Christmas planner

  Since it's been a whole week since I've posted anything here I decided that I really need to do it.  Even though I'm trying to watch CSI Miami.  So if this doesn't make sense in places it's because I'm distracted.  Anyway I wanted to show you this easy Christmas planner.  You start with a paper folder, the kind that the kids use in school.  In this post I'm using two different folders because I finished mine and then decided that I should have taken pictures of the process.  So we'll start with this blue one.

 You going to fold it so that the inside is now the outside.  Does that make sense? 

This picture is blurry and for that I'm sorry.  But you want to make sure that the pocket is cut all the way to the edge of the folder.  So if the inside of the folder looks like this then you need to cut to the edge of the folder so that all pockets are the same width.

Now your going to fold the edges back to the middle fold so that it looks like this. 

 When its folded it will look like this.

Now I used pages for the inside from this site.   http://christmas.organizedhome.com/printable/christmas-pocket-planner  These pages are shorter than the folder so you can cut the top of the folder off a little.  The web site has a number of different forms that you can print off.  You have four pockets so just pick out the forms that you want to use. 

Here's my finished planner.  Decorate however you want.  Just be sure to put a ribbon around it so that you can tie it shut. 

 Here's the inside of my planner.  Again, just decorate however you want to.  I adhered card stock to the back of each pocket and then decorated the front of each pocket a little differently. 

I've got a couple more in the works. A black one that I'm going to decorate to look elegant and the blue folder will probably be decorated with snowflakes. The hardest part of making this was trying to find the folders. This might be a good project to keep in mind for next Christmas and then you can get the folders when the school supplies are in high supply in the stores. Oh, and I forgot to say that the planner fits quite nicely into my purse so I can carry it with me all through the season. Some of the forms are Christmas card lists, gift lists, menu planning, calendar stocking stuffers, etc. Just pick the four that you would use the most and your good to go. Tomorrow I'll show you a smaller version that only has three pockets.