BuJo – Keeping it creative

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

Setting up my Bullet Journal for December 2023: Christmas, snow globes and decorative glass domes theme

Posted on Dec 2, 2023 by Laura

This month’s theme contains a mixture of elements related to Christmas and winter. Whilst visiting the haberdashery and craft selection at Boyes Department store, I came across some sweet sets of seasonal stickers. This snow globe and glass jar themed pack really caught my eye so I treated myself to a sheet (despite it being no spend November!). I decided to use the stickers for my calendar page and my first weekly but I wanted a large image for my cover so I’ve had a go at creating a watercolour snowy scene in a snow globe to scan, print and glue in which is in a similar style to the stickers. After that, for the remainder of the month, I’m going to be using general Christmassy stickers made using images from Canva Pro. I hope you enjoy looking at my spreads for December and I would love to hear what theme my fellow bullet journallers have chosen for the month.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative blog

The front cover

The front cover image was painted on watercolour paper using my Winsor & Newton tubes, plus some gold and silver from my Finetec palette. Unfortunately the gold and silver don’t show up very well in the scanned image so I used some sparkly gold paper as a background with the addition of some holly leaf and berry borders at the top and bottom. I was debating having a go at painting over the top of the sticker paper with the gold and silver paints but I’m worried it won’t turn out as well as the original or it might end up getting spoilt.

Monthly calendar

This page came together really quickly and I think it looks really eye-catching. Along with the stickers, I added some sparkles using a gold glitter Uniball Signo and a strip of glittery stars to separate the December 2023 title and fill in the gap underneath. I used a Pigma Micron PN pen in a very dark red to number the boxes in the calendar. I love how the month finishes on a Sunday so that the calendar for January will go neatly across the top of the page in my next spreads!

Finances

The set of stickers had a few separate groups of trees so I’ve used these to decorate my title for my finances spread. I’ve also used one of the larger snow globes and another strip of glitter stars to finish the bottom of the page.

Winter Bucket List

In my previous post, I shared how I was going to create another bucket list for winter as I thoroughly enjoyed creating the autumn one and journalling about the process. I’ve included the actual list in my bullet journal but, like last time, I’ll be making a wide TN journal book to go in my Carpe Diem Traveler’s Notebook to record what I did for each item on the list. This will be instead of doing December Daily as it means I can work on it from the beginning of December to the end of February 2024.

Winter Aesthetic Inspiration Board

Again, I created one of these for Autumn and had great fun setting it up, using photographs from Canva Pro and phrases created using Cricut Design Studio. This one looks just as good I think and was well worth the time and effort involved. I wanted to add some more snowflakes in different shades but I’m having problems with cutting small items using my Cricut Joy so I’ll have to add them at a later date.

Christmas Gift List

The first of many Christmas related spreads that I hope to get done this month. This is a space to record gift ideas, purchases and expenditure for family and friends. All of the stickers were created in Cricut Design Space and made using my Cricut Joy.

Weekly Spread One

I’ve been changing my weekly spreads each week according to how much work I have on at the university but I’ve decided to create a two page spread for the first week of December because I was eager to leave room for some stickeration! I’ll probably do the same for the remaining weeks because I’ve got a big stash of general Christmas themed stickers in a mini envelope on my craft desk.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my December BuJo spreads for 2023. I’ve seen some lovely set ups on YouTube already but I look forward to seeing many more. I know many people use digital planners nowadays but I love setting mine up in my notebook each month and you can’t beat being able to flick through the pages to keep organised.

Wishing you all a happy and stress free December and an enjoyable time with your family during the holidays.

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, gardening, Planning and journaling

Setting up my Bullet Journal for June 2023: Gardening theme

Posted on May 31, 2023May 31, 2023 by Laura

At the moment, my husband and I are busy working on our garden to get it looking neat, tidy and full of colour for the summer. I’ve recently started keeping a gardening journal which includes before photos of the front and back gardens, lists of jobs for the weekend, planting plans and records of seeds set and plants added to the borders. I wanted my theme for June to be bright and cheerful, with easy to set up pages so I decided to order some deco stickers from Etsy for the month. So far, I’ve picked out one sheet of watercolour garden related images and have used them to decorate the cover page and my calendar. I also used some icon stickers for my first weekly spread and will decide if I want to order further stickers to decorate or if I want to do some basic sketches for the rest of the weeks.

If you’re looking to create decorative but quick pages for your bullet journal, stickers and washi can be great options but obviously do incur an extra cost. They’re also great choices if you’re not keen on drawing or need to save time. You can literally type your chosen theme into Etsy, filter to UK sellers only if you need the sticker sheets quickly, select a design sheet which suits your personal style, and then, as soon as they arrive you can get to work planning out where to put them in your spreads. I found that the most frustrating part was creating my grids and lettering and then having to wait for what felt like ages for delivery but the sheet was made to order so had a lead time of two weeks.

