Yes, you can make a lovely holiday planner from the most pedestrian start: paper bags.

Blogger Moxie from Stampersaurus studio brings us this creative use for simple paper bags. The planner's base is built from a stack of paper lunch sacks, folded in the center and secured with binder rings from the office supply store.

Trimmed with a lush assortment of patterned paper, and adorned with printed and downloaded gift lists, Moxie's holiday planner turns trash into Christmas treasure!

Paper Bag Holiday Planner

Such a clever idea! Stephanie from Rubber Romance Stamps shares her solution to Christmas budgeting: an envelope-based planner that holds cash for each recipient on her Christmas gift list.

Better still, this lavishly-photographed tutorial will take you step-by-step through creating an accordion envelope organizer in record time.

Using office store envelopes, cardstock, punches, patterned paper and pretty stamped embellishments, get Christmas ... organized!

Christmas ... Organized, On Budget and Oh So Chic!

Drop around to blogger Calie's Creative Corner to see a lovely example of an altered composition book turned Christmas planner.

Adding cover embellishments and custom tabs, Calie's planner also includes a convenient receipt envelope tucked inside the rear envelope.

With a calendar added to the inside front cover, Calie will be covered for her holiday planning this year!

Altered Composition Book: Calie's Christmas Planner

Blogger Pam Hooten over at the Iris Garden blog shares this sizzling-bright entry in the holiday planner field.

Loaded with bling and bright with creative touches, her little book can be used as a planner, a guest book or journal.

We'd love to see more shots of what's inside, but check out that cover! With layered embellishments that range from glitter to nostalgia, it's loaded with Christmas charm.

Pam Hooten's Holiday Planner

Here's an innovative but simple holiday planner from Samantha, who blogs as the Rubber Stamping Diva: an altered composition book.

Note her custom touches that make this project sparkle! A pen holder loop attached to the back cover keeps writing tools close at hand. Inside pockets stand ready to hold gift receipts, while a just-for-fun set of beaded bookmarks makes it easy to find lists, planner pages and calendars.

Last of all, a creative ornament cover embellishment gives this easy project a dazzling creative touch. Nice job!

Christmas in July: Altered Composition Book Holiday Planner

We're of two minds about this over-the-top Christmas planner. With the most complete tutorial presentation we've ever seen--including video!--blogger Oz-somestamps does a great job explaining how to make this wildly creative entry in the holiday planner field.

But be aware: this project, lovely as it is, is fairly complex and will require some specialty tools. Using a Zutter Bind-it-All and Crop-A-Dile Big Bite papercrafting tools, this project may be for dedicated papercrafters only.

This project also includes downloadable .PDF instructions and printable pages for the planner forms found in the folder. (Once again, we're a bit divided in our praise--these forms show a lot of similarity to Christmas pocket planner forms offered by OrganizedChristmas.com. In the spirit of sharing, we'd like to have seen credit given where credit was due.... but since they're a nice variation on the theme, we're pointing them out anyway.)

Get crafting on this awesome planner from OZ-somestamps:

Christmas Planner Tutorial

When it comes to making a workable Christmast planner, embellishments, stamped designs and lavish ribbons are nice to have, but simple's good, too! And when the Christmas planner project helps empty the craft stash and make good use of small scraps of paper? It's a stand-out project!

Check out these designs from blogger team Karen and Martha from Scrappin' Our Stash 2009. Using inexpensive pocket folders from the office supply store, these clever, sustainable folder-based planners are fast to make, fun to use.

Great job!

Christmas File Folder Planners from Scrappin' Our Stash

Blogging as Mission Inkpossible, Jenn brings us this sweet and simple 2009 holiday planner.

Using a composition book as a base, Jenn's added seasonal calendars created in Excel, and a receipts envelope.

Divider tabs sort this easy Christmas planner into categories--and spritely stamps and embellishments make it pretty.

Check it out!

Mission Inkpossible: 2009 Holiday Planner

Not made specifically for Christmas--but it could be!--is this floral file folder album from Jessica, blogging as Desperate Stamper. Pretty!

Floral File Folder Album

So you like the Christmas pocket planner concept, but need more room? With full-size pages and the convenience of pockets, blogger Just Plain Happy's holiday planner is worthy of note!

Check out her colorful, clever solution to holiday planning. Slip full-sized planner pages, notepads and receipt envelopes into the decorated pockets of this Christmas planner to organize gifts, crafts and Christmas cards.

It's a winner!

Just Plain Happy's Holiday Planner