September Bullet Journal

^{5 minutes read}
September is a tricky month to choose a theme for. It’s definitely not real summer anymore since the holidays are over and school and work are back to usual so the feel is different, the nights are colder and it can be quite rainy sometimes. But – it’s also not real fall yet, either. No colourful leaves, no foraging for mushrooms and chestnuts…

September cover with a bookworm peaking through the hole.

So I’m always in a rut about what to pick. Last year I did a back-to-school theme that seemed appropriate (in our little country and all over Europe, school usually starts in September or late August). But I don’t like to repeat themes – there are so many more ideas to try so why waste a month when I could be doing something new?:D

Monthly bullet journal from a stack of books.

So I had to find something I haven’t tried before. I came up with a book theme – something I haven’t done but I love books, I love libraries, I love book shops (old and new), and I spent the majority of my spendable money on books and art supplies… So books. And bookworms – because I need something alive;).

Trackers: a big one on a bookshelf and little ones in books.

I know not many people are that into worms but… I like bookworms. And many other worms as well for that matter (I am a biologist, after all ;).

Ideas page with the simplest “always works” composition.

I renamed my brain dump page into an ideas page and left a lot of room because I have a feeling I will need it in September. And tomorrow you get the tutorial on how to make it:).

Here’s a list of supplies used:
– brown fine liners (Pitt pen fine liner)
– watercolours (this was a student-grade travel set from W&N)
– a scalpel
– a mini cutting mat (came with a riveting set)
– walnut brown distress ink and something to apply it (sponge works just fine)

August Bullet Journal

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The last month in my old bullet journal! I really like this notebook and I’m gonna miss it but I’m looking forward to trying out the legendary Leuctrum 1917 – coming up next week in my weeklies.

Lighthouse is the theme for the August bullet journal.

But first, let’s dive into this month’s planning. Since the 7th of August is “lighthouse day” and we’re often at the seaside in August, I went with this theme. I haven’t seen that many spreads with lighthouses and would like to offer you something unique with my bujo. So for the cover, I drew a lighthouse in the sunset.

Another simple monthly design. I hope this month won’t be so busy…

For my monthly, I chose a very simple design – a lighthouse is very vertical so it takes up the whole space on the left and the rest of the pages are filled with rows of days. To balance everything out and make it more interesting I added some splashing waves on the right side.

Tracker page with rays of lights coming from the lighthouse.

And lastly, the trackers are different than usual – each day is represented by a ray and I will write in my completed habits. I have used a similar design (with the sun instead of the lighthouse) for my gratitude page before and I loved it. In August I plan some time off so I won’t need all the normal habit trackers – but I’d still like to have a way of recording things if I wanted. Do you track your habits on your vacation? I’d be curious to know:)

July Weekly Bullet Journal

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I’m writing this like crazy because there’s always so much to do in June! You wouldn’t believe that’s one of the busiest months of the year for me…

Baby octopus to start the July:)

But I’ve managed to prepare my bujo for the next month with all the weeklies ahead of time and I’m so proud, hehe (yes, what an accomplishment :D). I hope I manage to do everything needed until July – my bujo is full :D.

Octopus can be shaped in any form so it’s perfect to try different layouts.

July’s weekly bujo is all octopus themed just like it was for my monthly setup – because I just love octopuses! I know I’ve said that before – but they really are so smart, cute, playful and incredibly adaptable!

The dreaded page – that I closed too early and it got smudged… Otherwise I like the design – just the execution could use a lot of improvement (patience;)…

While rushing with my painting, I closed the page too early when the paint wasn’t dry though. So it stuck together and made a mess! I tried to remedy it by scaping pieces of, gluing them in the right place and paint over it with white pen to cover the smudged paint as much as possible. You can still see the mistake but it will be functional so… learn from my mistakes;).

The last spread of the month – with dates in bubbles.

And the last octopus spread for quite a while… I really like the tentacle font that I came up with:). And I love how you can shape the octopus into any shape you want or need for different layouts. They really are versatile!

July Bullet Journal

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Do you need to plan for your holidays? Let me help you with some bullet journal ideas so that your planner will look pretty and inviting:)
Here’s list of supplies I used:
– black technical pen (Rotring) or any fine liner would do
– watercolours (these were inexpensive student-grade travel set from Van Gogh)
– white gel pen

July bullet journal has tentacles everywhere…

For the cover page I drew interlocking tentacles and also designed a font that would resemble tentacles:).

Octopuses are smart, cute and so skilful!

For my monthly I did not complicate – one line for every day and an octopus at the top. This will be my holiday month so I hope my to-do list will be shorter ;).

This tracker page took a while but it was worth it:)

I really went to town with this page! I had this idea of crazy interlocked octopuses, one for each day. You could also use the same design for monthly spread. I added a page of “a line a day” where you could write about nice events, your thoughts (bullet point version;), quotes, gratitude etc… What ever you fancy – this layout is very adaptable to your needs.

My favourite page – can you guess the theme for July? 😉

For the brain dump page – or “miscellaneous” as I usually call it I just drew yet another octopus at the bottom of the page. As you can see this monthly bujo is a bit looser in terms of how it can be used and that was intentional – since me and the kids will be at the seaside a lot, I know our days there are much less planned and I’d like to keep it that way – so bujo must adapt:) Still there are many lists that I need to make when we’re there – like stuff that daddy needs to bring to us when he comes to visit us, things I intend to sew, ideas for our “mid-day creating” etc… So I need some white space;)

June Ice Cream Bullet Journal

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Hot summer days are coming to our northern hemisphere and ice-cream season is here – so for the month of June I chose ice cream theme.

June – the perfect month for ice cream!

