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

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Home » monthly planning

July Plan With Me – Watercolor Wash

July 8, 2018 1 Comment

July Plan With Me – How to Do a Watercolor Wash Background with Blocked out Spaces

It’s World Watercolor Month!

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it when I started planning my July pages. Or maybe it was because I recorded all sorts of fun holidays in my future planner” and I subconsciously remembered it. Either way, this month’s plan with me is immensely appropriate for the month! I’ll show you how I did my watercolor wash + what I learned and tips & tricks.

How To Do a Watercolor Wash – My Process

If you want to recreate this in some way (adding your own twist of course!) you’ll need:

  • Paints (I use Crayola Markers)
  • Paintbrush or Water pens
  • Water (if you use the paintbrush option)
  • a Notebook
  • Sticky notes or masking tape to block the water in specific areas
  • Patience or a blowdryer to speed up drying time
  • Pens or Markers to add dates/events/details after

Block-It Off

Block off the sections of your notebook that you want to keep from painting. I cut the sticky notes to the size I wanted (remember that I did have some bleed under the sticky notes from the water – I was okay with it, but keep that in mind). If you use tape or another sticky substance, make sure to test it out on another page first (maybe one in the back) to make sure you don’t tear the page or something when removing the tape.

Choose your palette and paint over the whole page or sections you want to watercolor wash. I tried to do a gradient fade from dark to light in my journal, but it required a lot of water, and the pages of my notebook couldn’t handle that much water (as you can see below with the bleed through).

The less water you use, the less chance you will have to bleed through. I used the same markers in June, less water, more intense color, less bleeding, lesson learned.

Patience or Hairdryer & Add Details

Once the paint is dry (either through extreme patience or with a speedy blowdryer) to increase the look of the gradient, I outlined each line of days on the monthly calendar with dark to light markers from top to bottom.

Add the days of the week and the name of the month and all the events and voila! Done. For even more detail, use a gold or silver pen to add little details and doodles around the remaining background.

Favorite Places for Random Holidays:

From World Watercolor Month to Sea Turtle day, I love some random holidays. So I thought I’d share my sources for where I find my random holidays to celebrate! I subscribe to some of these guys on twitter & Instagram; I love their notifications.

  • daysoftheyear.com
  • timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/
  • calendar-365.com – This one has some other facts about the days, not so many fun holidays, though.
  • holidayinsights.com
  • nationalday.com
  • holidayscalendar.com
  • ntldays.com

If you know of another website or reference for fun holidays, please let me know in the comments below!

question mark - chocolatemusings.com

What have you recently tried in your planner or journal? Did it turn out as you wanted?

~Tricia

1 Comment
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Creating Art - Watercolor, Painting & Drawing, Get Creative, Get Organized & Start Planning, Plan With Me, Plan With Me 2018, Planner Spreads, Tutorials & How To Tagged: crayola markers, crayola watercolor, how to paint in your bullet journal, July 2018, monthly planning, plan with me, PWM, watercolor, Watercolor Month, watercolor wash

Plan With Me: June 2018 Beach + Ikea Display Room Method

May 31, 2018 6 Comments

In this plan with me for June 2018, I’ll show you how I used the Ikea Display Room Technique & gradually grew my journal to include only the pages I *really* wanted & needed. If you’ve felt overwhelmed by having too much in your planner, use some of these ideas to help eliminate unnecessary items in your bullet journal and find what’s truly important to you.

It started out this month with my bullet journal feeling like ‘too much’. Besides the fact that summer is the hardest for me to use my bullet journal simply because I get caught up in the ‘lazy days of planning’.

When your bullet journal seems to have ‘too much,’ take inspiration from Ikea’s display rooms and eliminate everything that takes up space. Condense, analyze what you truly need, then reset your planning for the future. I decided to follow those steps this month. Starting with just three pages and adding pages throughout the month as I needed them.

Beach Sign Welcome Page - Watercolor Painted with Crayola Markers | ChocolateMusings.com #welcomepage #bulletjournal #watercolor #crayola

Plan With Me Video: June 2018

In the video below, I’ll show you from start to finish how I created this fun, beachy spread plus the other pages in my bullet journal this month. Crayola super tip markers – one medium I love for ‘painting’ in my journals. I started with absolutely no pencil marks, so you’ll see the whole planning process, doodles and all.

