Cara Vincens's Blog Posts

07.29.18

Hi, it’s Cara here today with your regular dose of traveler’s notebook fun! And what fun it is today! The new TN inserts arrived at my door and I just couldn’t wait to test them out. 

I have covered a few of the inserts with the Dream Big collection and set up my Cream Dot Traveler’s Notebook with that collection as well. You can see that process in my YouTube video. 

Today, however, I’ve used the AMAZING Lil' Dude collection. I have 5 sons and so this line really makes me giddy. I’m in trouble though because my dinosaur loving 5 year old discovered my stickers yesterday. I need to hide them a bit better, don’t worry, I’ll share my stickers with him… just not very many ;)

I scattered in some stickers from those fab Sticker tablets. I’m so in love with these tablets, they are so versatile and there are so many colours.

For the monthly spread, I went minimal. I used a few of the square stickers from the 4x6 sticker pack to fill in the extra squares at the beginning and end of the month. 

I layered other stickers from the collection and mixed up flag numbers from the numbers sticker tablet, using colours that matched the Lil Dude colours. 

I took the scripty ‘August’ sticker from the Seasons Tablet and simply covered up the plain August that was there. I layered a few stickers along the top for a border and that was it! I was able to keep this spread pretty minimal.

Next up is the weekly! Again, I used numbers from the Numbers tablet and since this week spans July and August I chose different colours for each month. That is the only thing that I used that wasn’t in the Lil' Dude collection. 

I only used one really boy-ish image, the dino skeleton.  The collection is FULL of versatile stickers and die cuts. It may look like there are only robots and dinos at first glance, but as you can see from my spread there are tonnes of things you can use in your planner without it looking masculine at all!

Lots of layers here again, because they are my favourite! Layers are a great thing to try if you feel like yours stickers tend to float around on your planner spreads. 

I cut up the white and black diagonal striped box sticker and used a bunch of little strips around the page. I love this look, it’s almost like mini washi. Speaking of washi, I just realised I didn’t use any washi this time, wow that has to be a first!

 

Last but definitely not least is the daily insert. Today is Sunday and usually I don’t have a lot to plan on Sundays, so I really enjoy decorating my Sunday’s because less activities to schedule, means more room for stickers! 

Along with Lil' Dude, I use some of the new stamps and coloured them in with watercolour. Did you notice I stamped the planner backwards? Oops!! 

I also mixed in quite a few of the Sticker Tablets in the daily spread. The date alone comes from two different ones, Numbers and Tabs. I used icons from the Calendar Sticker Tablet for bullets for my to-do list. I added flags from the Planner Basics Sticker Tablet for my to-do list header, ‘here’s the plan’ covers ‘notes’ so that I can use this space to plan the upcoming week and I added a couple to the top left page to repeat the banner sticker on the right hand page. And a few extra stars from Planner Basics in the same colours as the Lil Dude collection polish off the spread.

Its super easy to match pretty much any collection from Simple Stories with these generic tablets because they have so many colours included.

Again lots of layers of fun stuff from the collection. One car sticker fits the theme of my day… driving kids to camp. 

I trimmed bits from the black and white striped border on the big cardstock sticker sheet. The entire thing is a bit overwhelming for these little planner pages, but cut up it’s perfect!! I’ve got one strip down the left side, then two thin strips to section off parts of the page. One at the top left below the date and the other on the bottom right to section off my plans for the rest of the week.

Of course I couldn’t resist making a couple of planner clips with the chipboard pieces, my favourite thing to do! 

I hope I’ve inspired you use these fantastic boy themed products in your planner today! You can check out my process video for these spread on my YouTube channel.

Happy planning!

Supplies
07.06.18

 You may have fewer activities and tasks to plan in the summer months but that doesn’t mean that you have to skimp on the decorations. "Hello, my name is Cara and I’m completely addicted to fun, happy, colourful planner products!” I think I added as many pretty products as would fit on this weekly spread! 

I started with blank pages and drew in the week and added the days. Planning with little stickers allows you to layer and layer, so you can add lots without cluttering the pages.  Here I’ve layered stickers and die cuts and I even trimmed down that striped sticker so that it’s a small strip and I cut up the rest and spread it around the spread.

You can see another one here at the top of Friday’s box. Eep, next week Friday is the 13th! Are you superstitious or is Friday the 13th just another day for you? I tend to have good luck, actually! Speaking of numbers, I used the Numbers Sticker Tablet for the dates. I love how the 2 digit numbers are already put together for you, it makes life that much simpler.

I LOVE making planner clips with the chipboard pieces, so I made one with the cute heart shaped sunglasses and also with the flamingo. The clip for the flamingo is actually stuck to the back of it’s body so the clips it hidden by it’s legs! I also gave it a cool pair of sunglasses, too!

The pockets were fun to decorate. I grabbed some of my favourites from the collection and tucked them all in. I layered some of the patterned papers from the 6x8 book and tucked them in the long pocket in the back, added a bit of wash and a flower die cut and done!

If you’d like to see my process video, keep an eye on my YouTube channel, it’ll be out on Monday! 

Keep cool and have a great summer’s day. Happy planning!

Supplies
03.24.18

Hi planner girls! It's Cara here with you today for my very first post on the Simple Stories blog! I'm so excited to be part of this year's Carpe Diem team, I'm dancing in my chair. I have only just recently stopped pinching myself, but the happy dancing goes on! 

I'm sharing how I set up my new Aztec Black & White TN. I'm going to use it to plan out my crafty projects, so I chose the 'Crafty Girl' line, nothing could be a more perfect fit. 

The first thing I decorate when I set up a new planner is usually the pockets, this one is no exception. Once the pockets are decorated, the whole planner feels ready to be filled with plans and dreams. My pockets are about 75% show and 25% function, so I added a few of the Bits and Pieces from the line. I made a few clips from some of the chipboard pieces, aren't the crafty girls adorable?

I wrapped some washi on a piece of card, I cut a strip of stickers that could come in handy from the Planner Basics Sticker Tablet and tucked a piece of patterned paper from the 6x8 pad in the large pocket behind after adding that adorable measuring tape sticker from the Cardstock Stickers along the edge.

To decorate the cover of that darling polka dotted insert, I layered cards cut from the 3x4 Elements cut apart sheet with a fab pink glue gun die cut and some Crafty Girl stickers. A couple of strips of washi finish it off nicely.

I snagged the March printables and used the calendar for the first spread of my insert. I used strips of paper from the 6x8 pad, and some washi, then layered lots of the Bits & Pieces and stickers from the line. 

I added a tab, with 'March' added to both sides and covered it with one of the clear tab stickers to keep everything snug and the tab protected. My favourite bit of this spread is those fantastic flag numbers from the Numbers Sticker Tablet, they are so cheerful and really brighten up the page, don't you think?

No wait! I change my answer! That teeny tea mug clip is my favourite. So stinkin' cute.

Happy Planning!

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