Moon Phases and planning

Designing in Canva

I was reading Steal Like an Artist and read the bit about leaving the screen and playing with paper. I thought it might be fun play with bits of paper and words rather than just do it all on the computer.

I took out one of my favourite note pads and cut up some pages to make little rectangles. 

I already has notes about the influence of the different moon phases on our energy so I started with the New Moon and put important words and phrases on my paper scraps.

I then had some fun just moving them around and trying to make some ordered sense out of the bits of paper. I guess I was trying to make a paragraph of sorts that summarised what I had written about the New Moon.

I loved that it really helped me make more sense of it all.

I then taped it in my A4 notebook so I could take the chart to my computer desk.

I've made several pages of my moon phases journal already. I'm designing it in Canva then I'll add the images to my digital journal in keynotes. The plan is to add some journal prompts for the 4 main phases so it becomes an easy way to utilise the moon cycle as a framework for achieving goals.

I'm still exploring the affect the moon has on me so I will write some more about that at a later date.

Happy Planning,

Val

Best paper for printable planners

Love me Love my cat

There is nothing more satisfying than printing planner pages that you have chosen because you love them.

Ready printed pages are ready to go but they don't always suit my style of planning or journaling and many just don't get used.

When you print your own you also get to choose nice paper.

Regular printer paper is 80gs. (21 lb)

It's too thin to make good planner pages. You can see the next page through it.

I like to use 125gsm. That's about 32 lb Bond paper (120gsm)

This is the heaviest paper my printer can handle. It is just right for double sided printing too.

It's not see through at all ...

and this one is printed on the back too.

I get my paper from Officeworks in Australia but you can also find it on Amazon.

There are various sellers in the US. Just search for 32lb printer paper.

These pages are from my"Love me Love my cat" Printables and Digitals on Etsy

Val Spiers Organise on Etsy

Happy Planning,

Val

Planner hole punch - 6 hole punch

I love my 6 hole punch. 

I have lots of Kikki-K A5 planner binders and I love adding my own pages.

I went for the industrial style with a metal frame and lever handle. 

It's the Paper Punch PU-462

Search for this in Google.

It's made in Japan as far as I can tell.

That's $30AUD (Australian dollars).

You can get ones half the price on AliExpress but I'm not prepared to recommend them.

Happy Planning,

Val

Page size in Canva

A4 is 8.6" x 11.625"

A5 is 5.75" x 8.375

I have been experimenting with slight page size changes while making planner pages in Canva.

I always thought it was easier and just as safe to look up the size of an A4 page but it turns out it is easier and more accurate on the ground or in the printer if I just take my ruler and measure the paper I'm using.

I changed my A4 page size to 8.6" x 11.625" (I did inches because I used my quilting ruler).

When I went to print, my print preview set it at 96%. When I set it to 100% it filled the page nicely with a very small print margin. For the page I did in my cats and flowers planner with a full background I got less than 1/4" of white printer margin on my printed out page.

My A5 pages are 5.75" x 8.375. In Canva I can set crop marks on the PDF. 

I then print it on A4 paper. 

You have to set the print size to 100%. The PDF is set to A5 page size so 100% makes it A5. It prints in the middle of the page and you use the crop marks to cut it to size.

You can see the crop marks here:

I have set the print % to 100% here:

I don't have US Letter paper so I just use the size I get from the internet. I can't experiment with it the way I can with the A4 and A5.

Happy Planning,

Val