Planners and Planner Supplies

I decided to take a break with making things for the home and share a post about my planners. This is a new hobby (so to say) of mine. I've been an inconsistent planner before, jotting down what I needed and all that jazz but lately, I've been really into decorating them. I have yet to find planner peace but I'm still tinkering around. One of my goals is to make a balanced schedule and it's helping me along with that nicely.

So, let me start off by showing off some of the items that I use*. 

*Please note: Everything I use might not be for you. This is just my own opinion.

These are my two planners. I have a personal/everyday/goes-with-me-almost-everywhere planner. That is the A5 planner. A5 is one of my favorite size for notebooks and for planners. It keeps me from overloading my days with tasks I know I won't finish.

The A4 planner is my business planner/binder of sorts. I'm trying to bring out my Etsy shop and get ready for possibly publishing soon (you can find more on the publishing on my other blog - here). I'm just trying to get on track with everything. Currently, I'm focusing more on my novels and writing side more than my Etsy shop. At least for now.

Pens are always a love of mine. I'm really picky about what I write with an tend to lean toward certain pens for different writing tasks. My favorite planning pens are the Papermate Flair Pens. There is a large variety of colors and write smoothly. I generally write with the black pens but will use other colors for other things that I need to pop out at me. 

Stickers are fun in planners. I use them for decorating or for tasks that I want to mark out on my week-at-a-glance pages. A lot of people sell task stickers on Etsy. In the pictures above, I separated the stickers that I have for a reason. They basically have different uses other than my daily task stickers but they came from two different places.

1. These stickers are from a shop called OneOrangeSnowflake on Etsy. I'm hoping I caught the shop on a bad time because it took nearly a month for my order to get to me. The shop does have good stickers though and I really do love my teepee stickers. If I ever run out of those, I'll repurchase them from her shop.

2. The Korean Diary stickers I order from an Etsy shop called JaliceArt. I love these stickers. I do find that I'm reluctant to use them but I know I can buy more. I'm just strange like that. These ship from China so for some people, it will take much longer to get to your mailbox but they are worth it. They are cute and there are a lot of stickers on the 6 sheets.

3. Sticko brand stickers are probably the easiest things to find in my area. They are usually pretty cheap if you look in the right places.

4. In the last box, are some of the stickers my sister made. She is opening her shop on May 8th, 2015 and is selling lots of awesome stuff. She made these stickers herself and she made the typewriter stickers for me. I've already started using them. There is a huge variety of stickers. Her shop can be found here and her website can be found here.

Washi tape is another item I use often. These are just little samples of the washi I use. I wrapped them around spools and put them in a little organizer on my desk. Washi Tape can but used for several kinds of projects and they aren't usually over priced. 

Paper clips are something I use more frequently than I realize. I use them to mark important pages and such. I definitely love the fun ones. My sister made me the superhero ones because - well, they are superheros. Who doesn't love a good superhero every now and then?

They don't have to be fancy or cute paper clips. They just need to be functional.

I have a serious love for sticky notes. It's a terrible thing to love but I can't help it. My use of sticky notes goes way beyond planners. I use it for novel writing or reminders. They are just nice to have around. They are a huge part of Brynna's learning games that I make for her.

Anyway, sticky notes - they can be cheap. Some note so much but the cheap ones work just as well as the strangely overpriced ones.

I don't use these as frequently as other items but they are good to have on hand. I use certain stamps to indicate something I have to do. This frees up space in the planner for other things and embellishes the page while doing so. These can run a little expensive but they are reusable which is better than stickers. At least they won't have to be repurchased...unless something happens to them.

Notepads are those things where I think I need a lot of them but I only ever used them occasionally. I do tend to purchase a lot of them but I try to use them for certain things. Writing lists is the main one. I'm sure I have more uses for these things that I'm not thinking of but that's all that really comes to mind.

There are a lot of other supplies I use that aren't listed. These are just the ones I find myself gravitating to the most. The items in the picture above are also very handy products to have.

Repositionable glue is something I use often and lasts forever. The adhesive tape is awesome for when those sticky notes don't want to stay put. Though, it is more permanent than the glue. It's good to have on hand anyway. And scissors because you never know when you need to cut something. I use scissors a lot for when I decorate a week.

