Planning and journaling – Page 5

Bullet journaling, goal setting, life hacks, lifestyle, memory keeping, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Creating a bright and colourful Summer Bucket List spread in my Bullet Journal

Posted on May 28, 2024Jun 1, 2025 by Laura

Last autumn, I set myself the challenge of creating a bucket list for each of the four seasons and making a Traveler’s Notebook journal for each in which to record all of my experiences across the year. This week, I finished setting up my final double page spread for the summer season in my Bullet Journal and I’m super pleased with how it turned out. The aim was to produce something inspirational using bright summer colours and images which embody the summer season. I enjoyed the process from start to finish and thought I’d share with you my finished product, explain a bit about how I went about setting it up and give a step by step guide to help you make your own.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Defining the season

The first step I took was decide on the dates for summer – I chose to base my seasons on the meteorological start and end which is June 1st to August 31st, but I could have opted for the astronomical period which cites the beginning as Thursday 20th of June to Sunday 22nd September. It’s obviously up to you which you go with and you probably already have your own idea when summer falls.

Brainstorming ideas

Initially I look at a range of bucket list ideas on Pinterest and noted down any which appealed. I also spent some time thinking about what summer means to me e.g. going to the beach and activities I enjoy doing such as birdwatching, photography, tasting summer fruits and going for walks in nature. As we’re off on holiday to Wales for a week next month, I then researched places to go and things to do in the local area which I could add to my list.

If you end up with a huge, long list of ideas, think about which activities most excite you, which fit in with your priorities for this year (e.g. relaxation, having fun, being adventurous, learning new things etc.) and which feel most realistic.

Setting some achievable goals

Whilst adding items to my list, I tried to make sure that there we’re some quick and easily achievable goals and some which will take more planning and organising. It’s also important to consider your budget, time constraints and any other commitments you have. It’s no good writing that you want to do a hot air balloon ride if you have no idea of the cost and haven’t researched locations from which these are available.

Creating a visual representation

For my bullet journal inspiration board, I selected some stickers from my stash and made some in Cricut Design Space. I even chose to add some real photographs of the places we would like to go, so I have an image of my local beach, and pictures I found online of Yorkshire Lavender and the two National Trust places we intend to visit during our holiday in Wales. I also found some tiny stickers to fill in the gaps between the bucket list items.

Of course, you don’t have to create a concrete visual representation for display. You might choose to simply close you eyes and picture yourself doing the activities and thinking about how they would make you feel or you might just write your list and put it somewhere you can regularly refer to.

Planning the details

For each activity, I’m now spending time fleshing out the details. So, for example, I’ve found what looks to be a simple and tasty recipe for strawberry lemonade and added it to Notion. I’ve written down the postcodes and travel times for the National Trust places and the RSPB reserve and have done some reading so I know what to expect when we go. I’ve also noted costs involved for different items and have purchased my summer novel on Kindle (for 99p!) and seasonal jigsaw puzzle already.

Final words…

I hope I’ve inspired you to make your own bucket list for summer 2024 full of exciting activities you’d like to try and maybe some old seasonal favourites. Creating a plan which is unique to you, is a great way to explore possibilities for the upcoming months so as to ensure you make the most of all of the free time you have available to you.

Wishing you a fun summer,

art, bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, Cricut, lifestyle, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my Bullet Journal for May 2024: Gardening quotes and flowers theme

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Laura

This month, it’s time for me to start a new bullet journal and the one I’ve chosen is the Tsuki ‘suzume’ from Notebook Therapy. Suzume is Japanese for sparrow and, as a bird lover, this was the perfect choice for me. The notebook features gold embossing of a sparrow carrying a flower in its beak plus a crescent moon, shooting star and sparkles on the front of the gorgeous pink linen cover. There’s also small details such as the same flower to the spine, plus gold edges to the pages which are really special touches too.

For my theme this time, I’ve chosen a combination of gardening quotes and pretty flowers. I’ve mainly used stickers to decorate my pages but I did take the time to create a hand drawn and coloured in image for my front cover. Hopefully, this month the weather will be a little warmer (and drier) and there will be a few more opportunities to get outside to tend to our flower beds and pots and see our bright blooms appear. We’re also hoping to spend some time relaxing on our garden bench (including after dark looking for our hedgehog visitor) and I might even get to enjoy my morning coffee in the sunshine. Fingers crossed!

