Starting the Creative Filofax

I know I said a few weeks ago I was going to start making my Creative filofax with my A5 domino but this time of year is so hectic, I just haven't had the time. However, I had a half day at work today so I came home and tried to work on it.

It went well for a few hours, here are the results:

 

I cut down the paper from my old craft folder and punched the pages to fit my A5.

 

 

I took out all of the inserts that came with the filofax, laid them out on the desk and then chose what I wanted in each section and which dividers I would use.

 

 

I made a list of the sections I wanted so I knew what to write on my tabs.

 

 

I made my tabs...

 

 

... using scraps from my paper box!

 

 

I added some bits and bobs I had that I want to add but have run out of double sided tape *gasp*! These are colour combinations cut out of a magazine.

 

 

I started writing some prompts for my life story project.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Creative Planner

My lovely A5 Domino in black arrived last week, and I have been researching different ideas to make sure I get the most use out of my planner.

Previously I set up a crafts journal. I bought an interiors journal from Paperchase, divided it into sections, decorated the cover and made my own tabs. That was about two years ago. The book is still empty. So there's proof that this idea didn't work so well. It wasn't inspiring enough, and I hadn't taken the time to really consider what I personally need to be able to bring out my creative side.

The interiors journal from Paperchase was similar to this Wellbeing one. It seems they don't stock the range of social books they used to, so I was lucky to have had this brain wave a few years ago, even if it's now a fail.

 

Here is where the fail becomes a win though. You know the bigger the Filofax you buy, the more expensive the inserts and paper are? Well I decided I would turn my craft planner fail into something beautiful. So I dismantled my Paperchase journal.

 

 

 

 

The paper you get in the journal is excellent. A nice quality, and you get a combination of lined, plain and grid paper. This is perfect for a crafts/interiors/writing journal. I took all the pages from the spiral bound planner, trimmed the old holes off and punched new holes. Below is a picture of the new pages in my Filofax.

 

 

 





You also get various different A5 size plastic pockets, which are brilliant. Some of them are 4x6" photo sized, some are full A5 size, some have half pockets and there is one full length zip close pocket too. Perfect! I trimmed and punched these as well.

 

 

 

Now is the difficult part... sorting out the specific sections, and making my tabs look creative and inspiring. I don't want to go over the top as it might distract me from looking outside the box, but I do want some colour and fun.

 

This is my front cover as you open the binder...

 

 

And this is the back of that page.

 

 

Here's some stuff I've collected that I want to put in my binder...

 

 

My Domino Family

I think I have decided what I'm going to use my Dominos for.

So far, the family consists of a mummy, my personal domino in Grape, and two babies (or pocket size) in chocolate and lavender.

 

You'll be pleased to know, the babies have found their long lost grandma, the A5 domino. I've been so tempted to buy an A5 for a while now, and knew I wanted a domino because they're so versatile and they hold so many pages. She is black, and I'm going to use her for my crafting and writing.





















I'm positive I can use the whole family at once, and here's how:

Black A5 - Crafting/Writing Filofax
Grape Personal - everday diary and planner/organiser
Lavender Pocket - my song lyrics
Chocolate Pocket - either song lyrics binder 2, or colour combinations binder

The Crafting binder will have 5 sections, fairly simple. Projects, Inspiration, Information, Notes and Writing. I do a lot of thinking, and I used to write a lot about what was on my mind. I think having somewhere nice to store my thoughts would be very beneficial. The projects tab will hold all of the projects I'm in the middle of (for instance my Life Story project, where I need to write notes about everything in my life so far before I transfer the information to the book), inspiration (images of handmade cards, scrapbook pages and interior design schemes), information (different kinds of window dressings and paint types for interior design, different techniques for cardmaking), notes section will be just that, notes. I wanted a different coloured Domino really, I was thinking green or blue, spring colours, as they inspire me, so I will probably be decorating the domino's cover somehow.

Personal Grape will stay as she is, she works very well.

Lavender Pocket - I do a lot of songwriting, I have recorded ten demo CDs in the past 10 years (yes, since I was 14, full of angst you see!) All of the cds have about ten songs on, I thought it'd be really handy to have my lyrics in pocket size, and the pocket domino actually fits perfectly in the secret compartment in my guitar case... so this was an obvious choice really! I can also keep business cards in the front for any venues or instrument suppliers I like.

The chocolate pocket will be used eventually but will probably be a back-up for now. Colour combinations might go in the A5 as another section, but I thought it'd be nice to have a colour combination per pocket page as a little flip book rather than several on an A5 page. Or,  might use her as a baking journal... the posibilities are endless really!

It's really important for me to keep my hobbies going, sometimes when we grow up and start a full time job it's easy to lose sight of the things that once kept us busy and happy in our spare time. I'm not trying to stay young, I just want to hold on to the things that make me happy, and being creative (and baking) make me happy!

Using Filofax for Design

I have been pondering getting back to my interior design roots. I worked for an interior design company for three and a half years but unfortunately had to leave due to disagreements with the management (in short...). So, have any of you lovely people used your Filofax for interior design, redecorating your home, recording paint colours you like?

