Planner | How To Make Page Marker for Your Planner

Hello all! Happy holidays and happy weekend =) Today I am showing you some of the page markers that I made for my planners. Most of my planners have their own set of dividers and page markers. I don't use them all at once but I would like to swap the dividers and page markers depends of my mood and season. Most of these page markers are either made of scrapbook pages, stamp image or I draw the image myself.

Some of you may ask, what is page marker? For most of the 6-rings binder users (be it Filofax, Kikki K, Kate Spade agenda etc) they always come with a ruler-like book mark. This is to serve as bookmarking purpose, to let you quickly flip to the page when you are using for that day/that week. The planners normally come with a transparent piece of plastic ruler with 6 hole-punched. But so personalized our own planner, a lot of planner nerds like to customized their dividers and page marker with a theme. See how the ice cream & TODAY page marker is longer than the usual pages and make looking for particular page so much easier?

 

 

Making your own customized page marker is easy and fun, and it wouldn't take you more than 15 minutes to make one. It is as simple as making cards, just that you would need to send it to a hot laminator to laminate it & make it sturdier.

To make your own page marker / dividers, you will need the following:
1. Original dividers from your planner / Daisy Day Planner monthly divider to use as guide for sizing and holes
2. a piece of scrapbook paper or cardstock of your choice (I painted a piece of white cardstock with Distress Paint and trim it down)
3. Jubilee sticky notes that come with your December Cocoa Day Planner kit (Optional)
4. Die Cut/ Stickers / Letter Stickers to decorate your page marker (make sure they are relatively thin / flat, not puffy stickers or foam stickers else you will not be able to laminate it)
5. Scissors & Hole Punch (I am just using a single hole punch that you can get it from any office supply store)
6. Hot Laminator (If you do not have laminator machine, you can send it to office supplies store to get them laminate for your or you learn how to laminate with an iron by watching this video.

Firstly, I am using my A5 sized Daisy Day Planner December divider as a guide for the size of the page marker. I eyeballed the width of the pagemarker marker to be around 3 inches and the height to be approximately an inch taller than the December divider so It will peek out from the top tab when it is done.

Then I added the Sticky memo with calendar and Today from the December kit + HELLO tab using stickers from one of older Amy Tangerine collection. I added more adhesive to the back of the sticky notes so that they won't move when I send the page marker for lamination. I also stamp some sentiments using the cute stamps that come with December kit. the coffee cup is just too too cute! I decided to make one more matching page marker in Personal sized since I have left over paper.

I then punch 6 holes by using the December divider as guide and also added reinforcement rings to make it look cuter. I actually color the white reinforcement rings with copic markers and now they have rainbow colors. I also like to round the corner of my page marker else the edges might be too sharp after it being laminated.

And this is how my page markers look like once I laminated them. I re-punched the 6 holes again and cut little slits next to the punched holes. This would make slotting in and out of the page marker much easier, without opening the rings. Okay, now move on to how to make your page marker more than a book mark? You can use it as a to-do list / reminder than it will pop up whenever you open your planner. Since I have calendar and to-do list on the page marker, then you would ask, what are the pens to use / write on laminated plastic?

You have 2 options here:
1. Use dry erase / whiteboard markers
2. Use Permanent markers

Now let's look at Option 1: Dry Erase / white board markers that I learn this tips from Donna (Instagram: @umbooba). I got these markers from Daiso and they work perfectly. The black one even comes with a felt roller that serve as the eraser to erase the markers from the plastic / whiteboard. However....

I do not like how thick the marker pens nib are. And I also do not like how easily the writing being rubbed off when I was using the page marker and the writings sometimes transfer to the page next to it.

But the invention of the felt roller cap is just brilliant. I don't use these dry erase markers on my page markers but I do use them to draw on a whiteboard notebook (from Daiso) to keep my 20 month old entertained when we are out and about. Love that the colorful markers are of finer nibs.

And now let's move on to Option 2: Permananet Markers (like sharpie, American Crafts Slick Writer, Pilot Twin Marker & Pilot Multiball) + Erasing tools: Alcohol swab & Eraser (I kid you not!) I will post a link where you can get those pens later.

Here's the pen swatch that I write with the above for permanent markers. I like love those with Ultra fine nib as I have small hand writings.
1. Pilot Multiball in Fine and Medium nib. These are my favourite as they write with gel-pen like tip (not felt tip like the usual markers) and the nib is really really fine too. Plus sometimes I forgot to switch my pen to write on normal planner pages, these pens don't bleed through the pages! Which is super awesome as I can use them to write on any surface! You can get them here in different nib and colors. You can check on the link for photos that show you they don't bleed thru the pages.
2. Sharpie. I like the double ended Sharpie as they comes in ultra fine nib and a lot of colors! They are so inexpensive and easily accessible in any book stores / stationery shops. Get them here.
3. Pilot Twin Marker. Or some call them as the Washi Pens/ Markers. I love using them on the laminated plastics, writing on mailer bags or washi tapes for labeling. There are inexpensive and last a long time. You can get them here.
4. American Slick Writer. These pens are waterproof, fade proof, acid-free and comes in so many colors! I found a link on Amazon where you can different colors here. I love that the Amy Tangerine Yes, Please collection slick writer comes with fun & vibrant colors!

Then now the question is, since they are permanent markers, how do you clean them off the page markers?

And the answer is.... good ol' earsers! I actually learn this trick from a girl on Instagram (IG name: @jenkneelinderz). The not-so-stubborn / felt tip markers can be erased with eraser effortlessly, well almost effortlessly. And the Pilot Multiball writings can be erased with eraser too, but you need to use a little more effort & strength *LoL*

The next method is to use alcohol swab to remove everything and wipe the surface clean again with paper towel / tissue paper. The Pilot Multiball inks can be removed with alcohol swap effortlessly.

And what I normally do is: I clean the writings with alcohol swabs first and clean any traces with eraser! And now I have a brand new page marker as my to-do list. So now, you might ask, which pens/ markers is my favourite for writing on plastic dividers?

Another tips I have learnt when I was young - when we accidentally write on the whiteboard using permanent markers - we use dry-earse markers / whiteboard markers to write over it and erase them again. This is so simple but it might leave some grey tint ink on the plastic dividers. So I wont recommend using this method unless you are out an about without alcohol swab or eraser.

I would love to use the Pilot Twin Markers (Ultra Fine nib) to write my to do list as it can be erased easily with eraser. And the dates on calendar or something that I plan to keep the writing a little longer (do not have to be erased daily), I would use Pilot Multiball.

I seriously hope you enjoy reading my tips & tricks in this post + try your hands on making your own dividers / page markers. It is so fun to customize / personalize your own planner(s) according to your need and preference. And my next post is about pen test on Cocoa Daisy Day Planner pages / paper! Do leave a comment down below what is your beloved pens / pens that you would like me to test out, and I will try to find them in my book store. It is so fun to experiment with new stationeries!

XoXo,
Sam