Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // #planneraddict, paper, planner, organization, tips, strategies, suggestions, customizing, inexpensive, cheap

Planner Craze on the Cheap

February 16, 2015February 17, 201522 Comments

Have you jumped on the paper planner craze? I’ve used my iPhone for my scheduling for years – iCal and Notes mostly, sometimes Reminders, but honestly? It just wasn’t working for me! I was feeling really overwhelmed at the end of the year and started noodling with the idea of going back to a paper planner. Lo and behold I stumbled on the paper planner communities out there and have been consumed / in love / aghast with all the YouTube videos on planners! Egads!

Welcome to our Make It Monday: “Organization” circle! You may have noticed some of our Monday’s have themes? Well today we’re chatting up organization! And what’s getting me organized these days? My planner! So, here we go…

As much as I’ve been wanting to splurge on the gorgeous gold foil Erin Condren Life Planner (ECLP), I am being practical and promised myself I’d see if I could actually stick to using a cheap planner consistently for 2 months before I splurge! I’ve heard it takes 21 days of repeated/consistent behavior to develop a habit? So far, so good!

I bought an inexpensive (on sale for $7) planner at Target the first week of January, and it really is helping me keep organized. I have so many ideas running loose in my head, and this is helping me corral it all into one practical place! What I love about the ECLP is the layout of the week, with days laid out in a vertical format. The one I bought is NOT laid out that way, but I customized it by adding washi tape down the center to create a “time scheduled” block and a “to do” block for each day.

That was where I started. Then I decided I wanted to add some sort of a checkmark system for the “to do” section, and although I found some adorable stamps that I really want at Studio L2E, I’m again committed to being frugal. So I searched my ~~mountain of~~ stamps for an open square to create a cute checkbox, but knew I had to use the heart I found instead – it was a perfect fit!

Once I complete a task, I fill in the heart 🙂 I’m just a goofy dork that way! I should mention I’m loving the erasable Frixion pens. They’re super duper amazing!

So that’s got me moving in the right direction. That alone has helped me organize my days with time commitments and to do’s for the week. So nice to not have to worry about forgetting something because it’s rolling around in my head with a million other to do’s instead of nicely planned in my planner 😉 Of course there are the occasional slip ups, but it really is helping me plan out my days.

Every night before I go to bed, I review my planner and see what I have going on the next day as far as scheduled obligations, what “to do’s” I may have not completed that day, and what needs to be done the next day. Then I review it again first thing in the morning. It’s really helping me get my day started on the right foot and certainly end the night feeling more accomplished than I started the day!

The other areas I needed to get a grip on included: 1). my creative team responsibilities at Capture Your 365; 2). an editorial calendar for my Make It Monday blog circle with a group of fabulous creatives (who are also my inspiring creative friends!); and 3). projects that I wanted to get to, but didn’t have an actual deadline.

Too many times I feel like my dog chasing my tail. We all know how easy it is to jump on the computer and get sidetracked. You jump on to pay a bill and an hour later you’ve forgotten about the bill but caught up on Instagram, answered a couple emails, and checked in with a couple of Facebook groups. Yup, easy to do. Unfortunately, I tend to do that with a lot of my life, and have a lot of half-baked crafty, bloggy and photo projects. Having my tasks written down is helping me keep focused…yay!

When I bought the planner in January, it came with November and December 2014 month views (2-page spreads) that I wasn’t going to use. I figured these pages were perfect for a “Project Ideas” page, so I covered up the month and days using washi tape, creating a grid to write in projects. Then, I realized the removable stickers we used to use when we had our retail businesses would be great to use for these projects so I could move around the projects! I add them to my evolving list and once the project is complete, I move it to the date or week I completed it.

I color coded my projects based on my Etsy store, Society6 store, Craft Ideas for the Blog, Planner/Organization, YouTube and more!

Somewhere I saw Washi wrapped around playing cards and thought that was a great idea instead of carrying a ton of rolls of Washi! I have a great assortment without lugging them all around! I have these secured to the inside of the front cover. I added Washi to the bottom as well so the cards don’t move around.

