KAISERCRAFT JOURNAL PLANNERS: PART I

A week ago, I was contacted by the lovely Kylie from Kaisercraft asking me if I wanted to do a review for one of their newest products: the Kaisercraft Journal Planners. Yes, you read that right, the well known Aussie brand is bringing on the big guns and releasing their very own journal planners. Being a loyal user of their products, I was absolutely ecstatic when I got the email from them. Of course I would love to review it! For one, I love planners, and for another, I love Kaisercraft! What combination could be better? So along with some other goodies, Kylie kindly sent me a big box of yummy new Kaisercraft goodies. When the parcel arrived the next day (yes, next day!), I was not disappointed.

Here's what I received:

To say that I was excited would be an understatement. These were the items I received (most items are not in store as yet, so I've included their arrival dates for future reference!):

1) Journal Planner: available in store November
2) My Year, My Story: these includes the collectables, paper pack and paper pad, and are available in store December
3) Glitter tape: 8 colours in total and are available in store December
4) Printed tape: available now

Glitter and printed tape, Kaisercraft Journal Planner, 6x8" Paper Pad

Here's a better look at the My Year, My Story collection (and of course, the new journal planner):

But now to the most important part of this review, the Journal Planner. We'll start with the basics first: the journal planner comes in 3 different colours: black, blush (pink) and breeze (green). It's a PU leather journal with a magnetic clasp that holds everything together. I was fortunate enough to receive the breeze coloured journal planner (similar to the one on the front cover of the box) as I love green! I did have some troubles photographing the exact colour of the green though as a tad bit of editing makes the colour wash out entirely. Rest assured, it's a nice soft pastel green.

Here's how the inside of the planner looks like:

Inside the Kaisercraft Journal Planner

The inside contains pockets for little bits and bobs. In every pack, there are 5 gloss varnish dividers, 30 plain journal papers, 60 calendar/list papers and 9 clear plastic pocket pages. The papers are made of quality 180gsm or 300gsm cardstock so they'll be great for use with watercolours.

There are 5 different quotes on each divider. Here's a close up of the first divider:

The size of each paper is 21.5 x 17.7cm. They're made to fit the already available Kaisercraft (and other branded) plastic pocket pages, which are 6 x 10" in size. The only problem I found when using this format was the lack of hole punches readily available. I needed to punch each hole separately, using a piece of paper from their pack as a guide. Who knows, maybe Kaisercraft would be able to produce one in the future? *wink wink

When you first start out, here's what you'll see:

Inside Pages

Plain grid pages with the days of the week on one page, and a list page on the back. Looking at the journal planner when I first got it, the amount of ideas buzzing through my head was overwhelming. I could use it as a planner, a pocket page scrapbook; I could make my own pockets, my own dividers from patterned paper, I could use watercolour, I could create my own pages, I could add embellishments such as tags and ribbons and keychains to the rings, I could do just about anything and everything with this planner.

And because I was so excited to reveal this to the whole world, I'm going to show snippets of what I've done with mine. I will feature more layouts and more of my ideas as the weeks go by, but for now, here's a flip through of the many possibilities this new Kaisercraft Journal Planners has to offer!

I started off by creating my own pages from Heidi Swapp's Wanderlust paper pad. I love the vintage colours available and wanted it to be splattered all over my Kaisercraft journal planner. After I cut down my pages to size, I stuck the lime green monthly view from Kaisercraft's My Year My Story paper pack onto it and used their sticker sheet for my month of September. I had a fairly eventful September, filled with love and joy from everyone around me and wanted to document it in every way I can. The monthly grid comes undated so you're free to use it for whichever month you like.

Monthly View

Now, as much as I know that I could write up the dates in less than 5 minutes, I wanted some uniformity over it (here comes my OCD), so I decided to use my manual stamp to create my dates. It probably took me three times them amount of time to do it, but I was mighty happy thereafter. After some decoration to highlight this month's events, I had one completed monthly overview:

And since I know someone will ask, here's a list of the items I used in this monthly overview:

1- Kaisercraft stickers
2- Kellie Stamps
3- Kmart stickers
4- Paper Stone stickers
5- Roller stamps
6- Amy Tangerine stickers
7- Washi tape

As you can see, I even managed to fit some pictures into the grid. It was mostly coincidental that I had a set of small pictures lying around on my table waiting to be used that magically fitted. Hah!

