Washi Tape to Decorate

There is a lot of talk about using Washi tape in the Erin Condren Life Planners.  If you’ve never heard of Washi tape, well, let me introduce you to it right now!

Washi tape is from Japan, it is like masking tape, only it comes in hundreds of patterns, colors, and several different sizes.  The good Washi Tape is removable, and you can mark out blocks of time in your planner for vacations, holidays, and school breaks.  You can write on it with a Sharpie, and it doesn’t bleed through the pages.

I just dusted off my exercise/diet planner because it’s a New Year, and you know how we all want to start off the New Year right, so I took some time to get my planner ready to record my food intake and exercise output.  What I have done on these pages could be done in any planner, not just one that is dedicated to fitness, etc.

I decided to use Washi tape to decorate each page of the planner, while also covering up the redundant words above the lines at the bottom of each page.  I chose tapes that coordinated with the monthly colors and I really like how it has turned out!!

Here is a quick look at each month…

January

Snowflake washi tape, very fitting for this time of year in the part of the country that I live in!

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February

Hearts of course!

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March

Green, new growth, and springtime!!

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April

April showers, so I had to use the adorable cloud and heart Washi tape!!

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May

May flowers, bright and cheerful!

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June

Warm colors for a warm month, or the month that begins to finally get warm around here!

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July

I didn’t have anything patriotic, so I decided to use my cute owls!

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August

This Washi tape reminded me of cut grass in rows, so it seemed fitting for the month!!

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September

Absolutely fell in LOVE with this Washi tape!  I’ve never seen it before, and it was perfect for the start of school time!!

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October

This is the coffee Washi tape I bought 3 rolls of to share with my friends on the Erin Condren Fan Club on Facebook!  I’m pretending it’s hot chocolate for me, since I don’t drink coffee!!

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November

This Washi was just cute, friendly, and happy, perfect for November!!

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December

This one is a little thick, but I really liked it, so I used it anyway!!

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I am using the regular weekly spread in the Life Planner to record what I eat for Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper.  I am using the lines at the bottom to record any exercise that I do, and I am placing a sticker at the top of each day to record my water intake.

You can still see the words under several of the Washi tapes, but I’m not going to worry about that.  By the time the entire page is filled in with food and exercise, the bit of words that show through won’t be noticed at all.

I am trying to make this planner very color coordinated, so the stickers and pen color used each month will match the duo of color for that month.  The colors for January are Seafoam and Orange, so I am using Seafoam for the stickers, and orange for the ink color!  I can’t wait to see if I like the way it looks, doing it this way with coordinating colors.  It will be a fun experiment!

In Love With My Event Stickers

I am in Event Sticker heaven!  I just love my event stickers and use them all the time in my planner!  I love all the colors and love using them to motivate me to complete certain tasks!

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I put reminders to call my family members, and mark down when I do a special mall/shopping day with my daughter!  I have stickers for club meetings for my son, and library days, and menu planning!

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I mark my Flylady zones and keep track of all the movies we watch (mostly because I think we watch too many of them, and I’m about to order stickers for books I’ve read, as I think it would be much better to have more “book” stickers than “movie” stickers)!!

I have them color coded and at a glance, I know exactly what needs to happen!!

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My planner evolves each week, with all the most important things placed on the pages first!!

I am trying really hard this year to get our finances in order, so am marking each bill due with a green Pay Bills sticker with the business and amount (I have a whole entire sheet of these on order because I already ran out).

I love tiny check boxes, and use a fine black Sharpie to write on the stickers.  I have stickers for each family member, in “their” color, so all appointments, or anything that pertains directly to that person is marked with their color of sticker!

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I have ordered stickers for each of my blogs so I can be sure to do my weekly blog posts, and not forget to make those happen on time!!  And I’m going to also order black stickers with the word “Piano” on it, so I can record when I practice/play/enjoy the piano, one of my favorite hobbies!!  I want to be able to look back at my year and see the things I did just for me (piano time), to know that I not only invested in my family and their happiness, but I took care of myself as well, and did things that brought joy into my own life!!

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The event stickers come in 35 different colors, and I love having a rainbow of them in my planner!

