Happy Planner 2015-2016 Review

Hey there! Today I am featuring my latest planner obsession! I had originally ordered the Erin Condren  life planner for 2015-2016 but since it was delayed by over 2 months (gold foil process took longer than expected), I ended up cancelling my order. 

In the mean time, I ordered this planner (the Happy Planner) from Me and My Big Ideas website. Shipping was $27 internationally which isn't cheap but was comparable to Erin Condren. In addition the planner was cheaper ($24.99) and it had a tonne of cute stickers and accessories (most of which were $4.99 each). 

Above are some of the sticker books I purchased. Each book has 6 pages! Each book was $4.99.

I ordered two planners one for myself and one for my sister. Each planner was $24.99.

Monthly spread - nice colourful layout. 

The weekly spread is set up in a vertical layout, which is my favourite! As well it has an amazing colour scheme/theme. 

Cute monthly tabs accompanied by a monthly summary page. 

Pros:

-Disk bound

-You can remove/add pages

-Beautiful theme/color scheme

-4 different planners (all with a unique theme)

-Paper quality

Cons:

-Tabs for the first batch were not laminated. MAMBI has since started laminating the tabs

-Not extremely durable if you are taking your planner on the go (works great for me as I leave mine in my office)

All in all, I really don't have anything negative to say about the planner. At first I though the disks looked a little childish, but i have since come to really love their purpose. They allow the pages to turn so smoothly and you can flip the planner completely in half, if you wanted to. For my needs, it works great! I love the style and functionality! I can't wait to see what changes and new designs they come up with for next year. 

-B

smash book vs. creative chaos books.

So, apparently I am behind in school work, blogging and pretty much everything else at this point. I am never late, but somehow this year I have fallen behind. I'm going to blame scrapbooking for part of that. All I seem to do is find new things to stick in my Smash book! It is a great way to save mementos and store photos, etc in a somewhat chaotic somewhat stylish way. So when I went to Micheals on my weekly visit I was excited to see another version. Recollections had come out with a Creative Chaos line. Basically a Smash Book idea. So I will now list the things I like about it and the things that I don't!

Creative Chaos Features: -Smaller & Wider (shown below)
-A lot of plain floral pages (this could have just been the version I bought but it was pretty yet basic)
-Colored cover and inside of cover
-It has binder rings, where you can add more pages if you want

 Likes: -Pretty pages
-Colored cover and inside cover

Dislikes: -thickness, its way to short and thick in the binding
-Pages are pretty, but also pretty boring
-It is basic but it is not unique like a Smash book, it is too scrapbook like

So my verdict after studying both is that the Smash book is nicer. I may be biased slightly, however I find the pages are more fun, they have writing and can spark your imagination as to what should be on that page. As well I like that you can't add more pages, the amount it has is great. The smash book has it's pen/glue stick on the side of the book for easy access and adding items on the go.
*Note: This is the Red Smash book, the 'Doodle Style', the Recollections is the 'Sweet Blossoms' version.

So there you have it! In case you were trying oh so hard to decide which to buy!

-B