Makin' my List & Checkin' it Twice With the Holiday Planner

These holiday planners are so easy to make and useful. You can re-use them each year. I got this idea from Melissa Stout.  She has a wonderful video tutorial on her blog. All you need is a school or office folder with pockets - without the brads in the center. Fold the center in the opposite direction, then fold the front flap over and the back flap in, like an accordian.

I cut a quarter of an inch off of the top of my folder since I was using a mat on the front out of an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of cardstock.  I used pieces of Candy Cane Christmas designer series paper (pg. 33 Holiday Mini Catalog) to decorate the inside.  Inside the third pocket I placed envelopes to hold receipts.  I just embellished them with a strip of leftover DSP. The calander, greeting card list and gift list were printed from Organized Christmas. I secured them to cardstock with a glimmer brad.

The front of the planner is embellished with a Santa which I stamped from the Jolly Old Saint Nick set. I used a Blush Blossom marker to color his face and accented his cheeks with a Blushing Bride marker. I added shimmer to his hat by mixing Crystal Effects with Dazzling Diamonds glitter and brushing it on with a thin paint brush. I used a little bit of Gray pastel chalks on a sponge dauber to add some shadowing and highlights to his beard. I used Microsoft Word for the sentiment and printed it out on Whisper White cardstock and punched it out with the oval punch.