Saturday Fun with Tammy!!

Hello Scrappin' Friends! It's Tammy here with a short tutorial on how to make your own quick-and-easy Purse-Sized Holiday Planner with a file folder and your December Kit! When I'm planning and shopping for Christmas every year, I like to use some form of a holiday planner to help me keep track of things like gift ideas, what I've purchased/made for whom, shopping lists, baking and grocery lists, etc. Furthermore, I want all of these lists that I am constantly creating and modifying to be with me when I'm shopping, which means that my holiday planner needs to fit into my purse. I generally create my own planner each year, and I've played around with different sizes and styles over the past few years. When I came across the FREE Pocket Holiday Planner PRINTABLES on the OrganizedChristmas website, I knew I had found this year's design.


The base of this pocket planner is a regular ol' file folder. I had a slightly used file folder on hand, so I flattened it out, grabbed the Jillibean Soup Christmas layout kit from my December Flavors of the Month Kit, and I made my 2011 Holiday Planner in less than an hour.


My instructions are going to be a little loose with the measurements, as your measurements will depend on the exact dimensions of your folder segments after you fold it. (My first segment is smaller than the other three segments because I wanted to put a small notepad there.)

1. Open up the file folder and turn upside down. Score the entire folder at 3" from the bottom and fold up, creating a long pocket across the bottom of the folder.
2. Fold the left side of the folder into the center and crease, creating 2 segments.
   
3. Fold the right side of the folder into the center and crease, creating 2 more segments.
4. You should be able to accordian-fold the planner. (The natural fold of the folder will be the mountain-fold in the center of the planner. The two additional folds that you created in steps #2 and 3 will be the valley-folds.)
5. Measure the (4) segments and cut (4) pieces of patterned paper to fit on top of the (4) folder segments. I left a small margin around all three of the sides that are showing, and I just cut it long enough that the bottom of the patterned paper will be hidden by the top of the pocket. Adhere your patterned paper pieces.


6. To create the pockets, add a THIN row of adhesive to the inside edges of the bottom flap. (You are creating pockets, so make sure that you don't put adhesive across the top of the pocket, as you want your papers to fit inside. Fold it up and adhere. You will now have (4) pocket segments.
7. Decorate the front of your pockets. I used cardstock and the patterned paper penguins and trees. :)
8. Decorate the front of your planner. I kept mine very simple because I wanted it to be fairly flat. I also wanted to be able to use the planner as a place to write notes, etc., so I added a piece of covered chipboard to the front to create a hard surface so that I could write on it (like a clipboard).
9. Add the words, "holiday planner" to the tab sticking out on the right with small alphabet stickers.
10. I keep my planner intact by wrapping a thick rubberband around it. Some people want to use ribbon, and while that is prettier, I didn't want to mess with tying and untying, so a rubberband works best for me.
11. Finally, follow this link to download and print your FREE Holiday Pocket Planner Forms that were designed to fit into these pockets. You have several different ones to choose from. FREE HOLIDAY POCKET PLANNER FORMS

If you make your own Holiday Planner, I'd love to see it, so post a link in the comments section so that we can see some different versions! However you handle the Holiday Planning at your house this year, I hope it is relatively stress-free and joyful!