That is all for my planner supplies. There are a lot of things that I use but I never use all of them at the same time. Well, if I do, I don't use a lot. That would be a bit overwhelming. 

Hopefully, next week I'll have a DIY project to post.

DIY Coasters

To go with the tray I made last week, I decided to use the left over material to make coasters. There were only two things I had to buy for this project but they were both inexpensive and can be changed out for other options.

Materials

• Coaster Bases
• Tile
• Grout
• Tile Adhesive
• Grout Sealant
• Grouting Kit

The two items I had to buy were the coaster bases and the grout. Both can be substituted with other things if needed but they were both extremely cheap.

Much like the tray, I started with adhering the tile to the tile base in the same pattern. My goal was to make a matching set with all of the left over tile pieces I had. 

After waiting five to six hours to let the adhesive cure, I used grout like the last time. It's a bit messier this way and I had to check the edges to make sure they were fully grouted. Occasionally, there will be some spaces to fill.

Once it set for 24 hours, I added the sealant to the grout. I let it set for the amount of time it suggested  and now they are done. They matched the tray perfectly and I managed to make 6 of them. If there was another coaster base, I could have made another with the extra tiles I had.

Since I still had a lot of stuff left over, I made another tray. I decided to try something different and I used the cheaper things I had. The tray I bought from Micheal's and I got it 50% off so it only coast $3. The stuff I used for the base were these little glass pebbles I bought from dollar tree. It only needed 2 bags to fit the bottom of the tray.

I stained the tray with the left over stain I had from the first tray and used the grout I had left over from the coasters to make this. It's a cheaper alternative to the tray I made. This is going in my bathroom once I treat the wood. I really like how the pebbles reflect the bottom. I stained the bottom so it would look grayish on top. It looks pretty bland but it gives me an opportunity to mix and match different colors.

DIY Tray

For one of my home decor projects I decided to make my own tray. These things usually run pretty expensive, at least for the ones that I liked so I decided to make my own. Though my total ran up pretty high, money-wise, a lot of the things I purchased will be used again for other projects down the road since I had a lot left over. Not to mention, I used my coupons from the craft stores.

The supplies I used:

• Plain wooden tray from Hobby Lobby
• Tile Adhesive from Hobby Lobby
• Sealant from Hobby Lobby
• Tile from Lowes 
• Grout from Lowes 
• Grouting tools from Hobby Lobby
• Sponge Brush
• Paper Towel
• Stain from Micheal's  - optional 

The picture above is the sheet of tiles I bought for about $5 per sheet. I bought two because I plan on making something else with the tiles. I just went for the cheaper variety since this was the first time I've done this.

I arranged the tiles on the plain wooden tray to make sure that they fit. And I had to figure out what kind of pattern worked with what I had. It didn't take long for me to figure out what I wanted to do with them but it is important that you lay out your tile first before you set them.

Next I set the tile using the tile adhesive. I'm sure you could use something else since this is your own project but I decided to get it to see how it set. I used less than a fourth of the bottle so I have plenty tile adhesive leftover for several more projects. Once everything was glued down, everything has to set for about 5 hours, so I just left it over night to dry and cure.

The next day, I did the grout. It was as simple as it got. Just follow the direction on the package and you'll be fine. Make sure to fill in the cracks. I had to let it set before I was able to wipe off what collected on the top.

The difference the grout makes is ridiculous. I wasn't looking to make everything perfect and even but the grout certain took away some of the imperfections. This is what it looked like right after I used the sponge to take off whatever collected on the top of the tiles. Once that was finished, I waited 24 hours before I moved on to the next step. 

Once it set, the tray became sturdy.

Next I stained it. This stain was expensive and I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have a 50% off coupon at Micheal's. I hardly used any of it on this little project and I plan on using it later for other things I have in mind. Anyway, I taped the edges of the tray so it wouldn't get on the tile and used a brush to apply it. Well, after I cleaned it off and sanded it.

When the stain was applied and it set for an hour, I went ahead and applied the seal to the grout. This stuff is a pain to get off tile after it sets so it is best to try to wipe it off before it starts to set. It was fine on the stone pieces. I didn't wipe it off of those because it didn't take away from them.