I’ve always loved ice crem – since I was a little girl – it’s my favourite dessert and always will be. For the cover page and title I chose three of the most basic flavours: vanilla, strawberry and chocolate because those were in the first ice cream container that we used to buy when I was a kid. It didn’t look anything like this but that’s how I imagined it;).

Ice cream themed bujo cover.

I always loved chocolate most – it’s still my favourite! So on the next page there’s a big chocolate ice cream cone. And a myriad (ok, 30 to be exact) of ice pops for my monthly.

My ice pop monthly bullet journal.

For the brain dump I drew a board that ice cream shops have and an ice cream van – you’ll see that tomorrow in the how to so stay tuned:).

Ice cream brain dump page.

April Bujo Tutorial

If you want to see the how this Easter inspired bullet journal is made, check out the video – it’s only 7 minutes and it goes through all the pages we need: the cover page or title page, monthly spread, mood tracker and habit trackers and a brain dump or lists spread.

Enjoy this quick tutorial how to set up a bright and happy Easter inspired monthly!

I hope you find something useful and if you do, hit the like and subscribe for more:).

Easter Bullet Journal

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Here comes Easter and it’s year of the rabbit so… bunnies and Easter eggs surely found their way into my bullet journal.

Cover with a bunny hopping into the month of April.

On the cover is a bunny hopping into the new month, accompanied by a giant Easter egg and some flowers – all in yellow-red colour scheme.

Easter eggs as days in week-baskets for Easter-themed monthly.

For the monthly I came up with this fun idea of putting 7 Easter eggs into each basket to represent the days in the week. I added a daffodil because I like them and to add some visual interest and balance the composition.

Easter egg mood tracker and habit trackers with a cute bunny.

For the mood tracker I drew an Easter egg – as the last time it would be easiest to just colour the compartments in the drawing according to your mood but I couldn’t resist painting it beforehand and I’ll just use textures or smiley faces to indicate my mood in case I’ll use it;).

I loved this bunny in a pot idea! I have to draw more variations!

I couldn’t resist this little bunny I saw on Pinterest awhile ago… It just looked so cute! I even sacrificed one of my habit trackers for him!

There’s no Easter bujo without the hatching chick, right?

And for my last spread of lists I drew two bunnies with large sheets in their paws and a chick that just hatched – because there has to be a hatched chick in an Easter bujo, right?;) Which one is your favourite?
Materials used:
– Rotring technical pen (or any fine liner) in 0,3 and 0,5
– black Fudenosuke brush pen for brush lettering (monthly titles) – could be painted with a brush and ink or watercolours as well
– W&N Cottman travel set of watercolours (or any other watercolours)
– round paintbrush (I used natural fibres Da Vinci Petit gris No. 2/0 but any round brush will work)
– palette, jar of water and a rag
– pencil and eraser for the sketch

March Rainbow Bujo Tutorial

^{1 minutes read and 7 minute video}
Here’s the promised tutorial for the very colourful bullet journal for the rainbow month of March – inspired by Holi and St. Patric’s day. If you’ve missed the yesterday’s post you can find images of the cover and monthly there.

Here’s the list of the supplies used in the video:
– a technical pen from Rotring (or you could use a fine liner; Pitt pens are great)
– watercolours (mine are from Schminke but W&N make nice ones as well)
– two round brushes in different sizes
– a pencil and an eraser: normal and kneaded eraser
– intact pencil eraser (that you haven’t used before) for stamping
– Memento ink pads (dye ink) in rainbow colours; I used these:
* Cantaloupe
* Morocco
* Lady bug
* Elderberry
* Paris Dusk
* Cottage Ivy
* Bamboo Leaves

Rainbow mood tracker and habit trackers to colour your life:)

And the rest of the pictures from my bujo – rainbow mood tracker above and brain dump page bellow:

Brain dump page: not the best painting but hey, it’s Holi (by the time I’ll use it;) and everything (including her face) is splattered with colour so… let’s call it a challenge;)

March Bullet Journal

^{4 minutes read – if there’s too many words, just look at the pictures;)}
I was debating what to put on my March bullet journal cover: there’s not one universal holiday in March but there’s quite a few interesting candidates: Indian Holi, Irish St. Patric’s day and our Gregory’s day – when the birds merry. Since we have a few more spring months to come I decided to leave the birds out this time and go full on with colour:) *If you need a guide on how to mix colours, here’s the tutorial on that.

March is the month of shamrocks, rainbows, Leprechaun, daffodils, rabbits (but we already did those – if you don’t have enough, join us at the Year of Rabbit class:)). I already did a Leprechaun’s and St. Patrick’s bujo in the past so I went with Holi as the main inspiration and added some shamrocks and rainbows that connect the two.

I did this kind of monthly last year but I kind of like it and you haven’t seen it so why not recycle the rainbow idea:). Tomorrow you get the video tutorial on how to make these spreads:) and the rest of the pictures, so stay tuned:).

February Hearts Bujo Tutorial

^{1 minutes read and 7 minute video}
Heart filled bullet journal with two kids in love on the cover and lot’s of love letters – take a peak – it’s short and sweet;) If you’d like to see pictures of the pages, take a look at my yesterday’s post.

Here’s the list of the supplies used in the video:
– a technical pen from Rotring (or you could use a fine liner; Pitt pens are great)
– watercolours (mine are from Schminke but W&N make nice ones as well)
– a water brush (I like Pentel water brush but use generic ones, too)
– a pencil and an eraser, of course
– heart shaped stamps: homemade stamps from fun foam, silicone stamps from different sets and handmade rubber stamps that my daughter made from rubber scraps (leftovers from rubber sheets from rubber stamps)
– Memento ink (dye ink) in shades of red
* Love letter
* Rose bud
* Angel pink
* Lady bug
* Rhubarb stalk