I am SO excited for this post! I'm not sure if you know this about me or not, but I am quite the planner nerd! My planner obsession started several years ago out of necessity. It seems that I am always searching for "THE" perfect planner! You can imagine how insanely busy our household is with five very active kids, a ranch and animals to look after, school functions, School Board and Booster Club meetings, and design team commitments! When Nichole emailed me about joining the new Moments Inked team I was very intrigued (that is after I got over my initial giddy shock of actually receiving an email from Nichole)! A planner system from Papertrey? How can it be anything but awesome?
After seeing the system first hand, I can tell you that it is indeed amazing! There are so many ways to personalize it and make it your own, without losing any of the streamlined functionality needed in a planner! Oh, and the colors! The beautiful, beautiful colors!
It is truly an honor that I get to share with you my thoughts and ideas about this planner system! Because I am constantly pressed for time, I find myself drawn to the efficient yet lovely style of this planner. With the companion products, accessories can be pre-made in mass quantity making it easy to customize your pages when you need it. I love that!
When I first opened the box and saw this planner, my color loving heart skipped a beat! And believe me, they are even prettier in person!
Even though I loved all three of the covers available, this is the one that reflected me the most. I heard someone talk about "doing today what your future self will thank you for" a while back and it has found a place in my heart. Often times, it is the little things that really can make a big difference...whether it is food choices, exercise, or even remembering to be grateful.
Do you see those tabs? They make me so happy! I L.O.V.E. all of those gorgeous colors lined up in a row like that! I know, they have a purpose...but gosh they're pretty!
This is one of the first pages in the planner. One of the things that I found myself doing was making the process of becoming more organized too hard. I would make these ginormous lists of everything that I had to accomplish and then feel like I failed when I didn't complete it all! I'm pretty sure the "Focus" point on this page was written just for me! :-) (By the way, if you want a larger view of any of the photos just click on them!)
Happy sigh... Even the yearly calendar is pretty to look at!
This feature is one that I am the most excited about! Right after the yearly calendar page, there are the Dates to Remember pages! One of my goals this year is to actually send out the cards that I make! That may seem like a small thing, but it is something that I have been pretty bad about. I love having this in my planner so that I can easily see which birthdays and anniversaries are coming up!
Before the start of each month, there is a quote. This one in particular is in keeping with my personal theme for this year (doing things now that my future self will thank me for). I love having so many encouraging reminders!
As for the actual planning, there are three different areas provided all separated by the colorful tabs on the right. The first is a monthly calendar (I will show you a picture a few photos down), then a weekly two page spread (pictured above), and a separate page for each day. At first, I thought that this might be a bit much...thinking that I wouldn't have the time to fill out three separate parts. But as I was looking at it more, I see they all have different purposes. There isn't any redundancy in writing on my part...just a better way to separate my goals and appointments! I think it's absolutely brilliant!!!
This photo is of the weekly calendar. As you can see, it's not very full yet. I haven't had a lot of time with the planner yet so I just jotted down the most important events in the coming week. It's hard to see in this photo, but I stamped the "no school" sentiment using Spring Moss ink in the Monday Morning space. I have two kids in Elementary/Middle school and one in High School. To easily differentiate the different school functions, I use different ink colors (the one I used is for the Elementary/Middle school kids).
Here's a closer look at some of the banner stickers I created! I stamped the solid banner image from the new Planner Banners stamp set onto a White Adhesive Sheet and then cut them out with the coordinating Planner Banners Die. Like I mentioned earlier, I like to color code things so that I know at a glance what the appointment/event is about. I used Aqua Mist ink for these banners. These will be used for doctor/dentist visits (which we happen to have a couple of this coming week). For the dentist appointments coming up, I just stamped the dentist sentiment (also from the new Planner Banners set) on my already made aqua banners, peeled the back off of the paper, and added it to my planner!
I also created some banners for my son's piano lessons. I used the polka dot and heart images from the Planner Banners set and the "lesson" sentiment from the Family Banners stamp set.
Here's a look at the daily planning sheet. First thing I noticed was the crazy awesome color combos! yes, each month has a different color combo! So inspiring! My favorite things about this page are the "Be Grateful" and "Memorable Moment" sections! I have yet to fill these out as this is for next Monday, but I am looking forward to it!
I wanted to show you the March monthly calendar spread. One of the first ideas I had when I saw the Moments Inked system and companion items was to create a birthday list for each of my children. Since my daughter has the next birthday (in March), that is the first one I created! First, I laminated a photo of her and then cut it out using one of the Basic Pages dies. This made it so all I had to do was to push it onto the black coil!
Once the photo was laminated, I added the die cut 19 numbers (I used the Block Alphabet Numbers Die set).
After you flip over the photo you can see the sweet little list that I created. I used another one of the Basic Pages dies along with the new Posted stamp set. The focal image is from the 2012 Birthday Tags set.
The vellum layer is just for decoration. What can I say, I am a sucker for vellum and pretty florals! I stamped the roses from The Sweet Life stamp set and then heat set the ink using my heat tool. I love that I can add as many pages as I want! The large spiral will accommodate quite a bit of extra stuff! Also, you might have noticed that I took the color scheme for my added pages from the March calendar!
Another of the features that I am most excited about is the graph paper included int he back! It's perfect for jotting down sketch ideas, color combos, or anything else that I get inspired by as I am out and about!
In this one planner, you can organize your day, week, or month as well as keep memories, journal thoughts and memories, plan meals, monitor your health, and so much more!
Make sure to head to Nichole's blog for more info on the Moments Inked system and all of the coordinating companion products!
Thanks for stopping by today!
Hugs,
Laurie
