Washi Stickers and Squares

I love to highlight events in my {Erin Condren Life Planner} and was using washi squares and shapes to add color and make certain events *POP*. 

I had been buying the shapes and squares off of Etsy but while I was on vacation I found some 6X6 adhesive washi squares by We R Memory Keepers (Find them here! )This meant that I could use a punch and cutter and make my own!

I didn't think to look for punches while I was away and am regretting that now.  The only punch that I can find locally is a one-inch scalloped circle.  This means that I'm scouring the internet trying to find the coveted flag and bracket punches. 

The punch that I did end up buying is by Martha Stewart.  I found it at my local Michaels for $16.99. 
 

You can see the scalloped circle punch in the above picture and find a link to it here. 

 

All I did to make the washi scalloped circles was use my punch on the adhesive washi sheets.  I ended up punching out an entire pad of the We R Memory Keepers Adhesive Washi in the process.  I had purchased two different designs in the adhesive washi while I was on vacation and felt that the bold colors and less patterned washi was the best choice to punch as I plan on writing on the circles. While punching, I made sure to keep my circles as close together as possible so that I could make sure I got as many circles as possible.  In the end I ended up with very little waste.   

 

Some of the finished product!

 

Making the washi squares was a bit more work.  To do this, I again used a We R Memory Keepers Adhesive Washi pad.  I also grabbed a pair of scissors, a pencil, a permanent marker, a ruler and my paper cutter.  The paper cutter that I have was purchased at Winners for $9.99.  It is the first one I have purchased and bought it just for this project.  I wanted to make sure that I liked using a paper cutter before I went out and bought myself a really nice one.  I must say, this particular paper cutter did the trick nicely!  You can find paper cutters at your local craft store, such as Michael's, or here and here. 

Once I had all the supplies I needed, I put on a movie, sat down and got to work.  I began by measuring the weekly squares in my {Erin Condren Life Planner}.  I jotted down my measurements and also made indications on my ruler of the height and width of the boxes with a permanent marker.  This ruler was a spare from back in my high-school days so I wasn't too attached to it and didn't worry about ruining it. 

The paper cutter that I purchased had black lines and black ruler markings making it very hard to use it to measure and cut anything without pre-marking it.  If I had of had a different paper cutter I would simply have used the attached ruler to cut the washi paper into the desired sizes without having to do an extra step. Because I didn't trust my eyes and that ruler together I decided it was safer to take the long way and mark every sheet of washi individually.  This was a bit time consuming, but I wanted to make sure that I got my measurements correct and that I didn't waste a pad of washi that I spend a good chunk of my vacation hunting craft stores for. 

I used my ruler to mark out a height and width grid on each piece of washi.  It looked a little something like this:

Each 6x6 washi sheet gave me 12 washi squares.  It also gave me 4 smaller washi rectangles that will also be put to good use in my planner!

 

Next, I used my paper cutter to easily cut along the lines on my washi sheet.  This part of the process went very quickly since I had already measured everything out.  I was even able to stack multiple pieces together and cut them together to reduce my time even more. I kept my scissors on hand for those times when my paper cutter missed a piece.   

 

 

 

In the end, I ended up with 24 washi squares in each color and 8 of the smaller rectangles in each color as well. 

 

I just finished this project so they're not shown in my current weekly spread but I did stick some on my birthday as I knew I'd want to highlight that in my planner.

 

 

I typically use washi tape to cover the morning/day/night sections of the weekly spread.  It'll be nice to have more color to play with in my planner as I tend to keep it relatively simple and functional.  Do you use washi squares or punched shapes in your planner?  I'd love to see how you use it.  You can follow me on Instagram to see how I'm using my new washi!