The last piece of organizing I’ll share with you is my grocery list and meal planning. Remember how I said I used Notes on my iPhone? I would usually write my grocery list on there, so I had quite a few to go back to reference. I made a master grocery list in Excel and print 3 weeks worth on one sheet. Before I head to the grocery store, I get my meals planned for the week and cross out the items I don’t need to purchase. I use more removable stickers to plan our dinner menu for the week, and can move them around as needed. I use some crafting markers to customize the round and rectangular removable stickers. I ~~like~~ love color and coding this way helps me keep it pretty AND organized!

So I’m sharing all these ideas with you in case you’ve had any of the same hiccups I’ve hit along the way. Maybe my grocery list and meal planning idea will help you develop a more efficient system for you and your family! Perhaps my Editorial Calendar format will help you organize your creative projects a little better. One project I haven’t made yet has been inspired by my sweet friend Cara at the Hooting Pirate – she created a pen holder with Duct Tape and a bullfrog clip. Super cute! Be sure to check it out here!

And the last piece I’ll share is a little love note I found in my planner from my 8-yr old. Color me happy and lucky in love ❤ I decided to use some of the washi tape to draw attention to that sweetness!

Ready to continue to Make It Monday fun? Gotta run? Melissa at Digital Scrapbooking HQ shows you how to keep a collection of photos together to scrap later with Photoshop Elements Organizer Check out Melissa’s post – her tips and tricks are amazing and I always leave her site with a great and easily usable nugget of knowledge!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day! Make sure not to miss any future posts by signing up for the Clicky Chick Creates email list here! You’ll get a great little freebie download as my thank you. What’s the freebie? My go-to shot list: 7-must get photos for kid birthdays!

Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

P R O D U C T S U S E D / / A F F I L I A T E L I N K S

ClickyChickCreates.com // Playground Besties (everyday moments / real life) scrapbook layout using spray misting, masks, stencils, cameras, arrows, hearts, washi tape

Creative Friends Blog Tour {Feeling Crafty}

June 2, 2014October 10, 201415 Comments

You know how sometimes as you go through life, you develop friendships with people whom you absolutely crush on their art or style or creativity?! Well, that certainly happened to me in the creative world! When I started scrapbooking and sharing online, one of the first girls who really wowed me with her rich stories, fascinating fussy cutting and lovely layered layouts was Lisa Hausmann of Recklinghausen Musings. You can imagine how flattered I was when she reached out recently and asked if I was interested in joining this ever growing and expanding creative blog tour! Thanks Lisa! Definitely check out her post here – she’s amazing! The idea of the tour is to answer four questions, then introduce three fellow creative bloggers who will continue the tour the following week. So, here we go…

1. What am I working on?

As I mentioned a couple times this month, May was absolutely bananas! One of the highlights of May was my baby girls 5th birthday! Like every little girl right now, she wanted a “Frozen” theme for her party. And as anyone with a little girl knows, Frozen merchandise is almost impossible to find. Good thing I’m crafty! I downloaded the free “Do you want to build a snowman” printable from Happy Money Saver, I punched snowflakes using my EK Success Large Snowflake punch so I could create our own goodie bags, and I made this banner for my baby!

UPDATE: Looking to buy some Frozen inspired party items? Check out my Etsy shop!

Beyond our Frozen birthday crafting bonanza, May was also busy with my nephew’s baptism – I’ll post a video this week showing a quick card I made and even show how the card design went awry and what I did to save the card! May included LOAD (layout a day) as well. I was honored to be a featured designer amongst lovely company and loved the layouts featured all month long (Cara, who you’ll meet later in this post, was one of other featured designers – get ready to fall in love with her style)!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

As a photographer, I definitely have tons of photos of my daughters to use for layouts. But sometimes the photographer in me gets in the way of telling stories I want to tell if I don’t have the “perfect” photo. That’s absolutely ridiculous of me, considering the stories are what my daughters will (hopefully) most likely want the most when they’re older! So with that said, I believe my photo style, artsy layouts and colorful nature give my layouts a fairly unique look.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

