9 Ways To Craft Your 2022 Planner

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Why not add some crafty fun to your 2022 planner this year? There are SO many cute ways you can add crafts to your 2022 planner to help you remember the important stuff. In this DIY tutorial, I’ll be sharing some of my favorites — some that I’ve used for years and years, and some that I came up with recently to give me a head-start on organizing my life (ha ha, what’s that?!) for 2022. So, as always, grab your beverage of choice, sit back, and keep reading for some craft-piration. [No, that’s not pirates who also craft in their spare time. That’s supposed to be a mash-up of the words craft + inspiration = craft-piration. Ok, maybe my mash-ups need work.]

First things, first. Let’s talk about the obvious. I am fully admitting that I’m a dinosaur. This old dog doesn’t learn new tricks. I still use a paper planner, and I’m not ashamed. I have NOT been able to transition 100% to an electronic calendar. There’s just something about writing all of your appointments, birthdays, and to-do lists all in one place. Also, I can’t do the weekly view. I can only do monthly. Sure, I buy the combo, but only because there are more pages in the combo, and I use the weekly pages for extra notes/to-do lists. The monthly is where all the action is. It’s my go-to. My ride or die. So, this tutorial is going to focus primarily on how to make those monthly pages places that you will WANT to look at again and again because they’re just so gosh darn cute, organized, and of course crafty.

Prefer watching the DIY Video Tutorial — head on over — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YURChZl8pQs

1. Birthdays

I admit it. I probably have more birthdays marked in my planner than most, but it’s because birthdays are my jam. I love celebrating them, and I LOVE making my loved ones feel special.  So every year I whip out my balloon punch, colored cardstock and some matching twine and craft up these balloon reminders for my planner. Some years, I stick to the same color, and some years I switch it up. If you find planners like this one where the balloon doesn’t take up half the square, it still leaves you more than enough room to write other stuff on that day.

Here’s how I do it:

Use the balloon punch to punch your colored cardstock (cardstock is key here because most punches don’t work well with regular paper). Write the person’s name on the balloon. For children, I also include the age they are turning, because who’s gonna remember that? Then cut about 1.5 inches of matching twine, and tape one end of the twine to the back of your balloon. Glue the balloon to the select date, and you’re done! Double up for folks that share a birthday.

2. Anniversaries

So this doesn’t just have to be your own anniversary, it could also be your parents’, sibling’s, etc. I used a combination of a regular heart punch and a heart hole punch to make the tiny hearts. You could always draw your hearts or cut them out yourself as well, if you didn’t want to use the punches. Something else you could do is add as many hearts as years you’ve been married (so you’ll remember that, too!)

Here’s your supply list:

I used a regular ol’ glue stick to keep my hearts in place, but glue dots would work, too.

3. Appointments

These nifty little clocks can be used for anything — doctor appointments, manicures, dry cleaning drop offs, teeth cleanings, salon appointments, the list goes on and on. There are always going to be deadlines or appointments every week that you need to remember. So I thought, why not make a clock?!

It’s super easy to do. Look below for what you’ll need.  [Even easier if you have a circle punch and a mini hole punch, but if you don’t, no worries. Trace around a quarter for your circle shape, and just mark black dots with a fine marker instead of punching them out.].

What I did first is to punch out my clock using a colored cardstock and black cardstock. I used a 1.5″ punch, but you can totally use a 1″ punch instead. Then, take the mini hole punch, and punch out 4 circles on your colored cardstock circle, for 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. Glue the two circles together. Next, use your ruler to draw two straight lines for the time of the appointment, and finally glue your mini clock to the right date. I then wrote what the appointment was for around the rim of the clock. And ta da! You’re done!

4. Concerts / Plays

Aren’t these red curtains so cute?!? I thought – what is the perfect icon for a stage without drawing a stage – red curtains! It’s fairly simple to make with a few basic crafting supplies, and then just write your concert details in the middle.

Here’s what you’ll need (+ glue):

The first thing you’ll have to do is cut one circle from the red cardstock or use your circle punch. Then, cut that circle in half. Then cut one of the halves in quarters.

These quarters will be placed in the top left and right corners of the square in your planner. With the half circle you have left, snip a little off from the straight edge. Like the picture on the left.

In order to make the side curtains, you’ll have to measure a piece of red cardstock to be same height as the square in your planner. Take that square and fold it in half. Use scissors to cut a K shape from the cardstock. Once you unfold the paper and cut it in half, your shapes should look like the image on the right.

Then, it’s just a matter of stacking and gluing. Glue your “K” shaped curtains on the left and right of your square first. Then, glue your quarter circle pieces to the top right and left corners of your square. Finally, glue your half circle curtain in the middle. I embellished my curtains by adding pleats and a sash with a gold sharpie. And last, mark your concert deets in the center!

