Hot Summer Days

Gosh! 1^st August already! And to celebrate this month’s theme at Country View Crafts Challenges is ‘Hot Summer Days’. My team mates have produced some fabulous ideas to tempt you to join in and try and win the monthly prize – I have decided to share my Bullet Journal with you.

What’s a Bullet Journal? Well, as always if you google it you’ll get lots of tips and ideas but the original idea started here: http://bulletjournal.com/ In a nutshell it’s a way to organise your life in, well, bullet form – a sort of digital approach to an analogue art form. For me, I have always loved a diary and art journaling and this is a way to combine them both and keep track of some things that would get missed along the way. You can, of course, customise it to suit yourself (and there are LOADS of tips and tricks on the web) and I change each month to suit as I constantly refine the journal for my changing needs. The beauty of this is that you make it what you want it to be. Let me show you.

For me I like a title page for the month. It defines the new month and allows me to be a bit more creative than just a list keeper. This month I went a bit cartoony (no idea why!) and stamped JoFy’s hut, ball and sandcastle in Old Paper Distress Ink (because it’s pale) so I could doodle over the top. I added the sun and clouds (Emma Godfrey) and ‘painted’ it all with water colour pencils.

The Monthly Log is something that I find really useful. I use it as an aide memoir of what’s already in the diary – I will add to it as more things get booked in but I think of this page more like the headlines of a newspaper. How cute are JoFy’s little beach huts?!

These are my favourite pages. These are the pages where I choose topics to record as the month progresses. Sometimes, like with the ‘goals’ section, I think of the goals I’d like to achieve for the month and then tick them as I achieve them – for example this month I am going to increase my step count. Other sections, like ‘listening to’ I will add to when that one song/album seems to be the only one I hear – often it’s something the children play on loop  as its currently top of the ‘hip parade’ (I am so down with the kidz!) or it might be an advert’s sound track that’s stuck in my head – please let it NOT be the Frozen soundtrack anymore...! For this month I’ve made the boxes into ice lollies (and coloured them again with watercolour pencils). There’s an empty lolly at the top for me to add to when inspiration strikes and a couple of small empty spaces should I need more boxes. Sorry one section is covered up – you don’t want to know all my secrets do you?!

These pages are the weekly log – I’ll write my day in three bullet points and draw a picture of today’s weather. The note section is used for things to do this week or reminders for next week (love JoFy’s bucket and spade!) and because I’m a little pedantic – each week will be visually identical to this one. These are the little buckets and spades which are the only difference!

I am starting to add random other pages in as the mood strikes. I had a summary of last month that was really useful; I could write a shopping list of crafting ‘essentials’ I’d need like to own; jobs that need doing - that sort of thing. Some people keep their budgets in their journals and others the top 50 movies to see and then mark them off as they are watched. Really you can use it for whatever you like and I’d recommend you search and find out more! I have an idea to keep a log of the month in numbers e.g. most number of steps walked; hours spent in the Studio - that sort of thing! 

Please let me know if you have any questions and as I learn more I’ll share it with you!

Edit:

Jane asked a question, in her comment below, about which journal I use. I use a Moleskine Journal (I have loads in all different sizes) but I prefer the sketchbook versions as the paper allows me to work it quite hard (layers and layers of paint/water colours etc). I buy mine from Amazon.

My daughter uses a Moleskine with squared paper (but uses felt pens instead of water colours so the paper doesn’t need to be as robust) and lots of people use them with dots as guides but I have a ruler so I’m quite happy with plain paper! Hope that helped!