Some things I’ve learned about the event stickers…

The words don’t show up very well on the colors Pear, Butter, Lemon, or Light Blue.  If you want to write on your sticker with a black Sharpie, the writing doesn’t show on Chocolate, Black, Navy, Charcoal, or Mocha very well!

If you want to order stickers that match each of the month’s colors, be sure to check out my Color of the Months blog post, to find out exactly which colors to choose for your event stickers!

Here is my list of event stickers so far (in no particular order), and the colors I chose for each one, and the reason behind the colors:

Daryl – Orange – Because that’s his family color
Kristy – Pink – Because that’s my family color
Darien – Cornflower – Because that’s his family color
Kaelyn – Lemon – Because that’s her family color
Kendrick – Kelly Green – Because that’s his family color
Write Letters – Light Pink – Because it’s something I need/want to do, and it’s in my color shade
Special Dinner – Pool – Because everything food related is in Pool
Potluck – Pool – Because it’s food related
R.A.K. – Gold – Because RAKs bring sunshine into someone’s mailbox (or my mailbox)
Movie Night – Navy – Because Navy is like the night sky, and that’s when we watch movies, at night
Call Friend – Light Pink – Because I want to do that more often this year and pink is my shade of color
Call Mom – Hot Pink – Because I love her, and it’s in my shade of color again, but more vibrant because it’s very important
Call Kim – Purple – Because it’s my sister’s favorite color, and I need to call her more often
Anniversary – Light Gray – Because we are getting close to our Silver Anniversary
Lazer Tag – Gray – Because it’s dark in the building and kinda smoky in there too
Sky High – Teal – I don’t know why I chose this color for this
Mall/Shopping – Butter – Because it’s something I do with my daughter, and it’s in her shade of color
CMWF – Orange – Because it’s my hubby’s work
Road Trip & Travel – Coral – Because it’s one of my favorite color of stickers, and both of these activities are some of my favorite things to do
Snow Skiing – Baby Blue – Because it looks like winter and snow and cold
Hiking & Camping – Mocha – Because it looks like dirt, and you get dirty when you go hiking and camping
Tennis – Pear – Because it’s the same color as tennis balls
Swimming & Water Skiing – Turquoise – Because it looks like beautiful refreshing water
Bubble Bath – Hot Pink – Because it’s one of my FAVORITE things to do, and it’s in my shade of color
Door Decor – Beet – Because Beet is super pretty and Door Decor is a happy thing I do each month
Pathfinders – Army Green – Because it’s my son’s club, we march, and it’s in his shade of color
Library – Tan – Because our library’s name has “Prairie” in it, and tan makes me think of the prairie
Plan Menus – Pool – Because it’s food related again and it’s a very calm and soothing color, though dealing with food does not leave me feeling calm and soothing, so I thought I needed some external motivation and help in that area
Various School Related Stickers – Red – Because the little red schoolhouse is always Red
Specific Bill Related Stickers – Green – Because green looks like money
Dogs – Taupe – Because muddy little paw prints are usually brown, and Taupe is a light brown that I can write on
Pay Bills – Green – Because it’s about money again
Zone 1 – Dark Orange – Because that is the color Flylady uses for Zone 1 (next time I’ll use Dark Red)
Zone 2 – Gold – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 2
Zone 3 – Cornflower – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 3
Zone 4 – Kelly Green – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 4
Zone 5 – Beet – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 5 (purple would also work)
DRINK H2O – Turquoise – Because that’s the color for water related things
Shine Sink – Lavender – Because it’s a chore, and Flylady loves purple
Mini Tramp – Seafoam – Because it was a nice color that I hadn’t used yet
Fab Abs – Coral – I don’t know why I chose Coral for this one
PROVERBS – Butter – I don’t remember my vision behind this sticker or this color 😦

And if this isn’t enough, I’ve got stickers ordered for my 3 Blogs, Piano Time (black), a few more specific bills (green), Attack Clutter (lavender), Pay Bills (green), and I’m always trying to think of more, especially those that will motivate me to accomplish something or develop a needed habit, like reading more books, or some type of exercise, or some type of cleaning routine!

If you haven’t tried the Event Stickers yet, go for it!  It’s an easy way to bring color into your planner pages, and a great way to color code, set goals for yourself, and bring some variety into your days!

