Looking to build on your bullet journal, or pimp your diary spread? I’ve collated a few ideas, incorporating past posts, adding updates and new ideas for you to try.
Create a simple chart, table or block system to track things – whether it’s daily activity, drinking more water or keeping on top of housework! Use a key to help keep it visually accessible, creating different colours or patterns for different segments of what you’re tracking.
I shared this in a previous post about Bullet Journaling, but as I find it so useful I’m sharing it again! You can adapt this to suit your needs. The page is split into 3 sections: the top 2/3 (roughly) has been made into 2 columns for lists, leaving the bottom section free for notes or important details.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a place for self care and reflection. This is a great space to your imagination and get creative. Here, I’ve created a cherry blossom design, filled with some ideas of little monthly wins.
Try making this origami pumpkin in a variety of colours and patterns for a fun autumn project. You’ll need a sheet of fairly thin square paper; crease the folds with a creasing tool, or you can use the back of your thumb nail.
Start with the square of paper turned so it looks like a diamond
Fold it in half, top corner to bottom corner
Fold in half again, corner to opposite corner, along the top edge
Lift the flap you’ve just folded, and open up the layers…
Squash this layer into a neat diamond shape
Flip over sideways, and do the same squash fold on the other flap
You should now have a nice diamond shape, with layers that open at the bottom
Take the top flap on the left over to the right…
Fold this to the left, so the top sloped edge lines up with the central crease
Fold the bottom sloped edge to line up with the central crease
Take this layer back over to the right and press the creases flat
Next, take the top flap on the right over to the left, and make the same two folds
Once you’ve taken that flap back over to the right, you should be left with a slim diamond shape in the middle
Flip the model over
Fold over the top and bottom corners a small amount to shape the pumpkin
Fold both side corners in, roughly the same amount (you can take a look at the right side to check you’re happy with the shape, and adjust these folds if necessary)
Take the small top triangle you folded over, and fold the point up, so the tip sticks out a bit over the top of the pumpkin, creating the stalk
Turn it over to the right side to see the finished result!
Keeping a travel journal is a great way to both plan and document your travels. Being a list maker, I always keep a notebook for planning and packing, occasionally adding notes or drawings while I’m away. Whatever you’d like to use yours for, I’ve put together some ideas for what you could include – and some fun decorations examples!
PLANNING: go as basic or as in depth as you like. Keep it simple with where & when they’re going, or plan a full-on itinerary. Here are some ideas to get you thinking: -Destination/dates -Travel/accommodation details -What to do while you’re there -Budget -Language basics
PACKING: a list of essentials is good, so you don’t forget anything important. But it’s fun to plan everything else too 😎 My top categories are: -Essentials -Toiletries/accessories -Clothes -Miscellaneous (for things that don’t quite fit in other categories!)
TRAVEL DIARY: unlined pages keeps things versatile. You can have space for writing, drawing or adding photos or tickets (in case you get such a rare thing as a paper ticket!). If the paper’s sturdy enough you can glue things in; you could also use paperclips, or stash things in the pocket of your notebook. What? Your notebook doesn’t have a pocket?! Add one yourself by gluing an envelope to the inside cover.
Finally, some ideas for decorations and doodles. You can add these to the appropriate pages as you’re planning. Think general travel icons, local foods or what to expect weather-wise.
Do you love lists? Organising your thoughts on paper? Tracking your goals? Bullet journaling might be for you!
Bullet journaling isn’t a new trend – in fact, it started to become popular around 10 years ago, so most likely you’ve heard of it. It can be used to focus your tasks, track your goals and generally organise your life; often done on dotted paper, but you can use blank or even lined. The point is to customise it your way.
As with starting any new notebook, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all those empty pages. Some people use bullet journals a bit like an extension of a diary or planner – often with a key or index for reference. However, this can be a big undertaking at first, so my advice would be to start with one or two things and go from there; make them something you like, something fun – books you want to read, top films etc. or tracking your favourite exercise (if you have one!).
