This month, I’ve gone with a pumpkins and squashes theme which includes stickers I made using my Cricut Joy and my own watercolour painting. I got most of the layouts done about a week ago but spent a good while yesterday playing with my paints and then creating my front cover. I hope you like my art work as I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
Front Cover
The idea for the theme and cover this month comes from my experience of going to a pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. The wheelbarrow is based on the actual one we used to put our squashes in but I used artistic license to create a the different varieties of pumpkin as we only picked out three small ones to take home.
Before painting I sketched out the wheelbarrow and placement of the squashes with light pencil. I also practised doing the straw and mud on the ground by creating a darkish yellow wash and then using a dry fan brush to create a messy effect. I think it works nicely and I hope you can tell what I was trying to achieve. The sky was created with a pale blue turquoise wash and I used scrunched up paper towel to lift the paint to create a loose cloud effect.
The original artwork – the paper has curled so I need to put it under a heavy book!
Rather than glue the thick, watercolour paper in, which would add too much bulk, I’ve scanned it in on 110gsm paper and stuck in it. The colours aren’t exactly the same, but I’m happy with it.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Calendar page
The calendar is made of my usual 6 x 6 boxes using a 0.3 Pigma Micron. The November title was created using a brown Tombow brush pen and I added the year for reference so I can quickly see when it was produced (I’m getting quite a collection of old BuJos now!) The squash designs were from Canva Pro and I made the stickers using my Cricut Joy. The offset isn’t perfect as usual but I think they look okay.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Finances page
This month, I’ve only created one page instead of the usual double page layout. This is because I’m taking part in No Spend November and so my only personal expenses should be for essentials rather than luxury items. The page to the right of it will be for a spot of journalling about how we get on with our challenge.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
First weekly plan
I’m trying a different layout this week to see how I get on with having more room to write each day. As part of the set up, the second page is folded in half and this is so that I can see my task list all week and can transfer items from it to my daily plan as and when I decided which day I want to complete or start a particular task. I’ve taken a couple of photographs to show how it works.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
The washi tape is part of an autumnal set I picked up at The Range. It’s not wonderful quality but there are some nice designs and colours.
Final words…
Thank you for taking the time to check out my bullet journal spreads for November. I hope you like them all. It’s been a while since I did some watercolour painting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Using watercolours is a wonderful mindful activity and, for me, it was a great way to spend a few hours over the weekend whilst the weather was completely miserable. You don’t even need to paint an actual picture, just messing about with the paint and different techniques is enough to calm the mind.
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.
My gorgeous new journals for the Autumn time – such a contrast!
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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!
This month, I debated doing an autumnal theme using my own stickers. However, I’m yet to give sticker making a go on my Cricut Joy so I’m going to save this idea until October. For September, I decided to create my pages using a range of stamps from a set I got with a craft magazine a few years ago. The images feature a range of crafting tools, many of which I use myself when I’m journalling. This is the first time I’ve used stamps in my bullet journal and I’m really pleased with how my spreads turned out. Today, as well as showing my September set up, I thought I’d also share some tips on using ink stamps effectively.
Front cover
I started my cover page by stamping September in the centre using typewriter style alphabet rubber stamps from Hobbycraft, and then adding the year underneath. I then took the larger of the stamps and added the images in pre-determined spaces. After this, I filled in with the smaller stamps. I used StazOn black ink throughout as I’ve found that this produces crisp images and doesn’t soak into the page. Following the drying time, I coloured in using the brush tip of some of my Tombow Dual Tips and also added a box around the month.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Calendar pages
This is my usual calendar set up for the month with the grid drawn out using a 0.3 Pigma Micron and a 0.05 for the numbers. Again, I planned where to put the larger stamps and them filled in the gaps with smaller images.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
September finances record
Again, this is my usual finances record of my income and outgoings with some decoration using the same stamps set.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Weekly plan for the first week
As I have quite a few appointments, a training session and hopefully some university sessions next month, I will be creating a weekly plan as well as my usual rolling to do list. I’ve got the first one ready and will make the others as and when I need them.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Covering up a big mistake
Sometimes, even when you’ve spent a while planning a page, an ink stamp print messes up completely and can’t really be fixed. When this happens I like to use my correction mouse to cover over the printing and then find something pretty to cover the page. I found this positive message as a free download and resized it to A5. I then printed it on sticker paper and stuck it in.
