Hello creatives! Welcome back to the Simple Stories blog. Leah here with you today and I'm so excited to share a new project with you using the Crafty Girl collection. The second I saw this collection, I was instantly inspired to create pretty things. The artsy and crafty sentiments and bright colors truly speak to my creative heart. One of my big goals this year is to find more balance in my life that includes more time to feed and nurture my creativity. So I embraced the creativity this collection was inspiring in me, and channeled it into setting up my new A5 Color Wash planner.

The intention of this planner is to serve as a creative journal of sorts. I have a TN insert that I love to art journal in as well, but it is my hope that this planner will be a more casual project to help me work  towards my goal to do something creative every day. I don't have any set focus or theme in this journal, other than to just be creative. I may doodle, I may color, I may scrapbook, I might write...maybe I'll do something simple, like color swatching new markers or paints. Whatever it is on any given day, there will be no rules. I just want to spend a few minutes doing SOMETHING that stretches my creative muscles. The Crafty Girl collection was the perfect collection to set this planner up with because that's what it's all about – creating.

I decorated the pockets with several die cuts from the Crafty Girl Bits and Pieces pack. I also layered some paper scraps behind a couple of photos. If you have been following me for awhile, you may already know how much I love incorporating photos into my planner pockets. It makes them feel so much more special and personalized. My favorite element in this pocket setup is the paper clip I made by wrapping some paper around the edge of a gold paperclip so that it hangs like a little flag. I added a few of my favorite stickers to it to dress it up and love how it turned out!

The dashboard of this planner was also super fun to make. I used the new A5 divider templates to cut down a 12x12 paper and a sheet of vellum down to the same size, and then sewed the vellum on top of the paper, sewing the sides and bottom edges but leaving the top open. I added a bunch of glitter and sequins into the pocket and then sewed the top closed to create a shaker dashboard. If you don't have a sewing machine, don't worry! I have made many, many shaker dashboards using thin double sided tape (my favorite is the super thin 0.125 Super Sticky Red Tape from American Crafts because you can't see it through vellum and it doesn't budge). To decorate the dashboard, I cut the cute girl out of a paper from the 6x8 paper pad. I added a little watercolor to her skin and hair to customize her. I also fussy cut out the letters to spell “create” from a card on the 4x4 Elements sheet.

I used a 4x6 pocket insert to add a few strips of washi tape for creating on-the-go. I made the pocket on the left using white cardstock and it has a fun story to go along with it. While babysitting my 5-year-old niece, we had an arts and crafts night and had a blast with some straws, water and watercolor paint (got that idea from the lovely and talented Amy Tangerine). My niece also painted the stars that are hanging off the purple yarn on my planner rings here – an adorable planner accessory with an even more adorable memory.

To finish my creative journal setup and prep it for later crafty endeavors, I hole punched all the rest of the papers in the 6x8 paper pad to use as inserts. This was super quick and easy to do using the Six Ring A5 punch. Then, I mixed in papers from the A5 Basics Inserts pack. I am sure that I will mix these inserts around and alter them later, but pre-punching them into my planner gives me a template to start with each day, which helps me find a little inspiration on the days I may be feeling less creative.

I hope this planner is going to help me stick to my creative goals in 2018. Do you have creative goals for the year? I have learned that keeping your creativity and inspiration alive and thriving takes practice. It really is like exercising a muscle – the more you do it, the more you want to do it! How are you exercising those creative muscles? Comment below or over on my Instagram post – I'd love to hear from you!