A5 Purple Malden Setup

 

 

I finally got a purple Malden! I found one on Amazon for £82 and decided to go for it, I'd always wanted a purple Malden and I wanted to use it for my wedding planner, but also for my everyday diary and home information.

 

I've had her for a few weeks now and she's almost completely set up the way I want, although I would like to change or add a few things. I must warn you this will be quite a picture heavy post, so grab yourself a cup of tea and a slice of cake... it's going to be a long journey!

 

Front Cover - Inside Pockets

 

 

From the moment I saw the inside of the Malden cover I knew it would be useful, and that I also didn't want to over-stuff it or the outside would be bulky. The only things I keep in the inside front cover are some coloured sticky tabs, and a 'stamping guide', here is how I use it:

 

 

I decorate my pages week by week to give me something to do at the weekend, and also because doing it all in one day would take forever. I use StudioL2E Plan It stamps on vertical week to view pages to create sections for each day (Menu, Bills, Appointments and To Do). The guide helps me see where I need to write future appointments on a page which I haven't stamped on yet.

 

Dashboard

 

 

I love Project Life cards, I started journaling at the end of last year and couldn't keep it up, so I decided to use some of the cards in my Malden. I cut the punched edge off of a Simple Stories Snap pocket page and re-punched it to fit into my binder, then I added four journaling cards - 3 for decoration, and one for emergency contact numbers - good to have in an easy to find place!

 

Section 1 - Contacts

 

 

I decided to use a Chalkboard, black and white, purple and teal theme for my Malden, I love this theme and it reflects me really well. In the picture above, on the left is the back of the Project Life cards (snippets from leftovers of my dividers) and on the right is my first divider for contacts.

 

Close-up of my tabs that I (successfully) made using black cardstock - then stamped with alphabet stamps in white ink.

 

 

Contacts pages I made myself - I didn't like any of the Filofax ones!

 

 

 

Diary

 

 

Originally this lace effect cardstock was a skin-tone colour but I coloured it with purple ink. I love it!! This is the divider for my diary section. I'm using vertical week on two pages - plenty of room!

 

At the beginning of my diary section I have monthly calendars which I found online. I use coloured dots to indicate the important dates I need to remember. (I used another beautiful Project Life card for my colour coding key and taped it to the inside of the divider).

 

 

 

 

Week to view layout with Studio L2E stamps.

 

 

Wedding Section

 

 

I decided to use purple paper for my wedding section printables because it will be our wedding colour (and I love purple in case you hadn't noticed...).

 

 

Zip pocket to hold samples of my dress and other outfits/samples I may need.

 

 

Guest list printable I made on Microsoft Word (as with most of the pages I created).

 

 

Media Section

 

This section is for anything media related - mainly books, television and film. I created a few lists for books I am reading or want to read, television series we watch and films on Netflix and Lovefilm that we would like to watch in the future. 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Section

 

My Health section holds all of my fitness information (I don't do a lot of exercise, I much prefer eating...) but am aware I need to start looking after myself.

I keep an exercise log in this section, along with a record of any medical issues or illnesses I've had and how they were resolved. I also keep a log of my weight.

 

The paper for the divider was an old parchment colour which I stained with turquoise ink.

 

 

 

 

Events Section

 

At the moment I only have Christmas planning printables in this section, but I will add lists for buying birthday and anniversary gifts. It helps to have everything written down when there are so many people to buy for!

The Christmas planner also has pages for Christmas baking and organising dinner plans.

 

 

 

 

Work Section

 

In this section I'll keep a log of my progress at work (pay rises, meetings, performance reviews) and a yearly calendar to show when I have annual leave booked for.

 

I'll also track overtime and sickness, but haven't got round to doing these printables yet. Too much to think about, isn't there?!

 

 

 

 

Writing Section

 

I used to write quite a lot, and sometimes poetry pops into my mind. I need a central place to write it all down so I don't lose it! This is my writing section, for poetry, inspiration and general ramblings.

 

 

 

Car Section

 

I just have a log of any work done on my car, and my car information in this section, there isn't really anything else I need to add at the moment, but I could keep a copy of my insurance document in there for safe keeping.

 

 

 

 

Music Section

 

I love music, it plays quite a large part in every day. I like to keep a list of artists I want to hear more of, and also a list of songs that I want to learn on guitar. I'll keep my settings in this section for my track recorder when I want to record some songs.

 

 

 

 

Travel Section

 

I'd love to travel more, although I only get 20 days holiday a year and not enough money to go anywhere!! I have a travel bucket list in this section, and also a packing list.

 

 

 

 

Home

 

In this section I keep all of our contacts for utility bills, cleaning information etc. and a log of my internet passwords.

 

 

 

 

 

Me Section

 

I didn't really know what else to call this section, but it's just for personal notes and information, I also keep gift cards in this section and a wishlist.

 

 

 

 

Food Section

 

Food is also a big part of our day, and we do a meal plan every week. I keep Organised Mum meal planning sheets in this section (personal size but if you cut off the bottom left corner they fit in an A5), recipes and lists of recipes to try out.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, in the back pocket I keep a sample of our wedding invitation :)

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my post, apologies for the huge amount of pictures but hopefully you will get some ideas from this!

 

 

New Dividers - Chalkboard Theme

I thought I'd share with you the dividers and overall theme for my personal organiser. I really love the chalkboard theme, there are so many lovely things out there!

For my dividers I used the My Minds Eye Chalk Studio collection:

 

 

My Minds Eye also do some co-ordinating stickers which were pefect to label some of my pockets:

 

 

I received an order from Organised Mum this morning, and although I'm not using their diary pages for 2014 I am using some of the supplement packs.