My front cover

I used one of my new Tombows in 991 to add the title to the centre of the page and then created a loose border using a 0.4 pigma micron pen. I then added stickers around the title and placed washi plus some circles to fill in the spaces at the top and bottom.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Calendar pages

This is my usual 6×6 grid space calendar layout and I chose four Tombow Dual Tip pens which I tried to match to the stickers. I knew that the colours might not be exact as they can differ on your screen to IRL but I didn’t mind as long as they were close. As I was running short on stickers by the time I’d finished the cover page I added a quote on some kraft grid sticker paper and matched it with a strip on the edge and then used various sparkles to fill in the gaps.

Finances

The layout of my finances spread works really well for me so I use the same design each month. There was a little space at the bottom to add a small amount of decoration using a piggy bank sticker from EllenBeeMakes on Etsy, a hand drawn little calculator and some words which I printed on sticker paper.

Weekly calendar and rolling weekly to do list

I decided to do a double page weekly for the first calendar page as I have quite a lot planned and needed more room to write. This means that my rolling weekly task list is over the page but I don’t mind flipping back and forth.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my spreads for the month of June. I don’t regularly use stickers to decorate my pages as it would be fairly costly but it is an effective way of setting up quickly and painlessly. I still managed to mess up a few times – once by smudging pen (the joys of being a leftie) and again by dripping cherries and berries squash on one of the pages (planning is thirsty work!) but my white Posca paint pen and some washi fixed those pretty well. Overall, I’m pleased with how everything turned out and I’m looking forward to using my pages.

My lovely stickers which are now all used!

Wishing you a lovely June,

art, bullet journal, Bullet journaling, lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my Bullet Journal for May 2023: Travel theme

Posted on May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by Laura

This month, we’re finally going on our long awaited holiday to Vienna in Austria. It was originally planned for August 2020 but in March of that year, obviously COVID-19 hit and our flights were cancelled. My husband re-arranged for May 2021 but restrictions were still in place, so we made the decision to wait for another year. Everything is now booked (including an overnight stay in a hotel in Manchester as our flight is from there) and during the last month we have again started to think about what we’re going to take with us in the hold and in our hand luggage and what we want to see and do over the 5 days.

As we were making our plans, I decided it would be nice to create scrapbook style spreads with photographs of our hotel, plus must visit locations including parks, buildings and attractions. I’ve not finished all of my travel planning spreads yet but I’m making good progress and I’m happy with everything I’ve done so far.

My cover page

After printing mini photographs on my Canon Selphy printer, I chose 5 of them to include on the front cover. Whilst searching through my journalling supplies, I found a small travel themed sticker book with mini word and icon stickers plus some tiny hearts to fill in the spaces. I also treated myself to some new washi tapes from Stationery Pal and they arrived just in time for me to use one of them in my spreads.

Monthly calendar

I’ve gone back to the slightly larger boxes for this month so I have plenty of room to record my university work, fitness classes and travel plans. Again, I’ve included mini photos of popular places in Vienna to visit and then filled in the spaces with more of the little stickers from by booklet. I didn’t really come up with a colour scheme but I wanted to go for different shades of blue to match with the bright blue skies in some of the photos.

May finances

I’m sure we’ll be spending lots in May with all the bank holidays and our trip do I’ve made my expenses section a little bigger than last month. I decided to include a photograph of the amazing rooftop bar in our hotel as I reckon we’ll be spending time and money there relaxing with a cocktail or two!

Travel information spreads

I want us to be super prepared for our trip as it helps to keep travel anxiety at bay. The booking information is all in various emails so I asked my husband to forward everything to me so I could add everything to my bullet journal. I understand why everything is done electronically now but I used to like paper copies so that I could stick things into my Traveller’s notebook as part of my scrapbooking.

So far, I’ve got our Manchester hotel booking information, the outbound and return flight details and our hotel booking information for Vienna. I’ve also written details of the train we can catch from airport and the stations we can alight at. I’ve pixelated the specifics for privacy reasons!

On the next page, I’ve included a map of Europe which shows Sunderland to Manchester (as the crow flies!) and the route from Manchester Airport to Vienna International Airport. It was also good to learn more about the countries which border Austria too. The ink I used for the stamping is Stazon which claims to allow you to use it on any surface so I tried it out on the top of one of my grid washis and it printed and dried really well.

Over the page, I’ve listed the must see and must visit places on a double page spread. This has helped me to create an itinerary for the first full day we are there.

The next spread I have planned is a list of veggie / vegan cafes and restaurants which we might go to. I’ve tried looking at the menus for various places but most of them seem to be in German. I hope they have English menus as well as I can only speak / read about five words and none of them are food names.

My final travel spread will be my comprehensive packing list. I always do one of these no matter where we are headed and for how long as it ensures I remember everything and helps me to stay calm during the packing process. In the past, sorting everything out for a trip has made me really stressed out so I now do whatever I can to make the process easier and less fraught. Does anyone else find packing and organising for a holiday stressful?

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my spreads for this month and that they’ve given you some ideas for travel planning and preparation. Obviously, for privacy reasons, I haven’t shown the exact dates for our trip or any specifics related to our journey or accommodation but I’m sure you get the idea and I may share my filled in pages on social media when we return.