To get yourself started, you only need a few basics.
Essentials:
Journal/notebook
Pen/pencil
Nice to have:
Coloured pens or pencils
Ruler
Rubber
What about paper type? A dot grid allows you to easily draw neater lines & boxes, create charts & tables, and gives you guides to draw banners and embellishments – without hindering your creativity too much. If you want to use blank, lined or graph paper, that’s fine too!
The biggest task is setting up the pages; using templates and guides can help, especially if you’re using blank paper – draw out a guide on a spare piece of paper and you can use it to trace again and again.
It can be as simple or as complicated as you’d like to make it. Tailor it to your strengths and needs. If all you need from it is a title and some bullet points for lists – perfect. If you want to decorate every inch of paper – go for it!
These simple flags can be made any size you want, and can be used for things like titles or tabs for section headers, or just to decorate the page.
To do/To buy
This is a great one to start with: nice and simple, easy to repeat and can be customised each week/month. (It’s one I use all the time!). I used the dot grid to draw the outlines, then decorated the edges with coloured fine liners. Stars make a fun alternative to round bullet points.
Books books books 📚Aiming to read a certain number of books each month, or just to track your reading for the year? This bookshelf layout can help do that! The “shelf” was created on plain paper, using a ruler and pencil, before going over in pen. You can then sketch out the books in pencil, and outline or colour them in as you finish each book.
Fancy having a go? I’ve got two styles of dot grid journal in stock: Moon Phases and Smoky Keys. Shop plain paper journals and notebooks here.
So, you’ve got a blank-paged journal and would like to use it as a diary… what do you do? Where do you start? All those empty pages can feel quite daunting!
I’ve put together a quick guide with some ideas to help you out.
If you’re looking to turn your blank journal into a diary, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got enough pages to last the year. My journals are 128 pages (sides) – here’s an idea of how you could use them.
If you create weekly spreads and do each one over 2 pages, it would make up 104 of the pages (see above image, created in an A6 journal). You could then allocate 1 page per month for a monthly spread, creating it at the start of each set of weeks.
You’ll need more weeks in some months; if you have each monthly layout on a right-hand page, the the next 4 or 5 sets of double pages can be weekly spreads for that month (you’d then end up with a spare blank left-hand page, opposite the next month).
To do the monthly layout, start with a 7×5 grid (days of the week x weeks in the month; it’s easiest to do 5 weeks for all months, because of how the dates fall).
For an A6 journal, make the grid from squares that are roughly 1.5 x 1.5 cm; for A5 they can be around 2 x 2 cm (it might be a good idea to make a template to copy/trace every month). Write the days above the grid, then add the dates in the boxes.
Add a title for the month at the top of the page, as fancy as you like – make it into a banner, flag, or decorate the word. Here are some ideas:
That’s the main structure taken care of… what else will you need? Maybe a title page at the start, or a couple of pages for a yearly outlook? A page to list birthdays/important dates? You could have ideas/note pages each month, or have a few blank pages at the end for jotting things down.
You can create your diary however you want, with whatever pages you’d like to add, but hopefully I’ve given you some ideas for a way to start it off.
Happy journaling!
Don’t forget, you can shop my range of blank handmade journals and notebooks in my Etsy shop 👇
Have a go at making this origami star! It may seem fiddly, so have a practice run first on a scrap square of paper to get the hang of it.
It’s a four-pointed star, so a lot of the folds you’ll be repeating the same thing 4 times on all 4 sections/layers (often 2 front, 2 back) – bear this in mind when following along.
You’ll need a square of fairly thin paper (if your paper is double-sided, start with the plain side facing up). Don’t forget to fold neatly and crease firmly!
Start with the paper square on in front of you.
Fold in half from top to bottom, crease and unfold, then fold in half from side to side, creasing well.