When everything was dry/set, this became the finished result. Now, I just need to make some matching coasters to go with it.

With the coupons, I spent about $35. How much material I used on the tray cost about $16. As I said before, a lot of these supplies are going to be used for later projects.

Cheap Antique Bronze Elephant Statue

This project is about as easy as they come. I'm only posting it because it's the perfect way to introduce the new projects that I'll have coming up. Hopefully soon, I'll be moving into my own place and in order to decorate it, I'm going to have to make a lot of the stuff myself. So, my blog will be filled with DIY for the home and such from here on out. I will have some of the kids' crafts as well but most of my things will be things for the home.

I found this elephant at target for under $5. I've seen plenty of over priced ceramic elephant statues and a real antique bronze elephant statue was out of the question, especially with my budget. Finding this was perfect. I think I'm going to get the bear statue and paint it as well.

This is the finished project. I just painted it bronze with my DecoArt Elegant Finish Metallic paint that I bought at JoAnn's (and the same paint I used for my bowls). I love the finish of this paint. It's smooth and not tacky at all which is good because it gets pretty humid here.

Overall, this project cost me less than $5 since I've had this paint for a long time. Any kind of paint will work. I just used what I had.

Little Red Shadow Box

Since Tell a Fairy Tale Day is coming up of February 26th (this coming Thursday), I decided to post this.  I made this little shadow box after finding my really old book of children's stories. I never used it or read it and I wanted to use it for painting but I decided to make something different. 

I don't have a tutorial on how to make this but I will soon. This box in particular took about 1.5 - 2 hours but that is mostly because I drew Red Riding Hood and painted her with watercolor. Getting her to be the right size was the biggest issue. I made her much too small the first time. 

The only reason why it came to my head was because my sister and I saw these birch straws in the craft store. Then I remembered something I saw on Pinterest a long time ago. I don't have a link to it. I don't even have it on a board but I remembered seeing it all over the place. They aren't exactly the same but it was the inspiration for this project.

Anyway, in honor of the random holiday, I present this to you. Soon, I'll have another one up, with more details on how I did it. This was just a practice shadow box and it was fun. Not to mention, it was relatively cheap. The most I spent was on the shadow box and I used a 40% off coupon at Michael's for that. I will also be using a different story, not another Little Red box.

Pink Popcorn

The girls and I made Pink Popcorn for our craft last week. I don't normally do a lot of food crafts with them but for Valentine's day, we tend to do a lot of food. It turned out great and even their parents loved it. 

Making it is simple. Super simple. We used three things to make this.

• Popcorn
• Wilton Chocolate Melts (Pink colored)
• Sprinkles

That's it. I bought popcorn that was light in salt and butter but you can probably use anything.

The steps are simple.

1. Pop the popcorn and then lay it on a baking sheet or pour in a bowl.
2. Melt the chocolate (we used a bag for two bags of popcorn)
3. Pour chocolate on the popcorn and mix around lightly. 
4. When the popcorn is coated put it on wax paper (this makes the clean up easy). You could also put the wax paper on the baking sheet to make it a little easier.
5. (Optional) Decorate with sprinkles
6. Let the chocolate harden

*Do no put in the refrigerator to cool. 

The steps are simple but I thought I would tell you that when it hardens, they stick together. If you don't want them to turn into a giant block, spread them out a bit.

Also, this is how we made it. There are probably several ways to make this so experiment and try something different if you want. You can color this any kind of color so it's a versatile treat.

Heart-Shaped Pie Pops

Last Wednesday, the girls and I made these awesome little things for our craft. We made some mistakes along the way but when I remade them, they turned out great because I made sure not to make the same mistakes twice.

Anyway, these Pie Pops are extremely easy to make but they do tend to get messy if you overfill them. Just a warning. Also, I found these while browsing pinterest. I don't know if I did it the same way since I never actually followed the link but if you want to see the directions go here. I'm not doing step by step instructions as much as I am going through my process and where we went wrong. It was such a mess with those girls too.

I allowed the girls to roll out the crust, which was my first mistake but I let them do it until they thought it was good. I really should have checked on the 4-year-old's work before slapping them on. It was just a bit too thick.

