For the longest time I just left the notes pages in the back of my planner empty. I’m definitely not an artist and didn’t want to mess them up with my crappy attempts at bullet journal-like spreads. I’m ashamed at just how long it took me to realize I could just make stickers…oh Kayla…
With all the travel I’ve been doing lately across the United States I really wanted to create a travel tracker and wish listof places I’d like to visit. I just add a little red dot on the map to indicate places I’ve been rather than coloring in the whole state. My hope is that over time I’ll have a chicken pox map full of amazing travel adventures!
When the new Erin Condren Life Planner(review here) dropped I completely hated the new monthly productivity page. I never have that many birthdays to track and I wasn’t a fan of the other header options. Plus I always love a good habit tracker. The ECLP monthly productivity page habit tracker and headers was born! If I want to mix up what headers I use each month I have six different options to choose from. Gotta love stickers that can make a planner perfect!
Another one of my favorite ways to spice up my notes section is with the build your own bookshelf book tracker. There’s just something about wanting to fill in all those book spines that gets a gal reading again.
I wanted a section for all my wish list items, but I like to divide them based on categories. Presto. Wish list notes page. That way I can add a header to the little sticky note looking sticker based on wish list topics.
Here’s a video of my notes section before I created the USA map and wish list sticker sheets! I also use these popcorn stickersand television stickers to track shows and movies I’d like to watch and you can see how I set that up in the video.
With more solo travel in the planner this year, it seemed like the perfect time for a travel Oh, Hello Box. Gotta have travel supplies, right? I wanted this box to have a ton of really useful travel related products. Whether you’re travelling international or taking a road trip, this box can help make your next adventure even better.
One of my favorite products in this month’s box is definitely this travel pencil case. It enlarges and zips closed to keep all of your writing supplies safe. When you want to use it, just push the top section down and presto, pens at the ready. The front little pocket is a great place to store sticky notes too.
I’m always losing my travel earbuds so this case should help me keep track of them better (and not tangled)! Sure I love my larger headphones, but sometimes I just need something small to throw in my carry on. I’ve used this three zipper pouch for a few trips already and it’s amazing at keeping my jewelry separate and untangled. The compartments are great at organizing things will still keeping everything in one place.
The Novel Coffee collaborated with us for this month’s box! Just look at those adorable kawaii travel stickers. I love all of the collaborations we’ve been doing lately and there are definitely more in the works for future boxes.
Be sure to check out the video to see everything in the June Oh, Hello Box available Saturday, June 1st!
Back in 2014, the planner sticker industry felt like the wild west. Shops were few and far between and every idea worked. I’m ashamed at some of the low quality items I sold thinking they were gems. Here we are five years later and it’s definitely a different world. New shops pop up every day and there’s been a noticeable shift in the sticker shop world that will continue to change in the next few years.
I predict that by the time 2020 rolls around, a lot of shops will start closing. Whether they just lost interest or aren’t making the income they expected, a lot of shops are going to turn the metaphorical closed sign for good. The sticker world isn’t an easy one. Competition is stiff and margins thin to the point that a good amount of people will likely throw in the towel rather than hang on. The competition will only get worse as box stores continue to try and get their share of the planner cash cow.
We’ve already started to see more established shops going after bigger fish like Michael’s. The gap between smaller, start up shops and larger shops will continue to grow wider as time goes on. Even Oh, Hello has its eyes on bigger things than just making stickers.
But amidst all the competition and closed shops, creativity is really going to shine. You can’t stick with the norm and expect things to sell anymore. I cannot wait to see the amazing, creative products my fellow business owners come up with in the coming years.
So yeah. The sticker world isn’t what it used to be…but you know, what? Good. Planner addicts deserve amazing products to help make their lives more organized and colorful and tough competition will lead to just that. Oh, Hello doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon either.
It’s alarming to think that it’s already been a week since I came home from Las Vegas. My first Go Wild Conference could not have been more amazing (and of course I filmed the whole thing) and I wanted to document it better than I ever have before.
This is my first attempt at a memory book and I’ve learned a ton of tips and tricks in the process of putting this one together. I’ll lay those on ya as we go through some of my favorite pages.
If you take any advice away from this post, it should be this. Bring adhesivewith you. I LOVE this adhesive runner from Tombow because it makes everything super easy without making a huge mess. It made attaching room keys, postcards, and random odds and ends incredibly simple.
I also brought my Polaroid Zip along with me to print photos at the end of each day. I’m the type of person who forgets things easily, so I wanted to make sure I took the time to document each day to remember all the fun details.
A small pair of scissors also proved to be quite useful to cut washi and trim up photos. I didn’t really have any sort of plan when I started this book either. I just put things down as I went along and I loved the freedom of just throwing things into it as I got them. No stress.
Sticker contact cards are the popular way of sharing Instagram names and contact info at planner events these days. I received quite a few within just the first few hours of the conference and I wanted to make sure I had a way to capture them all. I took a few stickers off of every sampler and put them on a couple of different collage pages. I love how it looks when it’s finished and I feel like I’m not wasting stickers I may not use.
Anything I thought I could remotely use in the book, I snagged up. I took brochures at various hotels and maps from help desks. I didn’t use many of them, but I am obsessed with this map of the strip and of course the little llama sticker to mark the conference location.
