planning – Page 2 – Keeping it creative

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, Christmas, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, watercolour painting

Setting up my Bullet Journal for December 2024: Winter foliage theme

Posted on Dec 5, 2024Dec 5, 2024 by Laura

This month, rather than doing a full on Christmas theme, I’ve taken inspiration from an artist whose content I follow on YouTube. In a recent video, she shared some easy watercolour cards featuring winter foliage, and one of the designs was a bauble shape decorated with red berries, leaf stems and pine branches. I had a go at creating my own on watercolour paper and loved how it turned out so I used it for my front cover (even gluing in the thick paper directly into my notebook). For the rest of my spreads I used felt tip pens and foliage stickers using designs found on Cricut Design Space, plus gold paint to create shine. I can’t wait to share the results with you.

Front cover

Usually, I scan and print my watercolour designs but, on this occasion, the finished result was so disappointing that I decided to stick the original straight in. It’s made my journal super bulky, and I’m only on my second month, but I’m so happy with how it looks. I added some gold sparkly paper behind it and I think it makes it really festive (unfortunately, it doesn’t show up too well in the photograph).

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Monthly calendar

This is my usual calendar with leafy sprigs, berries and pine pieces created using an array of pens including my Tombow dual tips, Papermate flairs, Pentel brush pens and a couple of American Craft precision pens. Rather than sketching the designs, I went straight in with the colour and I think the pages turned out okay. The December title is backed with another glitter paper, this time in a lovely green colour.

Finances

For some reason, the camera on my phone has made the grid appear a horrible yellowy colour, but it is, in fact and a pale green with just a hint of yellow to it. I would love to know how to correct this so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know in the comments. I might have a play with the photograph settings and see if I can improve it at all.

Monthly goals

Most of my goals for this month are taken directly from my winter bucket list and relate to Christmas. The stickers were made in Cricut Design Space and I used vinyl sticker paper which really easily ripped so I had to be super careful.

Christmas related pages

I created pages like these last Christmas and found them really useful so I’ve done the same again this year. Now that I’ve shared them on here, I can start filling them in!

I also have a Christmas packing list page to set up nearer to the time too.

My first weekly plan

Final words…

Thank you for visiting my blog to look at my Christmas bullet journal pages, I would love to know what you think to them, especially the front cover which I had great fun painting. If you like playing with watercolour, I would definitely recommend checking out the YouTube video that I drew inspiration from.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas time and all the best for 2025,

Bullet journaling, goal setting, intentional living, lifestyle, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Setting goals and intentions, sticker making

My Winter 2024-25 Bucket List: Maximizing the Season’s Potential

Posted on Nov 25, 2024 by Laura

I started creating seasonal bucket lists in autumn 2023 and earlier this year I shared a short guide to them in a blog post, where I discussed exactly what a bucket list is, the benefits of making one and some tips for deciding what to include so it is tailor made to you. Over the last week, I’ve been working on my winter 2024/5 bucket list and it’s quite different to my previous winter season one which I’m really pleased about because I want to make sure I plan new opportunities for myself and my husband.

Today, I’m sharing the two page spread I created in my bullet journal where I add the bucket list items, small illustrative stickers to go with each and a few snowflakes and sparkles to fill the gaps. Although it was quite time consuming, I had so much fun making most of the stickers using Cricut Design Space, my Cricut Joy Xtra and a couple of sheets of matte sticker paper and then planning their positions over thew two pages with an icy blue background. I also found a few extra tiny stickers in my mini Carpe Diem ‘Season’s sticker book.

My finished bucket list pages

I think the result is so aesthetically pleasing that I’ll be sure to keep checking in with pages, selecting goals for each of the winter months (obviously doing the Christmas ones in December), then deciding on one or two to complete or start to work on for each week across the season. As I finish them, I’ll be adding little tick stickers that I also made with my Cricut Joy Xtra.

Final words…

Creating a seasonal bucket list is a great way to maximize the potential of the coming months and it’s so much fun too. As you can see, I love getting creative with mine in my bullet journal but you could simply make a list and tape it to your fridge or add your own cute little doodles to show what you want to achieve.

And, if you don’t achieve it all, it doesn’t matter. You may find that your priorities change or that other opportunities present themselves that you want to do instead. You might run out of time or decide that you simply don’t want to do one or more of the items. For example, I had on my list for this season to create an autumnal quote page in my bullet journal with hand drawn elements, but, by the third week of November, I’ve still not done it and it seems pointless to spend the time drafting one out and decorating it when my focus in now on winter and what I want to do over the next three months.

I hope that seeing my bucket list for this winter has inspired you to have a go at creating your own. You’re quite welcome to use some of my ideas if you have similar interests to me and Pinterest has a good number of lists too, but I recommend taking your time and really thinking about what you love about the season, activities you’ve done before and want to make time for again, or things you’ve always wanted to try, either on your own or with loved ones. Let me know in the comments what your top three are!

