Hello again! Leah here to show you how I have revamped my Carpe Diem planner for the Spring season! Despite the persistent cold weather that keeps popping up in Virginia, I find that the calendar start of a new season always inspires a fresh start/change, especially Spring. I have been using the Carpe Diem collection in my planner the last few months but in the spirit of the changing season, I felt compelled to give my planner a Spring makeover. The Life in Color collection is one of my favorites by Simple Stories right now! I have been hoarding this gorgeous collection, but it is time to put it to good use. Something about the bold colors and woodgrain and florals just feels so right to transition my planner into Spring!

First things first, I need to update the front pockets! I used pieces from the Life in Color SN@P! Pack, a couple tags and other ephemera from the Bits and Pieces pack, as well as a few stickers from the 12x12 Fundamentals cardstock stickers sheet. If you are curious how I get the large decorative piece to sit over the top of the bottom pocket like that, you can see how I did it here in a previous blog post. 

Next, I wanted to create a custom dashboard for the front of my planner. I recently received some of my wedding photos from our photographer and I am so smitten with them! So I decided to incorporate some memory-keeping into my planner. I cannot put into words how happy it makes me to open up my planner and see such a special memory in my life highlighted front and center.

For this dashboard, I used the 12x12 “Here and Now” paper from the Life in Color collection. It has these darling picture frames on it that were so fun to decorate and perfectly framed the photos I wanted to display. I chose a couple of my favorite black and white wedding photos, resized them to 2x2” and printed them out onto photo paper. I then trimmed them down to size, leaving a very thin white border to help them pop out against the colored backgrounds within the frames. I purposely chose black and white photos so that the bold colors of the Life and Color collection would provide a contrast that allowed the photos to really stand out.

Zooming in, above you can see where I have pasted the photo within the left frame. I punched out a file tab and stamped my wedding date on it and added a few stickers to embellish the photo. In the frame on the right, I glued down a 2x2” square piece from the Life in Color SN@P! Pack, added a floral sticker, a strip of washi paper tape, and a lovely ampersand from the Bits and Pieces Pack.

On the bottom half of the layout, the camera and star in the left frame are also from the Bits and Pieces ephemera pack. The Scrabble letters are stickers from the 12x12 Fundamentals Sticker sheet. I mounted the letters onto colored squares so that they popped off the page a little more. In the right frame, I glued down another square piece from the SN@P! Pack behind my photo. I like how the typed text pattern compliments the other romantic details of this layout, like the wood veneer heart and the washi paper tape with hearts.

I carried the collection further into my planner by dressing up my April monthly inserts. The Life in Color collection has a Planner Set that is made to fit a 6x8 binder, but I trimmed the inserts down (on the side with the holes) to fit into my Carpe Diem planner and then punched new holes. I trimmed off a decent chunk of these inserts so I will not be using the calendar sides of the pages. I glued the sides with the calendar together so that now, just the images are showing on each side. I basically created a sturdy monthly divider. I like the monthly tabs that come on the Life in Color inserts, so although I am still using the monthly inserts that came with my Carpe Diem planner to plan out my month, I cut the monthly tab off the Carpe Diem insert so I did not have two April tabs.

Of course I had to add some decoration to the new divider. So I added a 3x4 card from the SN@P! Pack, some washi paper tape, a floral sticker and a couple wood veneer stars.

At the beginning of every month in your Carpe Diem planners, there is a monthly planning sheet. I want to show you how I use mine. You can see here where I have pre-decorated this page so that I can go back later and add some journaling and memory-keeping for April. The SN@P! Pack cards fit perfectly in the sections of this sheet and I have retitled a few sections by simply covering up the titles that were there previously with embellishments and word strip stickers. I also used washi paper tape, enamel dots and several Life in Color stickers.

I have enjoyed walking you through my Spring planner setup using the Life in Color collection! Check out my Instagram for more details and photos of how I am using these products. Stay tuned here on the Simple Stories blog and social media to catch a glimpse of all the exciting new products coming soon!

XoXo