Tips For Creating A Dual-Themed Planner Spread
If you love to plan you’ve no doubt come across a weekly holiday spread that filters over into the next month. Have you ever struggled with how to decorate those pages? Well, struggle no more! Below are 5 tips to help you decorate these challenging weeks in your planner.
There are a few holiday weeks throughout the year that fall between two months. For example, this year (2023) Halloween week carries over into the first week of November. In a Happy Planner, that means Halloween week is put under the November monthly tab section.
Typically I like to create a unified look for each weekly planner spread. That is no different when it comes to Halloween week because who doesn’t want to decorate with some scary fun planner stickers?! So, I decided I wanted October 30th & 31st to be Halloween themed and the first few days of that same week (which would be in November) to be more autumn-themed.
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Although creating a dual-themed planner spread can be challenging; I’m here to tell you it can be done. If you want to see how I met this challenge, check out the video below and/or keep reading to reference the top 5 tips I used.
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Halloween Week Planner Spread Goals
- Create a dual-themed spread to complement both months and;
- Use the stickers! (#usethestickers)
On the subject of “use the stickers” be sure to check out my YouTube channel playlist Use the Stickers Series. I started this playlist as inspiration to use what you have and to stop hoarding stickers, planners and related supplies.
So grab your Halloween week planner pages and let’s get started!
01. Choose Complementary Elements
If I had to give only one tip on this subject it would be to choose stickers and elements that complement one another. For example, you might choose the same color family or the same imagery.
For my planner spread I used left-over stickers from past kits both of which had pumpkins and used black, orange and golden-yellow colors.
02. One Page At A Time
When decorating two months within one week, I like to concentrate on one “week” or page at a time. In this case I moved the November half of the week off to the side while working on just the October / Halloween week page.
In this instance because November 1st fell on the Halloween week page, I decided to decorate that day using the Halloween stickers as well. It just kept the left-side page looking more unified.
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03. Expand Elements Beyond Stickers
Don’t be afraid to incorporate other techniques while creating this type of planner spread. For example, I pulled out some 12×12 scary Jack ‘O Lantern Halloween scrapbook paper. This was paper I just had in my craft room and the pumpkins fit perfectly down the sidebar in my Happy Planner.
Chose A Paper Edge
By using this element in the sidebar it gave a scrapbook / journaling vibe to my planner spread and I love how it turned out! The best part is I can use a white gel pen and still write on the black paper anything from notes to quotes!
To get an organic paper edge, fussy cut around images using your finger as a tear guide. That way you get just the parts of the image you wanted.
04. Create Balance
To create balance between the two pages be sure to use elements that are similar. For example, since the left-side page had a lot of black coloring I balanced out the right-side page by adding sticker boxes that had a black border around the edge.
05. Use Fillers
Another technique to use when creating a dual-themed planner spread with only partial kit stickers is to use fillers such as markers, highlighters and washi tape. To add dimension I used a Mildliner highlighter in the top boxes across both pages. By using a complementary highlighter color it tied together both halves of the week, even though they have different stickers on each page.
Of course, if you’ve been in the planner world long enough you know all too well about washi tape. Am I right?! But using washi tape to fill in spaces or highlight boxes is a perfect use for this planner tool (plus, you use up that stash!).
If you are inspired to create a dual-themed holiday planner spread don’t forget to share by tagging me on Instagram and using #btdinspired, I’d love to see your work (and I just might repost your photo)!
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