My Other Creations: Generic Planner Re-do

I'm lovin' this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog theme, which is, "Make A Plan."  I have to admit that I am not the type of person who carries a planner around (where would it fit with all the library books and snacks I keep in my purse?) but thoroughly enjoy seeing all of those clever planner pages out there!  Since I didn't have a fancy planner, I decided to give a generic planner a makeover.

I picked up a cheapy planner at Walmart, which started out like this:

I wanted to give it a new cover and some dividers, then re-bind it with my Cinch machine.  So the first step was to cut off the binding, which I did with some needle-nose pliers and some wire cutters.

Maybe I had some inner stress that I didn't know about, but it was actually kind of therapeutic to destroy the wire binding.

I took the unbound pages to my paper cutter and cut off all the holes.

With the pages ready to be re-bound, I started making the cover.  I chose a piece of Prima Garden Fable paper and stamped some images on it using Ranger Black Archival ink.

I whipped out the watercolors and painted inside the shapes, then drizzled more watercolors around the shapes.

I punched out some colored dots, outlined them with Sharpie, and curled some Prima Wire Thread into circles.  I added a piece of yarn here and there, too.  I glued them on and added some week days that I cut out of a piece of patterned paper. 

I drew a girl and fussy-cut her out and glued her on, then added the "Go and Do" sentiment which was cut with Tim Holtz's Block Talk lowercase alphabet.  I stamped on some dates and glued the whole picture to a piece of chipboard that was the size of my planner cover.

The last step was to use the Cinch machine and a Cinch coiled wire to bind the whole thing back together again.  I made tabs out of patterned paper, a Prima flower and Project Life cards.

I plan on leaving this planner in my craft room and using it not only to write what I need to do, but also to record what I have done.  I try to embrace the mantra of "Go and Do" because I have a tendency to sit and dream instead.  Dreaming is so important, but action is a critical part of the formula, too, and one that I can improve on. 

I had a lot of fun creating my planner and these are the fabulous supplies I used from Simon Says Stamp to make it:

Simon Says Clear Stamps SCRIBBLE FLOWERS	Simon Says Stamp One With Nature Clear Stamps	Waffle Flower stamps: Flower Circles	Prima A4 Garden Fable Paper	Echo Park I Love Sunshine 12x12 Paper	October Afternoon Summertime 12x12 Paper	Spectrum Noir Markers: Pale Hues
Spectrum Noir Markers: Yellow	Spectrum Noir Markers: Pink	Pebbles Chalk	Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies, Block Talk alphabet lowercase	Sizzix Big Shot Machine	American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Roller Date Stamp	Project Life Odds and Ends Kit
Black Sharpie Fine Point Pen	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad	Hero Arts Basic Alphabet Stamps	Loew Cornell WATERCOLOR CAKES 24 Paints	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad MERMAID LAGOON
Cinch - We R Memory Keepers

I'm excited to see what you come up with for this week's, "Make a Plan" theme.  Upload your creation to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.