Thursday, January 11, 2018

My New Christmas Management Journal


I am super, super excited to share this one with you guys.  Oh my gosh!  I had so much fun making this and I'm having even more fun working with it.  Waaay too much!

I found these at Walmart

I started with a mini binder and a package of sleeve protectors.  I didn't have any holiday themed scrapbooking paper so I went to Michaels around the first of December, with a 40% OFF coupon, and they didn't have any either!  What the heck?!  I even went online and it was all out of stock.  I didn't realize you are supposed to shop for that kind of stuff in the summer.


Anyway, I got on eBay and there was tons of the stuff to choose from so I ordered it and patiently waited a week to receive it in the mail.  And it was completely worth it.  So cute!



I decorated the cover with my favorite piece and then had a blast selecting, cropping and fitting the other sheets in the protectors and arranging them inside the binder.



I even tried making a pocket divider using cardstock, scrapbook paper and half of a sheet protector.  It turned out so darling. I put several of my scraps in the pocket to use later and made these cute placeholders with some white paper clips I already had and some of these glitter foam stickers I'd bought years ago for the girls to use in crafts.



I printed out more of my homemade lined paper to make lists and jot down ideas.  I also took all of my various handwritten lists and combined them onto a spreadsheet and printed them out.  So much fun to embellish them with paper scraps and holiday stickers I found on Amazon.


Love all of these lovely papers


I made gift tags and Christmas cards (tutorials are coming!) and cute little pockets to neatly store them in until I need them.


To make it extra special I added some favorite recipes as well as pictures I'd taken this year.  I plan to keep it year to year so I can look back at what we did.  I only wish I'd thought to do this sooner.  How fun would it be to have a record of all or our lovely Christmases to look back on?


I decorated this envelope and punched holes in it to keep the gift card in

Our Christmas budget for 2018 is set and I've put in a page for tracking my expenses.  I also put in a gift card I had been given that covers the amount I've budgeted so no money will be coming out of our regular household budget for Christmas this year.  Yay!


The girls gave me a really nice set of gel pens for Christmas that I've been using with my journals.  It makes it even more fun to use those colored inks to write with.  I also have a mechanical pencil and clic eraser to use with it, same as with my household management journal.


I just love having a dedicated place for keeping all of my Christmas plans together and safe.  And this Christmas journal makes it an extra special way to plan and prepare for the holiday.  😍 😃



20 comments:

  1. love the binders. what makes them mini? are they 1 "" I'd like to hit up walmart for some too.

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    1. These are the 6" X 9" size that hold half sheets of paper.

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  2. I love this and since I have everything on hand to make one I'm going to put it on my 'to-do' list! Thanks for the inspiration! patsi @ aworkingpantry.blogspot.com

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    1. I hope you do and I hope you share your creation with us! :)

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  3. Wow, great job. Love this. I want one!!! Lol

    Enjoy, Janie

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  4. Your organization is amazing! This is a very neat idea. Will you list potential gifts to make in this as well?

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    1. Yep! All of my ideas will go in here. And I'll be sharing too!

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  5. Beautiful and how fun.. I love journals, and it is so fun to keep up with everything in a pretty journal. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Thanks Judy. I find I am enjoying journals more and more.

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  6. I have a homemade Christmas organizer from about 8 years back. I made it from one of those black composition books covered with card stock and gussied up with tabs and pockets. I was just thinking about making a new one (Mine is used up now) and this is such a better idea. Thanks for the inspiration! (Hint: I keep my list of Christmas gifts from the past year, so I don't accidentally repeat a gift and also so I have a list of any collectible I gave last year.

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    1. I was using a composition book for awhile and then ended up with a bunch of lists on notepad paper tucked into my dayplanner. This is working so much better. I can change things around in it.

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  7. Is it wrong that I have serious Binder Envy right now? ;) You did a beautiful job and it just makes everything so fun and cheery!

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    1. It is totally okay! I hope you make yourself one too Debbie. ;0)

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  8. Love it! So super cute. I have a Christmas spreadsheet every year, but this is way cuter. :-)

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    1. Honestly, this is the first time I've decorated my stuff like this. I love it!

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  9. What a good idea! I write notes in my journal and always find myself referring to it several times during the Christmas season....did I already use that gift idea for this person? Or how many batches of candies/cookies did I make, and where did I find the tins that were just the right size? This year my husband asked me what time I thought the kids would wake up on Christmas morning, and I was able to turn to notes from the last 3 years to determine an average, haha! I would get a lot of use out of a notebook like yours. Thanks for the idea!

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