coloured pencil – Keeping it creative

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Setting up my Bullet Journal for July 2025: Summer flowers theme

Posted on Jul 1, 2025 by Laura

Happy July everyone! This month, I’ve opted for a floral theme for my bullet journal, taking inspiration from nature, particularly wildflowers and those found in our garden. I initially found some simple flower bouquet stickers in my collection and planned to have a go at recreating them but, I decided that doing some drawing for my front cover was going to take enough time so I used the stickers themselves in my following pages. I know I said when I moved into this notebook that I was going to try to avoid too many stickers in my BuJo but the vinyl is very thin so I relented!

The front cover

For the cover page, I sketched out a number of flowers and leaves focusing on different shapes and sizes of bloom as well as different colours for both the flowers and the foliage. I took some inspiration from my own garden as we currently have some lovely bright orange poppies next to our pond, lavender in one of our pots and some pink flowers with white tips in our hanging basket.

After sketching, I used a size 0.2 Pigma Micron to outline before using coloured pencils and a blending pencil to add some nice, bright colours. I kept the stems black so the focus was on the blooms themselves.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

The monthly calendar

This is my usual calendar layout with stickers added as decor. I wanted to do something in the white spaces between and decided to add a few loose petals. I opted to do the title in a different font from my usual choices and I selected a nice bright purple which I felt complemented the flowers.

July finances

I like to choose quite a pale colour for the lines in my finances log and I picked out this minty green to go with the mid pink colour of the title. I also used one of my stickers leftover from the calendar and added a few petals to look like they’d fallen from the bouquet.

Monthly goals

A goals page has become a regular feature in my monthly bullet journal pages. I look at my vision board for the year and also my bucket list to help me choose a small number of goals to work towards. When I first started adding goals, I would come up with around eight in total, but I soon discovered that this was too much and for the last few months, I chosen five which I feel is a lot more attainable, even if I’m busy with work and fitness classes.

I’ve actually created some more little stickers to add to my goals pages but unfortunately Cricut Design Space is currently down for maintenance and I wanted to get today’s post up at soon as I possibly can so I’ll have to print and cut them later and add them tomorrow.

Weekly spread

This has become my favourite layout for weekly spreads as it allows plenty of room for events and to dos. Sometimes, I’ll add decor at the bottom of the boxes and sometimes it’ll just be a long list of things I want to get done that day so I’ll skip the decor. Often, I’ll add more information or to do lists to the boxes as the days go by. Also, on a weekend, we might make last minute plans so I’ll write in what we got up to in retrospect. This helps me remember any days out so I can include photographs and text to my highlights journal when the month is over.

Final words…

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog to look at my bullet journal set up for July. I’m super excited to use my pages this month as I love how bright and colourful they are. As well as drawing flowers, I’ve also treated myself to a flower press and I’ve been busy pressing blooms from our garden. I’ve had mixed success with it so far, with some of the flowers falling apart when I’ve removed them from the greaseproof paper, but I’ve also had some which look fantastic. I’m hoping to get my watercolours out to have a go at painting the results but this was one of my goals for June and, so far, I haven’t dedicated any time to it. I have my second lot of flowers pressing and they’ll be ready by mid month so hopefully, I’ll give it a go at some point in July or, if not, August.

Wishing you a relaxing month where you find time to do some of the things you enjoy too.

art, Bullet journaling, coloured pencil, creativity, goal setting, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my bullet journal for May 2025: Primrose / primula theme

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Laura

This month, I’ve again taken inspiration from our garden. A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to add more colour out the front of the house, so we went to the garden centre to look for a set of six bedding plants that should come back year after year. I opted for primroses (AKA primula) as there was already one out there which pops up each spring and was obviously set before we moved in over a decade ago. After the flowers had settled in – they went a bit floppy when we first installed them – I took some macro photos to use as inspiration for my spreads. It’s taken me ages to sketch out, draw and colour in all of the images but it was such a lovely, mindful activity that I found it really therapeutic. As I write this, it’s the 2nd May and I still haven’t finished all of the decor but I have drawn up my calendar, finances, goals and first weekly so I can actually fill in events and tasks. I hope you like my finished pages and they inspire you to give florals a go to practise your drawing, colouring or maybe painting skills.

Front cover

The calendar was the last page I finished and took me a long while to complete. I used a photograph of a plant pot of primroses for reference which I found on Google. I used mainly my Staedtler Ergosoft coloured pencils and blended a few shades together to get a nice peachy colour. I also used my blending pencil to mix up the colours and to create a smooth appearance. I also used my Sakura Gelly Roll pen in a size 10 to draw lines inside of the Pigma Micron as the actual primroses had a very thin white trim.

Monthly calendar

I added the decor to my calendar second, after I did the image for my finances record, and, as it had taken me such as long time to finish that one, I opted for a more sketchy appearance to the primroses you see here. I held my fineliner really lightly and tried to create a slightly wobbly appearance so the plants looked more natural. I’m really happy with how they turned out and the colours look so cheerful. I made good use of lots of my coloured pencils and also used my blending pencil to blend out any harsh lines.

Finances record

As well as the pack of six small primrose plants, we also purchased a much larger one for our back garden. The flowers are a lovely, pale pink but I didn’t have a coloured pencil which matched so I’ve gone for more of a peachy colour. I initially did just the flower in the centre but decided there were too many leaves and not enough floral bits so I added the other two and made them a little more washed out so the central one stood out.

Monthly goals

Last month I (yet again), picked far too many goals to be in with any chance of achieving them all. So, for May, I’ve really, really restricted myself and opted for just 5 (go me!). And, I’ve already achieved one of them as I made bread for the very first time yesterday!