5. Roadtrips

So let’s get real here.  In this Omicron era, we aren’t flying for vacations everywhere like we used to, amiright?  Roadtrips are back on the table for many of us, and that means exploring your local digs and all they have to offer.  Personally, I hate traveling.  Like, the actual act of traveling.  I love getting to the destination, but hate putting in the work to get there.  But even I  would be happy to jump in a 5 hour car-ride if it means doing something besides quarantining!  So, here’s how you can add some reminders for all those roadtrips you’ve got lined up for 2022!

Here’s what you’ll need: black cardstock, white out tape (not the old school pot and brush, the new school tape), glue, scissors and a pen.  Cut your black paper to the same length as the number of squares you’ll be on vacay.  Then, use your white out tape to draw dotted lines in the middle of your cardstock “road”.  Afterwards, glue it down and label where you’re headed!  Easy peasy.

6. Book Lists

Personally, I find that it’s easier to remember your to-do lists and your want-to-do lists when it’s staring you in the face every day.  So I created a way to remind me what books to read that month (and a non-guilty way to remind me to read!).  Enter the mini-book of the month club.  I created this tiny book with a few supplies – colored cardstock, graph paper (or any lined paper will do), glue, stapler, scissors to cut your paper, and a pen.  First start by cutting your colored paper so that it will fit inside one of your calendar squares, and then trim your graph paper so that it fits inside of your 

colored piece with an equal margin around the sides.  If you’re an avid reader and want more than one page in your mini book, feel free to add a few more graph paper inserts.  Then, fold your two papers in half like a book and add a few staples in the middle to secure your paper together.  Secure the book to your planner with some glue on the outside back cover, and then write your book titles inside to set your reminder!  I think it came out super cute, and it (hopefully) will do the trick in helping me remember to crack open a book instead of my laptop.

7. Recipe Directory

Sick of always trying to figure out what to make for dinner?  Or lunch?  I am ALWAYS racking my brain trying to remember my old favorites or rummaging through my Pinterest boards for inspiration.  Remember when I told you I’m a dinosaur, because I love to write everything down?  So I thought, why not make a list of recipes for those days that my brain is blank.  So I found a few blank pages at the back of my planner for Lunch and Dinner Recipes. 

I wanted to note the recipes that are already in my wheelhouse, the ‘Tried and Tested’ recipes, but also note those new ones I wanted to try, ‘Let’s Experiement’.  I titled two pages with those headings, and used colored cardstock in ombre colors just to make the pages more interesting.  Instead of cutting out the recipe cards in rectangles, I used a tag punch.  The best thing about this page is that I used Scotch’s Restickable Mounting Squares on the back of each recipe tab to not only stick it to the recipe page, but then I can also remove it and stick it on the day that I’ll be using it. 

I used my planner’s weekly view pages to stick the recipe tabs.  And by the color of the tab, I can see if it’s a lunch or dinner recipe, if it’s something I’ve made before or if it’s a new recipe.  After the week is over, as I’m planning for the next week, I can stick it back on the recipe page and start again. [In hindsight, it would have been easier to laminate the recipe pages in my planner to make the sticking and unsticking easier.]

8.  Holidays – 4th of July and Thanksgiving

Just for some added craft and color to your stark white planner pages, why not jazz up some holidays, too?  I decided to do that for 4th of July and Thanksgiving, for example. 

4th of July was super easy because I had a mini star punch and a star hole punch.  I used both blue and red cardstock for the colors (obviously) and just punched a bunch until I was happy with the design.  Used a glue stick to stick ’em down, and voila!  [I had to leave room to add a balloon on this day because it’s also my BFF’s birthday, but feel free to add more stars to fill up the square.]

Making mini pumpkins is so fun, right?!  I used my mini circle punch for this and punched out 3 circles from orange cardstock.  Start by gluing two circles down, sides touching, and then glue to your third circle centered on top.  Doesn’t it give a three-dimensional look?  I added a small stem with a brown sharpie.  There will likely be lots to do that day so I wanted to leave room for writing, but you could use a 1″ punch and fill up the whole day with a giant pumpkin. 

9. Seasons – Fall and Winter

You could TOTALLY do something for Spring and Summer, too.  These are just the ones I came up with for the end of the year.  As always, you’re going to use those punches.  Can you tell I’m not a Cricut person?

Let’s start with Fall — You know I love my leaf punch!  [This isn’t the exact one I have — I can’t find that one anywhere online!  But any leaf punch will do.]  

You’ll just be punching out your leaves in whatever fall-colored cardstock you have at home, and gluing them to the outside border edge of your planner.  You don’t want to go overboard with the leaves because you need to actually be able to write in your planner, so that’s why I stuck to the outside edges.  I glued my leaves so they are literally falling off the page, and then I cut the excess paper off.

For winter, I used my snowflake punch and essentially did the same thing.  Something else I wanted to do is add silver glitter snowflakes, but the silver cardstock I had at home was too thick for my mini punch.  :/

…..and that’s a wrap folks! Let me know in the comments what you think of these crafty ideas for your 2022 Planner!  Also, I’d love to hear what you do to add a little craft-piration to your planners. 🙂