simple homemade planner

I really depend on staying organized, I blog, I teach, I make art, I sell products, I am a busy mom and I am juggle lots of projects. As much as I love all the pretty planners out there, I really enjoy creating my own simple handmade calendar/planner for the year.

My personal planning process is all about keeping lists. This means my planner consists of a monthly calendar and lots of pages for lists- a to do list for each day, a to do list for the week, a list for blogging, a list for class content, etc. In addition to my lists, a lot of my planning process also includes visual brainstorming, doodling and drawing my ideas for classes and new products and blog content- which means I need lots of paper.

I've found that a cheap composition notebook or even a sketchbook works great for making a homemade planner. There are a number of ways to alter a composition notebook! One of my favorite ways is painting right over the top and then adding your own art to the cover

I used a couple layers of white acrylic paint and once it was dry I used a sharpie to cover the surface with a flower pattern.

Then I added a little pop of color!

If you don't want to paint or draw, grab some pretty paper and use it to cover the front and back of the composition notebook. I actually created a set of pretty paper from my own drawings.

I create blank monthly calendars that I glue on the pages of my notebook.

I added tabs and then I get busy planning and list making!

With a little creativity, you have the ability to transform a cheap composition notebook into a personalized planner!

I've put together a little planner download with lots of 8 pretty paper designs, two sheets of stickers that can be printed on sticker paper and a blank calendar! It's over in the shop HERE for $10!

Want more inspiration to create your own planner? Check out my post from a couple years ago when I transformed a sketchbook into a planner HERE