TV series watched record
I’ve just completed my first TV tracker so I made a new one for the rest of the year. Not only does this serve as a reminder of what we’ve watched, it’s also good for TV series recommendations to give to others. As this is not part of my September pages, I chose a pretty floral stamp to finish things off and then coloured the images using a dusky rose colour Tombow.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Tips for using ink stamps in your Bullet Journal
Stamps are a great way to quickly decorate your bullet journal pages but they take a little getting used to. Here’s some beginner friendly tips to help you get the most out of your stamping experience:
choose good quality ink I love the StazOn ink, and although it’s more expensive, you get what you pay for and this one prints beautifully creating a thin and crisp image.
dress appropriately Stamps can be quite messy and it’s easy to get ink everywhere. I recommend putting on an old top before you start. I have several tops and pairs of leggings which I wear whilst doing any form of crafting and there are various marks and cuts on them
allow drying time When you print, the ink sits on the page and so takes a while to dry. This means you need to allow time for it to dry. If you don’t, you may smudge your images and make a mess of your page.
make sure your BuJo has thick paper If you don’t want bleed through or ghosting, I recommend only using stamps in BuJos with thicker GSM paper. My current notebook is 160 GSM and is the perfect thickness
test and practise Before I use the stamps, I always test them out on scrap paper. This gives you the chance to see if there are any areas of the image which tend to not print properly and need a little more pressure. Testing them is also a good opportunity to practise and refine your stamping skills
plan your page and stamp placement Spend some time planning out your page and where you want to put your stamps before you ink them up. Visualising your finished page before you start is the best way to create a spread you love.
ensure the whole of your stamp is covered in ink Getting your stamp fully inked but not too covered takes some practise, but after a while, you will become more confident in doing this. This is another reason why I love the black StazOn ink because the pad is firm which means you don’t end up over-coating your stamp.
place and lift your stamp carefully Again, this takes practise but you want to ensure the stamping block presses on evenly and that you remove the block slowly and precisely.
fill in any unstamped bits If there are small areas which didn’t quite print properly, use a thin fineliner to draw them in (make sure you wait for the ink to dry first!). Always make sure your pen is waterproof if you plan on colouring in the images. I use a Pigma Micron in a 0.1.
use water based pens to colour in I use Tombows to colour in my images. Again, it’s best to practise as you may find that some smudge the ink. For example, despite being water-based Zebra Mildliners are notorious for smearing.
clean your stamps Always take the time to clean your stamps and place them back on the storage sheet. This means that they won’t get lost and you have an image guide for each stamp
cover up Don’t forget to place the lid firmly on your ink to prevent it drying out.
Final words…
Thank you for taking the time to look at and read about my pages for September – I would love to know what you think of them. If you’re keen to try out ink stamping, I hope my beginner tips prove to be useful. If you have any more questions about stamping, drop them in the comments and I will try to answer them as best I can.
Today, as I write this blog post, I have the window in my craft room wide open and a large bottled of iced water on my desk to sip from. The weather has finally improved after days of rain, and the sun is peeping out from behind the clouds. I was beginning to think the summer was over but it appears to be back, for a brief time at least judging by the forecast! August is almost here and it is one of my favourite months as my niece and I share our birthdays on the 3rd (which coincides with factory shut down week so my husband can take some well earned time off from his office job), plus we celebrate our wedding anniversary (17 years on the 11th!). As we will be busy making the most of holiday time next week, I started working on my spreads super early, this time, choosing a seasonal theme of ice cream and ice lollies.
Cover page
Once I had decided on the theme, I spent some time searching Google for pictures of bullet journal spreads that others had shared, doodles of ice creams and lollies, plus photos of some of my childhood favourites and different types of cones. I then printed off lots of examples for inspiration for my spreads.
