How to make planner dividers for your Filofax or Kikki K (+ free template)

(This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.)
 

DIY is sometimes the best solution if you want your planner to be exactly tailored to your needs and likes. This article is all about making your dividers as bright and colorful as your ideas. Planner sections that are well defined will help you be even more organized.

Even though there’s a lot of great options to buy cute dividers out there, crafting is part of the fun of owning a planner. Plus, it always gives you an excuse to buy more craft supplies and lovely paper pads.

To help you in this little project, here’s a free printable template that will help you create your own dividers in no time. These dividers are compatible with Filofax Personal and Kikki K medium planners. 4 tabs will be visible with this template when you open your planner.

First – Define your categories

Dividers help you to organize your thoughts, plans, and actions by categories.  To get the best use out of dividers you really have to first, think about how you want to set up your planner depending on your life and how your mind works.
I can’t give you any general tips about that, we all have our different ways of thinking and so we should all find the system that works best for us.
There’s no need to create a “fitness” category if you know you’re never gonna exercise or do anything related to this topic. Don’t feel forced to create some basic common categories if you know from the start that they don’t suit your lifestyle or your habits.

Some people love to separate topics a lot and will, therefore, feel more comfortable with more divider sections while some people prefer to keep things simple and only have very few sections. Once again, it’s a very personal choice, but you want to make sure that you think about this clearly before getting started in creating your dividers.

Second – Cut your dividers

Once this first step is complete, you should now know how many dividers you’re going to create. You can now have fun and spend hours looking through all your papers, pick a few that go well together, and move on to the more crafty steps of the process.

I’m sharing this divider template in two types of files : pdf and Studio 3 for Silhouette machine owners.

Depending on your preferences (and depending if you own a Silhouette machine), you have 2 options :

• If you prefer to use the pdf template = Print, cut, trace, cut
  • Print the template on 8,5×11 inches paper (using thick paper, like cardstock, will make the next step easier). Make sure to print to “actual size” or 100% scale.
  • Cut both shapes and use them as templates by tracing them onto your scrapbooking papers, cut again, et voilà !

Download this lovely freebie

• If you prefer to use the Silhouette file = cut
  • place the paper you chose directly on the Silhouette mat, adjust your cutting settings and cut directly through the Silhouette software.

Download this lovely freebie – Silhouette

Third – La touche finale

Now is the time you can add your final touches to make your dividers more durable and practical.
I personally chose to add inspiring quotes/words related to each theme on each divider. These texts were cut with the Silhouette machine and then glued meticulously on the dividers. This took quite a bit of time because some paper pieces were very thin.

I also added dymo labels on my tabs because I like their retro look and I thought they worked well with the colorful papers I picked.

At the time I made these dividers I didn’t choose to laminate them but now, a few months later, I kind of regret I didn’t. The corners (especially top and bottom corners) show signs of use, which probably wouldn’t have happened if i laminated them.

Here are my dividers:

 

If you followed all these steps, congratulations, you should now be left with a great looking planner and shiny new dividers! I know you don’t necessarily need a template to create your own dividers but hopefully, this will help you or motivate you to try it out!

If you used this template, feel free to share the results on instagram and tag me/follow me (@lovelyplannerblog) or use the hashtag #lovelyplanner 🙂

Don’t forget to have a look at other planner freebies I shared on the blog!