On the back of the monthly overview, you'll come to see this:

When you turn the pocket page, you'll be seeing a Heidi Swapp tag I punched and put in as a page marker. And so I don't forget, I added a picture with a September tag poking out. These were all part of Heidi Swapp's Wanderlust collection which I took advantage of when Spotlight had them on clearance. Hee

When you flip the page marker away, you'll see a full spread of my week in review. As you can probably tell from the original pages, I decided to spruce mine up a little. I made my own sized paper, cut the weekly view up to just the area of interest and stuck it on.

Weekly View

The one thing that's great about this size is the ability to stick more pictures on the side of your weekly overview. Unlike my Midori where the gridded area is solely for journaling, the size of this planner journal is big enough to have a separate column for things like quotes, to-do lists, and in my instance, photos.

I have decorated pages after this, but have yet to fill them up. But to give you an idea of how they look like empty, here are some pictures:

Kaisercraft also provides stickers already sized to their pocket pages so yes, they can go into your journal planners too:

I hope you enjoyed this post and are just excited for its arrival in stores as I was receiving it a week ago! I will provide more inspiration posts using the new Kaisercraft My Year, My Story collection in the weeks to come, so stay tuned! And just a final recap, these journal planners will be available in November so they'll be nice and ready for the new year!

TUTORIAL: MAKING SQUARE PHOTOS

A lot of people have been asking me about the size of photos I use in my MTN spreads and how and what I use to print these photos. There is only so much I can do and describe when replying to people's post without photos, so hopefully, this (picture heavy) tutorial will help explain my process of printing out perfect-sized square photos.

In summary though, here are the deets:

Printing: Canon Selphy CP910, Big W printing kiosks

Apps: Collect Photo, Project Life, Canon iEPP

For those that still has no clue as to what the above details suggest, let me start from the beginning:

When it comes to printing my photos, I use my trusty little Canon Selphy CP910 for a number of reasons. For one, the print quality is surprisingly amazing for the price. And for another, it's portable, small and pretty reliable. This is how it looks like:

The ink and paper comes together in a pack, and the more you buy, the cheaper it is. In Australia, I managed to get 108 printing paper and three ink sets for $44.95 from Ted's Cameras. Not too bad, if you ask me. I got my little printer in May and have only managed to finish 1 ink cartridge for possible 36 over sheets of printing paper. The paper is made especially for the printer and comes in a variety of sizes. Mine is just the usual 6x4" which is versatile enough for me. I can always use Apps to create different sized photos based on a 6x4" grid after all

However, my in-house printing with my Canon Selphy usually only happens when I need to print the odd one or two pictures. When I require much larger scale printing, I use Big W (Australian) printing kiosks. Their prints are always reliable, sharp and glossy. But before we get to the printing, we need to set our pictures up into those cute little tiny squares that fit perfectly in your own traveler's notebook.

We first need to start off by having photos (duh!). Once you've done that, download the Collect Photo app from the Apple store (not too sure if this is available on Android, sorry guys!). To make things a little easier, I've uploaded a screenshot of all my photography editing tools as you can see here:

Once you've got all your apps in order, go ahead and open up the Collect Photo app. You can start uploading your photos in the order of dates and once you've got them all in, you'll see a nice completed month like you do with mine:

I was writing this post up in September, but as you can see, a tonne of work has only made this post available in October. Hah! Anyway, once you've got all your pictures in, you've got to export them. So go to the top right, and where the little box with an arrow coming out of it is, tap on it to see this screen:

Go to Export Photos next and you'll get this:

Select the dates you want to export, and EXPORT! You can choose where you want to export your photos to, but I tend to just export them to my Photo Library so I can upload them into my Canon Selphy app:

You're now all done here. You've got perfect little square photos ready to be printed on your Canon Selphy. Now, the next step involves uploading them onto the Project Life app purely so that I can place two pictures on a 6x4" paper. You can use any collage app you want, but this is how I do what I do.

Once you've got your Project Life app downloaded, you'll get this opening screen:

Select the horizontal 6x4" layout that has been separated into two:

Add your Collect Photo app photos into the grid, download them and boom, now you're ready for the printing!

