Sci-fi spread
I had got so caught up in decorative planning that I did think about getting a Silhouette Cameo. I love gadgets but reckoned I'd probably use it for a month and then the novelty might wear off as I've no intention of producing stickers for sale. There are enough sticker makers out there to choose stickers to buy from plus you can find plenty of free downloads. I did like the idea of designing some as a giveaway. Not having a Silhouette means having to cut printed stickers by hand so my downloadables would have mostly straight edges, making the cutting a lot simpler.
I opened up a Google Doc and began to play about with tables, selected a row of four boxes and changed the sizing for each to suit the MAMBI Happy Planner. This is easy enough to do - right mouse click and select 'Properties' and you can alter height and width of each box.
Once I'd created a series of full and half boxes, event stickers and spaces for weekend banners I went back into Properties and altered the line colour around the table from black to a pale grey. I needed a subtle outline to draw within and didn't want a dark line around them. I then printed this onto a sheet of white paper and coloured each box. Designs were random!
Once I'd coloured and drawn the box shapes with black ink I then measured out and marked cut lines at top and bottom of page and colour photocopied the sticker designs onto a matte A4 sheet of self-adhesive photo paper (Chiltern Wove). I then cut out my stickers by hand though you could use a paper cutter. Sometimes I prefer scissors.
I've emboldened the key words of the process to make it easier to follow as I didn't photograph each stage of design. I was laughing as I used the stickers to create a planner spread as they were badly cut and did not have a cohesive design theme! Terrible stickers in my beautiful planner...
So armed with what I'd learned I redesigned the sticker table on Google Doc, this time creating skinny boxes (spaces) in between each full box to allow for accurate cutting. I also included resized boxes for checklists and tiny boxes for icons. I again changed the box colour to pale grey and printed the sticker boxes onto Bristol Board which would take the alcohol markers I'd used much better than cheapo printer paper.
I also decided on a sci-fi theme for my sticker kit. Good to go. Spaceship, rocket, aliens and the cosmos with scatterings of stars. I line drew the shapes and made a mental note to invest in some grey drawing pens, the black seemed quite harsh. I left room in the full and half boxes to enable words to be written when planning.
I've tried to indicate where to cut if you're not using a Silhouette and I did colour over the edges to make sure that when the stickers were cut there wouldn't be any white edges visible. The stickers are sized for a MAMBI Planner which may make them a little long for the Erin Condren Planner, but if you don't mind having a more organic style of spread they could still work.
Having tried them out on my planner it's obvious I have a long way to go! Perhaps I need to adjust the box sizes slightly and not colour over the lines. If you do try them out please leave a comment below, I'd really appreciate that.
Links to pdf files containing giveaway sticker designs:
Tomorrow's blogpost: Review of my 'a-blogpost-a-day-during-May' challenge
Copyright © 2016 by Roisin O'Hagan/bloowabbit
All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.
It's all about making the to-dos and the apts a bit more jolly. Yes, my planner looks like it belongs in Santa's workshop but it's fun decorating and each time I open it I smile! 3D stickers, fancy paperclips and embellished dividers provide a blast of seasonal colour. 
I include a gratitude page - room for a note about something good or positive that's happened or that I've experienced. When it's too easy for me to get bogged down by what I don't have or aren't able to do then writing something, no matter how small, is often enough to lift me.
And this year, instead of making a separate Christmas planner I again simplified things, buying an insert from the same Etsy shop, to keep track of spending, shopping lists, gift ideas to make, events and a Christmas card record. It suits me as this year I've cut right back on expenditure and on stress. But I still enjoy detail in decorating my home, crafting and making the day ahead one of comfort.
