Planners | How To Decorate Midori / Fauxdori Notebook

Hello everyone! Today I am sharing this over at Freckled Fawn blog on how I decorate inserts / notebooks for Midori Traveller's Notebook (in short TN) / Fauxdori. The original Midori TN inserts always come in kraft colour cover which pretty much beg you to decorate and personalise it. You can also decorate your favourite Moleskin notebooks or Field Note using the same method. I am someone who can't live without rainbow, so I decorated all my midori / fauxdori inserts with patterned papers, washi tapes, stickers and stamps.

So now, let's grab some of your favourite washi tapes, patterned papers, stamps and stickers and decorate your notebooks with me. Decorating the notebooks can be really therapeutic and easy - would not take you more than 10 minutes for each book ;)

1) Decorate with washi tapes.

You can choose to cover the cover partially or in full, with tonnes and tonnes of washi tapes. Here's what I have done with mine. The one on the left is decorated with MT masking tapes and Freckled Fawn washi tapes. Part of the kraft cover peek out and make the pastel colour washi tapes pop. I also added some epoxy stickers and letter stickers to make it even more personalised as this is my pregnancy journal ;)

The other two notebooks are of smaller size - same size as Filofax personal sized inserts. The one for my 'SHOP' I cover it up with pastel skinny washi tapes (you can get it here) in stripes. Added a piece of star-shaped sticky notes to put down the letter sticker 'SHOP'. The one with camera - I just cover the cover with 3 different rolls of washi tapes - randomly, then stamp the camera stamp with Staz On black ink.

2) Cover it up with patterned papers

This is probably the quickest and easiest way to cover up the kraft cover. I cut the patterned papers down to the size of the cover (a little bigger than the cover to get complete coverage) and stick it to the cover with tape glue / glue stick.

I also like to add wood veneers / stamps to the simple cover. This would only take me 5 mins to decorate each notebook.

 3) Decorate with stamp

I love the contrast between kraft cover and colourful stamped image. I stamp the heart stamps over and over again using Freckled Fawn February Oh Deer Me kit with Versacolors. I like that it actually looks like a piece of patterned paper. The other one I just stamp with a stamp set from Amy Tangerine that say Happy Place and I added my hand writing 'to brain dump' as my brain dump journal.

4. Stitch your stamp ;P

This is one of the cutest and unique way to decorate your notebook cover. You can just stamp the image using a lighter colour ink pad (say grey colour) and poke holes, add the stitching with embroidery thread. I am using Moleskin Cahier for the photo above. I have a detailed step-by-step tutorial that I written back in May 2014. I hate sewing and stitching, but I did have fun personalising my own notebooks with embroidery.

So these are the ways I use to decorate my notebooks and particularly, inserts for my fauxdori / Midori. Which one is your favourite?

Thanks for dropping by and I hope this post would inspire you to start customising your own notebooks.

Xoxo,
Sam

Freebies | Happy October & Printables for Your Filofax / Midori Traveler's Notebook

Hello Hello there! I am just gonna write a quick blog post before I get ready to send Ivan to his pre-Montessori. Today is the 2nd day of his school and I am praying hard that he could learn to have fun on his own without me being around. I stayed around throughout the play group session during the first day as he was having the usual toddler's separation anxiety. Ok, cut this short, my awesome friend  @abshanghai (Arlyna) made these A5 sized Filofax printables for me because I want to switch most of the stuff to my A5 sized this month. So I wave goodbye to my DIY Fish printables this month and let's see how it goes without it.

Instead of using these printables from Arlyna on my A5 sized 6 rings binder, I made them into a book and use in my A5 sized Fauxdori. I will post up a blog post on how to pamphlet stitch or stapler this printables for your Midori Traveler's Notebook  / Happiedori / Fauxdori. Stay tuned!

This is the free printables that Arlyna designed for September & October for my Happiedori. I am using them to keep track of Ivan's schedule. [Scroll down for the links to printables]

And here's the sneak of me getting ready to stitch and decorate my notebook. Will be blogging them on the 6th of October. 