Rather than adding some more primrose illustrations, I opted to add some stickers to make the set up much quicker. Some, I’ve made myself and others are from my ever increasing stash (you can never have too many stickers – right?). However, I have just started a new BuJo this month and a not to do goal of mine is to add plenty of my own illustrations straight into my notebook rather than overloading with stickers and making my journal super bulky (my orange one would barely close by the time I finished it!).

Weekly plan

I’ve been using this same style layout for quite a few weeks now and it really works for me. It gives me enough room to write events and add a few to dos underneath each day. I can then add a small illustration at the bottom if I want to, or use the full space for recording. This week, I’ve done some small primrose illustrations but I may not do any next week as I have lots of sessions at the university so I’ll be super busy.

Final words…

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today. I hope you like my finished spreads. I think they look really colourful and provide a great reminder of our new plants and all of the other bright colours of primrose which you can get. The flowers seem to be thriving at the moment but as we haven’t had any rain for weeks, they require daily watering as the soil is getting so dry. I’m hoping they’re going to stay looking good for a least another month and continue to make me smile each time I get in and out of my car!

Wishing you a marvellous May,

Much love,

Bullet journaling, coloured pencil, goal setting, line drawing, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my Bullet Journal for March 2025: Birds and blossom theme

Posted on Feb 26, 2025 by Laura

Last April, when I picked out a new Notebook Therapy journal to use as my BuJo from May 2024, I also checked out their sticker collections so that I could add to my order to qualify for free delivery. I couldn’t resist the #08: Into the Song set which is… ‘inspired by the tranquil melodies of springtime songbirds and blossoming florals… just as the birdsong fills the air with melody and the blossoms paint the landscape with vibrant hues, our collection brings forth the delicate beauty and timeless charm of nature’s symphony…’. Anyone who follows my blog will know that I love all kinds of birds but particularly tiny woodland species such as wrens, robins, sparrows, tits and finches. And nothing says Spring to me like bird song and blossom. So, for March, I’ve chosen to incorporate the sticker set, but also create a life-like line drawing of a sparrow perched on a blossom covered branch and then shade in the illustration with my various coloured pencil sets (of which I have many!) to add to my monthly cover.

I didn’t want to add much more bulk to my already overstuffed bullet journal, so the Notebook Therapy transfers were perfect. As I’d stuck in a sheet of music as background on the cover page, I opted to do my sketch on quite thin drawing paper and then stick it in. I used a Winsor & Newton fixative spray to stop the colour transferring onto the opposite page. This month, I was also excited to try out a different colour palette which mainly consisted of pinks and browns and it felt good to try something completely new. Plus, I had plenty of pinks and pale browns in my marker collection.

The front cover

I actually found this mock vintage sheet of music as a free download and thought it would look good as a background to my bird sketch. I have no idea what the music is or whether or not it’s an actual song but I like the look it has created and it fit nicely with my colour scheme.

The sparrow drawing is based on a photograph I found online and I used quite a few of the compositional elements in the original image. I spent a while debating which woodland bird to choose and then Googled ‘birds and blossom’ to find examples. I’m really pleased with the finished picture and it didn’t take me as long as I thought it might. I did a basic sketch with pencil and then used a very thin (005) Pigma Micron to draw on the main elements including the branches, buds, open blossom and, of course, the male sparrow. I then went in with the coloured pencils on the branches, blossom and the bird. I created a few highlights using a white gel pen and also used a blending pencil to smudge some of the harsher lines. Rather than adding a blurry background, like the photograph, I just use a single pale blue colour and blur isn’t easy to achieve with coloured pencils. When I was happy with my finished picture, I sprayed it straightaway with fixative as this meant that I couldn’t go back and start altering bits of it as I’m prone to do!

Monthly calendar

I mainly loved decorating my usual calendar style with the transfers but, at times, they were a little bit frustrating. If I pressed one of the other stickers or a bit of the backing whilst rubbing the desired image, there was some transferal of parts of the other image or the backing stuck to a previously transferred image and it pulled it off the page. I started cutting each image out individually but that became too time consuming so I stopped and had to be super careful. I’ve managed to get the hang of it now but I did ruin a few of the pictures. Also, occasionally, there were small bits that didn’t rub on properly which I struggled to correct.

Overall, I would say the transfers look really nice but they definitely take practise and for over £12 for three small sheets, each mistake was quite costly in my opinion! I’ve definitely got the hang of transferring the images now though and would probably buy some more if I see some in the Notebook Therapy collections.

March finances

My usual set up with more transfers and a lovely pale sand Tombow. I added a blossom pattern at the top of the second page but I kind of regret doing it because it doesn’t really go with the delicate transfers. I could have covered it with a border strip sticker but I opted to leave it as it is.

March Goals and Evaluation

I tried to stick with a small number of goals for March as I found I didn’t meet quite a few of those I set for February and with only a few days of the month left, I’m not going to get them done. I’ve also picked some goals which are not so time consuming too. A combination of transfers and stickers finish off the pages nicely and I loved using the tiny blossom images as bullet points for my list.

Spring Goals

In preparation for next month, I’ve also created a double page spread with my Spring 2025 Bucket list items on. I’ll be sharing this in one of my blog posts for March so keep a look out for it if that is something that you would be interested in seeing and reading about.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my pages for March and you like the theme I’ve chosen. I can now tick off one of my February goals which was ‘write and publish three blog posts’ as this is my final one of those!

Although it’s rainy today, we’ve had a few nice days this week showing us that Spring is definitely on its way. We have a host of miniature iris, crocuses and even a couple of daffodils popping out and there are also plenty of chunky tulip stems in our garden too. Whatever the weather brings, my husband and I try to make the most of our days but nothing beats a bit of sunshine to brighten the mood.

Wishing you an amazing March and a wonderful Spring 2025,