So, here are my pages for the month of May. I hope you enjoy looking at them and I would love to hear your thoughts or questions about any aspect of my set up in the comments below.

Front cover

I enjoyed using a combination of Tombow Dual Brush pens and Crayola Supertips to colour in my hand drawn design. I then added the spots to the watering can using a Sakura gelly roll pen to add more interest.

Month on two pages

The sticker decor for this page was all created using images from Cricut Design Space and turning them into print and cut images. I couldn’t resist adding a few sparkles using a Uniball Signo gold glitter pen.

Finances

My usual chart to record my incomings and outgoings.

Weekly plans

I’ve done the same set up for each of my weeklies and used flower decor throughout. This is for the first week which I’ve already started to fill in. I’ve been busy making tiny icon stickers to use to represent different activities and I’m continuing to add to my collection. This will make my planning process quicker and more visual.

Final words…

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog post and look at my bullet journal spreads today. I appreciate any form of support or encouragement towards my blog whether that’s reading my content, liking my posts, making comments or asking questions – especially as things seem to have gone a little quiet over the last few months (sob!).

Wishing you a joy filled May whatever your plans are for the month. I’m hoping to get the rest of my Spring bucket list ticked off as there are still quite a few items left including a waterfall walk and a bike ride!

art, bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, Cricut, lifestyle, Planning and journaling, watercolour painting

Setting up my Bullet Journal for April 2024: Houseplants theme

Posted on Apr 11, 2024Apr 11, 2024 by Laura

For this month’s BuJo theme, I took inspiration from a cute little gift bag I found in one of my local garden centres. I made stickers to decorate most of my spreads but wanted to do some watercolouring for the front cover. Unfortunately, I’ve been ill with a bad chest infection so, although most of my pages have been set up since the beginning of the month, I was only well enough to work on my painting for the last few days. I was really pleased with the finished design and wanted the gold effects to be seen in my bullet journal so I’ve actually trimmed the watercolour paper and stuck it in. Usually, I wouldn’t do this, but as I’m nearly at the end of my notebook, I’m not so bothered with the bulk it has added.

The front cover

My finished cover image had to be trimmed down slightly to make it fit in my bullet journal which was a shame but I hadn’t intended to glue it in so I didn’t check the paper size. When I scan my paintings in, it’s easy enough to shrink them to fit so I always use an A5 watercolour piece of paper.

I had great fun mixing the colours for the pots and leaves and I loved using my Finetec palette to add some gold detailing. The shimmering effect is so pretty and I’m excited to open my BuJo each morning to check my schedule for the day. To get the shelves looking super sharp and straight, I applied washi tape to the bottom of each and then used a light sand Tombow marker to colour in. You can probably see that it’s not watercolour but I really don’t mind! The April title is a little sticker I made using a font I found on Canva.

Monthly Calendar pages

Last month, I had another free trial of Canva Pro so I typed in ‘watercolour houseplants’ and chose my favourite images to use as stickers. Cricut have finally fixed the issue with their print and cut sticker offset in Design Space so I was able to print my sticker sheets straightaway without having to reboot my computer. I’m so pleased they eventually sorted the problem as it saves so much time.

Expenses

I decided to use a mid green Tombow brush pen to highlight every other line in my expenses chart this month. It takes a while to do them, as I use washi tape strips to get the bottom of the lines perfectly straight, but I think it adds more interest to the spread. I left enough room to add three pot plants as decor too.

Weekly plans

April is another busy month so I wanted plenty of space to record daily events and to do lists but also a little room to add some plant stickers. I decided not to do a Dutch door layout this time but stuck with the horizontal days. I’ve added my running task lists to the pages after my weeklies like I did in March. The leaves across the top were created using a single leaf shape spaced out and in different orientations to make a kind of border to fill the space. I created one for each week and I think it finishes the pages nicely.

Final words…

Thank you for taking the time to look at my bullet journal pages for this month – I hope you like my chosen theme and my designs. I apologise for sharing them so late but I’ve been feeling completely wiped out for several weeks. I’m still not totally better but I managed to go to Clubbercise yesterday and Zumba today, so my energy levels have certainly improved.

