I am slightly OCD about being organized… or at least having the facade of being organized. I’ve always described my organization style as organized chaos. Things may look cluttered and crazy but I know where everything is (and may your gods help you if you try to interfere with my system!). Along that same vein I love planners, and binders, and backpacks with tons of pockets and places to put things and pens and pencils and an overly organized home for them to live in. I love it. I love making new systems and improving on old systems and color coding. My current planner that I keep track of basic chores, events, meetings, appointments, and blog posts is color coded by type of event, holidays, blog posts, and chores. I also keep track of moon phases amongst other things. My favorite thing is to sit down on a Sunday night by my mister on the couch and plan out my week. Makes things easier, I don’t forget stuff, and it helps me to stay focused and on task.
But, I hate boring plain things so whenever I get a new planner, or journal… or anything really I always decorate it to make it mine. Always. I prefer a base color of black. But I hate just plain black. And I also hate logos and brands on items. I usually cover up brands and paint on accent colors and designs here and there. Stickers and patches are also a must.
This week, after what felt like waiting for forever, the holy grail of planners came in….Many moons. I have been following her books and I absolutely adore them, but a planner? OMG. Swoon. When I opened it I was taken aback by the layout and the design of everything. I really love it. It’s perfect. But the cover was so pretty I was worried about ruining it if I threw it in my bag… so of course, I had to find the perfect cover. One that was the perfect size and one that also had little organizing things. I really wanted it to be colorful, but the size became an issue as well as not wanting binder rings since my planner was already a spiral bound book. I found one for a decent price. Those things can seriously get super expensive! $15 wasn’t bad.
So I get it home and all these ideas came flooding to me about what I wanted to do to decorate it! The book combined with the things I put in the cover prevented it from staying closed properly so I decided make a strap to close it. And to add a pink accent.. and to sticker up the logo.
I’m bad at taking photos while I work on a project because usually there are no defined steps. I usually make things up as I go along and tweak as needed. This one I measured my fabric and cut it. I then cut a long triangle from a piece of card board for the part that goes around the open edge of the book to help make it sturdier than just the fabric. I hot glued the triangle to the the fabric strip, then glued the edges over to create a seam. I put some fabric on the back of the triangle strap to give it a finished look. Then I sewed the accent threads around the edges. I sewed on the button where the front of the book is after measuring where it should go first. Then, I just hot glued the strap around the book. I used the gorilla glue for the hot glue gun. It tends to hold things together pretty good. I absolutely adore it! And it makes my new planner that much more special for me.