For the cover, I opted for some brush lettering in the centre of the page with just a simple hello August. I wasn’t happy with my first attempt, so I practised on my pad of dot grid paper then cut out the title when I was happy with it. The slim border around the cut out is created using mint green ink on a finger sponge dauber which I lightly pressed all around the edge. One the lettering was sorted, I then penciled in a range of ice creams and ice lollies before using a 0.2 Pigma Micron to outline and a 0.05 to create the cross hatching for the cones. Finally, I used Tombows and Mildliners in pastel colours to complete the doodles.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Calendar page
The calendar pages features my usual 6×6 grid spaces boxes with a pop of colour for the dates. I enjoyed creating the doodles for these pages and I’m pleased with how they turned out. I messed up once so I covered the mistake with a sticker I created using a Google image.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Finances and habits pages
Although the beginning of August is likely to be expensive for our joint finances, I’m hoping to keep my personal spending relatively low so I’ve made my outgoings table even shorter than last month. This left a big space at the bottom of the page, so I filled it with some habit trackers. Recently, I’ve started going to bed really late and by the time I’ve read my Kindle for a bit, it’s gone midnight. Because of this, I’ve been sleeping in and not getting as much done with my day. So as not to put too much pressure on myself, I’ve set myself the target of being up by 8.30am for August which will still be a bit of a challenge but hopefully doable. The rest of the habits I want to instill are related to my goals for 2023.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Final words…
That’s all of the pages I’ve created for August so far and when I draw up my weekly plans, I will probably keep them fairly minimal. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my designs and I look forward to seeing other creations and theme ideas as they are shared.
Wishing you all a fun-filled August with lots of opportunities to create happy memories,
Journalling is the act of writing down your thoughts, feelings, actions and experiences on paper or in digital form. There are many different types of journalling practices and for today’s Monday Matters post, I’m going to share ten popular ones, most of which I’ve tried and benefitted from myself.
What are the benefits of keeping a journal?
The particular benefits of keeping a journal depend on the style you choose but can include:
a reduction in stress or anxiety
increased productivity
better time management
a place to record daily life
a tool for organising your priorities, your routines or your to-do list
clarification of your thoughts and feelings
a place to think about and solve problems
a way to get to know yourself better (becoming more self aware)
a chance to see negative thought patterns and behaviours
a safe space to explore your emotions
a place to express yourself in writing and improve your writing composition
an opportunity to get creative
somewhere to track your progress or achievements over time
improved sleep by getting your worries down on paper and out of your head
a place to note down important ideas or things you want to remember
Diary / personal journal
A personal journal or diary provides a space to write each day and is usually kept private due to the nature of the content. You can include whatever you like inside such as summaries of events or places visited, how you have felt today and why, lessons learnt, relationships, thoughts or worries. Depending on how much flexibility you want in terms of how much you write, you could choose a between a range of sizes (from pocket to A4 size) with printed diary pages pages, a long term ‘line a day’ style or a completely blank lined or unlined notebook which you can add the date to and fill in with as much or as little detail as you like.
Gratitude journalling
Gratitude journalling is the practice of writing down what you’re thankful for each day and can take just five minutes first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening before bed. I used to create a double page, two lines a day spread in my bullet journal which I filled in at the end of each day, but now, I use the gratitude space in The Five Minute Journal morning section. A lined notebook would work just as well and if you choose one which is really pretty and has nice, smooth paper you’re much more likely to reach for it. It’s up to you what you write but here’s a few ideas:
something good that happened today / yesterday
a person in your life which you’re particularly grateful for
a challenge you’re facing which is helping you learn
a helpful resource – a magazine article, a podcast, a non-fiction book, a YouTube video etc
a positive change in your life
something that brightened your day
hobbies and interests which you’re glad to have
personal strengths, abilities and skills you’re grateful for
something in your life that you tend to take for granted
something new that you’ve treated yourself to
Bullet journalling
The bullet journal system (or BuJo for short) was created by Ryder Carroll and is a way of organising your life in a single notebook (either an analogue or digital version). There are so many benefits to using a bullet journal including increased productivity, better time management, tracking personal progress and growth, helping you work towards your goals, stress reduction, keeping lists which you can refer back to and use again, better self awareness, a place to get creative if you so wish, great for instilling and monitoring habits, a space to record your ideas, helps you see exactly how much you’ve achieved each day / week / month and so on. A comprehensive guide to The Bullet Journal Method is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle and is well worth a read if the idea of becoming more organised appeals.