I hope you’re all having a lovely April and that the weather where you are is better than it is here in Sunderland – we’ve had so much rain recently and one of the flower beds in our back garden is completely flooded and has been that way for weeks.

Much love,

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, Cricut, Planning and journaling, sticker making

Setting up my Bullet Journal for March 2024: Spring / Easter theme

Posted on Mar 6, 2024Mar 6, 2024 by Laura

As Easter falls at the end of March this year, I decided to do an Easter theme for my bullet journal with some Spring elements. I made a list of words associated with both (decorated eggs, chicks, bunnies, tulips, daffodils etc.) and then searched for images on Design Space which I could use to decorate my spreads. I added lots of images to my canvas and used the sticker making function to create a set of kiss cut stickers on a transparent background. I hope you like my pages as much as I do.

Cover page

As I was searching Cricut Design Space for Easter bunnies to use as stickers, I found this cute cut file of a yellow rabbit with flowers and leaves cut from the body. I had some bright yellow cardstock which was perfect as it was relatively thin and wouldn’t add too much bulk in my BuJo. It took me four attempts to get it to work out well as it was quite delicate but I got there in the end! When I placed it on the page, I felt like something was missing so I experimented with placing different coloured papers behind the image and thought this pink colour created a nice contrast.

The calendar pages

I had great fun making tons of stickers in Cricut Design Space but, unfortunately had lots of issues with the program printing a black line around each of the images. It was so frustrating and I ended up having to bin lots of transparent sticker papers which was costly and such a waste. I resorted to contacting Cricut about it who were very helpful but the problem hasn’t been fixed properly yet.

Anyway, I persevered and I love how the stickers and my pages turned out.

Finances pages

This is my usual income and expenditure record set up with a cute bit of decoration at the bottom. I’m enjoying using the transparent sticker paper but I have a feeling that Cricut are no longer making it as many of the branches of Hobbycraft are out of stock.

Weekly plans

Again, I’ve used a simple Dutch Door set up for my weeklies this month. I couldn’t resist adding more stickers to the days though! The decorative eggs along the top are actually a roll of sticker tape from Hobbycraft. Some of them have gold foil on them but the camera hasn’t picked it up.

I haven’t finished setting up the last two weeklies but I have added the stickers and used Easter chicks for the third week (some real photograph style and others cartoon style) and Easter baskets and Spring blooms for the final week.

Weekly running task list

I’m not sure if I’ve shared my running task lists before but it something I use each week. I add to the list daily and assign tasks to a day of the week or multiple days for longer tasks. This month, I’ve put all of the weekly calendars together and the task lists afterwards but sometimes I’ll put them together. I use the two ribbon bookmarks to mark the pages for easy access.

Final words…

That’s all of my pages for this month and I’m super happy with how they turned out. I’ve just signed up for another free trial of Canva Pro so I can’t wait to make more stickers using images on there. Although Cricut Design Space has some lovely images, there are some even nicer ones on Canva Pro.

Wishing you a wonderful March filled with lots of lovely Springtime activities,

Bullet journaling, goal setting, life hacks, lifestyle, Planning and journaling, Setting goals and intentions, wellbeing

Monday Matters: A guide to creating your own seasonal bucket list for Spring 2024

Posted on Mar 4, 2024Mar 6, 2024 by Laura

For Autumn 2023 and Winter 23/24, I have thoroughly enjoyed and benefitted from creating my own personalised bucket lists and adding my seasonal ideas to a two page spread in my bullet journal for inspiration and reference. For each of the seasons, I also handmade and stitched a pretty TN wide size notebook to go in my TN journal where I added photographs, text, a variety of stickers, ephemera and tip ins to record my achievements over the months. I’ve found the bucket lists a great way to plan in some interesting and exciting activities, set some goals and ensure my husband and I make the most of each season of the year. So, today, I’m sharing my bucket list for Spring 2024, in the hope that you will be inspired to create your own and live your life to the full.

What is a bucket list?

A bucket list is a number of items that a person would like to achieve, experience or bring into fruition over a given time frame. This could be over a lifetime, a year, or, as with mine, during a specific season. There are many benefits of creating and working towards things on your bucket list including:

Helping you to reflect on what is important to you as an individual and what you really want from life
Offers you a number of things to look forward to over the chosen time frame, increases your excitement levels
Providing you with a visual reminder and the focus and motivation you need to move towards your goals
Creating a sense of accomplishment
Pushes you out of your comfort zone which is really good for your personal growth

You can create one which is just for you, or you could make plans with your partner, a close friend or even sit down as a family to come up with some ideas together.

