Hi there
And a very Happy New Year to you, thanks for stopping by.
I have something a little different to share today. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my very few and far between posts showing my bullet journal set ups. I've dabbled in bullet journaling over the last couple of years but never used the system to its full potential. It think with the various lockdowns and not living normally, this has hampered it a little but fingers crossed I can start getting the system going a little better this year. There were spreads I created in my previous journals that I just didn't use so I've not included them this time. But the great thing about bullet journaling is that you just create as you go, so if I think of something that may be useful, I can just add it in and reference it in the index.
As I'm a cardmaker I have a fair stash of stamps, dies and stencils so I like to try to incorporate them in my journal. I'm not going to lie, it does take a lot more time to set it up using these products rather than just creating everything by hand, but once the main set up is done, the rest is easy. I don't like my handwriting (and hand lettering is something I plan to learn more about this year) so by using my craft supplies, especially for my yearly spreads, it's much more aesthetically pleasing, and hopefully this will encourage me to reach for it more. I'll detail the products I've used at the end of this post.
For the last two years I've used journals by Scribbles that Matter and they are great quality so I've chosen the same brand again this year. I've chosen the Iconic Dotted Journal (160gsm) in Aubergine (looks a little bluer in this photo for some reason). I've stuck with the 160 gsm pages so I have the option to perhaps try watercolouring or other mediums throughout the year, which the thicker paper can withstand.
Ok, onto my 2022 cover page, and this is the theme I've used for my yearly spreads...stencilled brush strokes. I simply ink blended through the stencil apertures with three shades of Distress Ink. I've also used die cut letters, but these spreads did take hours to create as I had to glue all the letters in position individually! I love the result but I won't be doing that again for my monthly pages, it was far too time consuming!
After trawling YouTube and Instagram I've chosen a Dutch door layout for my future log as this means I only had to create the header once, and I put my calendar stamps to good use here to save me writing out all the dates! These were stamped onto die cut squares. In my previous journals I've also had a Year at a Glance page but it's not really required if you have the calendars in the Future Log spread.
I made a continuation of the stencilling on all three views here, so whichever four month view is on display, the brush strokes continue across the pages, I hope that makes sense. I also created tabs for this spread simply by cutting away the edges to create the tabs and I masked and ink blended them.
Here's a further view of the Dutch door layout...
The next two spreads are pretty self-explanatory. I used a further brush stroke from the stencil for my box headers.
Next up are my Wish List and Purchases spreads. Once gain, pretty self-explanatory. Over the last couple of years I've been making a lot more purchases online as I was wanting to stay away from busy shops so this is a great way to keep track of what's been ordered and when, and if it's been received.
Another spread I've used previously and found really useful is the When Did I Last... spread. This is great for thinks like, when I last had a hair cut, when I changed my toothbrush or when the window cleaner visited. I've previously just put some dashes alongside items so I could write the date in but this time I thought I'd add the months of the year. For each entry I have four squares available for each month so I can just write the relevant date in each box. So I can then also use this for keeping track of cleaning, etc.
Another fairly self-explanatory page, just somewhere I can keep track of TV series I would like to watch and can mark off episodes as I watch them.
The following spread is for following the Konmari process...the Marie Kondo way of decluttering. If you've not read her book, the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I strongly recommend it as a way of organising your home. I have followed the process previously but never got to the end so I'm going to start from the very beginning again and work through the categories, it's very satisfying. I've yet to fill in all the sub-categories but you get the idea.
And finally, a spread I revert back to all the time...my master grocery shopping list. Obviously this still needs to be filled in but it's so helpful when completing your shopping list.
Here are the products I used from my craft stash:
- Stencil: Clearly Besotted - Brush Strokes
- Ink: Distress Ink - Speckled Egg, Victorian Velvet, Dusty Concord; Memento - Tuxedo Black
- Stamps: Taylored Expressions - Playful Alpha; Skull and Cross Buns - Days & Months; Altenew - 365
- Dies: MFT - Bottle Cap Letters, Pierced Square Stax
- Lilac and black cardstock from stash
Thanks for taking a look. I'll be back soon to share my January set up....once I've decided on a theme and actually created it! I was hoping to get it all ready to go before the New Year but time just disappeared and 2022 arrived so fast!
I hope you'll pop back again soon.
