There are lots of different layouts for setting up your month in your DIY Planner, and I recommend you experiment from month to month with different layouts to help you see what might work best for you.

Here is my layout for October 2017.

I'm a very "linear" thinker, so having the days laid out like this is easier for my brain 😂 I use the wider columns to allow 1/2 for my Little Dude's happenings and 1/2 for my Hub's travel schedule.

New this month I added dashed lines to indicate the start of a new week. I'm not quite sure yet what impact it will have on my planning.

Because I'm pretty forgetful about dates I also like to have both last month's calendar and next month's calendar for quick reference. Bouncy hand lettering is a must too 💁 😂.

As a side note, I had some extreme difficulty trying to blend my brush tip markers in this new planner. I've ordered some other notebooks for testing to see if this is an anomaly, or indicative of Leuchtturm 1917 planners going forward. I'll keep you posted.

MATERIALS USED (the following contains affiliate links, which do not increase an item's cost to you, but does pay me a small commission if you are so kind as to make a purchase based on my recommendations)

Notebook - Leuchtturm 1917 dot grid hard cover, though see my note about paper quality above

Black Pen - Tombow Mono Drawing Pen, i used the 03 for the lines and 01 for filling in the numbers

Brush Pens - Sakura Koi Brush Pens, normally these stay "wet" a little longer for easy blending, but the Leuchtturm Paper wasn't cooperating

Small Brush Pens - Pentel Touch Sign Pen, FLEXIBLE TIP, make sure to get the flexible tip in order to achieve the varied brush strokes used in modern calligraphy

Another month is here! Time to create a layout to make note of all the wonderful memories you make this month.

First, I created a watercolor background and painted lettered on that. I was concerned about bleed-thru with the watercolors, so I created the piece by cutting a 5x7 sized sheet of HP LaserJet Premium paper and working from there.

When laying down the water background to place the plastic bag on, I used my Finetec watercolor to add some extra metallic sparkle to the background.

Next, I created the layout for my daily entires. I wanted to do a different layout from last month, so I tried to fit them all on one side of my planner

Unfortunately i completely FAILED at this. At the last second I thought I would add some more lettering so it wouldn't be so boring. UGH! I forgot to tape down the watercolor piece before I started, so I awkwardly added it in the middle (but them kept bumping it around).

Because October has 31 days, I created a long skinny 31st entry all the way at the bottom of the page, but forgot it was supposed to be there and ended up drawing my vertical lines too long.

No matter though, because the bottom of the page was out of frame anyway, so your couldn't even see what I was working on <eyeroll, face palm>

We'll see if I keep up this layout. I have a feeling, due to the smaller size of the boxes I might have a difficult time keeping my thoughts in the space provided.

How about you? Do you use some sort of Memory / Gratitude Tracker in your Planner? 👇

Markers: Tombow Dual Tip Brush Pens, I have all 96, but this is a great starter pack

Paint Brush: Pentel Aquash Brush, in this piece I used two different sized brushes, so do yourself a favor and get the 3-pack

Metallic Watercolors: Finetec Metallic Watercolors, Gold Palette (though this set is fairly compatible for a more reasonable price)

White Paint: Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof White, the most opaque white paint on the market

Paper: HP LaserJet Premium , it's 32lb, so it holds up to watercolors well

Black Pen: Tombow Mono Drawing Pen, I used the 03 size here, but also use the 01 and 05 regularly too