well, yes, sorry ... it happened again 😇
I changed the size of my planner!
Why?
A bit of tempation of my old planners, I would say.
As I have mentioned in my blog post Part 1 the journey to using Filofax A5 Notebook with Leuchtturm paper was not a straight forward journey in 2023 but had many twists and turns and loops. As I was thinking about my next blog post where I wanted to start to show you the planners + covers which did not work in 2023, I took them one after the other in my hands, thought about why this one or that one did not work out and was one after the other tempted to use it again, but was always stopped soon again by my notes which I have made on a post-it note at the beginning of each planner. On this post-it note I stated shortly why this planner did not work out.
And then I had the Ashford Style planner in the japanese size HBxWA5 in my hand, as so often during the year and again, I just did not like the cover options.
But: I just love this paper size!
It is wide as A5 (WA5) and high as Bible size (HB). Bible size is similar to Personal size, just one millimeter less. HBxWA5 is 148mm wide and 170mm high. When using it in ring covers you will have a nearly square writing space.
But it is not slim as Personal size, which for me is always too slim, but wide as A5, it gives you so much space to write..
A5 is often too big for my liking but still ok. But this HBxWA5 size gives me just the right amount of space. And I really like this kind of square paper.
Why did I not use it in 2023?
Always the covers... too big, too heavy, not lie-flat ...
I have actually two lovely covers from Ashford Style, the japanese company which sells covers in this size. There are not so many companies who sell this size, Ashford Style, Marks, and Plotter (special editions) in Japan and Mignon, a french company. And, brand-new, Gillio in Belgium, will start selling this size in 2024.
My two leather covers are really lovely, nice leather, nice colors, but still, either too big because of the flap or does not lie flat because of the back pocket.
A cover which lies totally flat would be the archive cover from Ashford. It is a plain black plastic cover, with 25mm rings, no pockets, no loops, no closure. But, a bit plain and plastic.
That`s why I have stopped using it again and again, came back to it, stopped again and finally thought, nope, not with this cover and not with the leather ones.
Instagram for the help
And then I remembered a post that I saw on Instragram from straight.plans, she uses Filofax ring covers and notebooks and always takes them apart. Takes out the rings to be used as a cover for bound books or cuts down FF Notebook covers to accomodate slim sized notebooks. I was always wondering how well a Notebook would hold up when you cut it down. It`s a card board cover and would then have a kind of "open" edge, and just using washi tape over it seemed a bit of a flimsy option.
But well, I thought, if she can cut it down to a slim size I can cut it down to HBxWA5.
And why not try it out?
It would give me a cover which I really like, which I would have already used in A5 paper size, which lies flat and which has nice color options.
And here we are:
right the normal A5 one, left the cut down option:
I "lost" the last part of the "together"-words but otherwise the layout still looks fine to me. There is one "ring" less, easy to cut off with a wire cutting tool.
The cutting of the cover was done with a guillotine cutter, gives very good straight cutting edges.
And I had to remove the elastic closure, the bottom one was cut off anyway and at the top I cut off the elastic close to the cover.
I have not used washi tape to seal the cutting edge but simple transparent adhesive tape, like Tesafilm or Scotch tape.
Holds up very well and does not add a color which might not match the layout colors. It`s a bit shiny but well, it was a test version. But overall, it worked out very well.
If I maybe cut down the 2024 Filofax notebook cover I`m not quite sure yet.
I want to use my test version until the end of the year and when it is really working out then I will cut down the pink 2024 cover.
The ring archiv cover in HBxWA5 was already set up with all inserts, I have just repunched the paper to fit into the FF Notebook cover.
There are now too many holes but that`s ok, the paper holds up very well.
and as always, you can download the inserts for free on my website or buy them in my Etsy shop:
Let`s see how that is working out now
I`m right now quite happy with this size. I use it, I smile when I use it (very important!!) and it`s a size which gives me enough room to write, the spacing is not too small and I like the layout of the weekly pages.
And if anything changes I will let you know for sure 😉
I wish you a happy journey with your planner 😊
Thank you to all, stay healthy and (planner) peace to everyone!
Andrea 🖋💛💚💙
P.S. I have bought all my planners myself, I paid for them, I state my own personal opinions about them. When you click a link which I have added for you to see the items which I`m talking about I do not get paid for it.