Open back out into a square
Turn the paper over, then fold from corner to opposite corner; again, do this both ways.
Open back out into a square.
Pick the paper up and press the centre upwards, bringing the edges down.
You should end up with a folded diamond shape, with open layers at the bottom.
Taking the top layer only, fold the outside bottom edge to the centre crease.
Repeat this step on all bottom edges, front and back.
Next, you’ll need to open up the folds you’ve just made and, using the creases from these folds, push them inside…
They should look like this!
Repeat with all 4 folds. You should have a lot of layers at the bottom now!
Using the top layer only (the long triangle at the bottom), fold the bottom point upwards.
Repeat for all 4 points in turn.
At this point, the model should end look like a triangle pointing upwards.
Take one of the bottom outside corners and fold it in to meet the centre crease.
Again, this step will need to be repeated with all 4 bottom corners in turn, so fold the front 2 up…
…then turn over and fold the back 2 up in the same way.
Pick the model up for the next step.
We’re going to open up the star, taking all 4 of the top points out and down.
It helps if you stick a thumb either side of the central point, to help you ease it open – the middle of the model should kind of lift and flatten into a square.
Why not fancy up a gift card by whipping up one of these simple origami card holders?
All you need is a sheet of A4 paper! After every step, remember to check the fold is neat and then crease firmly. If you don’t have a creasing tool, you can use the back of your thumbnail. Ready?
If you’re using paper with a pattern or colour on one side, start with the plain side facing you.
Fold in half (from side to side).
Crease and unfold.
One side at a time, fold the left and right edges in to meet the centre crease, then unfold.
Taking each corner in turn, fold in to meet the crease made in the previous step, until all 4 corners are folded.
Now fold in the left and right edges in to meet in the middle again.
Turn the model over.
Fold in half, top to bottom – crease and unfold.
Take the bottom and fold up to just past the horizontal crease from the last step.
Next, do the same with the top – fold down so it overlaps slightly.
Now you should be able to tuck the top bit you’ve just folded down into the bottom bit…
And we’re done! A standard gift card should fit into one of the pockets, then you can fold it in half ready for gifting – add a ribbon if you’re feeling extra fancy!
A warm welcome to followers old and new. I’ve been busy stocking my Etsy shop with lovely rescued leather journals and pencil wraps this month and have created some new labels for my shelf space at The Emporium (a Wellingborough based shop full of handmade awesomeness!) – all my products now have more of a library-esque feel, which I love. But enough about me; let’s just get down to it, shall we?
Have you heard of Little Flame candles? Based in Northamptonshire, this small business started to make these hand-poured candles upon retiring. After many months of research and testing, Little Flame was born. Did you know? Soy wax is non-toxic, clean burning and completely free of animal derived substances! Find them on Insta & Facebook and show a new small business some love.
I don’t know about you, but I love a journal with blank pages. It gives you the freedom to do whatever you want; doodle, write, sketch, list, paint… and if you’d like more structure, you can simply add it in yourself. From creating lines, grids, tables and headers, Pinterest (where else?!) has some great ideas to get you going. Prefer video? Here ya go! In the market for a new journal? Check out this selection over in my Etsy shop.
I’m a huge fan of some beautiful creative lettering. But what’s classed as a font and what’s a typeface – and what’s the difference? Essentially, the Typeface is the base set of characters (e.g. Arial), the font is a particular set within the typeface (e.g. Arial Regular or Arial Rounded). Want more? Nerd yourself out here. Fancy some creative typeface fun? This book is great!
Why own a plain pair of trainers when you can walk around with a work of art on your feet? This whole range of custom painted trainers are just so perfect. How many pairs of trainers is too many…? Shop Paintplay by Chey on Etsy.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a very messy creative. While I’m all for a spring clean to keep on top of things, at the moment I’m in need of an autumn clean! This blog post has lots of handy hints and tips to try out for organising and decluttering spaces of all sizes. Time to get sorting…
