2015 Planner cover

I used to make my own weekly planners for years - design them, print them, in various colours and shapes. But then I moved to daily planners and these were too big a challenge for me - not design-wise but format-wise. With one day per page and 365 days in a year, this would be too bulky to print on regular paper. So I moved to Moleskine planners. 

But now, after almost a decade with my daily Moleskines, I decided to embark on the adventure and print my own daily planner. 

I was always a bit OCD about my diaries/planners. None of the existing ones on the market were fitting my needs perfectly. This layout seems ideal to me now - NOW is the crucial word - only time will tell how I like it. What I fear the most is that it would start to bug me soon - and I'll have to stick with it for the whole year [insert a sarcastic laugh here]...

I wanted to go for a plain cover - probably plastic so it could be easily maintained during the year. But then I saw Emma Godfrey's journal cover in this PaperArtsy blog post and decided to make my own. 

I gessoed the chipboard covers first:

 Then I started to add some paint using a sponge:

 ... and more paint:

Then I added some stamping using my hand-carved stamps:

Then a little bit of stencilling:

And some drippage:

I added a little bit of purple, because I didn't like it turned a bit too green. Then I added the embellishments to the front:

This is how the finished diary looks like - as I suspected, it's a bit too bulky and will be a pain to write in... But after all that effort, I guess I'll have to stick with it now ;-)

Thank you.

P.

Happy Holidays!

This is my Happy Holidays card for this season:

Of course, I made some in my native language...

And there's a Making of YouTube video, if you're interested.
Looks pretty easy, but believe me, there was a series of misfortunes along the road...