Good morning, everyone! It is my last tutorial of the year, and thought what better project to do than a weekly planner for 2017? This project is fun, quick, and would make an excellent last minute handmade gift 🙂 Today I will be showing you how to construct the binder (complete with multiple pockets on the inside covers) and one divider style. I will also point you to some fantastic printables for the inside pages. You’ll be able to customize your planner for a student, a professional or even make it into a personal planner 🙂 Here’s a quick look inside:
Materials
- Medium weight chipboard
- 80lb solid cardstock
- Patterned cardstock
- Kraft-tex
- Thread
- Large Tim Holtz ring binder
- Mini album closure (optional)
- Silver 3/16″ eyelets
- Adhesive/glue
- Printer paper
Tools
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Binder clips (optional)
- Bone Folder
- Paper Cutter
- Score board
- Envelope punch board (optional)
- 3/8″ corner rounder
- 3/16″ hole punch
- Eyelet setter
- Sewing machine
Planner Binder
Now, I’ll be honest with you up front…I totally forgot to increase the wide of my covers to accommodate the size of the ring binder and any tabs you may want to add to the edges of your pages. This being said, I have increased my dimensions to accommodate both of these. I actually increased the width of both covers by an inch, so don’t get too stressed out if your covers look to be a different proportion than mine in the photos. …let’s get to it!
Step #1
Cut 3 pieces of medium weight chipboard for the covers and spine:
- 2 @ 7″ (wide) x 8-7/8″ (high)
- 1 @ 1 ¾” (wide) x 8-7/8″ (high)
After all pieces are cut, draw a line down the center of the spine piece as follows:
Step #2
Cut 2 pieces of solid colored cardstock at 8 ½” (wide) x 10″ (high), and adhere the chipboard spine along the 10″ edge of one piece of cardstock. Ensure that the edge of your cardstock runs along the center line that we drew on the spine in Step #1.
Step #3
Adhere the second piece of 8 ½” (wide) x 10″ (high) solid cardstock from Step #2 to the chipboard spine. Ensure that the edges of the cardstock along the spine are tightly butted up to each other.
Step #4
Adhere the 2 pieces of 7″ (wide) x 8-7/8″ (high) chipboard to the solid cardstock on either side of the spine. Leave approximately 1/8″ gap between all of the chipboard pieces.
Step #5
Trim the corners from the solid cardstock at a 45° angle, leaving approximately an 1/8″ of excess cardstock on each corner of the chipboard as shown in the diagram on the left below. After trimming all four corners, wrap the cardstock around all four edges of the chipboard covers and glue in place.
Step #6
If you’re wanting to add a closure to your planner using brads, this is when you may want to add it so that the cardstock on the inside covers hides the backs of the brads. Otherwise…
Cut 2 pieces of 7-15/16″ (wide) x 8 ¾” (high) solid cardstock and adhere them to the inside covers. Ensure that the seam between the two pieces is centered on the spine, as in Step #3. It is important that the edges of all the chipboard pieces along the spine are adhered to the cardstock really well. I like to run a length of Scor-tape along the edges of the chipboard, as shown below:
Step #7
Run a bone folder along the edges of the spine and gently fold the covers up.
Step #8
Cut 3 pieces of patterned cardstock and adhere them to the outside covers:
- 2 @ 6 ¾” (wide) x 8-5/8″ (high) – (front and back covers)
- 1 @ 1 ½” (wide) x 8-5/8″ (high) – (spine)
Step #9
Cut 3 pieces of patterned cardstock and adhere to the inside covers as shown below:
- 3″ (wide) x 8-5/8″ (high) – (front inside cover)
- 1 ½” (wide) x 8-5/8″ (high) – (spine)
- 6 ¾” (wide) x 2″ (high) – (inside back cover)
Step #10
Cut 1 piece of 6-7/8″ (wide) x 7 ½” (high) Kraft-tex, and stitch 1/8″ down from the top edge. I chose to punch the top corners of my Kraft-tex using my envelope punch board before stitching the edge.