When my first daughter was born, I had thousands of photos of her before she was a year old! So it was a natural progression for me to start scrapbooking, considering my walls were becoming quite full of her photos and wallpapering the house seemed a little more difficult than my level of expertise 🙂

I first fell in love with the craft in 2008 when I joined my cousin Irene for our first Creative Memories crop (ever think that Creative Memories kind of served as the gateway drug into this hobby?! Haha!) My first couple of years, I was awe struck with everything about the craft, and I had visions of the pages I wanted to make, but since I was starting from scratch, I felt the need to purchase all the tools and supplies before I could start. Needless to say, I became a collector and investor for a couple years before I started to actually create layouts. Then I discovered LOAD, True Scrap and True Stamp classes, all of which took my crafting into a whole new artsy world!

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

My usual process for creating a layout starts with the photos which goes hand-in-hand with the story I want to tell. As much shopping as I do getting all the adorable products I can get my hands on, it might be surprising, but I don’t think I’ve ever started a page with a specific product in mind. Nope, it’s photos and stories that lead the way!

Once those are chosen, I then print at home, usually creating a collage of several images, and start pulling supplies. Depending on the story, sometimes I’ll pull specific patterned paper, or I’ll pull white cardstock and create my own background with stencils and spray mists, distress inks, distress stains, and I’ve even started playing with gelatos recently. Then I’ll lay it all out and start adding embellishments and trimming paper. I never stick it down though until I’m completely done. The whole time, the story is dancing around in my head, but the journaling is usually the last piece I add, although I usually am sure to leave plenty of room for it. If I’m running low on space, I will create pockets behind layouts or incorporate it into the design like these layouts.

When I first started scrapbooking, it was predominantly about my girls birthdays. Then it evolved to expand beyond birthdays and into more heartfelt stories – our everyday moments, the love I have for my family and the LOAD prompts have helped me to tell stories I normally wouldn’t tell, which I truly love, like these layouts – one of my Vivi (my grandfather) and another of my twin uncles.

I also try to make a few pages of myself every year. My girls need to know who their mama was, besides the cooking / cleaning / driving / volunteering mama they see 🙂

Now I’d love to introduce my sweet crafty friends from around the world. Each is a mama. Each is crafty beyond belief. Each is spunky, adorable and super bubbly. And each of them has inspired me in one way or another! Be sure to visit these lovelies and leave them some comment love! You’ll be happy you’ve discovered these lovely and crafty gals!

Cara of C’est la Vie (ours anyway) is a Canadian who is living in Luxembourg with her hottie French hubby and their 6 children (yes, 6 and 5 of those are boys!). Scrapbooking is her biggest passion, and she regularly loses track of time while playing in her studio. The other half of her studio is where the sewing magic happens, Cara loves nothing more than sewing a fantastic costume for herself or her children, without a pattern if she can help it. She considers her DLSR her 7th baby and is always trying to improve her photography. Her style is consistent no matter what the media, happy, bright and colourful, she hopes that she reflects this in her personality 🙂 Head on over to visit Cara of C’est la Vie (ours anyway)!

Kymona Tracey of Kreative Kymona is a woman who never slows down and loves it. Yes… she is the energizer bunny’s sister! She keeps going and going (which is something she is working on, if you follow her weekly wishes on her blog). She is a single mother of two wonderful children who are 8 years apart. Her 16 year old son is a true self-made jock who plays every sport you can think of! Her 7 year old daughter is a real life princess who loves anything crafty and girly and absolutely hates anything related to sports. Talk about yin and yang! …but she loves it!! Besides running from one activity to another with them, she works full time at a hospital (public health background), facilitates a reading group at work, teaches high school students on the weekends and has a huge love of learning new things. She’s taken classes in photography, web design, knitting, scrapbooking and card-making. She loves them all, however, her true passion is card-making. She was introduced to card making back in 2004 and hasn’t turned back since. She started out as a hobbyist just making cards for family and friends. People were always ecstatic when they received a card from her. What they did not know was that it made her feel just as special to make a card for them. This passion pushed her into teaching card-making classes at work with a couple of coworkers who wanted to learn how to make projects for their families. In September 2013, she made a big leap and created her blog, Kreative Kymona. Besides being a mom, her blog has been one of her most rewarding accomplishments. Just being able to share with her world community makes life so rewarding! Head on over to visit Kymona of Kreative Kymona!