June 2018 Plan with Me Starting Pages

  • A Welcome page (not necessary but included because I love them, and you still need artwork even in a small space, and I needed something so I could turn the page and have the monthly plans on a two-page spread)
  • The monthly calendar page (with a daily habit tracker built-in)
  • Lastly, a monthly journaling page (one that I call All the Things with just the right amount of categories)

The welcome page is one of my all-time favorites. I started doing welcome pages last July, so this makes it my year anniversary of welcome pages! August 2017, January 2018, and June 2018 are my top 3 so far.

June Plan with me 2018 Welcome Page - colorful watercolor sign on the beach with palm trees, starfish, flip flops and sand, perfect for invoking a casual setting in your bullet journal
June 2018 Plan With Me: Rotated Tall Monthly Calendar | How My Journal This Month is Like an Ikea Display Room - condensed, small, minimal, and only includes the necessities | Chocolate Musings - Bullet Journal Inspiration
My Favorite Spread for the month perfect for journaling and memory keeping. | Chocolate Musings - Planner & Bullet Journal Inspiration #bulletjournal #bujo #journal

The Inspiration for June 2018 Plan With Me: Ikea Display Room

Have you ever been to Ikea where they display those ‘living in small areas’, and you see how beautifully arranged all the furniture is and still accommodates all the needs of the person living there? It’s fascinating how a small room can feel like it has everything you need. It’s a revelation to how much ‘extra stuff’ we keep just for the sake of keeping it.

When I was a little girl, I used to pretend in my room that my future house was the size of my bed or the size of my bedroom. It required immense creativity to decide where all my stuffed animals and art supplies would live in this small space. That’s where I got the inspiration for June’s plan with me.

What Small Spaces Require

Small spaces require organization, and you eliminate every unnecessary item. Each nook has a purpose (or two) and storage solutions are well-fitted for the area. When I visit Ikea, I wonder if I could honestly live in such a small square-footage. I’d like to think I could by myself, but definitely not with kids.

Well….that’s kind of what I did for June.

If you saw the plans for May, I condensed the weekly plans down to two weeks per spread. Thinking that was as small as I could get. I guess somewhere in the back of my head; my brain took that as a challenge.  Fitting everything in life into 52 dots x 38 dots (the width and height of my bullet journal) takes some creativity and planning.

Monthly Calendar

On the monthly calendar, I wanted a background for each of the boxes, kind of a washed-out background and I used two colors. I wish that Crayola markers had a number on them so I could tell you specifically the colors I used. But I used a water pen to blend the colors from the drawn boxes. The extra two lines at the top of each calendar box are for my habit trackers.

Rotating the book so the calendar is taller than wide adds more space to each day. Each day is eight squares (4 cm) by 5 squares (2.5 cm). I attached my habits using a little washi tape and a sheet cut from a Rhodia Dot-Grid pad (I love lining up the dots, so it’s like the page just continuing onto that little flap).

Rotated Tall Monthly Calendar | How My Journal This Month is Like an Ikea Display Room - condensed, small, minimal, and only includes the necessities | Chocolate Musings - Bullet Journal Inspiration

Was I Crazy? Maybe.

This plan with me was a little disjointed and crazy. I learned a lot about what I needed (and what I didn’t) for the month. I might have been crazy to try condensing all of my plans so much, but I think you’ll agree, sometimes there’s not a whole lot going on, and it’s ok to modify your bullet journal to suit your needs for any given month. Even if that includes eliminating weekly or daily pages. That’s the thing with this type of planner, you can adjust it to suit your needs and add or remove elements as needed.

Post Plan With Me: June 2018 Through the Month

As the month progressed, I added a few extra pages including a beach packing list and a spending log. I loved using my “all the things” journal page to record specific memories as a family and make general notes. There’s a reason why I like to include these particular pages. One reason is they provide a quick overview to the good things of the month. Another reason is that I feel like I recorded a journal entry without feeling like I have to jot every detail down of every event.

  • Track your spending by category & need vs want review at a glance | Chocolate Musings @ChocMusings #bulletjournal #finances #money #tracking #spendinglog #spendingbloom
  • Track your spending by category & need vs want review at a glance | Chocolate Musings @ChocMusings #bulletjournal #finances #money #tracking #spendinglog
  • All the Things: a no-pressure free-form journal page perfect for those who want to keep a journal but feel overwhelmed by journaling. | ChocolateMusings.com
  • Packing list - a must for every bullet journalist going on vacation | Chocolate Musings @ChocMusings #vacation #bulletjournal #packinglist

Planner Question:

Do you use the same pages/layout each month/week? If so, how long did it take for you to decide on that layout? If not, what makes you change each month?

Are you ok with leaving blank space in your planner when life is less planned, or do you condense everything down?

