Setting up my planner each month is such a joy and December is no exception. As a matter of fact, I love setting up December just a little bit more with the Christmas bonus kit. So I took an approach that was difficult but I waited to set up my planner this month until after I had received both my December kits and my Christmas bonus kit. Tom Petty dropped some truth when he said that the waiting is the hardest part!

One of my first steps was to pick out a planner. I debated between these three beauties (from top to bottom) – Filofax Luxe Teal, Webster’s Pages Patent Red, and Aura Estelle Frosted Pearl. I think that all three match the kit perfectly but I went with the red patent planner because it’s Christmas and what says Christmas more than shiny and red?

One of the first things that I do with my Cocoa Daisy kits is to take photos of shots that I won’t be able to take once I start using all the bits and pieces. If you look closely at the image above, you will see that all of my tabs are white at this point. I use placeholder tabs at the beginning of setting up my planner so that I will have the structure set up even before I get my dashboards made.

While I was waiting for my Christmas kit to arrive, I gathered up all of the pretty bows and shiny bits to match the kit and stored them on my two-tiered tray. The Simon clip with the scarf is one of my all time faves.

I also took advantage of the time while I was waiting for the Christmas kit to arrive by making this tri-fold sticker folder. I had seen photos of these types of folders and had been wanting to try my hand at making one myself and this was the perfect time for it. I took an entire week to set this up; I just left it up on my craft desk and worked on it a bit here and there.

Setting up my currently page is something that I love to do each month. I have been looking at December Daily photos recently and came across a page with 6 small envelopes that I used for inspiration for this page. Each envelope flap just tucks into itself and there is a small piece of paper inside to write out what’s going on in my life right now.

Once I have my dashboards all set up, I moved on to set up each weekly spread. I like to have all of my weeks prepped and ready to go at the beginning of the month so that I can add to them throughout the month. I have to remember to take photos right after I set them up if I want to have any chance of getting a “before the pen” shot! Otherwise, I’m a firm believer in using my planner and that means writing down something the minute that I need to write it down.

One of the last things that I did this month was to set up my monthly spread. I am so pleased at how festive this turned out this month using the gorgeous gold numbers from the Christmas bonus kits and stamps from the memory keeping kits.

All in all, setting up my planner was a joy this month. If you would like to see the entire flip through, check out my video:

Until next time, my planner friends,

Julie