 

I use their meal planning pack every week, it keeps us organised and we know exactly how much we will spend when we do the food shopping.

 

I ordered their finance pages, which I have used before, which should help me budget better.

 

And I got their family pack too, with pages for organising holidays, Christmas, etc.

 

I also ordered a Lechturm pen loop in purple, I was unsure if my Staedler pens would be too thin but the loop is elastic and fits these pens perfectly, ideal for using a second coloured pen for important information on my weekly pages.

 

 

Things are looking up! The only problem is, Purple has definitely fattened up for Christmas...

 



Where on Earth have I been?!?!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I've been so busy! Mainly due to the fact that I went on holiday mid-October for my 25th birthday, and my lovely partner proposed to me on 13th October, two days before my birthday!

So, in true 'me' style, pretty much as soon as we got back from holiday I was on the internet searching for ideas. If you're curious at our plans take a look at my wedding moodboard on Pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/raven1510/wedding-3/

Not only are we planning our wedding at the moment, but it's that time of year again... CHRISTMAS!! I'm sure I get more excited every year, I'm sure that's not supposed to happen. But hey, who gives a crap?

What have I been doing, craft-related? Well, of course I have designed our wedding invitations, of which seem to cost an arm and a leg, unless you're super money-savvy, in which case you use Vista Print. Our wedding invitations are only going to cost around £40 (including evening invitations and RSVP cards), as opposed to around £200.

What about Filofax, what have I been doing? Well, my planner has been amazing these past few months, I have a wedding section and loads of Christmas information which quite frankly I would be totally confuddled without.

I have moved back to personal size because there is so much more room, and ordered myself a purple planner from Paperchase which I've been using for a few weeks now. I love the colour, and the large slip pocket in the back is excellent, especially useful for keeping "you were out" notes from the postman. Who probably hates me right now. Because I've become best buddies with Amazon.

I've made some of my own inserts on lilac and cream paper with a traditional yet clean and simple theme, and seeing as I decided (again) to change Filofax sizes at a stupid time of year, I printed some weekly diary pages on cotton cream paper to last me up til the new year. They work very well.

Wedding budget planner printed on lilac paper

Weekly diary printed on cream paper

For 2014 I'm going to order the cotton cream inserts from Filofax, and use my Studio L2E stamps to make them lined, I just prefer writing on lines, it makes my writing look neater and I prefer a more uniform look.

I'm also going to decorate my pages again - part of me thinks this is a waste of washi, but I do use my planner more when I know it's nice to look at. Oh, how I wish I had more washi! I have £27 worth of washi tape in my eBay basket, I'm just waiting til after Christmas and before Wedding saving to treat myself, then that will be it, no more self-indulgent spending for me!

And here are a few of our holiday snaps from Rhodes (Greek island):

Lindos village

 

"Siesta - please do not disturb" Love that this sign was

permanently nailed to the door!

 

St. Paul's Bay - lovely little chapel down a very steep hill

 

The view from our balcony

 

 

I really miss sunshine... I would love to go back to Rhodes, it was such a special holiday.

 

 Anyway, better sign off now, Pinterest is calling! Toodle-ooh, pip pip and all that English stuff. xx

 

 

 

 

Project Life Filofax - Test!

After my last post I decided I really needed to try out my idea for a project life Filofax. I love using a Filofax and really wanted to get into the project life craze, but all the different components of Project Life are too expensive for my budget.

This blog post is basically a run through of my last hour in my office. It didn't take long to develop the idea into something which looks pretty neat, in my opinion, and is much more cost effective.

First I took a sheet of personal Filofax paper. I wanted to use personal size as it's quite a nice inbetween size to use. However, most project life journaling cards (or other brands) are 3x4", too large to fit in any combination on a personal size page without overhang or overlap.

 

 

 

 

After about ten minutes of staring at the above combinations and trying to telepathically make them fit, I decided personal was not the one for this project. It needed something larger, that would allow me to expand my idea.

 

So I shook the dust off my A5 domino that I'd been using a few weeks ago for journaling and fell out with because I messed up the dates on my entries.

I'd cut out some templates (4x3" and 3x2") and used them to figure out how many journaling cards I could fit on a page. As mentioned before, most journaling cards are 4x3", so the 2x3" would either be journaling cards cut in half, or scrapbooking paper cut to size. (The yellow paper shows the 2x3" paper).

 

 

 

 

You can see there is a slight overhang on these layouts, but I don't think that will matter so much as I'll be using the other side of the paper for the following week. I'll be doing a week to view layout, so there is enough space on these layouts to do journaling for each day if I need to.

 

Next step: trying the layout out with my own pictures and journaling cards that match. Last week I ordered some 12x12 sheets of journaling cards, you get 12 cards per sheet and they cost the same as any other 12x12 scrapbook paper. I ordered mine from My Minds Eye, and they are from their Cut and Paste collection.

 

 

I cut the journaling cards out and placed them on my pages, keeping in mind that I'd want a mix of cards for journaling, photos and some decorative. Here's what I ended up with, and I think for the cost compared to project life it's a pretty great effort.

 

 

I added a few photos that I had in my stash that I meant to journal and never got round to it. I can see how much of a difference it makes when you co-ordinate the colours of the cards with that of your photographs. If I was sticking down and decorating these pages I'd use the alphabet stickers and accent stickers on the left (the stickers were 95p from the same collection as the journaling cards).

 

Here are a few more pictures:

 

 

 

I can feel a bit happier now I know I wasn't trying to do something that was impossible, I really look forward to starting this project! I think I'm going to research how people record information for their project, and then after each month I will order the papers etc. to co-ordinate with my photographs.

 

How exciting!