Happy Planner Prep // March 2016

One of my favorite things about The Happy Planner are the monthly dashboard pages that give you the ammo you need to attack your month's effectively. In my particular planner, each month has 5 prompts, including a section for birthdays, special events, goals, important dates, and things not to forget. Although some things may overlap, I like to use this section to get creative, do a little scrapbooking, and of course, make it colorful and fun to look at as I flip through my planner, all the while letting me be organized and know what's ahead.

You'll notice some sticky flags scattered, and that's because during prior months I will get ideas for future ones, so I just stick ideas down as I get them. Then, once I sit down to assemble it, I will remember what I wanted to put down, and can simply remove the flags.

Next, I will go to my computer and print out images that pertain to each section. I only like to do a few here and there so it's not too busy and I can add stickers. To size pictures to fit in each box, I'll take my ruler and measure how big I think I want it and outline where it would go with a pencil. I didn't show this step, but you get the idea I'm sure. For this month, I printed out a photo of my dad (and brother) for his birthday, two of the Happy Planners I'm in between (they're coming to stores this month !!!) and a little quote, which I like to use in my "Don't Forget" section as a personal reminder.

Since my dad was the only one with a birthday this month, I jazzed up the space with some stickers from a MAMBI Pocket Pages sticker book. Some old Target Dollar Spot alpha stickers gave some color, while a number sticker for the date of my dad's birthday is from a MAMBI Alphabet sticker book. Both MAMBI sticker books I bought from Hobby Lobby. To add some birthday pizzazz, I just took a snippet of confetti washi tape.

I'm stoked for the reveal of my two articles coming out this month, so I wanted to highlight that it is a special event for me, even though I put the same thing in my Feb dashboard. See all of my current publications here. A gold foiled "work it" sticker dresses it up a bit.

Last but not least, I added one of the new pocket cards to the front of my March divider (see top of post). I like how the black and gold pop on the blue and green stripes. I adhered it to the center with a tiny bit of washi tape so I could easily remove it if I wanted to use it somewhere else!

MAMBI Happy Planner Haul - NEW CHA 2016 RELEASES!!!

 

I had been waiting a hot minute for Me and My Big Ideas to FINALLY release their new products that debuted at CHA 2016, and to hold them in my hands is short of a Planner Miracle (is this a thing? it should be!).

When the products first launched on their website, I was so excited that I actually waited a few weeks to buy anything. I had an idea of what I wanted, but kept going back and forth with products in my cart because I obviously didn't want to order everything at once (although I wish I could!). And then one day, I was scrolling through my normal instagram tags when I saw someone post about seeing some stuff arrive in Hobby Lobby. I have a Hobby Lobby only 10 mins or so from my house so immediately I was like: Must. Go. 

Sure enough, I made it last weekend and they had just about everything in stock that they supplied. To my dismay, the smaller storage pouch that attaches to the back cover of The Happy Planner was out of stock! But I didn't stress because I knew they were selling it and it'd be back in a matter of time. The real "planner problem" if you will (let's just dub a bunch of terms today!) was that there weren't ANY of some of the new products I was looking for in stock, including the must anticipated pre-punched washi sticker pack, dashboard dividers, new sticky notes insert, etc.

But to get on with the haul... I picked up the two new sticker packs which include "Everyday Reminders" stickers of all shapes and sizes, an updated version (and combined?) of the To Do and Don't Forget sticker packs (which they do still sell). This new pack will be a definite replenisher (something I have no problem using to my liking and rebuying as needed) and features gold foil and the tiniest colorful icons in circles, which are slightly more appealing than the Colorful Icon pack (which I also picked up). That pack has Green, Light Blue, Teal, Dark Blue, Purple, Pink, Yellow, Orange and Red, as well as a Pastel Pink and Blue/Gold Foil combo - whoa that's a mouthful. The icons include an arrow (pointing to the right), asteriks, star, exclamation point, heart, and bigger astericks. 

The next things I picked up were sort of unexpected, with the exception of the new half sheet notepaper. I absolutely love the quality of The Happy Planner paper. It's thick, so you can use a variety of pens on them and they won't bleed. It also just feels great to write on and take notes with. I use the dated notepaper a lot for work when I'm researching and drafting pieces. But the half sheet notepaper is a whole new door to creativity, leaving room for lists, tasks, to do, and the like. Also great for when you just don't want to use a whole sheet of paper (because the reg. sheets are quite big!). In addition, my mom insisted I needed the planner bands, which I was waiting to actually pick up once I chose my new 2016-2017 planner, which I'm lookinh forward to unveiling and sharing with you. The planner bands come in a blue, pink, and gold, which are versatile colors that play with The Happy Planner's various covers quite well. I have the blue one on my black My Life planner cover right now as you will see below. Also, I picked up the "Hello" edition of the magnetic page markers, which I really knew I didn't need but are so darn cute. These are very strong, and I currently have the "hello" mint flag on my week, holding it from the month to the last week of the month for an easy flip. The striped arrow is on the other side of my weekly spread, holding the reminder of whatever the weeks are in the month I'm on (Feb). The "Life is Good" and pink heart with white polkas are also adorable, but my mom definitely snatched them...lol!