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

6 Comments
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Get Organized & Start Planning, Plan With Me, Plan With Me 2018, Planner Spreads Tagged: 2018, Bullet Journal, journaling page, june, june 2018, monthly page, monthly planning, monthly set up, plan with me, welcome page, youtube plan with me

2018: Bullet Journal Plan with Me January & December Wrap-Up

December 29, 2017 7 Comments

January 2018 Planner Walk-Through

Planners rejoice the time has come for New Year Bullet Journal Planning! This is like the Christmas for planners. But most planners I know get planner items for Christmas. It’s a whole thing. There are a lot of bullet journalists who are moving into a new notebook at the start of a new year. Alas, I look longingly at the new notebooks lovingly set aside for such a momentous occasion and know that I will be continuing in my current notebook for another two months.

I did not let this dissuade me from planning out 2018 complete with a future log and everything. Like December, I decided to plan the whole month out in advance rather than week-to-week. I liked the grand overview of everything complete for the month and then the snippets of art and creativity are woven throughout the month.

Sneak Peek

Let it be known, I am not good at keeping surprises or secrets. I like to be told what is going to happen. The video below gives sneak peeks, but the image below does even better and the peeking. I don’t give too much away in the images below but just enough. Be sure to visit back as I update each week’s spread with a new video and a walk-through.

January 2018 Sneak Peek of the Spreads for the month + Plan with Me Video - watercolor with crayola supertips, New Year Bullet Journal Planning #weekly #monthly #bulletjournal #spreads

New Watercolor Techniques

I’ve been trying some new techniques for watercoloring with markers (yes, I said it – watercoloring with markers. Crayola Supertips to be exact) – and I really like it. I get the colors and the look of a watercolor piece, but I don’t end up with the watercolor paint texture on the pages which can also result in the watercolor paint chipping off the page because the pages bend.

The other thing I really like about this technique is that I can write over the pages much easier. With watercolor paints, I could only write on them with certain pens afterward because there was only a select few that would ‘stick’ to the paint. If I desire watercolor in my bullet journal, I will most likely use markers. Yes, good old-fashioned Crayola Super Tip Markers.

Plan with Me Video: January 2018 & December 2017 Wrap- Up

Here is the planning video reviewing December 2018 and revealing the January 2018 set-up. Let me know how you’ve set up your 2018 in the comments below.

Remember to plan your life so you live beautifully.

~Tricia

7 Comments
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Get Organized & Start Planning, Plan With Me, Plan With Me 2017, Plan With Me 2018, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, 2018, Bullet Journal, January, January 2018, monthly log, monthly planning, plan with me, planner

Planning for November Starts…Yesterday – November Title Page

October 25, 2017 7 Comments

Hello November Welcome Page

An understated title page heading into a very busy period of time.

My best tip for the season is to simplify. Simplify your planning, simplify your tasks each day so to enjoy the season.

Simplify everything you can. Remove the fluff, remove all the extras because there are a lot of things to do, see, bake, care for etc that will complicate your life. Simplify everything else so when these extra things creep up into your life, you are not completely overwhelmed. Unlike October or September, I wanted a calming and simplified November’s title page.

Serenity, Peace & Confidence

The last couple months of the year also bring a time of reflection. I associate reflection with the word serenity, peace, and confidence. Serenity and peace to my soul closing out the year and confidence going into the next year. It’s a very exciting time to plan and decide what is important for the coming year. Looking at this page, I feel like the minimal design says all those things to me.

November Title Page | Simple black and white Hello November with elegant handlettering text and aspens

I do not plan on writing on this page but instead just keeping it the way it is. No more details.

I am putting together the monthly set-up for November but wanted to give you a sneak peak.

What do you do to deal with the hectic of the holiday season? Let me know in the comments below.

Plan your life so you live beautifully.

All my best, Tricia

 

P.S. Don’t forget to pin for later & follow me on Pinterest for more inspiration. I have a whole board dedicated to Welcome Pages and other boards dedicated to bullet journal and planner detailing. I kind of love it.
Follow @ChocolateMusingsCreates

I post more ideas and fun stuff on Instagram. Find me @ChocolateMusingsCreates

 

What I used for this spread: (contains affiliate links)


For this post – yep, that’s it. Black and white ink drawings sometimes take the most imagination.

7 Comments
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Fun with Handlettering, Get Creative, Plan With Me 2017, Planner Spreads Tagged: Bullet Journal, header page, hello november, hello page, minimal, minimalistic, monthly planning, plan with me, welcome page

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.

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