Plan With Me August 2020 – Overcoming Mistakes & Weekly Design Challenge

In This Month’s Plan With Me Includes:

• Willow Branch Welcome / Cover Spread
• Circular Vellum Habit Tracker + Quick & Easy Floral Wreath
• Leaf Mood Tracker (New!)
• One Line Per Day (New!)
• Monthly Calendar (with washi tape to fix mistakes)
• Weeklies
• Journal Page
• Brain Dump Page (called Don’t Get Boxed in – Grow Your Way Out)

I challenged myself to use the same shape for all the boxes in my weeklies. I love how many designs I was able to use throughout the month.

Supplies Used for August’s Plan With Me

• Tumbitri Meri A5 Dot-Grid Journal | Blog Post Review | YouTube Review Video
• Zebra Zensations Techincal Drawing Pen 
• Tombow Dual Brush Pens
  • 228 – Gray Green
  • 249 – Hunter Green
• Pentel Sign Brush Pens
• Archer & Olive Paper Pads 
• Crayola Super Tip Markers
• Scotch Washi Tape
• Correction Tape
• Permanent Adhesive
• Circle Maker
• Water Pens

Supplies From the Chocolate Musings Shop:

Handlettering Books: 

• Large Brush – Basic Strokes
• Small Brush – Basic Strokes
• 1-31 Number Stickers 
• Circular Vellum Habit Tracker – Coming Soon!
• Calendar Grids Coming Soon!

Welcome / Cover Page

I imagine a willow branch flowing down the page for the welcome/cover page this month. It brought me back to my childhood during the summer sitting under my beloved willow tree hiding amongst the long and wispy branches which teased each other in the summertime breeze.

Using a water pen & Crayola markers, I marked a few leaves with blobs of color. Unfortunately, the color bled through a little to the opposite pages. I guess the water pen creates too much water, and it seeps through the sheet fibers. But if you use actual watercolor in this journal (check out the review I wrote here), it doesn’t bleed through.

Habits / Mood Tracker

Using a circle maker, I created a floral wreath with a few branch sprigs and flowers. The tracker itself is a semi-transparent circular vellum sheet I created and adhered to my planner. I love how it shows the design underneath. Watch the plan with me video below to see how I created this design.

I’ve never used a mood tracker before and decided to finally give it a try after nearly four years of Bullet Journaling. Mostly, I wanted to give myself a reason to open my planner every day because I need to get back in the habit.

BIG Mistakes in My Planner This Month

I think it’s important to share the mistakes we make in our Bullet Journals. Not everything is rainbow sparkles & cloud fluff perfect, and you can see how I fix my errors in August’s Plan With Me Video Part I.

In my plan with me video part I (which you can watch above), I show you how I overcame page bleeds, what I did when I forgot a page (eep! I forgot the monthly calendar). And when I screwed up (twice!) when mapping out the monthly calendar. I’d love to know how you overcame any screw-ups in your planner. Leave me a comment below.

In the August Plan With Me Video Part II (Below) – I show you how I use the same box dimensions to create four very different page designs.

Which one do you like the most?

The Weekly Spread Challenge:

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Beyond August’s Plan With Me mistakes, this month, I chose to use the same box dimensions for each set of weeklies but change the design for each week. Using the same set of elements over and over again throughout your design makes it more cohesive even if the plan isn’t the same on every page.

If you’re bored with your current layout, try giving yourself a set of rules to work with and see how you can change the pages around while still following the rules.

For example, the boxes for each of my weeklies are 18 dots or 9 cm high by 8 dots or 4 cm wide. I used relatively simple artwork with summery colors, the same color palette, and the whisper of summer throughout all of the pages. Each design is very different but follows all the guides.

Journal Page / Brain Dump

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If you get stuck looking at a blank journal page but want to write a snippet about the month, try asking yourself a few questions. This month, I included a small box for goals, a box labeled ‘happiness in action’ and the last one titled ‘how can I improve next month?’.

Happiness in action celebrates the small moments that we often overlook while trudging through the minutia of day-to-day tasks. For instance, I would include a sentence or two about my three-year-old talking on a banana like a phone. Or my oldest two kids playing happily with their legos and building towns complete with streets and miniature Lego cars. Those joyful moments are the ones I want to treasure when they get older. And every once in awhile I need a little nudge to record them.

What challenges do you give yourself throughout the month?

No Matter Which Notebook I use – You’ll Always Find These Supplies Close at Hand

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