Planning is best on Sundays, so I hope you are ready to be wowed with all the new Moments Inked products being released by Papertrey Ink today! In this post I am showing how I’ve incorporated the new goodies into my planner - I am super excited about how well this system is working out for me. I’ve carried it with me every day for the last month and it is turning out to be a huge life saver. I hope that you love it too!
This month’s products really bring organization to a whole new level of awesome. I really mean that! I have been able to create my own book marks and lists in a jiffy. Above you can see the top of my grocery list, which was made using the new Tabbed list Die and coordinating Listed stamp set, along with some page dividers using Moments Inked: Divided dies and stamps.
My entire month of January has been replaced with all my favorite recipes from Pinterest and Food Network. I LOVE having them stored all in one place and having them with me at all times. If I am stuck in traffic and want to stop at the market, I can grab my shopping list from my planner. This also means that I can meal plan from just about anywhere as long as my planner is with me, but given it’s convenient size that is never a problem! It is always with me! The pages were cut using the Full Page die, which is also part of this month’s release. (I know lots of you were asking for this - YAY!)
The Pocket Page die may be my favorite die of all time. If you watch my video you can see that I created double-sided pockets - the back side (not shown in the photo) is open and holding some return address labels and my list of passwords, but here you can see that I created a closed envelope embellished with Bitty Button Stacks to keep more important things enclosed - here I keep a spare check, some postage stamps and business cards. LOVE!!!!! This section has pretty much replaced the month of February in my planner. In order for this to stay functional for me, it’s gotta be compact, which is also part of the reason why I removed all my daily pages and had the planner rebound. (More on that later and in the video.)
Making it pretty is super simple, otherwise I wouldn’t do it! Here I used the Moments Inked: Divided die to create a bookmark and the Divided stamps were used to create removable tabs to mark chores and other weekly tasks - I can reuse these from week to week, and later make new ones to coordinate with the new month’s color scheme in the planner. I die cut “March” using Monthly Moments Year Round dies and I decorated the bookmark with Year of Flowers: Mums in Aqua Mist. Behind my bookmark you can also see how I created a removable box using the Moments Inked Boxed die - this is for a project that is taking me quite a bit of time, so I remove the box and place it in time slots when I need to reserve large chunks of time to work on that particular analysis.
I created a second page marker for my Notes section in the back of the planner - this is where I take notes when I go to meetings about new projects. LOVE this too!
And here is a close up of the aftermath of rebinding my planner at FedEx/Kinkos. I would definitely consult with your local store if you plan to do this - you want to make sure that they have the equipment to do this, and that the binding machine that they have will fit the holes (which are space about 1/4″ apart on the PTI planner) properly. If you want to plan for some extra add-ons over time, I might not remove ALL the daily pages prior to rebinding it. The added bulk will leave you extra space to ‘grow in’ later on, after you remove them; otherwise, all of your pages may not ultimately fit and your planner will be busting at the seams! (I hope this makes sense.) For example, knowing that I was going to eventually add all my recipes, I left a couple sections of daily pages in there and rebound the planner to fit that thickness. This cost me $2.13: It was $1 for them to uncoil the planner for me, and $1 for them to rebind it (plus tax). I am SO happy that I did this - I find that having the daily pages tucked inside of each week means that I actually use them to their fullest, and I love being able to tuck them away for safe keeping later. If you are wondering, the planner is now about 1/2 the width that it was - it’s about 3/4″ thick.
Here is a quick little video that I made explaining how I’ve been using my planner in more detail. (Verizon has been outside my window for the last 3 days - I waited as long as I could for them to leave, but they were still there just before sunset when I squeezed in this video, so I apologize if you happen to hear any weird jammering in the background!)
Here are some other points that you might be interested in hearing about if you’re planning along with us: for some reason I keep reaching for my dark blue Signo Uni-ball (0.5, fine point) and pink Pilot Frixion (0.7, medium point) pens the most when using this planner. I write everything in the blue ink, and use the pink ink to cross things out or make edits. The flower paper clips are from Kate Spade - I found them at my local stationery store - and I otherwise use plain old yellow Post-It notes to create my banners and flags, including the ones using Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamps and dies.
Thank you all so much for stopping by! For more planner inspiration, please be sure to stop by Nichole’s blog for all the details and for links to posts by my fabulous team members (listed below)! Have a great day!
jan metcalf
March 15, 2025 at 10:01 AM (2 months ago)Two planners from one! Love it!!