Morning pages
Writing morning pages is a journalling exercise which involves putting pen to paper first thing every morning and writing whatever pops into your head without editing or censoring. The idea is that, each day, as soon as you wake up, you sit down and fill exactly three A4 sheets with whatever comes into your mind. The writing doesn’t have to make sense, be correctly spelt or punctuated. It isn’t read afterwards either. and is for your eyes only. Done regularly, this type of journalling promises a cathartic and ritualistic practice which is designed to increase confidence, clear the mind and pave the way for greater creativity.
Prompted journals
If you need help with what to write in your journal, prompted journals are a great place to start. There are lots of different versions available at a range of price points. Some offer daily practices and include sections such as gratitude, self care, top priorities for your day, feelings check ins, nightly reflections and so on. Others, such as the Five Minute Self Care series, can be dipped into as and when and you can flick through and choose a prompt for your writing.
Memory keeping journal
This is one of my favourite types of journalling as you can create pages about literally anything that’s happened in your life. Looking back through one of my traveller’s notebook inserts from last year, I have journalling and photos from when we went away for my dad’s 80th and my mum’s 70th, a few pages about a National Trust property we visited, some journalling about our fancy new microwave and how smart it looked in our kitchen, an introduction to Millie the hamster and photos from when she was a little baby, photographs of my new haircut and the curls my hairdresser created, a day trip to York where we walked along the wall and had some tasty vegan and veggie foods (complete with our menu choices), and finally a trip to Brimham Rocks. I’ve been keeping this type of journal for about 6 years now and they’re so lovely to look back on and re-read. I even hand make the notebooks using my own choice of pretty paper for the covers.
Travel journal
This is another type of memory keeping journal which is used to document holidays and trips. I’ve been keeping these for a few years now and even create my own handstitched notebooks for the purpose. Whilst I’m away, I collect bits and pieces to stick in such as maps showing walks we’ve taken, business cards from restaurants, tickets from places we’ve visited, postcards to remind me of scenery, art exhibitions we’ve been to or particular historic buildings, packaging and brochures. I also spend a few minutes each evening briefly recording what we did that day, how I felt and anything amusing that happened.
What you record in your travel journal is entirely up to you but I like to start with our travel information such as dates of the holiday, modes of transport, flight numbers, journey times, hotel bookings etc. I then include photographs, memorabilia and bits of journalling for each day of the trip and then finish with a summary of the holiday on the final pages of the notebook.
Art journal
If you’re not too keen on expressing yourself in written form, another great way of articulating your thoughts and feelings or getting creative is to keep an art journal. Any size and type of notebook will work but thicker paper is best to avoid bleed through (where your work seeps through to the other side) or ghosting (where you can see your work through to the next), You can also choose any type of material to practise with such as pencil, crayon, markers, ink, paint or paper for collage style layering, or you can combine a few of the above to create a mixed media piece. There’s no right or wrong way to do it – the key is to experiment and enjoy the process.
Reading journal
If you’re a bookworm, keeping a reading journal is the perfect way to record what you read and when, your thoughts and feelings about the book as you read, chapter summaries (particularly with non-fiction), any quotes you’d like to remember, an overall evaluation when you finish and a star rating to show how much you enjoyed the book. If you use an app such as Storygraph, you can even include reading focused graphs and charts too.
Garden journal
As some of my readers will know, I started a gardening journal in the spring of this year. One of my goals for this year, with my husband’s help, is to keep on top of our back garden (weeding, deadheading, pruning, tending, planting etc) and create a bright and colourful space which is a haven for wildlife. Obviously, it’s a work in progress, but my journal has helped me with recording to do lists, planting schedules, week-by-week planning, pest control, seed setting and seedling transplanting and so on. It’s also been a place to keep printed versions of articles I’ve read and tips from the various websites I’ve visited. If you’re a keen gardener or want to become more green-fingered, a garden journal is a great support and place for recording information which reflects all of your hard work. You can find out more about the benefits here.
Final words…
I hope that today’s post has inspired you to give journalling a go and reap some of the associated benefits. I would love to know which type of journal appeals the most and why. I’m also keen to know if anyone has tried Morning Pages and found them beneficial. I like the idea but, as an experienced teacher, I’m not sure I could write something without a care for spelling, grammar and punctuation, let alone three whole pages of A4!
Keeping it creative 