Now, remember the screenshot of all my photography apps? It's time to refer back to that, because the Canon Selphy app is in fact called Canon iEPP. Click on that to open your app up and you'll see this:

Click on Photo Albums so that you can choose your Project Life photo that was filled with Collect Photo app photos (that was totally not confusing, right?):

Now the next bit is important. In order to print  approx 2 x 2" photos, you'll need to have a BORDERED setting selected. To print approx 3 x 3" photos, you'll need to have UNBORDERED selected. Got it? Great

And of course, lastly, all you have to do next is print! If you're using your Canon Selphy for the first time, you will have to set up your wifi connection with your phone. Read the manual they provide for this because that's just a whole lot of instructions I can't do right now!

And that's it! Hope this somewhat helps those of you curious as to how I get those tiny perfect little square pictures on my Midori spreads!

LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE

Exciting times are ahead as I am again a contributor to another fantastic online class! This time, class is by Little Paper Projects and is all about loving where you live. Love Where You Live is about celebrating the stuff that makes up life at home. The good stuff. The great stuff. The messy stuff. It’s all a reflection of your life, in this moment. It’s all a part of your personal history. It all matters, and we want to see you celebrate your favorite places, share joy in DIY successes, and commiserate over toddler (and teenager) messes!  And we want to help you get it into an album (in the format of your choice).

Format for the Class

This is a 4-week course, which will be hosted online through Little Paper Projects website. Emails with prompts and class materials will be sent on Mondays. Prompts will include a description of the weekly theme, example photos, and photography tips to get the most of your captures. Daily blog posts from our contributors (that's me and a few other wonderful ladies!)  will be designed to inspire your project.

All of the course material, including the prompts, checklists, and other printable freebies along with access to the private online community will be available on the Little Paper Projects website.

And of course, to entice you into signing up to this wonderful class, here's a little referral code to get you $5 worth of shop credit! See you there!

FLORAL

Utilising the same theme as my MTN layout, my Malden planner was decorated in florals, gold striped and glitter washi, with the whole spread done in just 15mins!

Rather than using washi, I decided to cut up the remaining Project Life cards from my MTN layout to use it as borders. Add a few embellishments from the Maggie Holmes 'Open Book' embellishment, and we're all set for the week ahead!

WEEK THIRTY-NINE IN MY MTN

I was meant to have this post up last weekend but unfortunately, my time was focused on baking some food for work on Monday and finishing up some last minute uni work for the upcoming week. I didn't want to spend so much time with my layout again, so I decided to google some inspiration and landed on Scatted Confetti's Maggie Holmes 'Open Book' layout. It was simple, yet... delicate. It was perfect. I had all the utensils needed, and all I needed to do was get crackin'

Although I didn't purchase the Open Book paper pad, I did manage to get my hands on her Project Life edition which is filled with cards patterned the same way. And guess what? It worked perfectly. The 6 x 4" size was the perfect size for my MTN and so I got right into it. I used my striped gold and metallic gold washi in addition to the layout and it was wonderful. I forgot how delicate the Open Book collection was and it was great to rediscover it once again!

SEPTEMBER IN PICTURES

I know my blog seems a little repetitive, but currently, two posts per week is all I can handle. So in order to spruce it up a little, here is a look at my September in pictures (with most unavailable on my Instagram!):

WEEK THIRTY-EIGHT IN MY MTN

I must admit, my inspiration ran out again this week. I started off by pasting the green dotted paper from Pink Paislee's Atlas collection during the week and was all for decorating it to bits, but when I eventually sat down to do so on Saturday, my mind went blank. I didn't wanna spend too much time playing around with embellies and it didn't help that my list of things to do this weekend was extraordinarily long either. So I just decided to go with the flow again and use up some of the bits of papers lying around on my table. It didn't turn out too bad in the end, but I do wish I used more embellies than that pictured. Either way, here's the full spread:

And a little close up:

I decided to use my limited edition blue Midori Traveler's Notebook this week (and probably the following weeks too) as it was making my brown MTN a little too fat when placed in conjunction with another notebook, my kraft folder full of bits and pieces, a cardholder with polaroids and a zip folder with more of my stash. At least this way, both of my MTNs will be used to its full potential.