Diane
March 15, 2025 at 10:14 AM (2 months ago)Thank you for the great way to make the planner thinner. I love the planner but know that the original size is just too thick and heavy to carry but my planner can’t travel easily it isn’t useful for me.
Lani
March 15, 2025 at 11:33 AM (2 months ago)Love the resizing! Smart idea. I hope the 2016 planner release will be in October or November 2016, because I like to give these planners as Christmas gifts and wouldn’t it be fun to create additions and send them off throughout the year.
Amy Sheffer
March 15, 2025 at 11:33 AM (2 months ago)I love all your ideas, Suzanne! I had talked with someone at Staples about their coils, but hadn’t yet worked up the courage to re-bind, so thanks for sharing how you did that!
janet
March 15, 2025 at 11:43 AM (2 months ago)Beautiful, Suzanne :-)
Diane
March 15, 2025 at 2:26 PM (2 months ago)Thanks for your tips, Suzanne! I’m going to have to put some thought into all of this, I find myself fully utilizing my daily pages but not my weekly pages, and I really do want to use both. Perhaps taking the daily pages out the way you have would work for me too.
Tracey McNeely
March 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM (2 months ago)Suzanne your customization rocks! Love love love.
Gina Eggebrecht
March 15, 2025 at 3:33 PM (2 months ago)I *love* the idea of rebinding and tucking daily pages in with the weekly pages. I find I flip back and forth *a lot* and wish I didn’t have to do that. I *absolutely love* how you did the pocket page. I was just thinking earlier this week that I needed to make a secure pocket page - I had my personal property tax bill and our orthodontist’s payment coupon book that I want to keep in the planner. Your solution is fabulous.
Anne D
March 15, 2025 at 4:25 PM (2 months ago)I had just bought a new planner before PTI announced the release of theirs. One of the things I really didn’t like about it was the thickness. You have solved the problem beautifully! Now I might consider buying one of these next year. Love how you used the new release items!
TamiB
March 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM (2 months ago)It’s all about making it work for you…I’m so glad you shared this!! Terrific ideas!!
Kim Heggins
March 15, 2025 at 6:31 PM (2 months ago)Love your planner…just fabulous. And the smaller size coil, just amazing.
Polly Lemire
March 16, 2025 at 9:29 AM (2 months ago)Suzanne - thanks so much for your ideas on how to customize the planner based on how one actually uses it! I was finding it to be cumbersome to keep flipping baack and forth between monthly, weekly and daily pages. With your help, I realized that my planner is not a “sacred cow” and I can arrange it in a way that’s most useful for me! Duh…. Thanks!!
Cindy Coutts
March 17, 2025 at 9:41 PM (2 months ago)Excellent video Suzanne and thank you. As far as the personal pages go, take then to FedEx or Office Depot, one of those stores, and have them bind them for you and use another one of the PTI’s cover front for it. Thank you so much for the ideas! God bless you and have a great day.
Sandra Wingate
March 20, 2025 at 7:10 AM (2 months ago)thank you, thank you, thank you! Your reminding solution makes this planner possible for me. I have been coveting all the customization dies and stamps, but could not imagine carrying the grossly wide binding rings. I never imagined it could be rebound. You are a genius. I think I’m going to take my iPad to kinks here and ask if they could do the same thing, before I order the planner. Thank you again for sharing your creativity.
Kate
March 20, 2025 at 9:48 PM (2 months ago)Absolutely brilliant re-visioning of the planner. I am seriously reconsidering making a similar change to mine. I was so annoyed they released it 2 months after January-what to do with wasted past pages?! I considered using them for scrapbook purpose- Overall I like the planner- but you’re breathed some new life into it for me! Thanks & great work with this release & your cards. I am new to your work& loving what I see!
Jodi Herchold
March 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM (2 months ago)i absolutely love this idea, thanks for sharing. I just had mine taken apart and have a question for you. What did you do about the first of each month? The daily page is on the back of the weekly one-I’m just curious what you did. Thanks for your insight!
Maureen
March 23, 2025 at 12:37 AM (2 months ago)Suzanne! This is wicked awesome! I haven’t had time to set up my planner and was worried I wouldn’t use the daily pages so much. You have given me a great idea! Thanks so much! ox
Laura
March 29, 2025 at 10:14 PM (2 months ago)Thank you for the wonderful suggestion. I spent a whopping $1.08 at Kinko’s/FedEx and my own manual labor to make 2 coil bound planners today. I have put a coiled binding on the daily pages and will make my own covers to write in those at night, before bed. Thanks for the awesome suggestion!
Laura