Guest Blogger: Lexi Daly

Good morning! Welcome to this month's Moments Inked Planner feature. Today, I have a "Christmas in July" post – with printables! Because is it really ever too soon to start thinking about Christmas plans? Personally, I don't start actively planning until later in the year, but while I'm on summer break or out and about on vacation, I come across ideas for cards, crafts, and gifts that I want to remember.

In the past, I have jotted down notes here and there or thought I'd surely remember them, but I've lost both notes and thoughts more often than not. Clearly, an official "early" holiday planning section in my planner was in order. So I designed a set of printables, pulled out some Christmas paper to set the mood, and got to work!

Because my early planning focus is on cards, crafts, and gift ideas, those are the sections I created for Christmas in July, with an additional brainstorming page for other ideas that may pop up. Later in the year, I will add menu ideas, timelines, and a more specific holiday bucket list for fun. In fact, if you have any specific planning tool requests, let me know in the comments! (Download links for today's pages can be found at the end of the post – one with the word Christmas as shown above, another with Holiday – otherwise identical!)

Like my past printable pages, simply print at 100 percent, cut along the dotted line, and fit the full page binder die (from the Moments Inked: Binder Page Die Collection) inside the guidelines for die cutting. For added holiday flair, I opted to print my pages on the white back side of a few Christmas patterned papers.

In addition to the printed pages, I wanted to create a section divider, so I cut two additional pages to adhere back to back along with a tab (cut from luxe gold adhesive paper) and the word Christmas from Wet Paint Holiday. The strip of green striped paper was a scrap left over from cutting one of the printed pages – I love the immediate use of discards!

I used spray adhesive to attach the two pages and the die cut word so that they are adhered securely edge to edge. As a finishing touch, I stamped the word cheer to complete my section title – Christmas Cheer! Once assembled, the pages are ready to put into my binder.

But first, let's check out all that cool Christmas pattern! You may have noticed that my tab is gold on the front, but patterned on the back. I found that the gold sticker paper was too bendy by itself, so I used half of a gold sticker paper tab on half of a green striped tab for added stability.

The colors really pop and the touch of gold ties into the gold elements on the binder nicely. Details like that make me happy! So let's take a look at the individual pages more closely…

First up is a Christmas Cards planning page. I've included a box for a goal number, a box for a progress count, a box for the card design sketch, and lines for notes. I picture a really big bold number in the goal box and tally marks keeping track of my quantity in the progress box. The progress box is actually perfectly sized to hold a 2" sticky note, so if you have a different idea for that box, there's a bit of flexibility built in. And If you like to create multiples of more than one design, you can print one of these pages for each sketch and make note of who they go to.

Next is a Christmas Card List page. While I keep my addresses digitally, I often think of new people I want to add or get new addresses for those who are already on the list. This page is basically a holding place for those so I don't lose little notes. I can add them here and check them off as I update my digital address book. I know some still like to have their list all written out and of course, this works for that as well. Simply print and fill as many pages as you need.

Next, we have Christmas Crafts. Sometimes, my Pinterest boards overflow, making it easy to lose track of those projects I really want to try. Or maybe I saw it on tv or in a magazine or brainstormed it in the shower. This is a place to jot down the ideas I really want to commit to. From here, I can eventually make shopping lists and maybe test them out sooner rather than later.

Here is the page I really need the most – Christmas Gifts! I'm constantly running across gift ideas and then forgetting them later. So I created a page to coral those too. Columns include the person's name, the gift idea, $ for the cost, and checkbox columns for purchased and wrapped. You can group lines together if you need space for multiple gift ideas. I definitely see myself printing several of these!

And last, but not least, I created a more general brainstorming page for "more ideas to remember + consider." This will be a place to add some menu ideas so that when the time comes to finalize those I have some options ready, movies I don't want to miss, decorations I want to look for, things that I'm not set on doing yet that I may want to look more into, etc. Like I mentioned, Christmas in July is basically pre-planning for me, so a catch-all brainstorming spot is helpful.

And that's a wrap! Of course, you can rearrange the pages to fit your needs, print multiples of this one, skip that one, stamp a little or a lot, etc. to personalize your own Christmas planning section. And remember, I'd love to hear additional ideas for pages to add as the big day gets closer and planning needs increase!

CLICK HERE  to Download PTI Christmas Plans

CLICK HERE to Download PTI Holiday Plans

Until next month…

Happy Planning!
:) lexi