• Home
    • Home
    • About Me
    • Privacy Policy and Disclosures
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • Blog Archives
    • Search & Blog Categories
  • Get Inspired
    • Get Inspired
    • Inspiring Words & Quotes
    • My Muses – Favorites & Inspiration
    • Challenges
    • Product & Book Reviews
  • Get Creative
    • Get Creative
    • Start Handlettering
    • Handlettering Fun Styles
    • Tutorials & How-To
    • Creating Art – Watercolor, Painting & Drawing
  • Start Planning
    • Start Planning Here
    • Planner Spreads & Themes
    • Plan With Me Archives
    • Organization
    • Habits & Trackers
  • Find Your Happy
    • Find Your Happy
    • Random Holiday Archive
    • Journal Prompts & Ideas
    • Health Journey
  • Shop
    • Shop
      • Lost password
      • My account
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • Orders
  • Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Pinterest
    • Etsy
    • Facebook

Chocolate Musings

Set your goals - make the plans - artfully create your life - live it beautifully. Grab the good chocolate and find your muse.

  • Home
    • Home
    • About Me
    • Privacy Policy and Disclosures
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • Blog Archives
    • Search & Blog Categories
  • Get Inspired
    • Get Inspired
    • Inspiring Words & Quotes
    • My Muses – Favorites & Inspiration
    • Challenges
    • Product & Book Reviews
  • Get Creative
    • Get Creative
    • Start Handlettering
    • Handlettering Fun Styles
    • Tutorials & How-To
    • Creating Art – Watercolor, Painting & Drawing
  • Start Planning
    • Start Planning Here
    • Planner Spreads & Themes
    • Plan With Me Archives
    • Organization
    • Habits & Trackers
  • Find Your Happy
    • Find Your Happy
    • Random Holiday Archive
    • Journal Prompts & Ideas
    • Health Journey
  • Shop
    • Shop
      • Lost password
      • My account
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • Orders
Home » april

Whimsical Watercolor Travel Theme: April 2020 Planner Set Up

March 31, 2020 1 Comment

Bullet Journal Theme: Whimsical Watercolor Travel - bright colors & an illustrated feel to the graphics provide a fun, whimsical day-brightning theme for this month's plans. | ChocolateMusings.com #bujo #bulletjournal #plannertheme

Welcome to April! I know I’m ready for a new month, how about you? Here is my Bullet Journal theme for April – I call it Whimsical Watercolor Travel.

There are so many places I’d like to travel but haven’t done it. I could blame it on life, and kids, etc. But in reality, I know that it’s because I haven’t made it a priority. Maybe I’ll change that once the world calms down a bit.

April Theme: Whimsical Watercolor Travel

City Skyline Pencil Sketch - Bullet Journal Welcome Page | ChocolateMusings.com #sketch #bulletjournal #welcomepage

Honestly, I penciled in this month’s theme about 3 months ago – not knowing that most of the world would be on a complete travel ban and in the current situation we are in due to the worldwide pandemic. But that doesn’t mean I can’t dream, does it? In fact, I think the ability to dream and plan outside of our circumstances is keeping most of us sane right now.

I’m a firm believer that we all need some whimsy in our lives, and I think I added just the right amount to this month’s travel theme.

Bullet Journal Watercolor Welcome Page in Scribbles that matter A5 Notebook | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #watercolor #traveltheme
Water Reflection Detail Bullet Journal Watercolor Welcome Page in Scribbles that matter A5 Notebook | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #watercolor #traveltheme
Close up detail of Lettering Bullet Journal Watercolor Welcome Page in Scribbles that matter A5 Notebook | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #watercolor #traveltheme
Watercolor bullet train bullet journal weekly layout travel theme | ChocolateMusings.com #bullettrain #bulletjournal #weekly

I decided to experiment with watercolors and see how masking fluid worked in my notebook. First off, I masked off the entire building skyline on the welcome page. Secondly, I masked off part of the brick mortar in the bullet train weekly spread.

Spoiler alert: the masking fluid worked perfectly, and I plan on using it again.

Watch for my blog post demonstrating how to use masking fluid in your planner because I love using masking fluid + watercolor paints.

Side note – if you’re looking for some great quotes for your planner – check out my post where I compiled 75+ quotes on resilience perfect for motivation! I collected them with the idea that I wanted to calm the chaos and take control over what I could control.

