Kick off the new year with a custom planner that suits your style. It’s easy and fun to make your own durable planner cover!
This coming year will be the second year that I have pretty much made my planner from scratch. I’ve designed my own monthly and weekly printable pages, year-at-a-glance pages and my own cover. There’s more coming in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned!
Since a new year is right around the corner (thank goodness!) I decided to make a new planner cover for 2021. Last year’s cover held up so well! Granted, it didn’t get as much use as a planner normally would, so I need to give this method another chance.
The only problem I had with this method last time was that the 10 mil lamination pouch didn’t stick super well in the middle of the cover. It didn’t make any difference, in that the cover stayed intact through the year since the edges sealed well. I think the only way to fix that would be to take it to an office supply store and have them use their professional laminators.
As part of the StyleTech Craft 2021 -2023 design team, this post has been sponsored by Styletech Craft. Compensation and oduct have been provided to me for the purpose of this post. This post also contains affiliate links, meaning that I might receive a small commission if you click on a link and purchase, at no cost to you. All ideas and opinions are all my own.
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This time around, I decided to use Distress Inks and Oxides, watercolor paper, my gel plate and adhesive vinyl. If you aren’t the artsy type or don’t want to decorate your own paper, then don’t! There are so many beautiful scrapbook papers out there, the options are endless.
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Planner Cover Instructions
For my 2021 planner cover, I used white watercolor paper and the FX Ultra Metallic permanent vinyl in Platinum from StyleTech Craft. The FX Ultra Metallic has holographic flakes and has a great glitter shine, without the mess. It is a pretty thick vinyl though, so you have to adjust the cut settings on the machine accordingly. (I used a blade depth of 3 and always do 2 passes)
My planner is a full size 8.5 x 11 planner, so I had to adjust the cut file to fit. The cut file that I used from the Silhouette Design store is actually a card, so I had to delete some of the cut lines and create a border to make it fit my paper.
Once my designs were cut out and weeded, I used the transfer tape to peel the design from the backing. I found it easiest to lay the vinyl design, sticky side up, then line up the paper on top of the design. (Placing the paper on to the vinyl, rather than placing the vinyl design on the paper.)
With this particular thick paper and vinyl, I found that the laminated cover would not fit into the planner punch. The planner punch isn’t intended for laminated paper, but has worked just fine for me.
To get around the cover not fitting in the punch, I decided to punch the paper and lamination pouch ahead of laminating. It was a little tricky to get the paper lined up and punched just right, but it ended up working and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
I used a hand held hole punch to make the punches in the vinyl, based off of what was already punched in the paper. Then I put the paper in the pre-punched laminator pouch and lined up the punches. At that point, I ran the whole thing through the hot laminator, holding the pouch carefully so that nothing moved.
After the front and back covers were laminated I put the discs and it’s done!
So pretty! Here’s to a great 2021!!!
I love the way this turned out. I may try making one of my own. Thanks!