Anyway, as mentioned before, the underlying paper used was from Pink Paislee. The  washi tape was from Washi Tape Australia. Virtually every embellishment, stamp, rub-on and sticker you see in the picture is from Kaisercraft. I didn't quite know what else I could add to my page, so I added in 'Wander' at the bottom before calling it a day. I still love it, nonetheless, and I think the boldness of the Pink Paislee paper made it all better.

WANDERLUST

I've been itching to travel lately (I blame all my coworkers who are sharing their stories of travel), so I decided to make next week's layout in my Malden travel themed. It started off pretty plain, but thanks to forgotten travel rub-ons, the spread came to life within minutes. Here's the overview:

And some close up shots:

I used items from a variety of sources this week. Washi came from Singapore, Daiso and Washi Tapes Australia. Rub-ons and stamps were from Kaisercraft. Inks were from both Kaisercraft and Vermagic Singapore. (And of course, my favourite coffee mug from Typo had to feature too). Teehee

SPRINGIN'

It was 9:30pm on a Sunday night when I threw this layout together. It didn't take much supplies. I just needed it to be quick so I could head to bed. I rummaged through my box of washi tape (someone come organise it for me, please!) and I decided to give this week a flowery theme which suited the Spring weather that was happening here in Australia. Here was the result:

I used washi tape from Washi Tape Australia and Typo. I got the Project Life card from the Bloom Edition Core Kit which is filled with beautiful art journal type colours. The stamp was from Amy Tangerine's Rise and Shine stamp kit and ink pads from Kaisercraft. I drew out the lines by myself and voila. Done!

WEEK THIRTY-SEVEN IN MY MTN

I celebrated my 22nd birthday this week, so I decided to make it a tad bit more colourful by using Amy Tangerine's Finders Keepers' collection. I love how her collection always shouts fun and spontaneity. I tend to use inspiration online for my layouts but since this collection is relatively new, there weren't too many layouts to draw from. So I decided to take the plunge and just go with the flow. The result? It turned out better than I imagined, so yay!

This was the layout for this week. I've been pretty shy when sharing my pictures online because I do believe that once it's out there, it can never be fully retracted, but I guess that goes for having any sort of social media. However, I've been applying to contributing teams recently and my next project is coming up with some other talented ladies, and seeing every one of them asks for a photo of yourself to share, I thought, why not? If you ever wanna have your own line of creative goodness, you've got to start somewhere, am I right!

And now for the obligatory Taylor Swift line for twenty-two:

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two!

Have a great week ahead, guys!

BLACK AND YELLOW

Birthday week this week! I decided to continue on with the black and yellow craze that you saw on my previous MTN post. It was simple but colourful enough to satisfy me for the week!

Supplies for this week includes stickers from Kaisercraft, stamps from Amy Tangerine and Kelly Purkey, and washi tape!

WEEK THIRTY-SIX IN MY MTN

I recently got my hands on Kaisercraft's Shine Bright collection, albeit being an old collection. I wasn't too keen on the colours at first, but I must admit, it definitely grew on me. It has a yellow, grey and black colour palette, and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it having a grid paper in the pack. I think I have a thing for geometric shapes - they just make putting a layout so easy! Anyway, enough of my gushing, here's this week's layout in my MTN!

This is a little close up of the 'feature' area. It's simple, as you can see with minimal embellishments. This is the full layout:

I love how I've been slowly able to develop my own style as each week goes by by doing these MTN layouts. It's good practice and it doesn't take too much time at all! It's probably also the only 'scrapbook' project where I've been able to stuik with to the end!

A FRUITY WEEK IN MY PLANNER

Truth be told, I was just out of ideas for this week's planner decorations. So I decided to just go with the flow and go with a 'whatever happens, happens' attitude. I wanted to centre my theme around pops of colours like those used in Amy Tangerine's Rise and Shine collection, so went with a watercolour base and some washi tape which suited. I added in some stamps and watermelon/lemon sticky notes, and bam, another weekly spread done and dusted:

This week's fruity spread

This was the result. Sure, it could have been neater, nicer or what have you, but I'm happy enough so why not, no?

WEEK THIRTY-FOUR IN MY MTN

This week's layout took a little more time than usual, mostly because I had a hundred little options to choose from. I decided that I wanted to use my new Reading List stamp set from Kelly Purkey though, so went with a bookstore kinda colour theme. I was still very much in love with Heidi Swapp's Wanderlust colour theme, so decided to integrate them together. This was the result:

I utilised stickers and enamel dots from Kaisercraft, embellies from a Project Life kit (I can't seem to recall the name though!), a regular kraft tag and papers from both Crate Paper's 'Notes and Things' and Heidi Swapp's 'Wanderlust'. I love the tinge of gold that's been added to the mix too.

