Choosing the right planner for you

Spirals and Binders and Travelers OH MY!

choosing the right planner for you

Its funny I have always been a "crafter" and moved into a plannerd and the obsession with having lots of planner supplies is in full swing because that is typically how I roll. I go in with all guns blazing when I start a hobby. Much like crafting I had to have all the tools and sometimes would buy something just because I was new and others had it so I surely needed it once I figured out how to use it that is! So now my craft room runneth over! I slowly started mixing in with the planner crowd and less with the crafting crowd. Although my love for both still continues I have found a way to merge the two loves.  I decided to make paperclips and then my obsession with planners and all things planner related kicked in. BOOM i was hooked and BOOM I had an Etsy shop. 

Today's discussion is a bit of a run down of various planners and if I own one I will give my opinion but maybe if you are new it will give you some insight as to what planner would work best for you. Everyone talks about "planner peace" to me this is a fictitious state in which most planners will never achieve because most of us its not so much about finding the one planner that will "complete us" its more of a collection. Much like buying a beautiful designer purse because you just love purses, planners can be that same for many people. You might have the same planner in multiple colors or sizes even. Personally for me I like big planners and I cannot lie! I can't deal with the small ones although I think they are cute and could serve as a wallet and thus be dual purpose. Lets break down the 411 on planners.

Spirals:

These are much like a large notebook but depending on what brand you buy you can sometimes select the layout you want for your weekly spread. I love these planners because I use notebooks a lot to doodle, take notes etc. so my spiral planner is something I can use for all those things PLUS it keeps me organized. I personally love Limelife planners. They have so many different weekly layouts to choose from that you are bound to find what you want. There are add on's such as "meal planning", "social Media"etc. I have both of these add on's in my planner. They now have a teacher planner as well. You can customize your cover and the owner is so sweet even if something doesn't say you can customize it she will go the extra mile to do something requested if she can. I like to support small woman businesses and this is definitely one of them. Also awesome side mark here there is a place you can go to print off a sample of each weekly layout so you could play with it and see if it truly going to work for you. The con is that you cannot remove the pages to decorate or write so sometimes the coil gets in your way. I do like being able to fold it over like a notebook but again certain days of the week are hard to stamp or decorate because you are close to the spiral. Now there are several companies out there selling spirals like Erin Condren, 1407 planners, Plum Paper Planners and more. I have owned an EC and for me personally the Limelife is much better quality and much more customizable. Paper quality is excellent. Stamping in the planner is great because of this. But keep in mind there are many inks that work best when stamping in planners so do your homework on that. I let my daughter have my Erin Condren when I got my limelife so I don't have it here to take a pic.

Most of the sizes are close on these planners. Roughly 7 x 9"

Here are the links to check them out:

Price Points: 

Limelife Planners $55 plus add on's 

Erin Condren $50 and up

Plum Paper planner $31 plus add on's
Happy Planner $24.99 (not exactly a spiral but it falls between spiral and ring)

Ring Binders:

I have owned the daytimes, filofax, webster pages, simple stories, Kikki K ring binders. They come in multiple sizes depending on your needs compact, personal, A5.  I personally am a Kikki girl. All of the ones listed are great planners and many are coming out with so many colors, and designs that I will continue to own them as well! (remember I am obsessed now) My Kikki K is my favorite planners. I only have a small amount of them but the ones I have I love. The quality is wonderful, I love the colors they offer and the styles inside the planner with the pocket configurations. I do love the new webster pages coming out and the simple stories as well so for me most ring binders will work for you it is just a matter mainly of your budget. IF you want leather binders filofax and kikki both have excellent quality. If you are vegan several of the companies have a more vegan friendly materials. Alway check your rings when you get one to make sure they are tight. The nice thing is you can remove the pages to decorate so that the rings don't get in your way. 