Pages in this Month’s Planner

The pages I included in this month’s plans are:

  • Welcome Page
  • Monthly Calendar View – this page also has space at the bottom to write my goals. Look for the one with the suitcase & street signs.
  • Weeklies for each week with lots of room to make notes or make journal entries. Pro Tip: need more room? Attach an extra piece of paper to the page with washi tape.
  • The weeklies are: Hot Air Balloons, Bullet Train, Little Red Truck with Flowers, Metallic Bicycle, Flying Red Wagon
  • The last page for this month is my Brain Dump Page. By the way, if you don’t like the term “brain dump” find my list of different names for brain dump here. The brain dump page is essential for me. I love having a place to write down all the random thoughts that don’t have a home otherwise.
  • Not shown – I added a weekly task checklist with washi tape to each page. I’ll add a blog post about this later.

Go ahead, pin your favorites.

Bullet Journal Watercolor Welcome Page in Scribbles that matter A5 Notebook | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #watercolor #traveltheme
Bright fun watercolor hot air balloons - weekly bullet journal layout travel themed | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #weekly #watercolor
Watercolor bullet train bullet journal weekly layout travel theme | ChocolateMusings.com #bullettrain #bulletjournal #weekly
Whimsical watercolor bike painting with metallic watercolor dots - horizontal weekly layout | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #weekly #watercolor
Little red truck with flowers bullet journal weekly layout, fun whimsical watercolor | ChocolateMusings.com #weekly #watercolor #bulletjournal
Travel theme bullet journal monthly calendar - watercolor suitcase & street sign | ChocolateMusings.com #monthlylayout #bulletjournal #travel
Yellow Airplane with Cloud Text Brain Dump Page | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #braindump #headerideas
When wagons fly whimsical weekly bullet journal vertical layout | ChocolateMusings.com #wagons #weekly #bulletjournal

Things I learned while creating this month’s whimsical watercolor travel theme:

  1. Go easy on the water. The Scribbles That Matter notebook holds up to a lot of watercolors, but even its pages become saturated and bleed-through if you use too much water to blend paint on the page.
  2. The second thing I learned: Masking fluid works very well! I wasn’t sure how well the paper would react to the masking fluid, especially peeling off the masking fluid once finished.
  3. The third thing I learned while creating this month’s whimsical travel theme is that coming up with a lot of different designs for hot air balloons on the fly (ha!) was hard. Hmmm, maybe I should make a page of pattern ideas – it would work for hot air balloons or Easter eggs.

I have to admit that the watermelon one is my favorite – I also love the nod to Charlie Brown design on the end.

Bright fun watercolor hot air balloons - weekly bullet journal layout travel themed | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #weekly #watercolor

Bullet Trains in a Bullet Journal

By the way, it’s not the first time I’ve used a bullet train in my bullet journal. I find it funny to use a bullet train in a bullet journal. January 2018 featured a bullet train for my future log. In this case, I painted with Crayola markers instead of watercolor paints!

If you’re curious, here’s a tutorial on how to paint with markers. Wondering what supplies you’ll need? You need a kitchen plate (no joke!), Crayola markers, and a water pen or water brush). Creating doesn’t have to be complicated.

Sparkle Watercolors Vs. Regular Watercolor Paints

Another fun thing I learned is that sparkle watercolors bleed more than regular watercolors. Ok, it’s not really ‘fun’ per se, but it’s good to note. Be aware of how much water you use if you use sparkle or metallic watercolor paints in your bullet journal.

FYI: I’m not going to stop using them. #becausesparkles

If you follow me on Instagram, you might notice that I love using circles of all kinds in my bullet journal. You can create a lot of whimsy and use fun colors in your bullet journal just by coloring in a circle and adding spots of color.

Finally, I learned how to create a super fun new cloud font. It’s fun and not complicated!

Yellow Airplane with Cloud Text Brain Dump Page | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #braindump #headerideas

What Did You Think?

It felt good to try some new, fun techniques and to paint. Painting always soothes my soul. I would recommend finding something that creates peace in your life, especially when dealing with a stressful or unknown situation.

I hope you enjoyed this whimsical travel theme and that it inspired you to try something new or experiment with a new technique.

Keep in mind that your planner doesn’t have to be all about making plans and crossing off your to-do list (because let’s be honest – you crave a little creativity to spice up a boring planner). I think in addition to getting things done, it can be about learning, creating & documenting. That’s how I use my planner, and I encourage you to try using your planner for building your dreams and recording more than just your tasks.

