How to make your own DIY covers for your Erin Condren life planner

I have wanted to change the cover on my planner ever since I bought it – simply because it is possible. Anyone else like that? Anything DIY-able.. I just have to try it!  I love the fact that the planners come with interchangeable covers, because it makes it my life so much easier and if (when) I change my mind again, no problem, I can just change it again.  

Right now I am all about glitter and watercolors  – basic planner girl, I know 🙂 haha

So.. That’s exactly what I designed. A floral watercolor background, gold bubbles and a quote that I try to live by (by Jon Acuff). The “watercolor” vector graphics was made by Freepik, it is from their free section and you can download them here. I rearranged the floral elements to my liking and added the quote and golden circles in Illustrator – It might not be all that winter themed, but I am about ready for spring, so bring on the flowers :D. Oh and the font is this one if you want to make something similar.

When I had “installed” the cover I realized how much the font on my cover and the rest of my planner matched now. Script fonts all the way!!

This first cover of mine here is just colored on the front, but for future projects, I would like to make it double, to give it a little more sturdiness and just to have another pretty page to look at.

I work at home and my planner is always right beside me, so I like it to be pleasing to the eye. And sometimes you just something new to keep motivated – or at least I do 🙂 

This is what you need in order to make your very own interchangeable Erin Condren cover:

• your design
• a printer
• good quality paper ( I used glossy photo paper) 
• scissors, paper trimmer or silhouette machine
• laminator
• Laminator pouch
• hole punch
• A marker

So here is how I made my own DIY Erin Condren cover:

Firstly, I designed the page that I wanted to be my new cover. I did this is Illustrator, as I do everything. It is like a drug to me!

Not sure how to make a cover in Illustrator? No problem! – You can use some amazing free graphics from Freepik as well and design your cover in Picmonkey – just make sure to get a design that is divided into several PNG files, since Picmonkey won’t take SVG files.

If you haven’t been to Freepik before, I am telling you to go there now! Get your hands on some beautiful free graphics and start playing. You will be in love <3 (not sponsored by the way – I just love the concept)

Oh and just before I forget, the measurements for the cover I used were: w: 172 mm x h 226 mm  

Thinking that you don’t really want to design your own cover from scratch? With Pinterest being invented I am sure you can find some pretty amazing illustrations to use for your cover and then just crop them to the right size – Only personal use though 🙂

Double oh! Don’t forget to design in CMYK and not in RGB – not sure why? Look here!

So there you are. looking at a ready to print design on your computer. Print it out on some high-quality paper. I used glossy photo paper that is meant for professional printing with a high color pay off, but you can also use matte photo paper or even cardstock if it suits your design. I chose the glossy because of the glitter in my design. Glitter looks better on glossy. 

** Please bear in mind that if you print on paper with a higher weight than normal printing paper, your cover will be that much thicker too, which gives your cover some sturdiness and higher quality.**

Once you have your cover printed you want to cut it out. I used my paper trimmer because it is fast and gives crisp and straight lines. if you don’t have a trimmer you can simply use your scissors or even your silhouette cutting machine if you have one of those – among us sticker makers the silhouette is a lifelong friend 🙂 – if that is the route you want to go, remember your registration marks and to print from the silhouette software 🙂

Now laminate your new cover and make sure to leave room around your design so you can punch holes and have that plastic frame that the original covers have.

Next, you want to layer your original cover and your newly customized cover and then cut away the excess laminated plastic to make a perfectly sized new cover.

Pro tip! use a piece of tape to secure the two covers to each other, so they won’t move around while you are cutting.  

Then you want to mark where you should punch your holes. I layered my original Erin Condren cover on top of my own and with a marker, I just made a little dot in the middle of each hole and then began to punch away.

Let me just say: My hole punch was a little Mr. “I don’t wanna do what you want me to”, but with a bit of force and persistence it worked itself out 😀   

Lastly, you want to make small cuts with your scissors in the middle of each of your newly created holes. the very last thing is to snap it right into place and admire your new DIY Erin Condren cover.

That sounds easy, right?

So does my new cover look just as professional as the one that came with the planner? Probably not.

Is it as thick as the original? Nope! the laminating pouches I have aren’t that thick.

Are the holes perfectly aligned? No, I am no hole punching queen 🙂

But! None of that matters, because it was made by me. It is special to me and I just love how it turned out! And the best thing is that whenever I get tired of looking at it, I will make a new one – and it won’t cost me a thing <3

Louise