Happy New Year! Emma back with you, and today I’d like to share with you my ‘heartsbyemma’ twist on divider making! Now, it’s a trade secret, so this is purely between you and me! ;)

I’ve chosen to use the delightful Kissing Booth Collection that Simple Stories have brought out as the ‘Valentines’ collection. Firstly, let’s scrap the whole ‘valentine’ theme!! The florals in this collection are far to beautiful to only be seen in February!! I want to use them all year round! ...if you fancy it too, then, keep reading!!

I picked out my favourite sheets of paper from the 12x12 collection pack, grabbed my divider templates from Carpediemplanners essentials and got cutting! You need to cut out as many dividers you’d like to have for your planner and one extra for the dashboard (pretty front cover) When you cut them out, there’s no need to cut the tabs out for each one, leave them off. So, really, it’s like cutting out lots of dashboards...you still with me? 

Hearts! Yep, I know I said I was skipping the whole ‘valentines’ thing, but, this is my ‘heartsbyemma’ secret! You need to cut out or punch out twice as many hearts as you have dividers. I’ve done six dividers, so, punched out twelve hearts. Oh, and don’t forget to use your trusty Carpediemplanners A5 hole punch, every planner girl needs one! 

Using a punch makes this much quicker than handcutting each heart, but it’s not essential! I like to use, just an ordinary stick glue, as this gives you time to manoeuvre your hearts around into the perfect position! You want to evenly place the hearts as you would with your usual style tabs, depending on the number of dividers you have chosen, will depend on how big or small the gap is between each one. You’ll need a heart on both sides of the divider, this makes them look visually nicer, but also double the thickness, gives double the strength! 

You can see here how the finished result gives a wonderful scalloped effect! Now it’s time for the fun bit! Decorating!! I have to warn you, you’re going to be shocked when you see my ‘minimal’ decoration! 

I know, I know, Emma, Minimal?? You never thought you’d see that did you! Let me explain myself! I have chosen big, bold, in your face, florals! These florals are centre stage, they speak for themselves, why cover something up when it screams beauty, like these florals! 

I have interspersed the florals with polka dots & stripes, this is to break up the florals, making them stand out and shout even more. Here is where decoration can be added, but, you guessed it, I’ve gone minimal again!  

Using only images from the 12x12 cut apart sheets for decoration. You could just as easily cut out some pieces from the floral sheets if you prefer. To make the journaling cards ‘pop’ , I have simply drawn around the edge of each one with a black ink pen, and as daft as it sounds, it really makes a difference! 

There we have it, a full set of dividers, which although the papers are from a ‘valentines’ collection, these can be used all year round! Always look beyond the title, I say! Well, thank you for sticking with me, I hope you’ve perhaps taken some ideas from this blog, or, if it’s just made you smile, then, I’d say that’s pretty good! If you would like to see more pictures using Simple Stories products then checkout my IG account  https://www.instagram.com/heartsbyemma