What's in your filofax Friday? #3

Just a quick update on my compulsive cataloguing of craft resources in my filofax. My distress ink colour chart from ranger is filling up rather nicely, in fact I've had to manually extend it to allow for the seasonal inks. I've also added one for Ranger's Archival inks and already linked to my memento chart in #2. I also made my own table for Canford Card colour samples, using templates from philofaxy :)

 



What's in your filofax Friday #3

See, and you thought this feature wouldn't be back again ;) As the last post was so popular I couldn't resist sharing a filofax project I've whipped up.

 

 

 

This is my Mum's filofax. It's a black A5 Domino organiser from .... well, probably the dark ages. I think you'll agree it has seen better days (despite the fact that for this photo I hid 3 inches of loose elastic) and is probably in need of a nice cosy retirement on some bookshelf somewhere, but while a replacement is no-where to be seen I decided to help 'spruce it up a bit' starting with some dividers (similar to the ones you may have seen in filofax week #3).

 

Firstly I must state that I'm not condoning purchasing 'faux' filofax products, but if you did want to personalise yours with a bit of D.I.Y crafting then funky dividers are a quick and simple way to go.

 

You can basically use any card for this: wallpaper samples, scrapbook card, standard coloured card - you can even use stamps, inks and embellishments to make something totally unique (I'd advise trying to keep your creations as flat as possible so that your filofax actually closes, but there are lots of possibilities to choice from).

 

 

 

Materials used:

Paisley monochrome A4 card

A set of old dividers (as a template)

A single hole punch - or use an official filofax punch

Scissors

Pencil

 

 

 

The formula is pretty obvious:

Draw around template/s & mark hole sites > Cut out > Punch holes > Put it to use

 

If you have a full set of dividers simply draw around those, or as in my case where I'd borrowed one divider you can space them yourself or even cut straight rectangle dividers and make your own tabs (dies such as sizzix Tim Holz Alterations 'tiny tabs 'might work well for this).

 

 

I also added a couple of beads and a knot to tighten the loose elastic around the domino - I admit it's not the neatest job, but will hopefully suffice as a quick fix and certainly looks better than all that loose elastic.

 

It would be really nice to see a range of official filofax dividers, other than the basics, maybe themed to co-ordinate with colours in the range or perhaps limited editions designed by guest designers (I'm sure there is a market for Louis Vuitton or Gucci dividers) but until then we have scrapbook papers and wallpaper samples - the makers of FIlofax please take note ;)

What's in your filofax Friday? #2

Well, it looks like Santa came early. I showed Mr S the state of my old filofax and as he's just spent a small fortune on new running gear for the Great Yorkshire Run he offered to get me a new one ...

 

 

I'm rather embarrassed about the amount of time I've spent hugging it! lol. It's the pocket sized Malden in vintage pink and it's gorgeous.

 

 

 

Most of the pages are still the same, my 21p memo pad fits perfectly into the back pocket and I've used some black and white scrapbook papers to make some smart dividers (top right) - including a section for card making. For this section I resized a distress ink colour chart (middle right) from ranger, a memento ink colour chart (bottom right) which I downloaded from Ellen Hutson and I created some 'card design' sheets for sketching down my ideas when out and about (middle left) again I based this on the templates from philofaxy :)

What's in your Filofax Friday?

OK, probably not going to become a regular feature, lol, but I have finally resorected my filofax ... my 2005 'Popi' pocket sized organiser - which to be honest has seen some better days (see below right for the massive fissure in the vinyl) - but fingers crossed if it gets used religiously I may get a replacement for Christmas this year .... and Mr S if you're reading this the Malden Pocket Organiser in Vintage Pink is really rather nice ;)

After throwing away the old very outdated diary pages and buying the 2012-2013 academic refill I started adding all important dates and appointments along with the usual colour coded dots from my family organiser/calender at home (blue for birthdays, red for holidays/bank holidays, yellow for doctors, orange for dentists, green for clubs, pink for parties etc). I hole punched a sheet of stickers for the back too so I always have them handy (below, top). And I added some sticky tabs to mark important dates like the kids birthdays and the next hospital appointment to make them easy to flip to.

Then I started to print my own customised pages using a plain template I found at Philofaxy - a great resource for free filofax printable whatever size organiser you use.
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I made an inside cover (1st photo, top right), breakdown information sheet, emergency information sheet (2nd photo, middle right).
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I also discovered that I could print any PDF file in filofax size by changing the page size selected on page setup, so for my pocket sized organiser I selected 3.5 x 5inch and (assuming there wasn't much information near the left margin) this printed out perfectly proportioned. So I've been on the lookout for useful PDF resources like conversion tables, my son's school term dates and local pool swimming times (2nd image, middle left).
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To mark weeks of school holidays I used a blending tool and some red distress ink and stained the inside of each holiday week red (2nd photo, bottom right) and used some themed stamps to mark some important dates like Valentines day and Christmas.