Tab Fancy

Some of you may remember that I wanted to jazz up my planner tabs.  I wanted something that would reflect me and my simplistic tastes without being over the top.  Plus, I didn’t want to have to do tons of cutting and gluing and punching and aligning.

A few weeks ago, I wandered into Michaels to see what they had to offer.  I thought maybe I could just buy some stickers, stick them to the tabs, and call it a day.  But the only sticker items I could find was more for scrapbooking with puffy bits.  I don’t really like the puffy bits.  They may writing difficult due to the bumpiness under the paper.  Plus, if I have a lot of them, they would end up adding more thickness to the binder.

But then I came across a display of themed paper.  So the wheels in my head started to turn…

This is what I came away with:

The idea I had sprung was to cut the paper into a smaller version of the dividers and glue them onto the dividers.  So, yes, I would have to cut and glue some, but the difference here is that I did not have to punch and align.  This was a huge relief for me—seeing as I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I knew that punching and aligning would cause me more angst than was worth it.  My solution was to take a Filofax letter tab, cut off the tab and the holes, and use it as a template for sizing my paper.

Once I did that, I decided what part of the paper I wanted to use for both the front and back of the tabs.  Then I clipped the template to the paper, traced it, and cut it out.

I was then left with what would be glued to my tabs.

The first one I did was my “Diary” tab.

Front

Back

I followed these same steps for the rest of my tabs.

For my “Writing” tab, I chose something that looked liked old newspaper and advertisement clippings.

Front

Back

I didn’t quite know what to use for my “Projects” tab, but many times I put travel information and plans here, so I figured that a map would be perfect.  I could only find a US map; otherwise I might have chosen a world map.  And since I mainly stay on the east coast, I decided to focus on that (though I included other areas where some of my Philofaxy friends live).

Front

Back

There was nothing specifically geared towards list-making for my “Lists” tab, so I figured something about me would work.  I saw this paper and wanted to use it in some way, and I thought this tab was as good as any.  I think this might be my favorite paper if only because it speaks volumes about me and what I like most in the world.

Front

Back

Normally, I’m not a pink person in any way, shape, or form.  But I allowed this paper because of its message.  (If only it read “Keep calm and have some bacon…”)  This paper is being used for my “Notes” tab.

Front

Back

I couldn’t find anything appropriate for my “Contacts” tab that I actually liked.  But I found this and loved it.  So what if the owls are wearing graduation caps?  It just represents how smart I am, as well as my contacts.

Front and Back are the same

Here is the entire collection, in the order in which they appear in my planner:

Front of tabs

Back of tabs

After they were done, I put a photo album on top of them just to make sure the paper stuck to the tabs as best it could.

I then added the turtle and whale stickers that I won from J’s giveaway to my “Diary” tab.

I also added the “reminder” and “birthday” stickers to my diary pages.

So there was have it!  The extra paper does add a little more bulk to my binder but I don’t mind.  It’s not enough that I need to remove anything, and it adds a little personal flair to my binder.  When and if I get tired of these papers, I can always buy new tabs and papers.  It will keep things fresh and fun.

I plan to do something similar with my monthly tabs—perhaps plain colored paper that I’ll add stickers to, unless I can find paper that represents holidays and seasons for each of the months.  We’ll see what I can find…