Get Out of the House - Planner Writing Board and Customization

Hi everyone - hope you are all well!
So now that I have completed the making of my planner inserts and cover, it is time to customise it with the pieces I require to make it practical and fun to work in.
I have decided a writing board would be a great addition - a flat, firm piece I can slip under the pages I am working on to make it easier to write on when I am "getting out of the house" (as this month's theme suggests 😉).

Firstly, I found a piece of white cardstock in my stash then grabbed all of the left over paper pieces from the Photo Play "Living the Quarantine Life" collection to choose pieces to cover it with.

 I cut the cardstock 3 and 3/4" x 8 and 1/4"..........

.........then I cut the chosen papers the same size as the cardstock. One piece fit perfectly which was great as we want the side we will be leaning on while writing to be smooth.  I did not have pieces big enough to cover the other side though, and opted to use two, which looked really nice.

I went through the Photo Play "Living the Quarantine Life" Ephemera pieces and found some great ones to decorate my writing board with.  I inked the edges of my board and the ephemera with Distress Oxide "Spiced Marmalade" then glued them all down.

I ran the writing board through my laminator.  I decided this would be helpful if I was to do any inking or painting in my planner inserts, I may get some on the board and this would make it easier to clean.

My next task was to fill the planner pockets with useful and fun bits and pieces to use in my planners.
I found the BoBunny 'Life in Color' Clear Stickers and slipped them into one of the Dylusions Dyalog Pockets, I found that if I cut the packaging down just a little that it fit in perfectly.  I found a tag from the Photo Play Ephemera pack that slipped in the slit in the pocket perfectly and looked awesome.

I had a whole sheet of the Living the Quarantine Life "Stay Safe" paper from Photo Play left which has heaps of speech bubbles with pertinent isolation statements on it.  I decided to put it through my Scan 'n' Cut machine to fussy cut them all out, creating a whole pile of embellishments to use in my insert booklets while saving my wrist from all of that cutting!

I put these and the Photo Play Ephemera into resealable cellophane bags and slipped in a backing card made from off-cuts of the papers to stabilise and make it easier to slip into the pockets.

 

I made a pocket using an off-cut form the  COVID19 paper, by just folding the bottom up and gluing down each side, This was embellished with two of the speech bubbles cut out prior.  The pocket edges and embellishment were inked with Distress Oxide "Spiced Marmalade".

The cut-aparts now slip in the Dylusions Pockets perfectly and are much easier to see, keep together and remove when needed.

The left over piece of file folder from making the cover was used to create another pocket to slip in small off-cuts of the Photo Play papers so that I can use them to further decorate my inserts.  This fit nicely into the front cover pocket.

The Photo Play "Living the Quarantine Life" stamps are a whole bunch of fun! I decided to stamp these onto sticky barcode labels (found at the second-hand store) to create stickers I could use when out-and-about or sitting on the couch - rather than having to grab my inks and stamps all the time (lazy-aren't I!) So now I have heaps of days-of-the-week, emojis and other great stickers to use that can also be bagged up and slipped into the Dylusions Dyalog Pockets.

I hope this has given you some ideas of how you can organise your planner to begin using and embellishing it, and have heaps of fun while doing so!
Happy crafting and take care,
Love Nat xxx

Here is a process video of me making the writing board and organising my embellishments:

 Aunty Vera Scrap and Craft products on sale and being used for the month of July are:

•   Photo Play "Living the Quarantine Life" paper collection including: Covidiot, Plaid19, Covid 19, Stay Safe, This Happened.
•   Photo Play "Living the Quarantine Life" Ephemera Die Cuts
•   Photo Play "Living the Quarantine Life" Stamps
•   Ranger - Tim Holtz Distress Oxide "Spiced Marmalade"
•   Bo Bunny - Clear Stickers "Life in Color"
•   Pigma Micron 05 pen 
•   Ranger Dylusions - Dyalog Insert Book - Ruled
•   Dyalog Dylusions - Dyalog Pocket Inserts