You guys, I tried. I tried not to do another planner DIY....but I just had to. I just got in my Lilac Medium Kikki K and I just had to start DIYing the heck out of it. The classiness of it & the kawaii -ish color of it really inspired me this week. I made some new, super classy inserts for the shop (to be listed soon) inspired by this aaannnddd I knew I wanted to try my hand at a cute, kawaii inspired writing guide! Enter my best friend PicMonkey and there was a match made in heaven!
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Let's just do this thing.
First, go over to the PicMonkey site and from the design page select the 5x7 option - I made this for my medium Kikki K (equivalent to personal sized Filofax) so the 5x7 option is the best for this. You'll get a little bit of top overhang and have to trim the sides but it's the easiest option since 4x6 is just a teensy bit too small.
On the blank canvas lay down your writing guide. I used the font Francois One because it has a thicker weight to make darker, easy to see lines. You'll be placing this behind your planner inserts to ensure your handwriting is straight so you want to be able to see it. Use the underscore key to lay down a few lines across the canvas. Make a block of the lines and adjust the size until you're happy with the width of the writing guide. A tip here: leave your PicMonkey canvas open so if you need to edit it after you print it you can simply adjust it and not have to recreate it all over again.
Now to make the bear face - use the heart option to create a nose. One thing I love about PicMonkey is a slightly new feature where you can create the outline of the shapes you use. Use the squished little heart as the actual nose, change the color to black. Use the more traditional heart to create the outline around the nose by setting color 1 to black and color 2 to transparent. Now you have just the outline of the shape! Create the eyes with two ovals - this makes it a little cuter than regular circles, just so you know. Center the face to the best of your ability. Since there are no design guides, eyeballing this is ok.
You can use any of the free overlays offered through PicMonkey to create your writing guide - how cool would a mustache writing guide be?? But you can always sign up for the Royale feature where you get a ton more options for fonts, overlays, effects, etc here. Royale is $4.99/mo or $33/year (choose that one, super steal!)
Save your creation to your computer but don't close PicMonkey in case you need to edit something later! I used Picasa to print my 5x7 print back to front - I had to do some experiments with Picasa to do this but you could print two pages however you wish, trim them, glue them back to back, then laminate. Use one of your pages from your planner as a guide to trim down your image. The 5x7 size leaves a little bit for a tab at the top so you can easily find it in your planner.
Laminating the writing guide is the important part. I did get a laminator for Christmas (thank you grandma!!) but I wanted to let you know that the peel and stick lamination works fine too. If you have single side laminating sheets, simply fold them in half to laminate both sides. No need for fancy things here! Punch your holes and cut little slits to make it easily removable from your rings (or use this tutorial if you're making a guide for a spiral bound planner).
There you have it! Now you have a really cool writing guide so that your handwriting is straight. The dark black helps you to see your lines behind your inserts. You could also use this as a dashboard or a dry/wet erase board in your planner. Versatility everyone!
Of course, if you want the printable of the bear with out having to make it yourself, I've got you covered! Click here for the 5x7 image. Remember, this image is free for personal use. Do not sell, reproduce, or alter in any way to sell or reproduce. Play nice please and thank you.
How do you DIY your planner? Do you try to have perfectly straight handwriting?
xoxo, Moe
Hi Moe, I already use lined paper as a handwriting guide, but laminating, and also using as a wet/dry insert is a good one. TFR. Off to do some laminating now.
ReplyDeleteHi Moe, I already use lined paper as a handwriting guide, but laminating, and also using as a wet/dry insert is a good one. TFR. Off to do some laminating now.
ReplyDelete