Setting up my Bullet Journal for October 2023: Autumn theme

This month, I’ve been using my Cricut Joy to make stickers to decorate my October spreads and other pages as I start a new bullet journal, this time from Notebook Therapy. I bought lots of sheets of printable vinyl adhesive backed paper and explored using my cutting machine along with a hack I found on YouTube to create print and cut images. The process has been frustrating at times and quite a few sheets have unfortunately ended up in the bin as the offset around the images is sometimes off by a millimetre or two but I’ve made lots of little stickers that I’m pleased with and are worthy of a place in my new notebook.

Front cover

In order to have a good range of images at my disposal, I signed up for a free trial of Canva Pro. I have Cricut Access but I’ve found that the images aren’t as good on there as they’re mainly designed for cut files with coloured vinyl or iron on products. Canva Pro has so many amazing images and I’ve been spending time each day downloading themed pictures and patterns to make the most of my month of free use. For the cover, I typed into ‘autumn watercolour’ to get similar types of image. Each one was saved to a 3x3cm canvas which enabled me to reduce the size on Cricut Design Space before adding an offset. As you can probably see, none of the offsets are perfectly aligned but I think the finished stickers look okay. The image for the title was also found on Canva and a second layer was added with a calligraphy style font.

October calendar

For my calendar page, I simply searched ‘autumn’ and again saved each image on a canvas as above. I also find some border style images for the top and bottom of the title. After sticking them on, I regretted adding two as there was little room left to write the header but using my letter stamps worked out okay.

Weekly spreads

I decided to pre-prepare my spreads for October and went for a vertical Dutch door so that only one lots of decoration was required to either side. These washi style strips on either side are again borders from Canva Pro, this time with a pale colour background added in. I’m pleased with how my weeklies turned out and it will be nice to know that I don’t have to draw my set up for the week first thing on a Monday Morning. As my tasks are separate, I’ve only left a small amount of room for events on my daily sections. Hopefully these are big enough for anything I need to make note of.

Finances

In the excitement of creating some Dutch doors, I completely forgot about my finances spread so I’ve added it on after the weeklies. I love the hedgehog decor and there were actually about six different images on Canva to choose from which were clearly designed by the same artist.

Other spreads

As this is a new bullet journal, I’ve also created index pages, a future log (with Dutch doors and also little tabs) and some pages for Level 10 life reflection and goal setting. However, I’m yet to fill them in yet so it’s pointless me sharing them! I might share them on Instagram if I remember.

Final words …

I hope you enjoyed seeing my new BuJo and my spreads for October. I’m now totally addicted to making stickers and even have a themed set ready and waiting in a little handmade envelope for November. I’ve also started making Christmas themed ones too! I’m sure at some point I’ll go back to drawing my own images in my bullet journal but for now, I’m happy stickerating!