You can download the Printables here:
A5 sized - October 2014
Personal Sized Printables (From Arlyna's Website)

And  free Printables for Midori Traveler's Notebook that I have blogged in this post:

September 2014
October 2014

Drop me a comment and let me know what you think of these printables / show me links of how you use them! And also, let me know what do you like so I could bug Arlyna to design and share more freebies with us! 

XoXo,

Freebies⎪Happiedori & Free Printables for Midori Traveler's Notebook

Hello =) How was your weekend? I have a fairly productive weekend that I went shopping for a few hours, alone. Yes, I truly enjoy shopping alone because I would be able to make decision whether to buy/ not to buy the stuff on my own (without consulting others opinion) quicker and easier. Lol. I am more indecisive when I have friends or hubs tag along with me. 

My awesome cousin-in-law bought this cute Kate Spade bag for my big 30 =) She said this bag has my name written all over so it is a must to get for me. I am so blessed and love how the huge bow pattern on the bag matches the Kate Space gold clips perfectly.

I went to Kikki K to grab some stationeries, went to Typo to get some pens and Made With Love to grab some scrapbooking supplies. Its been two months since I shop for scrapbooking supplies and even my hubs said I should go shop for some new arrivals. lol. I also got to meet up with my girlies for quick lunch. Nothing beats having some me-time and being away from work (and baby) once in a while. After being a mommy for 18 months, I do love spending time with my toddler who never fails to amaze me, I also need a tiny bit of me-time once in a while.

Here's a pic to show some of the goodies I got over the weekends - gifts from girlies and a bit of my shopping haul. I actually have more, was too lazy to take photo of everything ;P

I recently obsessed with Midori Traveler's Notebook and also love making my own version of Fauxdori (i.e. Happiedori). I have been making a bunch of these for friends and also custom orders. I seriously couldn't believe that I actually made over 100 of Happiedori (together with my dad) within 3 weeks time. YEs, and yes, every Happiedori that you guys & girls ordered are handmade with love by me & my dad ;) And I also love the unique color combination that the customers picked that never failed to inspire me.

Here's the close-up of the cute little heart charm that I included in all the Happiedori that I made. Me and my mother-in-law found this cute charms from a shop in Petaling Street. 

Just a random notebook that I found on my dad's work desk and that reminds me that - my #stationeryaddict actually came from my lovely dad. He always like to go to stationery shop or book store to pick up really good quality pen and pencils, and always carry a little notebook with him to jot down his sketch and ideas. He is a carpenter and does some interior design sketching for customers too. And I am so proud of my dad because he self-learn how to draw interior design sketch + KDMax software on his own. He is currently using a Mark's notebook that I gave my mum and took over by dad to use as his daily notebook.

To thank everyone who has been so supportive towards my little shop, and to celebrate my 17000 Instagram followers milestone, I have a free printable to share with you here. Before you download the printables, please leave some love for my lovely IG friend @abshanghai (Arlyna) or her website to download the cute printables for personal sized planners. She is the one who designs and share this Midori Traveler's Notebook (regular sized) printables for free. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think of these printables / show me links of how you use them!

Free Printables for Midori Traveler's Notebook:

September 2014
October 2014

>> All you need to do is to print this front and back, cut off the excess on both sides, fold into half and bind them with staplers or rubber band. Easy PEasy!
I will try to make a tutorial / video to show you how to bind the printables soon. Hopefully it will not take me more than a week to blog about this =P

P.S. Do remember to drop by my little shop to see the new planners that are available for preorders now ;)

And this is a multipurpose stationery pouch that you can use to as pen case to keep all your stationery supplies on the go, or use it as travel wallet to keep your passports, ticket stubs and receipts, and it also fits the Hobonichi Techo in A6 sized perfectly! Go grab it here >> 

Happy planning!

XoXo,
Sam

Tutorial⎪Honey, I Shrunk The Stamps! *Evalicious*

Hello there! Some of you may have seen me posted on Instagram about me making those little charms using Shop Evalicious stamp sets and shrink plastics. So today I am going to walk you through my process of making these cute little charms and also ideas on how I use them on my planner and Midori Traveler Notebook.

