The First Week – A New Year's Happy Planner Spread
Hi there Magpies! Victoria here, a new member of the Hey Little Magpie Creative Team. I am a Happy Planner babe who uses multiple planners to try to keep my life together. I’m hoping to inspire you to get creative in your planners, liven up your layouts and try something new. For my first post I am super excited to bring you a New Year’s themed Happy Planner spread.
A Bit Of Background
Launched in 2015 by US-based scrapbooking company Me & My Big Ideas, The Happy Planner is a disc-bound planning system that encompasses planners, stickers, stamps, papers and a host of other crafty goodies. The creative opportunities with this system are truly endless. It is super customisable and easy to use. The planners come in three sizes Big, Classic and Mini. I am going to start with Classic sized Happy Planner layouts as this is the most common and readily avalible Happy Planner. Check out some of the range that Hey Little Magpie carry here.
Hello Blank Slate
It’s a new year which means one thing, starting a brand new planner! There’s nothing quite like it. A blank slate to capture all your plans, dreams and goals for another 12 months. But it can also be a very daunting prospect. That empty page can easily become intimidating, especially if you want to try out decorative planning. So let me walk you through how I put together a Happy Planner spread.
Wherever Do You Start?
I like to start with a theme for the week then find stickers that go with it. This week I of course went with a New Year theme with a focus on metallics like gold and silver foil, pale pink, black and white, and lots of inspiring quotes for the year to come. The Happy Planner Seasonal sticker value pack was my jumping off point for the whole layout. They really did a lot of the work for me, grouping together complementary stickers. Most Happy Planner sticker books are like this so if you’re a newbie to decorative planning or planning in general, they are a great place to start.
After settling on a theme and some stickers to begin with, I think about what plans I have for the week and what sort of things I need to be reminded of each day. As it’s the beginning of a new year I wanted to keep my Resolutions front and centre. To do this I covered up the check it off title with a sticker from the Colourful Boxes sticker value pack. This is another must-have sticker book, the boxes are endlessly useful, from covering elements on the page that you don’t like, to highlighting important plans, I use them in every spread.
Now I’ve got the ball rolling the rest of the spread is relatively straightforward. I am on holiday this week so I don’t have that many plans and I can be extra decorative, using large stickers to mark New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I also used a large quote sticker to cover up the monthly calendar printed on the page. You’re going to see me do this on every Happy Planner spread because I personally cannot stand monthly calendars that start on a Sunday. I find them really disorientating but I digress.
It’s A Cover Up
Something I don’t usually do is cover up the dates already printed on the page, but I thought the orange clashed with my overall look so I whited them out and used date stickers from the Happy Memory Keeping Dates And Holidays sticker value pack to replace them. Even though this sticker book is technically for a Big Happy Planner I have found it works perfectly well in the smaller Classic size. I also don’t mind seeing a bit of white-out through the clear sticker.
On The Othe Side
For the second half of the week, I wanted to create a weekend cluster. I did try to hand-letter the word weekend but it turned out kind of messy. So I covered it up with a box sticker that I put down horizontally. Then I dug around for a weekend banner that matched my spread and ended up doing a bit of sticker surgery on a girls weekend sticker from the Mini Planner Basics sticker value pack. That’s a pro tip, if you don’t like part of a sticker cut it off! I also grabbed some simple black and white washi strips from the Seasonal washi sticker book. By mirroring them on both sides of the spread, it ties the week together in a simple, clean way. I always have to remind myself that sometimes less is more when it comes to planning a layout. You can always add more stickers as the week goes on.
All Done And Dusted
With a couple more stickers and a header or two from the Squad Goals sticker value pack my Happy Planner spread is done. I like to set up my week like this on a Sunday or sometimes a Monday morning. I put down my decoration and mark important events, then as the week goes on I fill in my plans for each day.
Mid-Week Update
As I am posting this Happy Planner spread on a Saturday I can show you how I actually fill it in. I started off my week with a hike so I grabbed some workout stickers from the Happy Planner Girl Healthy Hero sticker value pack. Working out daily is one of my New Year’s Resolutions but I haven’t quite made it this week. At least I have cute silver heart stickers, from the Productivity sticker value pack, to make my Resolutions pop!
I also love a good icon sticker! The Tiny sticker value pack and the Super Mom sticker value pack are total favourites of mine. The Super Mom sticker value pack has lots of great lettering stickers in it too. So whilst I hand-lettered the word hike I used a sticker for the word birthday. I’ve got to practice my lettering this year for sure!
That’s All Folks
That’s it Magpies! The first week of the new year is all planned out. If you want to see the completed Happy Planner spread or any of the other layouts I create check me out on Instagram, @veryimportantplans. Keep an eye out for my next blog post on the 19th. Stay golden Magpies!