My Spring 2024 Bucket List

Here’s my bucket list for this season in my bullet journal. The words and images were all made into stickers using Cricut Design Space and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I’ve included a little ceramic bunny I purchased, the wooden egg which I got in the Hobbycraft sale last year and the jigsaw I picked out which I can’t wait to get started with. I’m yet to make the handstitched notebook but I have lots of floral papers which will be suitable for the cover.

So, how do I get started with my Spring seasonal bucket list?

There’s plenty of seasonal bucket list inspiration online but I like to spend some time in quiet contemplation first. That way, what I add to my list is all about what I want rather than what others believe would make a good Springtime.

Consider your core values and what really matters – Spend some time thinking about what is most important to you in your life or what you wish to focus on more. You might want more fun and adventure, better balance between work, rest and play, opportunities to develop your creativity, new experiences or the chance to learn a new skill. You might want to experiment more in the kitchen, spend lots of time in nature or plan some different day trips to places in your local area. Living in alignment with your personal values is key to improved psychological wellbeing which includes your general happiness levels and outlook.

Think about the particular season you are making plans for – consider the weather associated with Springtime and any particular holidays or events which take place during the season. So, for example, in Spring, the temperature is starting to rise during the day but the evenings are still pretty cool. In Britain, the weather can be calm and dry, but, showers are also pretty common and it can often be a bit breezy. Buds and blossom begin to appear and early blooms such as snowdrops, crocuses, iris and daffodils begin to pop up in the flower beds. Spring is also the time for observing and listening to wildlife too. Bumblebees and butterflies start to make an appearance and hibernating animals such as bats and hedgehogs can be seen from dusk into the night. You might find frogspawn in ponds and watch tiny froglets appear in a matter of weeks. Birds are noisier and livelier as they pair off and start to nest and spring visitors such as swifts, swallows and house martins begin to arrive.

Mother’s Day and Easter both fall in the Springtime and there are, of course, a few Bank Holidays to look forward to. And if you want to find out about events specific to your town or city this website is a great source of information.

Write down every idea that comes to mind – Make a list of potential ideas, big and small, inexpensive and more costly, time consuming and quick. This could include a visit to Pinterest and other sites to look at bucket list ideas and inspirational images.

Refine your list – Having written a long list, it’s time to decide which items are the best fit for your values and priorities. Try to choose some activities which you enjoy each year and are somewhat traditional, but also make sure you include some which are completely new and will push you out of your comfort zone.

Choose a place to store your list – Having a finalised record of your bucket list is important if you want your aspirations to become a reality. Depending on your personal preferences, you might choose to put your list in your planner or journal or have a digital document in Notion of Microsoft Word. There’s even a website and online community dedicated to bucket lists! And, if you relish every opportunity to get creative, like I do, you can make a physical copy of your list with fancy lettering, motivational phrases, sketches, stickers and inspirational images. You might even find you’re excited to share it with your friends and family too.

Remember things can change – Your finished bucket list is a set of items that you hope to experience this Spring but, it’s not a list of commitments or things that you must do or achieve over the time period. You may find that priorities or circumstances change and that some of the items become less important or need to be put on hold for another year. You might also learn of some new opportunities as the season progresses which you want to add to your list or replace an item with.

Previous Bucket Lists

I think I’ve previously shared my Autumn and Winter bucket lists but thought readers might like to see them again for examples of the kinds of thing you could add and how you might decorate a spread in your notebook or bullet journal.

I achieved everything on my Autumn one but didn’t get to play in the snow over the Winter time as it was mostly wet and often quite mild. I still included all of the items in my Traveler’s Notebook journal. but I wrote a few lines about the weather and the impact it had on the season.

Final words…

Creating a bucket list for the season is a wonderful way to plan in some interesting, fun and different activities for the coming months. I also enjoyed making stickers to go with the items on my list but if you prefer, you could have a go at drawing and colouring in some little pictures instead.

Let me know a couple of items that you want to add to your list for Spring 2024. I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas and hope you thoroughly enjoy creating some new memories.