For September 2021 I chose skylines for my theme in my bullet journal. I imagined the plan with me would start with browsing some famous skylines and trying to duplicate them with watercolor in my notebook. Well, as it turns out, I took a detour. I stuck with skylines but went about creating them in a completely different way.

Confession: I NEVER thought I’d create paper collages in my bullet journal – even though they are all over Instagram and Pinterest right now. A quick Google search brings up hundreds of pictures and ideas. Many of which are very intricate and involve tearing paper.

This design, however, does not require any tearing. Most buildings are square and boxy – and that makes it easy to create from paper – especially dot-grid paper. I used a variety of methods to cut paper this month, a paper trimmer, scissors, and even my Cricut.

If you feel like you fit into the category of people who are not artistic or creative, then let the spreads this month inspire you. You can create many different effects depending on the shape of the buildings and if you decide to layer the buildings.

September 2021 Plan With Me Layouts

• Page Welcome Spread – facing a small monthly calendar + split monthly log for events.
• Habit Tracker Page + To Do List
• Weeklies using the same basic layout, then altered to have their own unique flair
• Brain Dump Page (using PH Martin’s Iridescent Calligraphy Colors + Glass Pen)

Products Used:

September 2021 Plan With Me Video

Watch the plan with me video for September 2021 below. Then make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I hope you find some inspiration from the design, tips and tricks, and some of the mistakes and solutions I used.

September Welcome Page

The ONLY lettering I did this month was on the welcome page with some watercolor paints and I made a big “To Do” page next to the habit tracker. Other than that, The whole month is pretty simple.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to letter all my headings. It helps me quickly find pages as I’m flipping through my book. But I also enjoy trying something new. And I see a lot of people who want to have ‘pretty’ pages but who don’t draw or paint or have developed the lettering skill – yet.

‘September’ Lettering Process

To letter ‘September’ on the welcome page, I used shimmery Coliro (Finetec) watercolor paints. This Pheonix color is one of my favorite colors ever. It’s got gold undertones and glows red and orange and shimmers with gold.

Tip: The best way to activate this paint is to drop a bit of water on each paint well and let it sit for a minute. When you’re ready to paint, use your paintbrush to mix up the colors a bit. Look at those shimmery colors!

Painting over different levels created by the paper was a little difficult the paintbrush tip kept catching on the different levels of paper.

Monthly Log

I normally create a two-page monthly calendar, but this month, I created a small calendar and a simple two-column monthly log.

I messed up and started the month on a Thursday instead of a Wednesday. This happens to me a lot, so I habitually check the dates early when I start inking. Generally, when I pencil in the calendar, I add Sunday’s date listed in the calendar so I have a reference and can correct mistakes easily. It’s amazing how writing sequential numbers is so difficult!

For the monthly log section, I used these handy-dandy stickers that I sell in my shop to list out 1-30 (or 1-31) for the days of the month. They fit perfectly in a 5mm dot grid. In this case, I used clear stickers, but I also have white stickers.

September has 30 days, and since I’m splitting the month into two columns instead of one tall column on the page, I cut the 31st off and then sliced the sticker between 15 & 16. Viola! Now I don’t have to write the numbers again. (And probably mess up the number sequence – like I always do!)

Tip: Once the ink dries (completely!) – don’t forget to erase your pencil lines.

Habit Tracker

On my habit tracker page, I created tall, slim buildings. Each building is 2.5 cm (5squares) wide and at least 15.5 cm (31 squares) high. I’ll fill in the 2nd and 4th squares across when I complete a habit for the day. Since September has 30 days, I split the tracker into two columns. Each day, I can mark one of the squares as a window to check off the habit. In the end, it will look like a building all lit up at night.

To add variety to the page, each building has a different ‘hat’ topper and is a different height so I could add doors at the bottom. I numbered each window in pencil so I could easily find it and reduce mistakes during the month. It’s not saying that I won’t still make a mistake and mark the wrong day, but I can try.

Pro Tip: Use your Cricut or Silhouette Machine to cut out building shapes instead of cutting them by hand.

I hope you had a chance to check out the September 2021 plan with me video above. I have to admit that this is one of the easiest habit trackers I’ve ever created. Now, I can’t wait to fill in all the windows.

Weeklies – Easy, Minimal Rectangle + Vinyl Sticker Layouts

I decided that I wanted to use paper strips to define the day sections in my weeklies. I was going for a minimal graphic grid layout. After one glorious failed attempt at gluing the strips to my journal, I switched to cutting out the strips on my Cricut machine using removable vinyl.

Now, there are not many times that I claim to have above-average intelligence, but this solution was pure genius.

Brain Dump Page: Wander Through My Wonderings

The brain dump page is a main staple throughout most of my notebook planning pages. This September 2021 Plan With Me is no different.

I love to use alternate names for “Brain Dump.” This time, I called it ‘wander through my wonderings’.
Every month, I use a page like this to catch all the extra thoughts, random ideas, experiences, and anything that I need to jot down.

Since I love using different names for brain dump pages, I figured you would, too. So I created a list of 150+ different names that you can use to replace the name ‘brain dump’ in your bullet journal.

I tried to use a silver pen to do building outlines, but it showed up even less than the pencil lines where I sketched out the buildings on the page. I knew I didn’t want black outlines because I wouldn’t be able to write over them. So I dusted off the glass nib and iridescent ink colors from DR. PH Martin. Controlling the ink flow in some cases was a little difficult, but I love the way this page turned out and I know that it will be a favorite page to review.

Summary

I hope you’ve gathered some inspiration from my September 2021 Plan With Me post.

If you’d like to add a bit of creativity to your bullet journal spreads but don’t feel confident enough to draw or handletter, I hope these spreads give you the inspiration to try something new. It was so fun to see these buildings rise up on my page from nothing. I can’t wait to use these spreads.