Alice Boll of Scrapbook Wonderland has been scrapbooking since 1999. She is passionate about scrapbooking and loves to share the joy of the craft with others. She was born and raised in Canada, although not in one of the places with a cool name like Moose Jaw, Flin Flon or Vulcan. She’s the chief laundress, taxi-driver and chef to two boys, Joe and Ryan, and she’s lucky enough to be married to superman’s cousin, Jonas. She loves swimming and in the summer can be found coaching swim club. For the other 8 months of the year, also known as winter in Canada, you’ll find her curled up by a cozy fire with a toque on my head, a cup of hot chocolate in hand, enjoying my favourite activity, scrapbooking, eh! With an adventurous spirit, she loves to travel, and has been known to enjoy daring diversions like sky diving and bungee jumping, although lately her most treacherous activity is teaching her 14 year old son to drive. Join Alice at Scrapbook Wonderland where she shares tips, tricks and techniques to help you share your memories in a creative way. Her quest is to make scrapbooking FUN! Head on over to visit Alice of Scrapbook Wonderland!

As always, thanks for stopping by. If you still haven’t signed up for the Clicky Chick Creates email list, be sure you do so you can receive the “7 Must-Have Kid Birthday Photos” tip list! Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // St. Patrick's rainbow and pot of gold tag made using Gelatos, Distress Inks, stencils, paint, washi tape, sequins

St. Patrick’s Tags with Gelatos {Feeling Crafty}

March 16, 2014July 19, 201422 Comments

One of my favorite ways to get creative is to play with tags! They’re small little canvases at 6-1/4″ by 3-1/8″ and are a fun way to try new techniques without getting overwhelmed of a big space to work on.

You might recall the two-day live-with-videos online classes my friend Lain Ehmann put together – True Scrap 5? It was during the fall and I learned so much in all the classes! I LOVED Nichol Magouirk’s class “Stamp It Up a Notch” where she used Gelatos. I finally decided to get some of the colorful pigment sticks and see what I could do…

So much fun using the pigment sticks; coloring and blending the Gelatos to create the backgrounds was super easy and creating color variations was really cool. Here are some close-ups of the details…

I got these in the mail later than I planned, but they’re out and I hope the recipients enjoy them!

Last month when I created Valentine tags for the ScrapHappy swap, a few said you were interested in watching a video showing my process, so here it goes!

Product listing at the bottom of this post, so just keep reading : )

Ready to learn more fabulous techniques? Much of what I’ve learned has been through True Scrap 5 and True Stamp 2013 online courses. Lucky for you, True Stamp 2014 is right around the corner and Lain has given me a special discount for you! Use code LOVE at checkout to save almost $50 off the regular registration. But hurry – that code is good only until March 17! Read my True Stamp blog posts here or here if you need more details. I’m already registered, looking forward to it and hope to “see” you there!

The tags I made are also being entered into the Fusion Challenge, ColourQ Challenge, A Blog Named Hero challenge, Simon Says Stamp Blog Monday Challenge, Catered Crop Recipe Challenge, and Addicted to CAS.

And as luck would have it, I found out the birthday card I made last week won honorable mention at Fusion for the last challenge – woohoo!!

Whew! Just a few challenges and updates : ) What can I say, I LOVE to share! As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

P R O D U C T S U S E D (Affiliate Links)

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // Washi Tape background paper and journaling lines

Ballet Washi {Feeling Crafty}

March 7, 2014July 19, 20145 Comments

If you’ve been around my blog awhile, you know how much I love photography and scrapbooking, and I have to admit how well they go hand-in-hand : )

I created this layout in 2012, but it still stands the test of time as one of my favorites! I started with a blank 12×12 piece of white cardstock and created my own background paper using washi tapes. My dear and darling friend Lynnette over at Sassyscrapper inspired this page with her “Let’s Dance” layout during LOAD212.

