Bullet Journal Journey - April 2021

 Happy April everyone!  Can you believe it's April already?  This month, I'm ready for sun and some warmer weather, so a warm color palette was definitely on my mind.  I ended up doing a honeycomb/honeybee kind of theme that I really love.  The cover page turned out SO cute!  I drew some daisies on there too, as daisies are the flower of the month of April.  I kept up with the theme for my goals page, adding more honeycombs and colorful dots:  

The calendar page went back to having a watercolor strip along the side and then I added the honeycombs overtop to tie it to the theme: 

Then, my mood tracker is made with honeycombs.  This isn't a terribly unique one this month, but I really love how it turned out all the same!  And my bill tracker page is always the same format with colors that match the theme of the month.  

Lastly, here are my weekly spreads.  I have to admit, I wasn't too creative with these this time.  I have a LOT of other creative things brewing right now, and so I just put down a base design on each page that I can doodle along with or over on each page as each week comes along!  

And there you have it!  I really love this journal and I'm so glad to have this fun and creative outlet each month!  What did you do for your April spread?  What colors do you gravitate towards this time of year?  Let me know in the comments below!  

2021 Bullet Journal Journey - February

Happy February everyone!  This month, I really had a good time setting up my bullet journal!  I used pinks and purples (super bright and traditional) and tried to have fun with it!  

Here's the first two pages for February.  I know this is a bit busy, but I really like how it turned out!  I wanted the hearts to feel like little bubbles all over the page!  I use the goals page to plan blog entries, track my creative time and healthy choices, and to list overall monthly goals.  

Next, is the calendar spread.  I made this two pages instead of one this month, and I like it much better!  I also have a little spot for notes there in case there's anything large I need to write down.  I also continued my design from last year's journal of adding a strip of abstract watercolor that matches the month's theme.  I really enjoy doing these abstract strips and use the leftovers as bookmarks to keep or gift!  

Then, I hand-draw a mood tracker and a bill tracker each month.  Here are pictures of each one!  I really love how the mason jar of hearts turned out for the mood tracker - so cute!  

I have more bills than this - but for privacy's sake I took the picture at this point before I wrote the rest! 

Finally, I'm including my weekly spreads for this month!  I'm not sure I will include these every month, but I really loved how these ones turned out.  I've settled on a weekly spread that I really like right now, it has a box for each day plus a larger one for notes, and a column on the left for our weekly dinner planning. This month, each week had a little theme: 

Wk 1 - Violets (February flower of the month) 

Wk 2 - Watercolor Hearts

Wk 3 - Stripes and Dots

Wk 4 - Tetris

....and that's it!  I hope you guys enjoyed seeing this layout!  Do any of you use a bullet journal? What was your theme of the month for February?  Let me know in the comments!!  

Skillshare Class - Build Your Own Doodle Library

 One of the things that is advertised to me almost every time I'm on YouTube is Skillshare.  I was skeptical at first, and then after hearing about all of the classes they offered, I figured I'd grab a free trial and try it out.  Now, I'm hooked!  I've watched some classes on bullet journaling, and have started a few on watercoloring and illustration. The first class I've really done completely, with projects and all, is this class on doodling. 

Somewhere along the way of becoming an adult, I quit doodling.  As I have rediscovered the artsy side of myself in the past 2 years, one of the areas that I lacked confidence has been line work. I took this class as a way to improve my line work and my ability to detail a simple drawing.  Pooja's class was a wonderful exploration of these exact things and even encouraged us to do 10 pencil-less doodles at the end of the class. That, was a challenge but I enjoyed it!  The idea of this is to have your own clip art library at the end of the class. And while I'm not going to keep all of these images for that purpose, having a bunch of them that I can scan and play with in procreate sounds absolutely amazing!  

These pictures are far from perfect, but several of them are WAY better than what I would have expected from myself even 2 months ago!  I mean, look at that monstera leaf!!! I was particularly proud of that one!  

I also am doodling my way through this class a second time with my 7 year old daughter!  She saw me taking the class, and she immediately wanted to try it!  I might share her progress here in the future - but she is really learning a ton too.  This really is a class for anyone and everyone!  I'm just going to post a few of my favorite pages here, the full flipthrough will be in my Instastories highlight reel!  If you've ever thought about Skillshare before I'd highly recommend giving it a try!  I'm pretty sure the website offers you a 1 week free trial, but if you want a longer free trial, go find an art YouTuber and get their code. 

Also, if you aren't following Pooja and her art on instagram - you should be!  You can find her at @by_the_lakeside.  Thanks again Pooja for your amazing class - I cannot wait to work through many of your watercolor classes as well!