Our swag bags included a roll of conference washi tape so I disregarded my usual “meh” opinions of washi to create this dashboard on one of the pages. When in Rome right? Or in this case…Vegas…
I do a full flip through of my memory journal in this video if you want to get a better look at all the pages! Do you keep memory books? What are some of your tips and tricks?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for planner addicts. It’s safe to say that it’s a bigger deal than Christmas. The annual Erin Condren launch of new planners is just around the corner (May 8 my friends!) and I got an early peek at everything coming our way in just a few short days. If you want to see a side by side comparison with this year’s current player, check out my video or head to the bottom of this post.
This year’s first big change is the pattern. Kaleidoscope?! Count me in. I haven’t been this excited about a pattern well, ever. This one definitely ticks all the aesthetic boxes for me. EC has gone away from the zipper pockets and introduced a new planner box where you can store you planner. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the box for storage purposes, but I’ll definitely be keeping it around as a gift box.
The planner pages have quite a few changes from previous additions and I have some serious mixed feelings. The goals page from the front of the planner is more or less unchanged, but there’s a new quote and the addition of lines.
The monthly dashboard page is a completely new addition to this year’s planner. And I must say, I’m not a fan. I know a TON of planner addicts will love this, but I miss older renditions that didn’t have so much structure. I’ll give it a go though and see if I’m just being a grandma about it and not welcoming change.
The monthly view also has me a bit “meh.” I already miss the full color header and hate the tiny pattern strips. The new pattern is so gorgeous so why is it so tiny and unimportant on the monthly page? Plus there’s a colored sidebar (shown in more detail in the video) that has me not thrilled.
The weekly view definitely makes up for a lot of what the monthly view lacks. Sure I don’t currently use a weekly view, but this has me feeling the itch to go back. I love the date in the corner, the rounded edges, and the colored bottom boxes.
I mean just look at that pastel goodness.
Near the back of the planner is a new page that instantly gives me InkWell Pressvibes. This page is unlike anything I’ve seen the EC team produce and I’m not quite sure what the point of it is. Goals? Tracking? I’m looking forward to seeing what other planner people have in mind for this one…
With the new planner comes a whole slew of new accessories to go along with it. There is a larger pack of markers (four of which are brand new), a new sticker book, and a new planny pack.
There are new clip in bookmarks as well.
But my favorite new launch has to be this gorgeous ballpoint pen. I’m a bit worried about the price of it (yet to be announced when I wrote this post), because it’s such a gorgeous pen that I don’t want to have to spend an arm and a leg each time I want a new one.
Overall I think this new launch is good, but it just doesn’t blow me away. There are quite a few design choices that I’m just not a fan of, despite completely loving the new pattern.
Be sure to check out the video if you want to see a side by side comparison to the current planner as well as all the accessories that are launching May 8th.
In celebration of the Erin Condren launch I’m giving away a bundle of new accessories! To enter, fill out the form below.
Alright. I admit it. I’ve become addicted to planner stamping. You know it must be true if there’s a blog post about it, right? I’m sure there’s a video to follow at some point. This girl just can’t help but share her latest obsession with whoever is listening on the internet. But I digress.
One of the biggest reasons it’s taken me so long to get into stamping is how overwhelming it all seemed. I didn’t have the slightest clue where to begin, most stamp sets felt overly expensive to me, and I didn’t even know if I would like it. So here are my tips if you’re interested in giving stamping a go, but don’t know where to start. Don’t worry, I’ve done all the fumbling around so you don’t have to.
1. Don’t buy everything at once. Give it a go first to see if you even like it. It’s so easy to want to purchase everything out there or what you see someone on YouTube using in a tutorial. Save your pennies until you know whether or not stamping is even for you. If you happen to be at a planner meetup or event, check the destash table for any unwanted stamps left behind (I’ve found quite a few there myself) or buy a variety set from Erin Condren (like the ones in the photo) or Amazon (this is a set I’ve been looking at). You’ll have to pick yourself up an acrylic block as well as ink pads, but to test out stamping shouldn’t cost you more than $25-$30.
2. Practice on things you don’t care about messing up. This is a big one. If you’re a planner perfectionist like me, you’ll want to practice on scrap paper to get the hang of it before diving into your precious planner. It took me quite a few tries to understand pressure and how much ink to put on the stamps.
3. Be open to mistakes. It’s part of the process. Regardless of how much you practice, there’s still a good chance you’ll mess up. I’ve “messed up” literally every time I’ve stamped in my “good” planner and yet that’s part of the charm. I weirdly love how a slightly imperfect stamp looks in my planner now. If I want perfection, there’s a sticker. If I want a little personality, I’ll stamp.
4. Look for variety ink sets like this one on Amazon or these from Erin Condren to make switching colors easier. It really helped to keep costs low when getting started while still giving me a ton of freedom of different options.
5. Clean off your stamps after every use. I use these wipes from Erin Condren, but any technology alcohol wipe should do. Cleaning off your stamps makes them last longer and stay in good condition so you can stamp away without worrying about residues or damaged stamps. Get into the practice now when you’re just getting started.
Of course, I’m still a stamping novice myself, so any stamping experts out there, leave your tips in the comments!