So to shrink your stamps (no pun intended) you would need these:
1. Shrink plastics (I have them in white and clear, got them from Art Friend Singapore)
2. Stamp Sets (I used this, this and this) and Acrylic block
3. Inks (My favourite is Staz On here, and I will explain further later)
4. Heat Gun / Oven to bake the plastics
5. Scissors
6. Circle Punch
7. Crop-a-dile
8. Paints and Markers

Firstly, if your shrink plastic sheet is smooth, you would sand one of the smooth side so that the texture will hold the ink / colouring. My plastic sheets come with one smooth and one texture side, so I didn't have to sand the plastic sheet at all. 

Punch various sizes of circles using circle punch - I used 1', 1 3/8' and 2' here.

And here are the inks I tried and I like Staz On the best.

P.S. My Staz On is drying up as I have had it 5 years ago, so it doesn't ink well. But thats okay, we can go over it with a sharpie or Zig marker. But this step is rely optional as the ink will turn out darker once shrunk. 

From left to right: Staz On, Ranger Archival Ink, Brilliance, VersaFine, Verscolor and Prima Resist Chalk Edger.

Close-ups of the stamped image before I heat it up: 

Staz On, Versacolor and Prima doesn't bleed  but the rest bleed, especially Ranger Archival Ink (although it doesn't show here)

Punch a small hole using your crop-a-file before heat up the plastics or send them to the oven. You gotta be careful not touching the stamped image else you would have smudge the inks like mine show below.

I placed mine into a baking tin that I got from Daiso and heat it up with heat gun. I seriously couldn't imagine my life without my heat gun. It might look wonky in the process but don't worry, just keep calm and keep heating it up. You can use a tweeter or craft stick to hold the plastic while heating up. Once done, use something to flatten the plastic while it is still warm. I use a glass jar tand it works well in flattening the plastic.

And here's the result.

• Staz On: It doesn't smear before / after we heat it up.
• Ranger: It bleed and smear badly, even after we heat set the ink.
• Brilliance: It smears a little before heating it up. Once heat up, it doesn't smear and it is perfect.
• VersaFine: It smears a little before heating it up. Once heat up, it doesn't smear and it is perfect.
• Prima: It doesn't smear before / after we heat it up.
• Versacolor: It smear badly before and after we heat up the plastic. But after heat up, you can actually clean up the smudges with wet wipes. The colour will not be as vibrant as we normally stamp on paper.

 I re-stamped all the images with thee three inks that smudge / smear/

And here's the end result! I love how tiny this little charm is! It shrunk from 2 inch circle to 3/4 inch circle. 

The stamped image with versacolor looks perfect after we clean it up with wet wipes.

And now, move on to the advanced part: create a water-colour effect / ombre colour effect on your shrink plastic. I use Tim Holtz Distress Stains and Distress Paints. I prefer Distress Paints over Distress Stains as the paint is permanent once its dry on the plastic and doesn't react to water much.

I draw paint stokes using the mediums below and quickly add water to the paint strokes to make the water less opaque. You gotta work quickly s the Distress Paints dry up real fast.

Then wipe away all the excess colours. Do not worry if the paint strokes look really pale here. Once the plastic shrink, it will look more vibrant.

Stamp and cut the image. Remember to punch hole before heat up the plastic. And use 3/16' hole punch (not 1/8') else the hole might turn out too small.

Once shrink, the colour looks more vibrant right?

I spent hours making these and I had so much fun. And now the fun part is add them to my projects!

I added jump rings and handphone straps to make them into keychains / handphone charms.

 I added it on the front of my Midori Traveler Notebook cover.

And also added another set to my Kate Spade Planner zipper.

These tiny cameras look so cute together <3

I also use my Fox stamp from Typo and added jul ring + chain, hang it on my Kate Spade Planner pen loop.

Added a clasp to the plastic and add it to my Swaroski crystal pen. You can also do the same and add it to your bag charm or Thomas Sabo bracelet.

I have fun making these cute little charms / shrink dinks. Hop you enjoy my step by step process too!

Thanks for looking.

Evalicious Product used:

• Oh Snap! Clear Stamp Set
• Photo Op Clear Stamp Set
• My Favourite Stamp Set
• Conversation Stamp Set

XoXo,