Project: DIY Bookmarks

Hi everyone!

Like some/most of you, I love puffy stickers.  I've bought a few knowing that I couldn't use them on my diary pages because they would be lumpy and bumpy to write on.  (But I bought them anyway.)

When I found these for less than $1, I couldn't resist!

(Please excuse the lighting in the photos that follow -- my craft area has very little natural light.  The task light serves its purpose but is not the best for photos.)

I've stuck some on a few things below.

Hello Kitty puffy sticker on an Avery tab

A couple more stickers on the Leuchtturm pen loop

As per my usual, I was racking my brains for other ways to use them, and then I had a lightbulb moment -- bookmarks?

These are my first two attempts and there's lots of room for improvement.  Basically, I stuck the sticker on top of a piece of plastic -- clear on the lamb and white on the hippo -- cut the outline of the sticker and then the flap that sticks into the pages.

I washi taped the clear plastic on the lamb one for color and interest.

Here's what they look like on the page

and when your book/Filofax is closed.

These are the only tools I used.  The 1/16 inch (I think) Martha Stewart punch just made it easier to cut the outline of the bookmark flap.  I used a cutter/blade for that (oops, not in the photo!).

One tip I learned by trial and error:  cut out the outline of the sticker first before the flap so you know how wide you need it to be (and so you don't cut off the bottom entirely).

Now I can't wait to work on some more.

Honestly, I don't know if there are tutorials of these on the web because I just went ahead and made them without checking.  I'm sure someone will come up with a better way to do this and I'd love to see what you've done if you've tried this yourself.


Thanks for visiting!

Carrying Pens in a Midori

Hi everyone!

When I first started setting up the Midori, I used binder clips and a magnetic pen holder hack to hold 2 multi-pens and a fountain pen in it.

It worked ok.  The binder clips were quite secure and I had 3 pens easily accessible to me.  The magnetic hack though was not a great success.  Although the magnets were quite strong, it just felt flimsy and moved around quite a bit.

And of course, like all my other projects, I had to find a better way to do it.

Here are a few attempts at ‘building a better (mouse trap) pen holder”:

The obvious Midori pen holder that’s fat enough for a Lamy Safari.  Too small for the Muji multi pens though.

I also tried securing the pens in the elastic.

Here's a DIY leather thing-a-ma-jig.  Like all my projects, super-simple construction. Just a long piece of leather with strong magnets.  It can even double as a magnetic bookmark, which is how it started its life..

My two personal favorites --

Keeping pens in the zipper pocket, even if it makes the MTN fat and chunky.

And lastly, a two-sided, DIY refill-sized pen holder made of plastic folder material.  The pen holders themselves are kept secure with flat brads.  And the pens are always out and ready-to-use.

I switch between the last two, depending on where I am.  When going out, I’ll keep the pens in the zipper pocket so they don’t snag on anything in my handbag.  When at home, I take out the pens and put them in the DIY pen “insert”.

Hope this inspires you to find the best way for you to store your pens in your Filofax or MTN.

Thanks for visiting!

DIY Tabs/Dividers

Hi everyone!

As soon as I wrote this post on my Malden, and while Planner Grazing, I got itchy fingers again and wanted to redo my tabs.

To me, one of the many beauties of using a Filofax is that you can make things for it.  A lot of you do this, I know.  I do too, but not nearly as much.

For example, I don't make my own inserts.  The most I do is put checklists on pre-printed paper (whether Filofax-brand or not).  I just use a gray pen and draw straight lines, no rocket science there.

Checklists Galore !

I've also stamped the Cotton Cream WO2P paper to make checklists on one side. (I'm a fan of checklists as you can probably tell by now, LOL.)

But printing my own inserts is a bit much for me.

What I've loved to do though is make my own tabs.  I've done this before with both side and top tabs made from scrapbook paper. I like a cheery look to my binders (when I'm not doing white!) and knew pastels would do the trick.

I started with these top tabs.














I also made some for my wallet/purse.

Top tabs here . . .

. . . and side tabs here.

What I've been looking for however are some really durable tabs that can withstand constant page-turning.  Eventually, I found some thin plastic ones and made these . . .

. . . out of these.

But I wanted them in pastels and couldn't find any.  So I looked some more, and found these plastic folders instead.  They're not as 'thin' as the ones I used for top tabs, but they'll get the job done.

I just cut some in Personal size -- 6 3/4 x 3 3/4 -- and punched them with holes.

Next, i used these tabs that I've had for a while but haven't found a use for yet.


















They're a little too wide so I cut each in half stuck them on the sides.

They fit 7 tabs exactly so I now have  a 'Blog' tab.

Here are all 7 of them.  I only used
the white folder first for a clean look.

And here they are in the Malden.

So I now have pretty pastel tabs, albeit hand-written ones.  It's just great to have the option, if you know what I mean.

And even more recently, I made dividers with tabs out of the same white plastic folder material. I printed the sections off with a label printer. Here they are in the Malden.  I love how neat they look!

Now my dividers are almost indestructible.  (:


Thanks for visiting!