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.

The Spring 2016 Websters Pages Color Crush Planners Showing!

Wanna see what the new Spring 2016 Websters Pages Color Crush Planners look like? Yeah I thought you would! I can tell you that they are absolutely delish and you are going to love them. They are not released until Spring but don't worry about missing out, just head on over to Facebook and join 'Mrs Brimbles Happy Place' and also 'Color Crush Planner Love' and you will get to find out when they are available to purchase. For UK peeps I will be stocking them!

Decorate with me / February Planner Set up / February Brimbles Box!

With February comes a little change in planner and of course planner decor so I thought you might like to see how I used the goodies in the February Brimbles Box to decorate my pages and my planner.

My Planner so far this year

I realised that I have been neglecting my blog for a little lately and I haven't posted many photos of late. My lovely Design Team have been keeping the blog active which I am really grateful for. I have no excuses, I have just haven't blogged lol! I've been around on other platforms mainly instagram and Facebook and of course YouTube.

For a vast proportion of last year I was doing a weekly planner page decoration post which I realise I have not posted for ages so I thought I would do a bit of a show of my pages from this year so far. Since I divided out my planners last year I have been really into page decoration big time this year and I can see myself continuing on this for the foreseeable future.

So if you have missed my posts elsewhere, here is how this year has looked so far. I have consistently been in my White Websters Pages Color Crush planner although I have a feeling this may change in February!

The above photo is a screen shot froom my planner set up video and that was week one. Then going forward...

 

 

2015 Planner Page Decoration Flip Through

I thought it might be fun to do a flip through of all of my inserts from 2015 so you can see my style and how they were decorated!

January Planner Set Up

I thought I would do a little show and tell of my planner set up for January:


I am using the January 'These are the days' journal cards in my planner this month. I loved using them last year and I kind of tailed off in the later months of the year but I felt like using them again.

I am using the month card to track any fitness I do and I reward myself with a little smiley sticker every time I do something!

I keep my little stickers in a pocket bag which I hole punched and added in. It works really well as not only does it look pretty but it also means they are really handy and easily accessible!

I am also using the little 'resolutions' card to remind myself what I want to do. Here is it before I add mine to it. Not because it is secret or anything but because it looks nicer without my handwriting on! I did embellish it a little with washi tape and a sticker because, well, it was fun ha ha!

My Planner & Journal 'line up' for 2016

In this video I thought I would talk about which planners and journals I will be using in 2016, the 'line up' as it were! For some it may be too many, for me it just right, my happy mix of 'workhorse planner' and 'creative planner' as well as my creative need to create in whatever notebook / sketchbook / journal takes my fancy at the time. I hope you enjoy this peak into the inner workings of my mind and life. It's a long one so grab a cuppa before you sit down!

I also talk briefly about my word for this year and how I chose it and what it means to me.

Next week is looking Brite!

Next week is looking very bright. Rainbow Brite he he he he!! You know I love her because she appears so much in my planner and I also still have my doll and sprite from when I was a kid in the 80s. I love that they are bringing her back too!

Products Used

Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Yellow with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: Blue with white clouds from Doodlebug Designs. Yellow with stars is from Cath Kidston and the red is unknown.
Pen: Target $1 spot
Paperclips: Made by Craftin Chaos on Etsy.
Stickers: made for me by a friend. Little strip stickers are from Handcrafted by Sheree on Etsy.

Planner Decorating!

Now that Halloween is over I felt it was time for a planner change over so I thought I would do that and share with you what I went for. Obviously it had to be 'pimped' a bit too, I could just leave those pockets empty now could I! I also wanted to share with you my page decoration for the week.



Products Used

Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Yellow with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: Amy Tangerine strips booklet (orange flower and yellow spot) from my shop. Orange stipe from Websters pages. Orange dot unknown.
Pen: Target $1 spot
Paperclips: Fox made by Craftin Chaos on Etsy. Wooden paper clips "Autumn" from my shop. Pumpkin clip made from the Apple Cider tin pins in my shop.
Stickers: Fraggle Rock stickers made for me by a friend. The other stickers used are the Apple Cider stickers available in my shop
Note Cards: My pretty week
Dashboard: Made by me but no longer available.

**None of the links are affiliate links although some of the links are for my own online shop**

Pumpkin Picking? - This weeks pages

I really enjoyed doing my last 'plan with me' video or as I like to call it 'decorate with me' so I thought I would do it again this week. I am a bit late in sharing this weeks pages as it has all been a go-go what with vlogtober and all that so please forgive me for sharing them late. I will try and get back to sharing my pages like I used to do, earlier in the week!



Anyhooo these are my pages:

Products Used

Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in White with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: All from my shop
Pen: Target $1 spot
Paperclips: made from the bade flair buttons in my shop
Stickers: Bunting and weekend banner stick from HandcraftedbySheree on Etsy. Polka Dot Flag from PinkHedgehogPretties on Etsy and all others from my shop

**None of the links are affiliate links although some of the links are for my own online shop**

Setting up my planner for Halloween

I have been seeing all of these gorgeous photos in the planner community accross various social media sites and I was starting to get a little jealous that I didn't have one so I thought it was about time I did. I decided to swap into my white Color Crush planner even though most of the planners I have been seeing have been orange or black. I thought I would be a little different. I haven't had a good play / crafty planner session for ages so it was really nice to play and have some fun and whilst I was doing that I thought I would record what I was doing so that you can see too!



Most of the items that I used for this were either from the October Brimbles Box or were raided from my shop stock (one of the perks of having such things in stock is that you can raid them he he!).

So if you didn't watch the video or just like to look at photos, let me tell you what I did. First let me say that this is actually quite a lot for me to do in one go. Usually I switch and things just seem to get added organically over time. It is unusual for me to just switch and go the whole hog with decoration. Most of it isn't needed I just like it! It felt kinda good to go whole hog but I probably can't add any more as time goes on!

I took the pumpkin charm off of the pen that came with the box and added it to my strap to replace the charm that came with the planner. I think the little pop of orange looks cute there!

I decided to decorate the inside. I used one of the 'reject' dashboards from the Box, the ghostie one. I thought he looked pretty cool! I made a washi on the go card from a Halloween Project Life card and I also added a couple of other cards and stickers just to look pretty.

I stuffed some Project Life cards into the pockets and used paper clips to clip in some bits of ephemera. They serve no purpose other than to look awesome! The bunny clip was made exclusively for the box by Craftin Chaos and I love it. The other paper clips I made out of the Halloween badge flair buttons.

I 'modified' the WP logo a little by adding a pumpkin puffy sticker!

And I also made co-ordinating dividers cut down from the Halloween divider pack.

You remember that lovely shaker dashboard that the talented Geraldine made for me? Well I just had to add that in too didn't I!

 All in all I am totally loving this eye candy and hope you do too!