How to Make DIY Erin Condren Life Planner Interchangeable Covers

DIY Erin Condren Life Planner Interchangeable Covers

Supplies

• Two 6.75″ x 8.875″ pictures/designs (for a dual-sided cover)
• Laminator & pouch, or get design(s) laminated at an office supply store (such as Staples) for just a couple bucks
• Scissors
• Paper trimmer (or scissors)
• Dry/wet erase or washable marker
• 1/8″ circle hand punch
• Erin Condren Life Planner

UPDATE: DIY Snap-In Meal Planner/To-Do List & FREE Printable!

Since I first shared this post, I’ve also created my own DIY version of the Erin Condren snap-in meal planner & to-do list.  It uses the same supplies and process as this project.  You can check out my full tutorial for that as well, and also snag the FREE printable if you’d like to make your own….since you’ll already be making some DIY covers. ;)

The Erin Condren Life Planner

Look at this beauty!  Like I mentioned earlier, I purchased the quick ship option so I could receive my planner sooner (I’m rather impatient) and it came with this cover featuring a colorful motivational quote.  Nice, right?   Not personalized though….that needs to change ASAP.

One of the wonderful things about this year’s life planner is that the covers are now interchangeable! Yep, you can easily change them out for every holiday, season, occasion, mood, etc.  So many possibilities!

Creating My Own DIY Erin Condren Life Planner Interchangeable Cover

I first grabbed a ruler and measured out the actual size of the cover design, not including the clear laminated border.  The design measured 6.75″ x 8.875″ (or 8 & 7/8″….yes, I totally had to Google it!).

Free Downloadable Covers!

Now that I had my measurements, I moved along to making my own cover.  You can of course use any design or image your little heart desires….something DIY, a picture or quote from the interwebs, a page from a magazine, whatev.

I headed over to Pinterest and searched for “free binder covers” and found a bunch of great sites that offered cute designs…..for FREE!  Here are some of my favorite ones that would make great personalized Erin Condren Life Planner covers:

• Happily Hope (this is where the cover I’ll be showing in this tutorial came from)
• Madison Short Photography
• The School Supply Addict
• Teachers Pay Teachers
• Maybe I Should Try….
• Chicfetti
• Happy Organized Life
• You Got Personal
• PopCosmo
• From The Bottom

My Cover Images

Like I mentioned, I used a cover from Happily Hope….she’s put together a bunch of Lily Pulitzer and Vera Bradley prints, and the one I picked is just so colorful and cheery!  Bright colors make me happy.

I downloaded it then opened it up in Photoshop Elements, flipped it upside down (I just like this look better), then added my name.

For the inside of my cover, I decided I didn’t need to worry about a box for my contact info, so I chose to use a picture of my adorably handsome son from his first birthday photo session, which I then added his name to….opening up my planner and seeing that cute little dude is bound to put a smile on my face every. single. time.

No Photoshop?  No Problem!  If you don’t have Photoshop Elements (which is the cheaper-but-just-as-awesome cousin of regular Photoshop), you can also use free online programs like PicMonkey or Canva to jazz up a design, add your name, and/or make it look totally profesh.  Phone and/or iPad apps might also get the job done as well, such as the one I used for doodling on my son’s many faces.

Now that both of my images were ready, it was almost time to print.  I first resized both files to be printed at 6.75″ x 8.875″ and printed them out on some matte photo paper on my home printer.

(You could use regular printer paper if you wanted, but the images will look crisper on photo paper, and the cover will be a little more durable thanks to the extra thickness.)

I then grabbed my paper trimmer and cut the images down to size.  (You could of course use scissors if you don’t have a paper trimmer….no biggie.)

Now both sides of my front cover were printed, trimmed, and ready to go!  In order to make things easier in the next step (laminating), I grabbed a small piece of double-sided tape and stuck the two images together, back-to-back, making sure the edges were aligned.  This isn’t necessary, of course, it just made things a little easier.

Laminating the Cover

I’m one of those crazy people who absolutely LOVES shopping for office supplies.  A trip to Staples just gets me all giddy and I could literally spend all day browsing….sort of like shopping the gadget wall at Bed Bath and Beyond (not office supplies, of course, but equally amazing).

Well, this past Christmas, I received….a LAMINATOR. My very own laminating machine….squeeeee!  My brother looked at me with great confusion when I started hugging the box after unwrapping it, no joke.  Since I also just received my very first Erin Condren Life Planner, I thought combining the two would be a great way to test out my new machine.

No Laminator?  No Problem!  Just take your designs to an office supply store and have them laminated there….Staples can do it for as little as $1.49!

Since my design was now ready to go, I inserted it into an 8.5″ x 11″ laminating pouch.  I positioned it all the way in the bottom left corner and made sure the edging around it was the same size as the laminated edging around the original Erin Condren cover.

Once it was in position and my laminator was warmed up, I fed it on through.  A few seconds later, my first laminated project was complete and almost ready to be transformed into a cute and colorful custom cover!

Trimming the Laminated Cover

Now that my cover was laminated, it was time to trim it to size.  I once again grabbed my original Erin Condren cover, placed it underneath my new laminated cover, then trimmed off the excess lamination with scissors using the original cover’s edges as a guide.

Looky there!  My new cover is now {almost} finished.

Adding the Spine Coil Holes

I needed to add the holes for the spine coils next.  To do this, I first placed the original Erin Condren cover overtop my new DIY one and aligned the edges.  Then I grabbed a dry erase marker (you could also use a wet erase or washable marker, but DO NOT use a Sharpie or permanent marker….the results would not be pretty.  You’ll see in a bit.), and simply marked where each of the holes were.

[Note: The dry erase marker does not really want to wipe off the inner edges of the holes on the original Erin Condren cover.  I haven’t really tried too hard to clean it, but a paper towel doesn’t get the job done….just a friendly FYI.]

Then I used a 1/8″ circle hand punch and punched out each of the holes.  I wasn’t super duper careful when lining up the punches….good enough here was good enough.  Feel free to be extra precise if you’d like, though.

Snipping Slots for the Coils

The last step in creating my DIY cover was snipping the slots that allow the cover holes to slide around the spine coils.  Using my scissors, I just snip-snip-snipped down the cover and cut little lines into each new hole.

Snap on the New DIY Cover!

I then grabbed a paper towel and wiped away the excess dry erase marker….then snapped my new completely custom and DIY cover onto my Erin Condren Life Planner!

The Final DIY Erin Condren Life Planner Cover!

How beautiful is this?!  Bright, colorful, personalized, and looks quite professional, no?  Maybe one day I’ll get around to using my coupon for my real (almost) free cover.  For now, though, I’m more than happy with my DIY one.

And just look when I turn and open up the cover….my handsome little guy is right there.  Ahhhh, he melts my heart….

This cover was so darn easy to make, I decided to make another one!  I fired up Photoshop Elements again and made this second one as a complete DIY using a flower graphic, so it’s very similar to the real Erin Condren floral ones….and perfect for Valentine season!

I used another pic of my handsome little devil as the inside image for this cover as well…..so. much. cuteness!

Now I have TWO personalized options that I can switch out in a jiffy!

Granted, my DIY covers obviously aren’t as professional-grade and the lamination isn’t as thick since I used a personal laminator.  However, they certainly get the job done and are a cheap and easy alternative to the real thing!

If You Enjoyed This….

Make sure you check out my Project Gallery for lots of my other creations, tutorials, freebies, and reveals!

Thanks so much for stopping by!