I found some inspirational images on the web:

Courtesy of HomeKlondike.com

 

Courtesy of abeautifulmess.com

 

Courtesy of curiositaellya.blogspot.co.uk

 

Courtesy of decor8blog.com

 

Colour Combinations Filofax

I have two empty pocket Domino's which I have tried to sell but no one was interested. So, I decided rather than leave them empty, I would find uses for them. I have decided I am going to use the lavender one as a colour combinations Filofax, as I make a lot of cards and do scrapbooking, and am always trying to think of which colour combinations to use.

I started by searching the web for inspiration. I was just going to do the whole Filofax with no dividers, just opages of colour combinations... (Images are Courtesy of a blog I found from a Papertrey Ink user).

Then I thought it'd be nice to do some tabs for other card making inspiration and bits...

 

I also found some really nice websites where you can create colour combinations. I can then print these out and add them into my binder.

 

(Picture courtesy of Photo Card Boutique)

 

Has anyone else used their Filofax for creative purposes?

 

 

New Dividers

As requested here are some pictures of my new dividers I made with my card from Inspire me papers.

I would have liked the card to be a bit thicker but it's not too bad as I laminated the card to make it stronger and more durable. I was thinking of ordering some pretty postcards to put in the different sections but at the moment don't have the money to do so, and might get on fine without these anyway.

I was also thinking of making some 'Today' rulers with the coloured card I have left over, to bookmark particular pages in each section.

I added the text with some rub on letters I had, they were just cheap stationery ones from WHSmiths.

 

 

 

Card arrived for my Filofax dividers!

I bought this card from Inspire Me papers, the colours are really cheerful and exactly what I wanted.

I was going to buy some rub on alphabet transfers in white to add the subjects to the tabs, I think this will be the easiest and neatest way, I just need to find some small enough!

How have you added text to your tabs?

Using Embossing Powders on the Domino

I have a Personal Domino in Grape which I love, but sometimes I think the cover is a bit plain. I have a pocket lavendar domino so I decided to test out a technique on the cover.

I used heat embossing powder, the one I used is Blonde Moments embossing powder in sugar pink lustre. It has a really lovely shimmer to it.

You just stamp your design onto the cover, shake some embossing powder over the top as quick as you can so the ink doesn't dry out, and shake off the excess. Then you can heat the surface so it seals into place.

Christmas Inserts Pack

As requested by the Facebook Group, here's a link to download my 8 page Christmas planner pack.

Includes:
- Cover page
- Christmas gifts list
- Christmas cards list
- Christmas budget
- Christmas supplies list
- Dining checklist
- Menu planner
- Christmas notes

Click here to download Christmas Pack - personal size

Click here to download Christmas Pack - A5 size

=)

Some Ideas for Custom Inserts

It seems custom inserts are in demand at the moment. I've found my own inserts very useful in keeping me organised, and it's also helped me find things in my filofax as I've colour coded my sections (I aim to tidy this up, at the moment I have purple, orange, blue, green, yellow and red but I want different colours for each section - 15 in total!)

I'm going to produce some new templates every month as a pack, e.g this month will be a pack to keep you organised at Christmas. I need to work out how to set up a downloadable files section on my blog so you don't have to directly request, you can just download to your hearts content!

Will post as soon as I've done the November pack, and if you have any requests please leave a comment below!

New Filofax Diary Pages

As promised here are some new Filofax diary page designs. If you would like the free Word Documents please email me at twilight_raven_@hotmail.co.uk or comment on this post. If you have any requests please also comment or email =)

The Word documents are fully editable so you can change the fonts, sizing, layouts, and change the text so you can  print a whole year's worth of inserts!

Happy printing!

1. Paisley Flower Sepia
2. Paisley Flower Pink
3. Paisley Love



Printing Your Own Filofax Diary 101

I have had some messages on Facebook about how to print your own inserts. I really think the only way to get what you want is to make it yourself (or spend hours of your life trying to find it online, only to realise it's discontinued!)

1. What paper should I use?
If you already have a Filofax hole punch, patience, and some kind of craft knife or guillotine, then you can use any A4 or office paper (or even coloured craft paper) to make your Filofax pages. As mentioned you do need a lot of patience if you're printing a whole diary.

I opted for buying a budget value pack of 100 sheets of plain personal sized paper which is pre-punched. The paper has a nice silky feel to it so your inserts will have a super nice quality to them. You can buy them here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0013NFSLY/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00) and obviously they're pre-cut to size so that saves a few more hours/days of precious time.

2. Setting up your template on MS Word
I used MS Word to set up my template. It was very easy, although I'm quite used to messing around with MS Word. All you need to do is follow these steps:

2a) Page Size: Go to Page Layout > Size > Custom (or more paper sizes) > set the page width to 9.5cm and the height to 17.1cm. This is the size for personal. To find other sizes just pop onto the Filofax website.

