Journaling Cards Idea

As I've told you, I have no idea not this blog would grow. And I don't think a planner description can take a lot of time, it's just a daily thing that you should use and feel yourself it's a good one. We have too much stress and information, so we deserve to surround ourselves with pleasant things. I've made "Plans Matter" planner and my aim was to help alike-minded people who also have the same troubles with searches of their perfect personal planner.

But I've become attracted by another thing: scrapbooking albums, so called Project Life. The primary concept is simple: you buy an album, a bunch of transparent photo pocket pages and so called core kit - a set of different paper cards with signs, images and quotes. You make photos during the whole year, print and put them into the album, decorating it with stickers and diluting them with papercards. Each week of the year you fill one sheet of the album, so it's 52 sheets a year. I was thinking about it for a while, and that's the conclusion I've made for myself:

1. Photo album is not equal to Flickr or Instagram. It was great to have digital albums, but it lost its value long time ago. Having a real album, with a real concept in mind can push you to be more picky and print certain photos, not just saving hundreds of photos in one place.

2. Photo album motivates you to make photos. In my family we have many nice moments, but we rarely make photos, and I want to change it.

3. I want to have a nice album, but i don't have time to decorate it properly. Plus, Amazon doesn't ship such things to Jordan, and there's no need in transparent pages with pockets. I still remember the magic of real photo albums, covered in dark velvet and filled with grainy paper sheets. It's important for me to have a photo album without plastic inside.

4. If you have a certain grid and idea how the photos should be placed, it's easier to organize yourself. With a proper plan everything is easier.

I am going to publish so called journaling cards in this blog - for my family photo album. It will be the same size as Project Life Cards. If you think it might be a good option to create your own photo album, or enhance daily writing, I'd be glad. All journaling cards will be in PDF format, free to download, easy to print in A4 paper. I'm doing it for myself, so sometimes topics might be personal and depend on my mood only. However, if you have any suggestions, or a cool image to use, you're more than welcome to write an e-mail to me.

And an important explanation about images I'm going to use. They will be random, I already have an enormous collection of different images I liked, saved during years. I don't have any idea who created them, and I don't break any copyrights, using them for my personal usage in a very small resolution. I also warn you to use them only for your personal usage, and not to resell them, be good. Please.

The easiest way to follow this blog - like my group Plane Your Plan on Facebook, follow one of my Pinterest Boards called Journaling Cards, or subscribe to RSS feed.

How to Choose a Photo Album

Honestly, I didn't think much about mine, and decided to have a 12inch binder with dark paper sheets inside. In Jordan you can't order a lot of things from abroad, due to the mystical custom restrictions that nobody is able to explain properly. However, I've ordered my album from here, and you can do it too, just search for "12inch album". If someone from Amman has seen similar albums here, tell me about it, I'd be unbelievably grateful.

Here's my photo album I'm going to use for family photos and journaling cards in 2015.

There will be certain templates I'm going to use, and you can use them too, because it's easier and more accurate. Again, we don't want to turn into a scrapbooking fan, or spend a couple of weekends and then feel ourselves guilty that we abandoned this complicated deal. We just want to have something nice, easy to make and memorable for our family and friends.

Here you may download templates for your 12inch photo album, in high resolution. It'll give you ideas how to place photos and images on different pages, it's useful, especially if you're not a designer.

Hope it will inspire you to your own handmade photo album. Good luck.

From The Blogger

 

  

My name is Anastasia Ivanovskaya, currently I live and work in Amman, Jordan.

It's hard to say what this blog will be about, all I know is I want to have something beautiful and personal. The idea of this blog has started as a very simple wish: I wanted to purchase or download a digital planner of any size, but couldn't find any good one. From time to time I was browsing Internet again, hoping to find something suitable. It took a while to understand what types of planners exist, and why I don't want them.

What I've Found:

1. So called "Happy" planners - full with flashy colours and florid backgrounds, mainly done for housewives, to organize their daily routine, as amount of ironing per day, or 30-days family dinners. I understand fully they need it, but I'm working in the office and honestly speaking I rarely have dinner at home.

2. "Wise" planners consist of randomly chosen quotes on the top of each page. I don't like quotes, I never get inspired by them, and know for sure they'll irritate me the whole year I'm using the planner. The worst part when they are mixed with free-spirit slogans "weknowyoucan", or sayings for poor believers, similar to what Kiyosaki and other rich bastards are producing. So, if I want to write down a quote I liked - I want to find it myself.

3. There is a special type I call "useless" planners. It seems to me their creators never used a pen in their life, because the space between the lines is too big, the separated boxes are too small, and you're wondering what kind of handwriting you should have.

My Demand For a Personal Planner:

1. A5 size - I can't carry a bigger format to work. Sometimes my bags are too small for A4, and I don't want my planner to be crumpled in a couple of month. I also can't accept a smaller size, because I feel I'm a spy, while making notes on micro paper. Sometimes I like to use my personal planner for studying, so I need to understand what I wrote.

2. Flexible sheets - it's great to remove or add sheets whenever you like it. My planner should give me the option of printing additional paper sheets and adding them if needed. I can be not very attentive sometimes and mix different tasks from different fields, so the A5 binder with clips fits my idea of a personal planner perfectly, because I can rearrange my planner without any headache.

3. Nice cover - I wanted a digital planner because I've already bought a beautiful binder and was planning to use it. Office women will understand me well: we don't have a lot of things to show our personality at work, and we still want to be women. So, we want nice business cardholders, beautiful tea cups, comfortable pens to write with and personal notebooks (if you don't, you can close this blog and don't waste any time, really).

4. Ability to put goals and tasks. I've tried a lot of apps for daily planning, and I didn't feel I liked it much. Probably it's the difference between typing and writing, I can't memorize a lot, putting ticks and dates. At the same time, I'm a very strategy-oriented person, before working on any project, I'm doing a list of tasks to complete, and follow them. Paper writing is the best option for me.

5. A space for free writing. As I've said, I need it for studying and some diary writing. Sometimes I draw or doodle, like all normal people. I just need it. :)

6. Various pages with lists. I make lists for everything, and paper format is the easiest to follow and update. Even my job is internet-related, I don't like to depend on internet connection, use mobile for my apps. Sometimes I just need to have a weekend, keep all my thoughts together, without unnecessary distractions. I want to keep it simple, and I'm perfectly fine with pre-arranged lists for holidays, or life updates, if they are simple and minimalistic.

7. Free space for dates. Sometimes I'm loaded with work, sometimes I have additional internet-marketing projects. There might be periods when I work at the weekends, and sometimes I can afford to have a break on my usual workday. Also, it's not very convenient when you got disappointed with the planner your colleagues or relatives bought your for Christmas, already used it for a couple of months, and now you have to buy a new one, leaving January and February empty. If I plan before, I use lists, where I put due dates. So, I've decided on myself I don't need it.

Perfect Planner Ever

Well, if you need the same features, you can find in my planner "Plans Matter" on Etsy. I made with great love for myself, and with consciousness for office work. As for now, it's in digital format, you can download it anytime. It has no fixed dates, so you can add, mix and remove sheets as you need. Well, I've designed it office-oriented and minimalistic, so you can purchase "Plans Matter" and make a great present as for a man or a woman colleague. Just spend one evening: print, cut, arrange the planner and put it in a suitable cover. Any printing agency can do it for you as well. It's A5 format, so you will always look elegant and professional with this size, I bet.