VB Close Up: B6 Monthly Layout

Hi everyone,

I hope your new year is off to a great start! For 2020, I decided to try out some new planners. I bought an EC Deluxe Monthly and a PrintPression Hardbound B6. While I'll be using a monthly sticker kit for the EC, I didn't want to leave the monthlies in my B6 blank. So I decided to try using some of the items from the VB Kits for my January layout. It was a fun challenge to figure out where to use certain pieces. While it's not a perfect fit, I think it came out super pretty! Plus, it's always awesome to extend your kits and get more use out of them. Now, I'll have at least two "Pretty Little Things" layouts for January - one monthly and one weekly.

I started this layout with the date covers. I used the skinny bow washi over the boxes on both sides for an extra pop of foil. Then I added the date covers from the Mini Weeks sheet of the VB Kit sticker book. They weren't quite long enough to stretch across the boxes, so I cut the ends into little flags.

Next up was the sidebar. Flipping through the sticker book and looking at the washi, I noticed none of them were wide enough to fully cover this section. The shelf art on the bottom of the VB notepad looked like it would do the trick though! I trimmed the boxes from two notepad sheets to fit and used a glue stick to place it onto the page.

I have some monthly label stickers somewhere in my stash that I will probably layer on top of this later. You could also use alpha stickers to spell out the month or use one of the tab stickers as a label instead.

The "Pretty Little Things" VB Kit included THREE VB Pens!!! I used one to label the dates for January. January's weeks took up five rows and the B6 had six rows, so I had one row left at the bottom. This was the perfect place to add in some more deco!

I mean, I guess a more "functional" approach would be to use the extra boxes for trackers or lists, but since I'm doing all that in my EC... Bring on the deco!! Speaking of functional, the checklist stickers on the Mini Weeks page also fit into these B6 boxes!

I added the deco foiled washi to the bottom of the extra boxes. Then, I cut the washi strips from the Mini Weeks page in half and laid those on the top of the extra boxes. There was a tiny space between the two, so I added a foil strip (also from the Mini Weeks page) right in the middle. I accidentally trimmed one of the washi strips too short, so I simply layered on a foiled flag to cover that spot.

I LOVE the Mini Weeks page of the VB Kit sticker book. Even if you don't use a small planner, there are so many ways to utilize this sheet.

I used the bow boxes to mark family birthdays and the sticky note boxes to mark friend birthdays. There are so many January babies on my list!!! (Including me!)

I used the rectangular boxes to mark bills that are due for the month. The icons are also good for labeling bills, holidays, events, etc.

There are a ton of circle icons on the Everyday Icons page of the VB Kit sticker book that are small enough to fit these boxes too. I'm saving mine for when I do a "Pretty Little Things" weekly layout, but then I'll see what I have left that I can add onto this layout.

Since the majority of my monthly items will be in my EC, this B6 layout works great for a quick overview of important things like birthdays, holidays, and bills. I like having it here too in case I'm out and about with my B6 but not my EC - that way I'll have it for reference for my weekly planning.

I wanted to share this in case anyone else out there was curious about different ways to use the stickers or worried about not having a specific planner size that the stickers would fit into. I'm all about making my planner work for me and getting the most out of the items in my stash. What's a fun way you've used your sticker book? I'd love to see/hear, so drop a comment or share a photo in the VB Facebook group!

Thanks for reading! Happy 2020 everyone!