Wishing you a fun filled winter season,

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, memory keeping, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, reflective journalling

Setting up my BuJo for August 2024 – Birthday theme

Posted on Jul 30, 2024 by Laura

Next month, I share my birthday with my niece, Lexi. She’s turning 13 and becoming an official teenager, and I’m going to be slightly older than that! So, I decided to go for a birthday theme for August. I seem to recall that I’ve chosen this particular theme before, but I haven’t even checked back to see my BuJo pages from that occasion, so I’m sure they’ll be completely different.

I hope you enjoy looking through my pages and that they inspire you to do something similar for your own birthday month.

The front cover

My cover was inspired by an image I found in Cricut Design Space. My birthday cake turned out quite different, but the basic shape with two tiers and four candles with stripes is the same.

When I’d finished the design, I outlined it using a Pigma Micron in 0.2 and this helped to detract from the bumpy marks where I shaded places that had a piece of ephemera on the page overleaf. I still felt something was missing and decided to add hundreds and thousands onto the iced cake, which I think made it look more special. I’m pleased with how it turned out despite initially being disappointed because of the marks on the right hand side.

The calendar

I found a few pieces of ephemera in my stash to add to these pages, and I then made a few more images to glue in using Cricut Design Space. I created the stars to add to the page to complement the ones on the cover.

Finances

This is my usual income and expenses tracker that I use to help monitor my spending with a few pieces of birthday themed ephemera for decoration. In August, I want to try to keep my purchases to only essentials in order to save money whilst I’m not doing university sessions over the Summer.

Record keeping and journalling pages

When Michael and I are taking a short holiday from work, the focus of my bullet journal pages tends to be recording events and places visited, plus a little bit of reflective journalling. I’ve set up a page for the dates around my birthday for the left hand side of the spread and a cute frame for a photograph of the two birthday girls, a number of decorative pieces from my stash and a little room for me to journal about bits and pieces from our celebrations.

Final words…

Thank you for visiting my blog today to have a look at my bullet journal set up for August 2024. I hope my pages have provided inspiration and ideas for planning, memory keeping and journalling for your own birthday or the celebrations of family.

Wishing you a healthy and happy August and don’t forget to plan in some ways to enjoy the summer now it has eventually arrived in the UK even if it has waited until the last month of the season!

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, sticker making

Setting up my Bullet Journal for June 2024: Butterflies theme

Posted on May 31, 2024 by Laura

Last night, having completed all of my spreads for next month, I had a vague recollection that I’d done a butterfly theme in my bullet journal once before. I searched my blog (much quicker than flicking through all of my BuJos) and discovered that I had indeed, back in June 2021, chosen butterflies. However, the pages are quite different today, even though I have stuck with the same calendar layout as this size is perfect for my needs. Whereas last time, I painted and drew outlined butterflies, this time I’ve made use of my Cricut machine and my favourite coloured pencils. I love how my spreads have turned out and I really enjoyed making them.

The front cover

For the front cover, I wanted to create a perfectly symmetrical butterfly outlined in black and shaded in using bright colours. I debated using paint and folded paper like we used to do at school but then I had the idea of printing and cutting an image in Cricut Design Space using sticker paper and then colouring in the interior shapes with Staedtler Ergosoft pencils. I used the add bleed feature when printing so as to ensure the outline was precise and it turned out really well. The tricky bit was peeling the shape from the backing and sticking it down straight and without wrinkles.

To ensure smooth colouring, I blended using a Derwent blending pencil. I also had to be careful to get into the edges of the cut shapes so there was no white space left. After finishing the butterfly, I couldn’t resist adding some gold sparkles using one of my Uniball Signo pens.

Monthly calendar

My calendar uses a combination of Canva Pro and Cricut Design Space. These were printed and cut on transparent vinyl. I also used Design Space fonts to create the title for both the front cover and this spread and the days of the week headers. More sparkles were added using the gold gel pen.

Finances record

Again, I used stickers and gold sparkles to decorate the bottom of my finances record so it’s in keeping with the rest of my pages.

First weekly spread

I’ve been using this layout for a while now and it provides just enough space for events and a couple of day specific to-dos. This month, I’ve decided to use some days of the week stickers I’ve had for a while, plus some tiny number stickers. Unfortunately the digits don’t quite match the words because I couldn’t find the font that was used for the days which was a pre-produced file on Design Space. I found some butterfly washi in my stash which finishes the page nicely and was much quicker to add than creating a repeating pattern sticker like I did last month.

Final words…

Thank you for visiting my blog to look at my spreads for June. I enjoyed using stickers again to set up my pages and it made it slightly quicker to do than trying to draw and colour lots of symmetrical butterflies. It does take a while to find the images I want though and then I have to turn them into print and cut images, resize them and add offsets to each one. Also, there seems to be some issue with Design Space each time I use it but I guess that’s one of the joys of technology!

Wishing you a happy and healthy June and lets hope the weather starts to improve soon (especially as I want to wear my new pairs of shorts I’ve bought for our Wales holiday),

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.

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,