It's a plan-ner!

It’s been a very snowy DIY Day here at the roost. Once the thrill of a snow day wore off around noon, I decided to tackle a project I’ve been meaning to get around to for quite awhile. That’s how my planner went from this:

To this:

This planner started its life as a very bland Dollar Tree planner. I refuse to spend the big bucks that cute planners seem to always cost, so I tend to go the cheap-o route, which usually limits my selection to playing kittens or boring solid colors. I tried to fix it up with some mod podge and scrapbook paper, but you can see that it didn’t exactly hold up to the abusive gauntlet that is the inside of my purse. However, duct tape can rescue just about anything.

Step 1 - Because the planner had a spiral spine, I needed to cover it with something before I started duct taping. If your planner doesn’t have this kind of spine, feel free to skip to the next step. I used felt to cover the planner and create a smooth surface for the duct tape. I just stapled the felt to the planner like so…

This gives you a nice blank canvas.

Step 2 – Go nuts with the duct tape. I used my aqua tape (since it’s the color of the year and I like to be trendy if I can do it for free!) and a little bit of my pink and white striped Japanese tape.

Step 3 – I keep my coupons in my planner, so I wanted to create a cute way to hold it closed – or at least a cuter method than the extremely fashionable rubber band I had been using.

To create a little fastener, I sewed a vintage mother-of-pearl button to the front of the planner. Be sure to use a cheap needle, because punching through the duct tape will ruin it! Next, I cut a small slit in a strip of felt, slipped it over the button, and sewed it to the back of the planner.

Ta-Da! Since I had everything on hand, this project was free – double yay! Think of all the duct tape possibilities in your future – you could cover an ugly notebook, or freebie cosmetic bag, or empty soup can – oh, the potentials of an empty container and colored roll of duct tape!

<3
Hattie