2b) Margins: Go to Page Layout > Margins > Custom Margins > Set the top and bottom margins to 0.6cm each, or the minimum it will let you. Set the side of the paper you are putting holes on, to 1.5cm, and set the opposite side (with no holes) to the minimum it will let you.

2c) Orientation: Portrait. I've found my printer doesn't like printing on the pages landscape, but yours might be different.

If you're struggling setting up your own template, go onto the Philofaxy Files page and you will find some really useful ones there.

3. What printer do I need?I use a HP printer where you can load the paper from the top. As long as your printer has the facility to move the page margin on the actual printer tray then it should be fine, but obviously print a tester page before you send 50 pages to print! (This is basically to hold the Filofax paper in place so it doesn't go on the wonk when it feeds down to print.)



 4. Overcoming the kerfuffle of 'which way does the paper go in??'
Ok, this may be hard to explain in words but I'll give it a go...

On this image of a diary page you can see the left hand page has holes on the right side, and the right hand page has holes on the left. Basically you need to make sure that your weekly outlook is laid out like this (unless you prefer a different layout!)

So, for instance, if you want a full week on your left page and a task list on your right, on teh back of the December page would be the task list for the week before, and on the back of the January page would be the following full week. I'm so sorry if you don't get this, I'm trying really hard to explain!

So, my printer (shown above) means I have to put the paper in upside down, as the top of the page prints first. You can figure this out quite easily using a sheet of A4 scrap paper. Just doodle some holes on one edge of the paper (like a giant Filofax page) to test how your printer prints.

Then when you want to print on the other side of the page you just printed on, make sure it still prints head first with the holes on the correct side. It does involve some concentration but the results are great.

So, we're all done here! And if you want some lovely new diary pages please have a look at my next post....

Fixing My Planner Fail

I decided the Paperchase week on two pages was not working for me, as I usually have more to-dos in a week than I do appointments, and the to-dos were just getting lost in a big awful mess with all the other things going on in my week. So, as you saw in my previous posts, I decided to make my own planner pages using one of the templates from Philofaxy.

Unfortunately though, I felt they were a little plain. I thought about colour coding and scheduled in my appointments and to-dos for next week, but I found it a bit of a pain having to switch pens all the time and lugging around six different pens.

So I scrapped that idea.

For most of today I've been playing around with Photoshop and designed this lovely beauty! I can't wait to print it out and test it, I've already tested the format and it works really well for me. I love the little doodle!

If anyone would like a diary for next year designed for you please let me know, I really enjoyed putting this together. I might change the colours of the doodle for different months just to add some different colours, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Will do another post once I've printed and filled in some of the pages :)

Uniball Pens Review

In one of my blog posts I mentioned that I was looking into colour coding my diary for various subjects. I ordered some Uniball Fine Eye pens which arrived today. I have used these pens before and they're really nice to write with.

Here's a picture showing the different ink colours:

And here's how I plan to store them in my Filofax, not sure how well this is going to work but we'll see! I've clipped them onto the business card holder at the front.

New Inserts: How Am I Getting On?

You may have seen my picture heavy posts showing my new custom inserts for my Filofax. Here are some pictures of how I'm getting on with them.

First up is my meal planner. Me and the boyfriend sit down on a Friday night after dinner (I know, what tame, sensible 20-something year olds we are...) and plan our meals from the following week. We top up our weekly food and spending budgets on a Friday so our meal plan goes from Saturday to Thursday. On Fridays we have what we call kiddy dinners, which is basically something with chips and beans, or peas! (Think fish fingers, chicken dippers, etc...)

Underneath the meal plan there's a shopping list. You can see the one below has been used while shopping. It's really useful!

I will apologise in advance for mentioning the C word... (Christmas, that is...) but I started to think about gift wrap and packaging. As we're usually hard up on cash around Christmas (as everyone is), we usually make chutney and crackers to give to family. It's fun to make and I get to be crafty and make the packaging! I made a list of the different ideas I had and different items I'd found that we could use for the chutneys this year. I've also made a Christmas to-do list and a list to jot down who I need to write thank you notes to.

Testing a New Diary Layout - Filofax

I realised last night that my current diary is not working because everything looks so jumbled up and confusing. I asked on Filofax for Philofaxy Fans facebook page what others' ideas were for making things look less confusing. Some of you colour code, some of you use better designed diary pages, some of you add in an extra notes page between diary pages for those extra to-do's.

I spent an hour or so this evening making my own diary inserts for next year and decided to trial them for two weeks this year to see how I get on.

The picture above is from a template I found on Philofaxy. I have events and schedule on the left page and to-dos for days of the week on the right.

I'm going to get these pens as well, I have one already in purple and one in black and they write really nicely. As my dividers are colour coded, I will use the following colours to indicate different things:



Purple - general schedule, work, health
Orange - money, travel, car
Red - notes, home, special dates
Green - bills, social
Blue - creative, entertainment
Yellow (or black as yellow doesn't show up well) - food, shopping











Will let you know how I get on in two weeks, and once I get my lovely pens!