This week was my first week back from almost 7 weeks away in Europe. Since the whole week would be nothing but lists and crossing things off a to do list, I didn’t even bother with a weekly spread, I just used lists the entire week. I categorised the things I needed to do then grabbed some Happy Notes refill pages.
- Life admin
- Blog & Shop to do list
- Photo book setup
- Black Friday Wish List
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Life Admin
For my life admin I did a big brain dump of everything from the minor things like unpacking to the bigger things that are due soon or which popped up while I was away and had to deal with once I got back. Since I wanted this to be a brain dump (i.e. a fast list) I opted for an already colorful Happy Planner insert (this list one). That way I could just use black pen and the page would still look pretty.
I like to coordinate the colors of the stationery I’m using each week, with the colors of the planner. Looking at these colors I immediately thought of the Stabilo Boss highlighters. So I opted for black pen and then highlighting when done instead of a checklist.
What a difference highlighter makes!
The Happy Planner paper is thick – no ghosting or bleed through on the back side of the page. Depending how hard you press with your pen there may be some small indenting:
Blog & Shop to do List
I got back to Australia at the end of a month which meant I could incorporate monthly planning with this weeks spread. I always do a monthly checklist but since it looks almost the same every month (not many ways you can do a checklist differently… ) I never post it here on the blog.
I always use either my Happy Notes or ARC notebook so I can remove and rearrange the page with whatever weekly spread I’m using that week. Or if I’m using a planner made by someone else e.g. coil bound, sewn bound etc, I can remove the page and keep it out with that planner.
I used the MAMBI checklist stamp rather than hand-drawing checkboxes.
After I did the brain dump I added numbers to the left of the checkbox for the week within the month that I planned to do that task.
Blog Planning
I knew I wouldn’t have much time to write blog posts when I got back so I had some already drafted before I left and published those, so didn’t need any blog post planning pages this week. If I did, I’d probably have used a MAMBI half sheet weekly spread like this one or this one that I used for this spread.
Photo book
I make photo books of my trips and like to get started sorting photos right after I get back! I was going to use the teacher attendance / report card insert from Happy Planner but the space wasn’t long enough to write my tasks and I only needed 12 columns (1 for each country I visited).
So I made this printable (click here to download a copy) in 5 minutes in Photoshop (here are my tutorials if you want to learn how to make your own).
When I printed I just chose custom page size and entered the Happy Planner dimensions then trimmed the page and added to my Happy Notes.
See this post for a tutorial / screenshots of what settings to select in your printer.
I’ll be doing an entire post on how I plan and make travel photobooks make sure you subscribe to be notified when that post is published.
Since I needed 12 colors and I wanted to try my new ParKoo erasable pens, I used a mix of the Frixion erasable and the Parkoo erasable (as each brand doesn’t have 12 rainbow colors).
Wish List
I made this printable which you can download for free here. If you’re an existing subscriber you can login to the printables library here. I record the lowest price I’ve seen (thanks to a website I use called Price Hipster). Then I know if it’s actually on sale / a good deal on Black Friday, Boxing Day sales etc.
The printable is editable (type your text before printing) but I decided to print a copy and just add to it with pen as I found new things to buy.
I resized the tutorial to fit the Classic Happy Planner. See this post for a quick tutorial on how to do this.
Supplies Used
- Stabilo Boss pastel highlighters (see the rest of my favorite pastel highlighters in this post)
- ParKoo erasable black pen
- Smiggle tri grip ballpoint pen (dries fast so it’s great for use with highlighters)
- MAMBI self inking checklist stamp
- Classic size Happy Notes Notebook
- Classic size Happy Planner checklist with pastel dots
- Classic size Happy Planner rainbow lined notes page
- Photobook printable (download for free here)
- Wish list printable (download for free here)
Would I use this spread again?
Yes! I love the Happy Planner inserts but I do wish there was even more styles / color options to choose from.
I used the classic size Happy Planner (7″ wide x 9.25″ high) which is my favorite page size to plan with – not too small and not too big.
Using inserts and lists combined with black pen (instead of my usual rainbow colors) meant the week was quick to setup.
More Happy Planner spreads
- Happy Notes Half Sheet Review + DIY Half Sheet Printable Inserts
- Using MAMBI inserts and Carpe Diem planner stickers for a colorful weekly spread!
- Happy Notes Half Sheet Review + DIY Half Sheet Printable Inserts
Happy Planner Reviews
- Happy Planner Super Mom
- MAMBI Happy Planner horizontal dimensions & measurements (classic size) for making planner stickers
- MAMBI Happy Planner Recipe Organizer Review
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