Introduction: DIY Weekly/Monthly Planner

By None
About: Just another crafter and sewist.

This tutorial goes out to all my fellow minimalists and anyone otherwise bothered by the glittery clutter that is bullet journaling.

Note: I made the planner from scratch, but if you have a notebook with the correct dimensions, 8.5' X 11", feel free to use that too.

Here's what you will need...

  • Cheerios box
  • LARGE paintbrush (the kind you paint walls with) and paint tin of choice
  • Glue stick
  • Strong tape (gorilla tape works well)
  • Scissors
  • Printables (provided in steps)
  • Glue (Elmer's works fine)
  • Stapler
  • Paper clips
  • Cardboard/cardstock/sturdy material that can hold file folder labels
  • File folder labels
  • Sharpie
  • Optional: Decorations for the planner cover

Step 1: Print Out Your Pages

Finding decent calendar pages on the Internet is difficult. Especially when you write BIG like me and don't have a color printer. Once I found the No Frills Calendar, I never went back. Their calendar pages give you the most possible room to write in the dates hands down.

  • Print out their calendar pages here.

Scattered Squirrel has tons of free printables on her website, but I think her weekly printables stand out the most.

  • Print them out here (I used "Rainbow Week on a Page")

For students like me, theorganisedstudent's study planning and to-do pages will be a must.

Step 2: Prepare the Book Cover

You only need the large rectangle part of the Cheerios box. Cut away the side tabs and bottom flaps.

Once that's done, glue the two pieces together lengthwise. Go over it with tape on both sides to ensure it holds.

Now, you want to cover everything in newspaper. It took me two sheets to do this (don't worry, you'll paint over it later).

This is the part where you paint your newspaper a color of your choice. (Try to use something neutral so it's easier to decorate.)

Step 3: Decorate the Book Cover

Stickers are your best friend here if you don't want to go to the trouble of cutting out designs and tidbits like I did. Also, glitter gets everywhere no matter how well you glue it down...just saying...

Step 4: Make the Divider Tabs

  1. Cut out a strip of cardstock/cardboard/sturdy material that’s slightly larger than your file folder label.
  2. Tape a paper clip to the side that you don't want to write on.
  3. Stick a file folder label on the other side it and label appropriately.
  4. When you go to put the paper clip on the page, you'll want to tape it down so it doesn't jiggle around.
  5. Optional: Tape down the file folder label so it doesn't curl up.

Step 5: Put It Together

I did a bunch of research on bookbinding and discovered that, when you bind books, you don't just stick all the pages in at once. You attach the pages together in groups of about 6-8 depending on the thickness of the paper (I used 8.) They're called signatures for those of you who want to know the official lingo.

I don't have pictures but I stapled the papers together using 3 staples (top, center, bottom like they have you do in grade school.) Remember to do this in reverse order. When you glue in your signatures, you're going to go from the bottom-up. Otherwise your papers would be defying gravity.

Once you get the tricky gluing part aside, stick a heavy textbook on top to let the glue dry. (I had to go back and re-glue some signatures, but they're stable now. Unlike the glitter.)

And there you have it! Your very own custom weekly/monthly planner for a quarter of the usual price!