Sizes: Compact, Personal, Medium and A5

Price Point: (starting prices can vary depending on size. I will be going by A5)

Filofax $67 and up

Kikki K $70 and up (watch for sales!!)

Webster Pages $45 

Simple Stories $45

**watch for sales and clearances for some great deals on all of them

Travelers 

I always thought that these were more for journals but there are so many people making inserts for them that have more of the calendar aspects to them or other books to track various things. Then you can still get the grid paper notebooks, lined notebooks and you can have multiple books within your cover so you can go to town with this! Its a great item to take with you on trips so you can doodle, journal or keep track of your life. You used to see these mainly made out of leather but now so many companies are making their variation of these. They come in a variety of sizes. They can be called midori's, fauxdori's, sewdori's and many many more! They can be leather, fabric and a variation of faux leathers and materials. They come in various sizes also. You can easily make your own if you watch youtube and also make your own inserts. So this can be a fun project or help if you are on a tight budget. I just bought my first one the other day and it was a fabric one and it is so cute! So you can really show your personality by buying or making one with fabric that speaks to you!

Sizes: Passport, Pocket, Personal, Regular, Wide, Extra Wide

Price can range from $30 and up depending on materials and size. 

I am no expert but hopefully this little run down helps a bit.

Now for a bit of eye candy! Did you know that Mrs Bimbles has a sticker subscription now too! SAY WHAT!! Here is a pic of all the stickers I received from the subscription. I mean what a good variety of stickers right!

Sticker subscription

A5 Planner Box

 Thank you for stopping by and hope you found some of the information helpful!

Brighten your day.

Crafty Arty Planning

Where to start? What didn't I do with this box! I think this had to be one of the most versatile boxes yet. That or I just came up with more creative ways! Let's start with the dashboard.

 

Some of you may already know I'm currently working on a project this year called The Documented Life Project 2016. I put my A5 dashboard from the box into my unPlanner for the project as the quote seemed appropriate. It went beautifully! I then noticed the stickers which came in the box were absolutely perfect for the Kraft pages. I used both the white and black stickers on the kraft paper. You can just about see the white numeral stickers.

   

Next, the stickers inspired me to use a black AND white art trading card for one of the challenges set called PAC's, Project Art Cards. Using paint from the Docrafts range, my sewing machine, and the stickers, I created two PAC's. 

 

Recently I was gifted for my birthday a beautiful fabric dori bought from the lovely Lyra and Co. I am using this as a spiritual journal. The stickers from my Brimbles box even went into decorating a journal card I used in this journaling.

 

Finally, this months box went perfectly with my platinum Carpe Diem planner. I began by using the gold washi tape to decorate the pages. Next, I numbered the days using the gold stickers.

The pocket envelopes in the box gave me an idea. As I'm looking for memorabilia for scrapbooking and memory keeping I thought the pockets would be ideal to use to store receipts, wristbands, etc. I took some spotted washi from my ever growing washi collection to decorate the inside lip of the envelope. Next I used the stickers to embellish the front. 

Finally, using my white signo uni-ball pen, I wrote on the front and put it in my planner.

 

Phew! And that is how you use your Brimbles box to the max! As a side note, I did use my gold tassel too. I actually made these up for this months Brimbles box and kept one aside for myself.




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Battle of the Metallic Planners! (Comparisons / Show & Tell)

Battle of the metallics...ever wondered what the 'gold tone' metallic planners look like against each other? Struggling to choose between them but know you want one? I thought it would be fun to compare some of the planners with each other so you could see what they look like and hopefully make your mind up as to which one(s) to get!

All of the planners shown I personally own and / or I stock in my shop and are available here: http://www.mrsbrimbles.co.uk/product-category/planners/

Carpe Diem Planner & Accessories Show and Tell

I'm a bit late in posting this video due to my holiday but if you didn't know, I am now a stockist of the Carpe Diem planner range and I wanted to do a show and tell so you can see what they are like!



If you would like to take a look at the collection in my shop please click here