Wintery Fun In My On The Go Planner!

Hey planner friends! It’s Rachel, and I am back on the blog sharing my January setup in my “on the go” planner/wallet. Now I know that from the outside, this looks a ring bound planner, but surprise! It’s actually a travelers notebook! I shared a few months back how I converted or “hacked” my personal size planner into a B6 (5x7in) travelers notebook and I’m back in this planner for the month of January!

I “hacked”a few of the travelers notebook inserts by trimming off less than an inch from the top and bottom to make the notebooks a B6 size. I have three inserts this month; 1 blank insert for notes/brain dump, 1 for my calendar/bullet journal, and 1 lined insert for journaling. In the back, I have a pvc wallet insert.

I am using the Simple Stories Freezin Season collection this month for decoration and I could not be more in love! Even though this is a winter collection, I love the mix of coral, yellow and pink - such a cheery choice for winter!

And how adorable are all the little creatures with their cozy winter gear? This penguin makes me so happy every time I open my planner.

Making insert covers is alway so fun! And easy! My process involves only one 7 inch cut of the 12x12 papers I used. Once this cut is made, I simply fold the rest of the paper around the insert and adhere down with a little washi tape on the inside cover. Add a few element cards and combo stickers and I am done!

Sometimes, I think people shy away from travelers notebooks because they are worried they won’t be able to finish the whole insert. If that’s you, here is a trick: since these inserts are stapled and not sewn, you can easily remove the staples and take out some of the pages to have a slimmer insert, which makes it easier to fill up! This is exactly what I did. I knew I only wanted my planning insert to be for this month, I removed the staples and pulled only 6 insert pages and slipped these insert pages into the cover. This is especially helpful if you are like me and you love to stamp. I can just pull the pages you are working on from the travelers notebook and stamp on a flat surface.

I wanted to do something a little different this month, so I am trying my hand at bullet journaling. Honestly, I don’t think this is a true bullet journal, but that is ok with me! For the monthly spread, I measured out the boxes I needed and used my rectangle photo crop to make the lines. I knew I wanted to use my stamps, so I found some inks that perfectly matched this collection and then stamped out the days of the month. Once the month was setup, I got to decorating! I used the 4x6 stickers to decorate in the open space. I love coming back to this page all month!

I decided to create a monthly dashboard that I can use as a “currently” page and for some memory keeping. Again, I used the photo crops to trace out my shapes, some washi, and the 4x6 stickers and I was done! These pages will get filled in at the end of the month to act as a “recap” of what happened.

On the next two pages, I made an expense log and wishlist. I’m trying to be better at tracking my personal spending and to make a wishlist first, to avoid spending impulsively.

On to the weekly spreads! Part of the reason I wanted to try out bullet journaling this month was to experiment with different weekly layouts. Here I chose a favorite vertical layout. I mixed stickers and stamps including Make a List, It’s a Date, and Plan It Stamps.

The following week I switched things up and created a week on 1 page layout on the right-hand side with my to do’s and habit tracking on the left-hand side. I used several of the A5 Sticker Tablets on this week including fitness, calendar, and home. A great layout option, though, I was pretty sick all week and not much got done or tracked. That said, I would definitely use this weekly format again.

Thank you for stopping by to see my planner setup for January. Be sure to check my instagram to see how the rest of the weeks turned out.