kristine with you today, and I'm going to give you a quick step-by-step tutorial on how I laid out my fitness planner for next week.  I was lucky enough to snag one of the Me and My Big Ideas fitness planner boxed sets from Michaels in December, and I absolutely LOVE how it keeps me accountable and helps me to stay on track! (I'm not sure if MAMBI is still making these, but even if they're not, you could adapt what I've done here to just about any planner.) Here's what the finished week looks like before I write in it:

Simple and clean, but also pretty to help keep me motivated!

So let's get started.  Here's what the planner looks like undecorated:

Each week, my basic design is the same.  I begin by taking the pages out of the planner (the disc-bound system is REALLY great for this), then choosing and putting down my washi tape.  This helps me decide on a color palette for the week.  For those curved areas on the left, I lay down the washi and use a craft knife to carefully cut just through the washi layer and peel up the excess.  It's a little tedious, but I love how clean it looks:

Here's what the page looks like when all the washi is down:

Next, since I've covered up the day headers at the top, I create my own header flags.  For this layout, I used Studiol2e's Flag Builder set to create 2-layer headers on sticker paper.  I started by stamping the solid flag in VersaMagic chalk ink (Mango Madness), then adding an outline flag in Brilliance ink (Pearlescent Ivy):

To complete the flags, I used Sweet Stamp Shop's Mixed Alpha set to indicate the days of the week, stamped in black:

Since the inks take a little longer to dry on sticker paper than on regular paper, I set the day flags aside for a bit while I worked on the rest of the layout.  I used Sweet Stamp Shop's Plan to Eat and Title Script sets to stamp in meals, the water tracker at the very bottom, and the "today" header in the gray areas (this area is meant to be used to track exercise, but since it's so cold outside and I'm a wimp, I'm using it right now to track my emotions and feelings about food):

I also used the little check box from one of Sweet Stamp Shop's retired sets (but any little box will do) to create check boxes for my weekly goals and to indicate if I've kept to my eating plan each day:

We're almost done! I cut out and stuck on the day flags, stamped a scale for my weigh-in on Sunday (from Sweet Stamp Shop's Plan Fitness set), and added a cute motivational sticker in the notes section.  And that's it!  My weekly layout is ready to go, done in under an hour, and the cuteness factor will keep me coming back to it day after day (and when you're talking about fitness goals, keeping with it is the key!).

Remember what it looked like before?  Yeah, I definitely like the cuteness better!

Thanks for joining me today!  We'd love to hear what you think, so feel free to drop us a line in the comments.  Here's to all of us meeting our fitness and health goals, whatever they may be!

Hey, everyone!  It's Kristine again, and today I have the quickest, easiest project you can imagine - a custom dry erase board!  You will be amazed at how simple this project is - I completed mine in less than an hour - and at how many applications it has.

Here's what the final result looks like - isn't it awesome?

Let's get started!  The materials you will need are (pictured below): a picture frame of your choice (any size will do, but think about what you want to use it for, where it will be located, and how much writing will be on it), paper to serve as your background (I used brown craft cardstock), a cutting mat and craft knife OR a paper trimmer, stamps and ink of your choice (I used the Title Script and Epic Notes sets from Sweet Stamp Shop), and coloring medium of your choice (I used Prismacolor colored pencils).

Begin by taking the backing off your frame and removing all the pieces from the inside.  Using the paper that came with the frame as a guide, cut a piece of decorative paper to the same size.  You want the paper to fit snugly inside the frame with no gaps showing through the front.

Keeping in mind that there will be a bit of the paper that doesn't show around the edges because of how the front of the frame overlaps the glass, stamp your images wherever you like.  I'm planning to use my dry erase frame as a reminder for meetings and tasks at school, so I put my stamped images at the bottom and left most of the paper empty so that my writing on the glass won't complete with the stamped images.

Once the stamping is done, color in your images to make them fun and cute!

Finally, put the parts of your frame back together with the new stamped sheet right behind the glass, and you're good to go!  You can write on the glass with a dry erase marker, which erases easily with just a tissue, or a permanent Sharpie marker - Sharpie writing won't smudge off easily, but will need to be erased with a cotton ball dampened with a bit of rubbing alcohol.  

This particular frame lives on my desk at school and I use it to write down anything I don't want to forget and need right in front of me all the time - meetings, detention dates, duties, deadlines for grades, etc.  It's super handy!

A dry erase board like this could also be really handy to have at home.  You could make a personalized message board for the family, a menu center to help you keep track of meals for the week, cleaning schedule, ongoing grocery list, just about anything!  Here's one I made for a family to use to leave each other notes about why they love each other - how cute would that be out on the kitchen counter for anyone to use at any time?  How fun would it be to come home and find a message to YOU there from one of your loved ones?

And hey, isn't this a great gift idea, too?  It could be personalized for any person or family.

We hope you have enjoyed seeing how easy it is to make one of these dry erase boards, and we hope you try it yourself!  If you do make one, drop us a line below and let us know how it went!