Here's the full layout:

Washi, stickers and stamps have been my perfect trio recently in making my pages look complete. I have yet to create a page with just the one medium but I think I should really put that to a challenge!

Until next week!

WEEK THIRTY-THREE IN MY MTN

I've been fairly addicted to these MTN weekly layouts, mostly because it gives me that reason to be crafty at the end of every week, but also because it doesn't demand daily attention and failed projects, which usually tends to happen with me. This week, I managed to get my hands on some discounted Heidi Swapp Wanderlust goodies, and am currently in love with the paper pad I managed to get my hands on. So naturally, I had to dedicate my spread to it.

I decided to create a flip page using half of the Heidi Swapp page protectors which ended up being 3x3". I used some a Sn@p 3x3" project life card as a base for my photo, stuck on some embellies and finished it up with a 'create' sticker from Kaisercraft.

When flipped over, this is the view:

Mr Manekin holding my flip page up to reveal another picture below!

I had a gold polka dot project life card as my base from Kaisercraft, with some embellies to complete the picture in the most simplest of ways. I had some enamel dots on the side and stamped the 'Rise and Grind' on the side from Kellie Stamps. I had cut away at the Heidi Swapp Wanderlust geometric patterned paper, following the lines it had and made myself a nice little border area at the bottom too. Overall, it was a simple layout and I'm glad I'm actually using the items I have. I've been hoarding too many craft supplies and it's about time I used them.

Hope you liked my layout. Until next week!

COFFEE PRONTO

Today, I'm getting back to posting up layouts of my Malden's weekly spread. I've been having on-and-off weeks regarding my decorations, with a week being nice and simple, and the next being highly decorated. I've been focusing more on my MTN's weekly spreads lately so I guess I need that balance in my planner, which, admittedly, I find, is not being used to its full potential anymore. Don't get me wrong though, I highly doubt that my MTN will ever replace my trusty Malden, but because my life currently revolves around 9 - 5:30pm work, a planner isn't exactly ... required. Other than little bits and pieces of my life I occasionally need to remember, my planner is relatively blank (oops). Either way, here is my spread for the upcoming week:

Coffee themed spread!

I didn't exactly know where my spread was heading in the beginning. I know I wanted to use my gold and film roll washi tapes from Washi Tape Australia, and since I had a left over strip of Heidi Swapp's Wanderlust geometric patterned paper, I decided to use those. Then came the stamps: I recently got hold of some coffee Kellie Stamps and have yet to try them, so in they went, and my spread morphed into a coffee themed wonderland, which I didn't particularly mind.

I used a number of different stamps for this layout, which included those by Sweet Stamp Shop, Kellie Stamps, Studio Calico and a brand I don't particularly recall. I used Versamagic and Kasiercraft ink stamps which are chalk based and doesn't bleed through the other side. I drew my circles and lines out with a regular pen (nothin' fancy) and my spread is now ready to go!

AUGUST

I can't believe it's already August! Time is flying by so fast these days, especially with work occupying my weekdays and cleaning occupying my weekends! But this weekend, I decided to chill, take some time to breathe and work on my planner decorations. It's been a while since I've decorated my planner to more than just the sides, but knowing this week won't be too busy, I jazzed it up a little more than usual:

Next week's layout!

I've used a number of supplies for this spread from Kaisercraft for the stickers, to different stamp sets, including those from Studio Calico. But of course, the major player in all my layouts are washi tapes. Layering washi tapes is the most effective way to create colourful, crazy spreads. I've yet to learn the art of it to a full extent, but I'm having fun experimenting!

KRAFTY

It's back to full days and busy weekends now that I've started life as a Radiographer intern at two absolutely lovely / beautiful / nicest-people hospitals. My weekends are now filled with catch-up craft sessions and long overdue blog posts and diary entries. On the bright side, I'm actually getting paid real money now that I'm working... hah

This week's layout was actually only done on Saturday and it's a good thing I didn't forget to do anything during the week:

The items used in this layout was purchased entirely from Kmart Australia!