Wishing you joy and creativity every day - Tricia

1 Comment
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Plan With Me, Plan With Me 2020, Planner Spreads Tagged: 2020, april, Bullet Journal, bullet journal doodles, plan wit me, travel, watercolor, whimsy

April Mid-Month Habit Check: Humility & Progress

April 15, 2019 2 Comments

April Mid Month Habit Check - The theme: Humility | ChocolateMusings.com

Mid-Month Habit Check Time!

It’s mid-month habit check time! Mid-month habit checks are where I groan and squirm uncomfortably because this is where I’m accountable for my actions for the month so far and give myself a chance to improve in the second half.  P.S. I still love my transparent habit tracker used in February & April!

First of all, let me tell you why I track habits because I didn’t for the longest time. I thought it was silly and time-consuming. But this spread in my journal has probably been the reason why I kept bullet journaling or planning for so long.

Note: Here’s a post showing you how to set up a habit tracker, and why I like to track habits.

Tracking your habits gives you power over yourself like nothing else I can explain. I don’t monitor a tremendous amount of habits. And sometimes I list a habit on the tracker to start reminding myself to think about doing it. I started reading habit books and found that what they said was true – you manage what you monitor. I can attest to that.

This month I tracked ten habits:

  • Patient Parenting
  • Scriptures
  • Prayers
  • Learning
  • Blog
  • Product
  • Productive
  • Clean Daily
  • Plan
  • Time Out
April Mid-Month Habit Check - are you on track? | ChocolateMusings.com

Most of them I’m pretty good about doing. I give myself half points some days because I know I tried, but could be better. Patient parenting scored a lot of half-points where I’d be fine for most of the day, and then something would light my fuse, and I’d blow up or become angry.

This month, I also struggled with prayer & scriptures. I don’t know if you pray or similar, but it’s an act of humility. And I struggle with that. Lots of reasons why come to mind, and that is most definitely a post for another time. But sometimes realizing why we are struggling with something makes it easier to fix.

Mid-month habit time is an excellent time for me to do some introspection and assess what I’m prioritizing in my life or what is not a priority and what I should consider changing. I’m guessing if I show more humility and pray like I intend to do when I wrote my habit checks, my patient parenting score would go up.

Always Progressing

If I make an effort to do any of these ten things daily, I know I’m trying, I’m progressing. Never consider yourself a failure because you tried. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but it’s not a failure.

That’s why I post my mid-month habit checks, to remind myself that it’s ok as long as I’m trying. And to give me a chance for the rest of the month to increase my effort. Sometimes I realize I’ve focused on the wrong things. Other times I realize I put too much on my plate.

It’s a great time to evaluate and give yourself a chance to rejuvenate your focus. How does my mid-month habit check compare to yours? Do you see any patterns?

2 Comments
Filed Under: Blog, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits Tagged: #BuJo, #bulletjournal #bujo, 2019, april, Bullet Journal, habit tracker, habit tracking, improvement, mid-month habit check, planner

About Me


Hi! I'm Tricia, the creative behind ChocolateMusings.com, I know how it feels to lose your inner muse. After years of darkness (which I call the dark ages of my life), I found my inner muse hiding in the forgotten corners of my soul, I vowed never to lose sight of her again.

Bullet journaling helped reignite the passion for art and living life again while organizing my days. I also discovered modern calligraphy and watercolor. Since then, my use of the bullet journal system has evlolved and I call it 'creative planning'. Here on the blog, I show you how to use your planner to ignite your inner muse and explore creativity and art while staying beautifully organized and living a joyful life.

I invite you to grab some good chocolate and dive into my musings. Let’s ignite your inner muse.

Read more on the about me page. You can also find my policies and disclosures here.

  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Etsy
  • Facebook

Cart

Browse Products

  • Little Red Truck with Christmas Tree in the Back Greeting Card 5.5x4.25 Top Fold Christmas Card | ChocolateMusings.com Red Truck with Christmas Tree Card {Multi Card Order} $17.00 – $59.00
  • State Outline - Minnesota State Outline - Minnesota $10.00
  • State Outline - California State Outline - California $10.00
  • Elephant silhouette in Color Wall Art Printable | Chocolate Musings.com Elephant Silhouette Wall Art Printable {Various Colors} $12.50

Search ChocolateMusings.com

Categories

What Do You Want to Do Today?


 

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Exquisite Damask Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...