Do you use Washi Tape for your crafts? It’s such a fun, easy and quick way to add color, pattern and texture!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

PS. Moms Who Click and Lens Lends are running a photo contest. If you would be so kind, if you have a Facebook account, and if you like my image, will you vote for me by clicking here? I entered one of my most favorite family photos from a session the end of last year… Thanks and many blessings to you and yours! xoxo

And don’t forget about the True Stamp 2014 discount… GET 50% OFF WITH THE CODE “LOVE” THROUGH 3/17! Sign up here or if you need more info, read about it here. I’m already signed up and hope to “see” you there!!

Connie Hanks // ClickyChickCreates.com // what's for dinner, mom? daughter snacking during dinner prep

Family Habits {Photo Challenge}

November 13, 2013July 19, 20149 Comments

Where in the world did the weekend go? It’s Tuesday, almost Wednesday already?! This is nuts! I’ve been wanting to write this post since Friday morning, but I’ve been blessed with teaching classes, photographing clients, and editing gorgeous family photos, and this is the first opportunity I’ve had to focus on the blog…

The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit seemed easy enough, but when I thought of habits, I couldn’t help but giggle a little thinking of our habits as a family. Take my baby for example… she LOVES to dress up. It’s rare that she goes an entire day without several wardrobe changes. And besides wardrobe, she rarely leaves the house without wearing a tiara! Yes, a tiara… that’s my girl!

My first born baby, well, she loves to come in the kitchen when I’m cooking and grab “samples” of what’s on the menu, or better yet, the ingredient list! Luckily, she usually asks before grabbing, and knows not to go near a knife in motion. She’s such a good, healthy eater!

My hubby? He’s an amazing guitar player! Besides the awesome songs he’s written for me and my girls, he’s really great at playing covers and I love seeing my girls rock out with him! The girls will either dance like maniacs, sing their hearts out, or grab additional instruments and jam with their Daddy! One of my favorite nights at home recently included margaritas, my hubby on the guitar, and belting out Pearl Jam’s “Last Kiss,” a definite favorite around here. Seriously, what’s not to love?!

And my habit, which I’m slowly, and little by little, turning into a daily habit, is crafting. I love using inks, stencils, Washi tape and all the other supplies in my craft room, I’m sure you’ve noticed some of my crafty posts here! There is something very fulfilling about taking a blank canvas and creating a beautiful new project! And the fact that my girls love getting crafty too? That just means I get to enjoy it that much more : )

What kind of habits are you documenting? Are you playing along with the Daily Post? I’d love to see!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

Birthday Cards {Feeling Crafty}

June 6, 2013July 19, 20142 Comments

I look at cards as mini canvases – a blank space to create and have fun with! Sure, cards are usually used to send a message, but I love making something unique on that blank piece of cardstock! And seeing that I’ve picked up some really fun items lately, I figured offering to make some handmade cards for a raffle at my church would be a great reason to put some of these goodies to work!

I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a sunburst stemplate (stencil, template, mask – whatever you call it!) and found the new Heidi Swapp one at Michael’s. I used it on the background of the card, alternating between two Tim Holtz Distress Ink colors on each card. The Jenni Bowlin pinwheel punch is a new item I decided to play with on this card, too! I have a box of about 1000 frilly toothpicks, so what a wonderful way to be repurposed – just removing (pealing off) the cellophane frill and voila, pinwheel sticks!

For the washi banner, let me introduce you to my friend and Washi tape superhero – Monica Bradford over at Scrap Inspired. She makes the most amazing stuff with the magical little rolls of Washi! I’ve picked up quite a few tips from her webinars: Washi Wahoooo! and Washi Wahoo Too! I can’t remember which class she showed how to make the washi banners, but regardless, I love making them! (and I TOTALLY recommend both classes – each is loaded with tons of creative washi goodness!)

The birthday sentiment is a stamp from Purple Onion. I embossed it to give it a little more pop, as well as adding a little Michael’s $1 bin bling for some sparkle on the card : ) Here’s the second color combo I made using my same design.