My Week December 9-15 (Kristy)

A new week begins tomorrow (actually today because it’s after midnight right now while I’m typing this!).  I thought I would share how I use my weekly pages.  My weeks generally start off being fairly empty.  But by the end of the week, I have filled up all the spaces with appointments, activities, photos, stickers, and journaling!  I love that my planner can also serve as a scrapbook, mini photo album, and just a daily record of life!  I can’t wait to have years and years worth of these sitting on my bookshelf!

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I’ll share how I use my spaces, starting on the left side.

1.  Weekly Goals & Notes…
A.  The first thing I put in this section is my Flylady info.  This reminds me which Zone we are in for the week.  I am not hardcore about this yet, but I want to get better at following the cleaning schedule laid out for each Zone.  I just use a blank event sticker and write the Zone number with a Sharpie.
B.  Next is a space for my Weekly To-Do list.  Anything that needs to be done during the week, but isn’t specific to a day or time goes in this list.  By the end of the week, this area will be full, if not overflowing.  Because this space is rather small, if a to-do is specific to a time and/or day, I will just put it on that particular day, and not add it to this list.
C.  Menu-This is something new I’m trying.  I saw it done in someone else’s planner and loved the idea of having the meals be flexible.  Inevitably, when I plan a certain meal for a certain night, something comes up and I have to swap meals.  This allows me to meal plan, so I know what we are going to eat, and I know what to shop for, but it also allows me to fix what works for that particular evening, and/or to fix something that I feel like fixing that night!  I think this is going to be the end of my menu planning failures!  I’m excited to give it a try!

2.  Monday…
A.  Tomorrow looks like a free day so far.  I have so much work to do around the house, I just haven’t written it down yet!  The lines at the bottom have been designated for my business to-do’s.  Tomorrow I have a couple calls to make.  I don’t feel like I need the printed words that are under the boxes and above the lines.  They are in my way, and I don’t use the lined space as suggested, so I have actually gone through my entire planner and used Bic white-out tape and covered all those words.

3.  Tuesday…
Pizza-This is no longer applicable to my schedule.  I was doing a Pizza hot lunch at the school once a month, but it got canceled due to school kitchen issues.  I will find a cute sticker to cover this since the event stickers don’t remove easily.
Michelle-I have a friend coming over in the afternoon sometime.  If I knew a specific time, I would have that written down beside her name.
There is a Zumba class at 5:30pm Tuesday.  We *might* check it out.  Not sure yet!
Daryl, who is “orange”, has a training class Tuesday night.  I usually try to write any appointments that pertain to certain family members, in “their” color.  We each have a color that we have been using for years, so its second nature for me to see “orange” and immediately know it’s something for hubby.

4.  Wednesday…
I always put my birthday stickers at the very beginning of the day, the top of the sticker lined up with the top of the “morning” box.
My youngest has a club meeting Wednesday night.  The sticker color “green”, immediately tells me who is involved!

And that is how the week progresses!  I do use the “morning”, “day”, and “night” sections for their intended purpose…to keep track of activities that happen in the morning, during the day, and at night.  On Saturday, I will be reminding everyone in the Erin Condren Fan Club, that is participating in the Secret Santa exchange, to be sure they have mailed their gifts.  December 14 is the deadline, so people receive their package by Christmas!  I am also a lover of little check boxes, and as the week progresses, many more of these will be added for events and activities that need to be accomplished.

At the beginning of the week, I don’t do too much “decorating” because I preserve my space first for the necessary items that must be accomplished during the week.  At the end of each day, if I have space, I then will print photos on Avery labels and/or find stickers that inspire or motivate me, or are appropriate for the month or activity that happened during that day.

The end result is a week that is bursting with activity, color, and a life record that sparks many memories!  I often find my teenage children paging through my planner, looking at the tiny pictures and remembering the activities with smiles on their faces.  Nothing is better than that!! ~Kristy

My Week December 2-8 (Michelle)

I knew this week was going to be the start of Christmas prep. So I wanted to make this page colorful and highlight my favorite month. I was also marathoning Supernatural most of this week on Netflix so I put on washi, the lyrics to a song used in an episode. I also washi’d in my thought on Paul Walker dying and also did an RIP for Nelson Mandela. I spend most of my day everyday decorating my planner, writing my to-do lists and just generally making my planner the best representation of me.~Michelle D

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Photo by Michelle Dela Cruz