I might have mentioned once, or twice, or a hundred times that I love stationary. Back to school season (even though I’m not in school, a teacher, or have children in school) is one of my favorite seasons. All of the pens, paper, markers, and notebooks! It’s a stationary nerd’s paradise.
Continue reading “20+ Ideas/Ways to use your Happy Planner Notebooks”
Happy Planner currently makes folders for their Mini, Classic, and Big size systems. However, Happy Planner does not currently have a folder made for the Half Sheet Happy Notes. Many people that I’ve seen on YouTube and Instagram have cut down a classic size folder and use that. With the limited access to Happy Planner items in Hawaii, I don’t have any extra folders that I feel comfortable cutting.
Continue reading “DIY Happy Planner Half Note Folder: Two Styles”
I’ve been making Traveler’s Notebook covers for quite some time now. I make covers for Mini Happy Planners, Starter Budget kits, and B6 Traveler’s Notebook sets for my Etsy shop. However, the size of a Happy Planner Half Sheet (Happynichi) proves to be more challenging. The challenge comes in because of the size of the Happy Planner, letter or legal sized laminating sheets don’t really work.
Continue reading “DIY Happynichi Laminated Traveler’s Notebook Style Cover”
I’m still pretty new to the planner world. I tried my hand at bullet journal late 2017 but it seemed to be so much work to maintain the spreads. In October 2018, I took the plunge and purchased my first Happy Planner. I’d always felt that I didn’t have much going on in my life to warrant a traditional planner but as I was trying to focus more on my social media and business, I thought I’d have more to track. I’m so happy I took the plunge! The functional aspect of a Happy Planner can not be overstated – being able to take pages in and out is such a game changer. However, the added bonus of being able to create decorative spreads gives me the motivation to return to it again and again.
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with my Happynichi. It’s a planner system that is part Hobonichi Weeks, part bullet journal, and part Happy Planner. You have the slim design of a Hobonichi Weeks; the freedom of a bullet journal; but the flexibility of a Happy Planner. Being from Hawaii, none of my local stores sell the Half Sheet Happy Notes Notebook (which the HappyNichi is made of) from Happy Planner so I made my own of materials that I had on hand. Because I also do YouTube videos, I found it a bit difficult to find the various sizes of Hobonichi and Happy Planner pages. I wanted to do a really simple blog with that information in hopes that it might help others who are making their own products or accessories.
The Hobonichi system of planners originated from Japan and is becoming wildly popular with the U.S planner community. There are three sizes and two styles of Hobonichi planners: Cousins, A6 Planner, and Weeks. The Cousins and A6 Planners are done in the daily style while the Weeks is done in the planner style. I do not own any of the Hobonichis but I heard the size, portability, and paper quality of the planners are excellent. Below you’ll find the sizes of pages for each of the various planners. Please note: the cover sizes for the Happy Planner is usually about .5 inches wider than the page.
Hobonichi Cousins: 148 x 210 mm or 5.8 x 8.3 inches
Hobonichi A6 Planner: 105 x 148 mm or 4.8 x 5.8 inches
Hobonichi Weeks: 95 x 187 mm or 3.75 x 7.4 inches
In 2015, the Happy Planner system was launched. Two factors that I believe make it so successful is that 1) it uses discs and 2) the company’s endless array of planners and accessories. The Happy Planner currently has four (official*) different sized planners and five different layouts (to my knowledge). The disc count for each planner sizes are as follows: Micro (4), Mini (7), Classic (9), *Half Sheet (9), and Big (11). The various layouts that I am aware of are the horizontal, vertical, dashboard, academic, and monthly.
Happy Planner Micro: 3 x 4 inches or 7.62 x 101.6 mm
Happy Planner Mini: 4.5 x 7 inches or 114.3 x 177.8 mm
*Happy Planner Half Sheet: 4.125 x 9.25 inches or 106.172 x 234.95 mm
Happy Planner Classic: 7 x 9.25 inches or 177.8 x 234.95 mm
Happy Planner Big: 8.5 x 11 inches or 215.9 x 279.4 mm
(I’ve also made my own Happy Planner Midi which is a (5) ring system and 4.25 x 5 inches or 107.95 x 127 mm to emulate the Hobonichi A6 Daily Planner)
*I mention this since the Happynichi aka Half Sheet Happy Note is not a planner system Happy Planner currently makes and is part of their notebook line.
I hope you find this blog useful. Since I generally make my own products and accessories, I find having all of this information at my disposal makes it easier for me to work on my projects rather than always having to hunt down the information.
In the Facebook Group that I recently created, HappyNichi Inspiration, one of the members asked what a HappyNichi was and I was quite intrigued. Immediately, two answers came to mind. But I’ll get into that in a moment.
Since it can be difficult to source Happy Planner items here in Hawaii, I tend to do a lot of Do-it-Yourself (DIY) projects. It is the easiest way for me to recreate things that I want but can easily access. Also, I know from comments on my YouTube page, there are a lot of people in the same situation. Perhaps it’s due to lack of availability at their neighborhood craft store. Perhaps it’s due to no neighborhood craft store. Perhaps it’s due to budget constraints. Whatever the reason, I know I’m not the only one who can’t always get the new shiny things I see on Instagram and YouTube.
I prefer Instagram. There, I said it. I like the fact that most of the caption is hidden so I get to choose how much I want to read and really, it’s just about looking at the pictures for me. If I want to know more about the picture(s) or if the caption is intriguing, then I’ll hit ‘more’. That’s the main reason I don’t like Facebook. There always seems to be a lot of drama. TONS OF DRAMA. Sometimes, the drama gets to be of reality TV proportions and I’m not here for it.
However, since I started my Happy Planner/YouTube journey, I find that Facebook can be a great place to get ideas and inspiration in my own planner journey. Especially if you belong to Facebook groups. I belong to several that deal with Happy Planner, Happy Planner Layouts, Bullet Journaling, etc. Lately, I’ve been enamored of the Hobonichi Weeks and have watched tons of videos on YouTube.
The Hobonichi Weeks is a yearly planner from Japan and has been around for quite some time. However, it’s only blipped on my radar for a few months now. I like that it skirts the functionality of a traditional planner system but provides the freedom of a bullet journal system. The fact that there’s so many people showing their decorated layouts certainly makes it more intriguing for me. However, there are some cons about a Hobonichi Weeks. As I can only get it from Amazon, 1) it seems kind of costly since with shipping, it would run between $40 – $50 and 2) its in a book bound system and I’m pretty sure I would find that annoying.
Fortunately, based on a tip of Anika from YouTube (Anika’s Kreative Plans), she suggested I check out another channel, Magical_Plans who made her own ‘Hobonichi’ out of Happy Planner products. Intrigued, I checked her out and I’ve been down the rabbit hole ever since on all things HappyNichi, Fauxbonichi, BujoNichi. I’m not sure who coined the term HappyNichi, but I think its an appropriate term.
As with many things Happy Planner, I can’t source the Happy Planner Half Sheet Happy Notes here in Hawaii. So I’ve made my own – I’ve included the video below. There will be a series of videos as I make a variety of components for my HappyNichi.
Strangely enough, however, I couldn’t find a Facebook group for HappyNichi spreads. Although I know zero about creating, moderating, or running a group, I decided to create my own. Right now its a public group (I really need to research the pros and cons of having a public vs. private group) and I’m hoping if you’re going down the HappyNichi rabbit hole too, you’ll consider joining. Lets go on this journey together!