Step #11
Cut and stitch 3 more pieces of Kraft-tex as follows:
- 4 ½” (wide) x 8 ¾” (high) – punch the right hand corners, if desired, and stitch 1/8″ from the right hand edge
- 3 ¾” (wide) x 6″ (high) – use a 3/8″ corner rounder on top right corner, and stitch 1/8″ from the top and right edges
- 3 ¾” (wide) x 4″ (high) – punch top corners, if desired, and stitch 1/8″ from the top edge
Step #12
Layer the 3 ¾” (wide) x 4″ (high) piece of Kraft-tex on top of the 3 ¾” (wide) x 6″ (high) piece of Kraft-tex from Step #11, ensuring that the left, right and bottom edges are all aligned. Stitch the two pieces together along the right edge only. The diagram below shows a stitch line along the left edge as well…this is not necessary.
Step #13
Layer the sewn pieces of Kraft-tex from Step #12 onto the 4 ½” (wide) x 8 ¾” (high) piece of Kraft-tex from Step #11. Glue the layers together along the left and bottom edges.
Step #14
Glue the Kraft-tex pockets from Step #13 onto the front inside cover of your planner. Ensure that you run a small bead of glue along the top, left and bottom edges of your pocket only. You may want to use binder clips to hold the pocket in place while the glue dries.
Step #15
Glue the Kraft-tex pocket from Step #10 to the back inside cover of your planner. Ensure that you run a small bead of glue along the left, right and bottom edges of your pocket only.
Step #16
Stitch along all four edges of the three patterned paper pieces on the outside covers of your planner.
Here’s a close up near the spine of my planner:
Step #17
Center a large ring binder (by Tim Holtz) on the inside of the spine, and mark the location of the holes. Then punch holes to suit 3/16″ eyelets. I used my Big Bite by We-R-Memory Keepers to punch the holes.
Step #18
Insert 3/16″ eyelets through the holes you punched in the spine in Step #17. Place the ring binder over the eyelets, and use a good old fashioned eyelet setter to set the eyelets. Your Big Bite will not work for setting the eyelets due to the shape of the ring binder.
Here’s a look at what the finished interior of your planner should look like:
Here’s a look at the outside covers of the planner. I didn’t embellish the front cover, but you certainly could to make it a little extra special.
Planner Divider
An integral part of a planner is dividers, but I thought that it would be prudent to make them functional and added 2 stacked pockets on the front and one angled pocket on the back. Here’s a look at the divider we will be creating:
I chose to use cardstock that was patterned on one side only, just to make it easier to see how to cut, fold and glue the divider together, but you may want to use double-sided cardstock if you’re going for a different look.
Step #1
Cut 1 piece of 11″ (wide) x 12″ (high) piece of patterned cardstock. Score at 5 ½” along the 11″ edge, and score at 8 ½” along the 12″ edge (as per the red lines below):
Step #2
Cut along the 5 ½” score line, from the bottom up 3½” to the intersecting score line:
Step #3
Add the triangle to your score board, and place your patterned cardstock on the score board at a 45° angle. Score at the 3-7/8″ mark on the triangle (as per the blue line below):
Step #4
Remove the triangle from the score board, rotate your cardstock clockwise as shown below and score at 1″. Ensure that you only score down 5 ½” to your cut line (as per the green line below):
Step #5
Remove the cardstock from your score board and rotate counter-clockwise by 90°. Run a thin bead of glue along the left and right hand sides of the lower right quadrant, and fold up along the score line located 3 ½” up from the bottom of the page.
Step #6
Flip your cardstock over (from side-to-side), and fold along the 45º and 1″ score lines. Glue both flaps in place.
Step #7
Fold the left side of the divider onto the right side along the vertical score line:
Step #8
Run a thin bead of glue along the left and right edges of the bottom flap:
Fold the flap up along the last remaining score line, and you’re left with this handy-dandy divider pocket for your planner:
Planner Pages
Now you have a binder and dividers, but this wouldn’t be a planner without any planner pages! I have found a couple of great websites that offer free printables for just that 🙂 There is a wide variety available, including pages for students, standard weekly planner pages, home management pages, personal management pages, and more! The planner we created is intended to hold 5 ½” (wide) x 8 ½” (high) pages, so you will want to print out the half-sized printables that are available. Without further adieu, here are links to some pretty fantastic pages for your planner:
- The Handmade Home
- Scattered Squirrel (the pages you see in my planner are from here)
- The Organised Student
Well…I think I covered everything you need to create a pretty great planner that will be treasured, and can be used for years to come. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any suggestions for what you may want to learn in the coming year, don’t be afraid to contact me and let me know 🙂 Cheers!
I love this!