Wishing you a wonderful May, whatever your plans are for the month,

art, bird spotting, bullet journal, Bullet journaling, goal setting, lifestyle, Planning and journaling, watercolour painting

Setting up my Bullet Journal for March 2023: woodland songbirds theme

Posted on Feb 26, 2023Feb 26, 2023 by Laura

My idea for my March theme came from a walk my husband and I took at Rainton Meadows which is a stunning nature reserve situated in Houghton-Le-Spring in Sunderland. Whilst heading down the path next to one of the many ponds, we heard the unmistakable twittering of a group of long tailed tits. It was easy to spot them amongst the bare branches of a nearby tree and we stood watching them flitting around, presumably collecting tiny insects. As one of my favourite little woodland birds, I enjoyed observing their busy behaviour and I commented to my husband that I would love to have a go at drawing and painting one. When we got home, I searched for photographs of these cute birds and was excited to give it a go. I decided that if I was pleased with the result, I would incorporate my painting in my March set up. Needless to say, I’m over the moon with how my watercolour turned out so it became the image for my cover page.

Front cover

My painting was based on a reference image I found online (thanks for sharing Andy Bright) and the photograph features a long tailed tit gripping on to a single branch. I’m surprised the bird stayed still enough for such a stunning portrait as I’ve never managed to take a decent photo of this sweet but flighty bird!

For my art piece, I used a combination of Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolours, a cheap white gouache, a bright white Sakura gelly roll pen and a couple of coloured pencils to sharpen a few details. I worked on a small piece of Daler Rowney Aquafine smooth watercolour paper using the wet on dry technique. It took me a while to get the two pinky colours the way I wanted them but I’m developing my colour mixing skills as I experiment. Overall, it took me about three hours to complete my work and I think it was time well spent!

As the watercolour paper is very thick, I didn’t want to paste it directly into my bullet journal so I scanned it on my printer and printed it out. The results weren’t as good as I would have liked (my printer was relatively cheap), so I experimented a bit to see if I could get something that showed the colours in their true form. In the end, I printed the painting on a 4×6 inch glossy photograph paper which I could stick into my bullet journal. I’ve now got my painting underneath a large and heavy book hoping to flatten it out a bit as it’s started to curl!

Monthly Calendar

I wanted to continue with the woodland birds theme but knew that I would struggle to draw quick and simple birds and get my pages completed in good time, so I decided to search Google images for some watercolour paintings that I liked and then printed out mini versions on photo paper. I wish I could credit all of the original artists here but as I couldn’t always find them I will encourage my readers to search for the works online should they wish to find out who they were painted by.

Finances

I’m still benefitting from keeping a record of my income and expenses so I’ve done another financial tracker this month. I also found some little piggy bank stickers in my stash so I decided to add one as decoration to go with some new watercolour washi I got from Amazon.

Habits trackers

I’ve been tracking some of my habits as part of my rolling weekly but decided I want to keep a better record, so I created a whole spread for them. The plan is to add a dot or a cross each day I complete my habit. I knew I had some little bird stamps in my stamping supplies so I added these as some quick decoration.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my spreads for the month of March. I’m so pleased with how my watercolour painting turned out and I’m enjoying mixing different colours and trying out a range of techniques. I think I should also celebrate getting my pages done before the end of February, photographing and uploading my images as well as typing up a quick blog post to share them.

Wishing you all a wonderful March,

art, bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, lifestyle, Planning and journaling, productivity

My new slightly later than mid year BuJo and Setting up for August – birthday balloons theme

Posted on Jul 31, 2022Aug 16, 2022 by Laura

I’ve just finished my previous bullet journal and I’m excited to be moving in to a brand new notebook. This one is again from Notebook Therapy but the cover is white vegan leather with a beautiful butterfly on the front and gilded edges to the pages. I’m already wondering how long it will stay mark free for!

As we’re off on holiday shortly I’m going to keep this post picture heavy with minimal explanation. If you want to know anything about the spreads you can always ask in the comments.

Key and index pages

Future log

Grid spacing cheat sheet

Vision board

I love how my vision board turned out. Some of the goals are ongoing from earlier in the year, some are new aspirations.

August front cover

For my theme for August, I went for birthday balloons as my niece and our share our birthdays on the 3rd August. I completed my cover page on return from our holiday to Amsterdam. To make it quicker and easier, I used a tracing paper balloon shape to create the balloons but slightly altered them when I inked them in for a hand-drawn look. I used a 0.3 Pigma micron for each balloon and a 0.1 for the strings.

August calendar pages

I haven’t managed to get chance to do the front cover page yet but it will feature lots of colourful balloons in the colour palette used for the calendar.

Reading log

A space for me to record books read in August and September and rate them out of 5 hearts.

When did I last? spread

I found this really useful in my previous bullet journal, particularly for stuff that doesn’t get done that often so I’ve created a slightly more compact version.

Packing list

I do one of these every time we go away and refer back to previous ones each time. Obviously things depend on the season where we’re going and how long for but there are some items I take on each holiday. The lists help me feel more organised and mean I don’t forget things.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my new bullet journal and my spreads. I always find it exciting to start a new notebook but at the same time I worry about making mistakes (which I inevitably do!). However, then you have the opportunity to get creative with how you fix the problem(s). Wishing you all a wonderful August.