One of the best things about PlannerFest earlier this month was having all the chats with other stationery and planner loving folk, and there were some great ones all about the planner stamps on my stall - what each was for, how they could help in planners and different ways they could be used.
Since, regrettably, I can’t stand and chat with all of you all of the time, it got us thinking that putting all this info together in some blog posts might be really helpful, especially if you’re new to planners or just new to using stamps in them.
With all the chatting it was clear that there are as many different approaches to planners as there are people who use them - everyone has their own requirements, styles and time/skills at their disposal. But actually for all these things stamps can prove a great short-cut, taking away some of the pressure people sometimes feel to ‘get things right’ in their planner and giving them a bit more time back to dedicate to the bits they enjoy the most as well as really using the planner for what they need it for.
So, as a starting point here are 3 ways a stamp can help you in your planner and with your spreads.
1. Stamps can help you draw or write out something complicated or detailed quickly and easily (and in a way that’s easy to reproduce too)
The Chronodex is a perfect example of this. It’s such a great tool for helping to plan and time-block your day but it’s not easy to physcially get in to your planner. Drawing freehand is so time consuming and whilst stencils are great they can be a bit fiddly and tricky for something like this that has quite a few little elements. Whereas with the stamp you ink it up, stamp it down and after a minute or so to dry you’re ready to annotate and colour it however you need to. And what’s more you can do it per day or do a whole spread with one per day of the week, without it taking much longer.
2. Stamps can help keep things neat and consistent
One of my best sellers at Planner fest were the Days of the Week and Months of the year stamp sets. Beautiful hand-lettering can take time, and let’s face it not everyone has gorgeous writing either. Header stamps like these are a quick way of getting different lettering to differentiate between headers/body text in your planner whilst also keeping it looking lovely and neat so you can focus more on the content rather than the layout. Different colour inks can be used to help them stand out and you can then leave them as-is or decorate around them in whatever your planner spread theme is. Fundamentally it’s a shortcut that doesn’t sacrifice on appearance.
3. You can decorate around stamps to suit your style - whether you’re a maximalist or a minimalist (or both!)
I’ve already touched on this a little, but if decorating your spreads is your thing then stamps are a great way to give you some more time to do that. Some people may choose to stamp straight into their planner, but as long as you're using the right ink stamps can be used in lots of different ways.
Layer them up on Washi tape (actual or you can even stamp those strips too!), on stickers, across images or even on fabric if you take more of an art-journaler approach. Things like the alphabet stamps or a set of icons can be used in lots of different decorative ways, as well as practical ones, so they can be standalone decoration or you can add to them.
Fundamentally stamps make a great starting point for visually attractive spreads and from there you can take it as far as you want to!
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