Last, but certainly not least are the new Pocket Pages and Pocket Cards, a new system for memory keeping that is revolutionizing the planner commuity right now. Not one single company has anything like this for planners, and MAMBI certainly knows what they're doing because pocket pages are the hottest scrapbooking trend right now (see Project Life and Simple Stories Sn@P - well, SS are pioneers in this too, because the SN@P system has ways of planning and memory keeping simutaneously, but that's for another post...). So, obviously when I saw this I had a plannergasm (yay, more terms!) and knew I was going to buy them. Then fast forward a few weeks, and I'm totally suckered into scrapbooking, Project Life style (stay tuned for this post). I immediately can the MAMBI pocket page system because I didn't believe it would sufficiently work for me if I was going to start doing PL. It would just overwhelm me, and I'd be repeating too much. So why was it on the car ride to Hobby Lobby that I was like forget it, I'm getting it? (#rhetorical) I really don't know. 

After playing around with it, I found the Pocket Pages to be of very good quality, just like the ones I bought for my PL. Now the question is, would I go back and not have boughten everything I needed to start PL, and just stick with the MAMBI? And, the answer is no, because scrapbooking for PL is completely different than Pocket Pages for MAMBI. I've been putting (so far) a lot of effort, time, and money, into my PL because it's just an entire different creative outlet. Pocket Pages are fun to stick in here and there, and one day you'll see how I'm incorporating them once I figure out their best use, which will probably be in my 2016-2017 planner setup.

I'm really enjoying my items right now but there are just so many more calling my name. If you're a Happy Planner, what have you been enjoying from the new line or what do you plan on picking up?

Until next time,
~Alexa~ 

Happy Planner Prep// February 2016

February is among us, which means its time to look at the important things going on in the month before the actual month is planned in particular. I definitely have struggled with getting creative for this type of page, so when in doubt I turn to the MAMBI blog for inspiration. Sure enough, MAMBI Social Media Coordinator Amanda Zampelli has an adorable page filled out, and included a super cute pic of her boyfriend with some other embellishments. Drawing inspiration from that, I came up with this memory keeping type page, and I'm so in love and already thinking about March's layout.

To size this pic down of my boyfriend and I (taken last Valentine's Day, actually), I measured the paritcular section I knew I wanted it to go in, and then put those dimensions into MS Word. I knew I didn't want it to take the whole width of the page, but more on the height side. I of course left wiggle room for embellishments. The black and white heart washi tape (last year Target Dollar Spot) was a nice and stark contrast against the bold red box above that contains the monthly overview calendars. I printed out some MAMBI printables from a previous V-Day on their website, and cut out this "I love you!" scrap from one of the pocket pages. I definitely played around with things like a jigsaw puzzle, seeing what fit where the best. Running scenarios over is part of the fun of it! After I finished the majority of the layout, that section was looking a little sparse still - I didn't like how there was a bit of a white box just chillin' out! I heard this song play from a commerical from the TV (I was doing this in a communal space) and heard "baby, you're electric" which went perfect for my lovey dovey/romance theme of this February layout.

For Special Events, I decided to highlight the fact that my first two articles will be submitted for publication this month in the magazine I intern for (see publications). I like to use my gold foil stickers sparingly, so I used the "big day" one for this special occasion. 

For Feb Goals, my friends and I are in the midst of planning a trip to Orlando that month to go to Universal, so I put this adorable picture of my friends we'd be going with/seeing there as a visual reminder that this trip needs to get planned! The thin gold washi complemented the gold, red, and black theme I was going for.

For Important Dates, I decided to put V-Day down since it would be my fourth with my BF. Plus, I had this super adorable chipboard sticker from Target Dollar Spot this year that already had the date on it and everything - it was meant to be!

Lastly, I had just about run out of ideas when I was reading some of the cute extra V-Day stickers I had (I bought a lot this year, but hey, they're only a buck!) and used this Don't Forget section as a reminder to myself since this year it has to do with my OLW: 2016 (One Little Word) which I will go more into depth with next month. "You Are Whaley Special" is a special little something just for me. I also put down "take polaroid pictures" because I want to get a bunch on my weekend getaway with my friends since. Scrapbooking is a personal goal of mine for 2016, and doing this layout made me realize how much I'm looking forward to taking the steps to make it happen.