holiday planner...

My mom and I have been going shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving for quite some time now. It is our mother/daughter day! {This year my 14 year old sis is coming along too!} Thanks to my handy holiday planner, I have my shopping list all ready!

Last year I made these holiday planners for myself, my mom and mom in law. Well they were a hit, so I knew I needed to make them again this year. Last year I just used cardstock to make the books and mine got a little mangled in my purse, so I thought I would try something a bit sturdier.

I found these journals at Michael's in the dollar section. The were actually travel themed with images in the lower right corners. But since I was going to alter them I knew it would be no problem to cover up.

I found some patterned paper that coordinated with the books and began altering. I started with the covers, making sure to hide the airplanes and luggage. I used a couple punches and some stickers to make the covers presentable! ;)

Then on the inside I divided the book into 4 sections with tabs. I just used punches and patterned paper to do that. I also reinforced these tabbed pages with white cardstock on one side and some of the coordinating patterned paper on the other.

I also included a couple envelopes to store receipts or whatever else in.

I think these books will last us a couple years. I started off using the first section to list all the people I buy for. Then beside them I write gifts I've bought. In the second section I have written gift ideas for people. Then in the third section I have written just random gifts that I have on hand. I mark them off as I find a purpose for them. We will be donating several of them to Toys for Tots in a couple weeks.

How do you organize for the holidays?