They cut the hearts out with a heart-shaped cookie cutter I bought just for this project. I think this was their favorite part but the oldest did get a little too excited while doing it and had to start over.

Ta-dah! But it was too thick. You wouldn't think it was if you were there in person but it was way too thick. I didn't want to tell her we needed to do it again because she was very proud of her work so, I let them go with it. When you roll out crust, you want it to be extremely thin especially for this project.

After I let Brynna prep the baking sheet, we placed the bottom half of the hearts on it and put the stick in the middle. You don't have to do this. I didn't the second time because I thought they looked cute but I also used a bigger heart-shaped cookie cutter when I made it without the stick (in the photo with the post title in it).

We used actual pie filling for these because it was just easier and I was going to use it for something else later. We learned that only one cherry can fit inside, the rest needs to be the gel stuff (I have no idea what it's called). I'm sure there are other things you can use for this. I went the cheap route.

Then we added the top and Brynna went to town. She understood exactly what we had to do even though I didn't tell her. I know they don't make pie like this very often or at all so it threw me off guard but she did an excellent job with this part.

We gently brushed some melted butter on the tops before sprinkling it with brown sugar. I do mean a gentle amount of butter. We only used it to make the sugar stay in place and to help with the crust. I had to explain to the girls that they only needed a little bit of brown sugar because some little girl (Brynna) went a little crazy with one of them.

After they were done, we threw them in the oven for 10 minutes (or when the crust was golden) and took it out. The minute I bit into the pie, I knew what was wrong with it. The crust was too thick but they weren't bad. 

I went back and made them during the weekend and it turned out wonderful.

***Note - I used a pie crust mix because everything had to be quick and the girls would have made that an even bigger mess. Normally I wouldn't care but we had things to do.

Sketchy

Just recently, I got a new sketchbook and watercolor paints because mine Koi watercolors are packed away in a box somewhere. Anyway, I wanted to get back into sketching. Just a bit of doodling here and there. My goal is to practice some urban sketching. I've been playing around a bit and I know that I just need to practice a bit more before I get the hang of it. 

So, here are a few page in my sketchbook. Well the first few pages and my only sketches so far.

Page 1 is just me testing colors of the watercolors to see what they look like. I had a set like this but there were less colors. I'm not sure if I would use all of these colors but it's good to have.

Page 2 - Naturally, I have to draw a tree first. It started off as a bit of a blob, and it's still a bit of a blob. A blob with color. I was just testing out my colors with this. And trees are one of my "go to" drawings.

Page 3 - An eye. I didn't know what to do. I just decided to play around with things.

Page 4 - A flower. My other "go to" drawing. Not really anything special about this. I really didn't know what to draw.

Page 5 - Just some buildings. This was fun and very redundant. It's not perfect and I like it that way.

Page 6 - I just did this one this morning. This is a quick practice sketch. I think I did most of it while on the phone with my best friend. It's pretty flat looking. Again, just a practice sketch. I don't normally do things like this.

Eventually, I'll improve.

Air-Dry Clay Bowls

These air-dry clay bowls are ones I made about a month ago. I posted them on my Instagram around then, I just forgot to write a post on them. This is just a craft I did to see how I liked it. I didn't buy anything expensive to use for this project, just Crayola Air-Dry Clay in the color white. I bought it in the tub for really cheap. The girls and I played with the Terracotta colored clay and that was a disaster. It was so unbelievably messy.

It was simple to form with my hands and when it was starting to dry out on my hands, water easily softened the clay again. It took about two to three days to dry. It really depended on how thick it was. The little bowl on the left took longer than the one on the right.

When they finished drying I put a layer or two of paint on them. DecoArt's Elegant Finish Metallic Paint worked wonderfully on the bowls. It set evenly and isn't tacky. I used the color Rich Espresso. The inside of the bowl on the left was colored in acrylic paint. I watered it down just a little so it wouldn't have a weird rubbery texture that easily came off the bowl.

This was just a project that I wanted to try. I've never made bowls with air-dry clay before but it's something that I'm going to do again in the near future just as a little craft for myself and for some practice until I get better at handling this form of clay. I'm so used to oven-baked clay which isn't always as soft as air-dry clay/paper clay.