Bujo overview 2017

This was my "Hello 2017 intro
page at the start of the bujo"

Not many hours left in 2017. This would be the time to look back and evaluate things. To be honest, I think my theme for 2018 will be "The best is yet to come" and I will leave 2017 behind without too much introspection. 

Dear 2017, we had some good times, we had some bad times. We had some fun times, we had some sad times. I don't expect 2018 to be anything different - Life is a rollercoaster, you just have to ride it. 

One thing I did was I managed to keep a bujo through the whole year, and I also managed to create an intro page for each month in my bujo. Many of them are a bit more mixed media than I usually do, so I had fun experimenting with them. They are all below, warts and all. Next year's bujo will be unicorn themed. Fancy that? 

 

In January I was inspired by night skies and tried to paint some northern lights in watercolour.  Let's just call it an experiment and leave it there. February was my first and I think so far only attempt at using Distress crayons. I discovered they are not my medium of choice although others seem to get some really great results with them. 

  

March was a bit of a mess. Not sure what look I was really going for there. April turned out quite pretty, lots of stamping and masking using STAMPlorations floral stamps followed by watercolours.

 

May was fun, well anything with rainbows is fun isn't it. Distress inks and a STAMPlorations stencil and die. June was one of my first plays with my new Distress Oxides. They blend so beautifully.

 

July was all about colouring outside the lines - a big mess with watercolours really. August is a page from the STAMPlorations Bloomtangled colouring book. I treated the page with clear gesso and then coloured with watercolours. That was super fun.

September and October are also pages from the Bloomtangled colouring book, both coloured with Sharpies. September was supposed to be grunge but it's more of a mess. October is the first time I dared to try my new lettering skill. Let's just call that a work in progress, eh?

 November was Distress inks through a stencil and a bunch of die cut leaves I had left over from another project. December I have to admit I didn't have any time between manic work and preparing for Christmas to really do anything other than using an old card front from a card I didn't find any recipient for. Thought I might as well get some use out of it.

Now it's time to say goodbye to the old year and the old bujo. I managed to finish with 2 pages left in the notebook. I have a pink Rhodia Goalbook for next year, I can't wait to tuck into that. See you next year, and wishing you a lovely New Year's Eve, whatever you decide to do. I think we will do a repeat our last year and fall asleep on the sofa at 10pm.

First Look At The Journal

I've been very excitedly creating the first pages for my new Journal/Diary/Bullet Journal (not quite sure what to call it). I mostly manage my life digitally these days but I felt like having somewhere to write down things and do some journalling might be a good idea. I also keep so much of my life on various post-it notes and digital task lists but I felt like trying to get many of these things into one place might help me be more organised. As I will only be using the journal for my private life stuff, not work, I decided to keep it to a small size (A6, i.e. a quarter of a A4 sheet) - I don't think I have that many things going on but it remains to be seen whether I want to move on to a bigger journal if this turns out to be my thing. I just thought a tiny book would be easy to slip into any bag I happen to be carrying so it will always be with me. My journal is a silver coloured Rhodia as I read some reviews about paper quality and the paper quality for the Rhodia seemed to be better than the Moleskine or Leuchtturm based on reviews.

I'm so excited to get started with the journal and it was easy to get going as I was on annual leave when I first got my journal, so I had time to actually create pages and fill them. However, after going back to work, although I've been able to keep up with filling in my habit trackers etc, I haven't really been able to create any new pages or even have time to journal. I had planned to do some journalling tomorrow as I thought I would be sitting in a car for many hours, but now due to a very long story that is too boring to tell I will have to drive for many hours instead.

Second attempt at weekly spread.

One aim of the journal was to get me writing more so I can improve my handwriting. And above all, to start to practice some beautiful lettering. I accept that it will take a lot of practice but we all have to start somewhere. I'm also looking forward to buying a nice pen for lettering at some point, but I don't think it's a good idea to buy too many expensive things immediately at the start but I'll wait and see first if the whole idea of journalling sticks first.

Last but not least I'm also hoping that the journal will inspire me to be a bit more creative and try to learn to draw and doodle. But based on my first attempts, I might just stick to using my crafty supplies and stamps for decorating the journal instead. Also, although I know it from the start, the paper is not really good for anything other than writing - I would love to find a journal with watercolour paper but as they are all for "real" art, they only come in completely white pages, not in the dotted format. The creamy paper in the Rhodia is great for writing but won't really work with any wet medium. So I probably need to use the Distress Inks and pencils only and stay away from the watercolours.