Pirate Map Weekly Layout – ‘X’ Marks the Weekend!

September 12, 2017 6 Comments

We celebrate a random holiday. We started celebrating it before we found out that Krispy Kremes celebrates it too – with free doughnuts. Now we just celebrate more. Pirate costumes and swarthy accents are a staple at our house. I have to admit, the kids have now outgrown their pirate costumes, so we need to get our act together and get new costumes, because…

International Talk Like a Pirate Day
is September 19!

I had to make my week pirate themed in my bullet journal in honor of such a great day. Bring on the silly puns, the tri-corn hats, and my attempts at a pirate accent. {My husband’s fake accent is pretty good, honestly, it’s mine that is lacking.}

If Krispy Kreme is still into the pirate life, they give away a doughnut for an accent. If you dress like a pirate, you get a free dozen of their original glazed. Hoist the anchor, unfurl the sails, load up the Jolly Roger and head to Krispy Kreme for a swashbucklingly good time.

EDIT:

I found out that Krispy Kremes is not into the pirating lifestyle this year. It does not matter to me. We will still celebrate by speaking like a pirate all day long.

It’s becoming ever more popular, so expect a line sometimes going out the door. Worth it? Yes, but only if you like talking like a pirate. Which we do.

In my weekly log layout, Tuesday the 19th is not where X marks the spot – of course, X marks the spot on THE WEEKEND.

I used Prismacolor colored pencils – they are so soft and blend so well and are truly lovely pencils. My husband got them for me YEARS (really – years) ago and I put them away during the dark ages. The ‘dark ages’ is the time that I call my life when I was not doing anything really creative. I’ve found the light now.

Thought you might like some close-ups of the drawing. Shading really gives depth to the images. The skull face on the hat, I am pretty sure is alien. That mouth! I’ll practice more on skulls for next time. I love the feather plume in the hat and the treasure-hunt feel for the week. Yep, I am treasure hunting for the weekend.

I track my meal plans each week, so those are on a barrel. The Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen writes great over the colored pencil. I wrote the dates and drew the dotted line to find the treasure. I left it open to dry a little, but it has not smeared at all.

The parchment background is an uneven line with random tears drawn into it. then colored darker around the outside. The darker you color, the more lines drawn, the older and more fragile the parchment looks. Next time I am going to add some curl to the edges of the tears.

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I told you my pirate accent needed help.

Want to know what supplies I used? I’ll tell you.

This post contains affiliate links. The cost is the same to you but, I will receive a small commission to help support my blogging and creativity habits. 🙂 All opinions expressed were solely mine and from my heart.

September Week 1: Autumn Colors and Fall Leaves

August 31, 2017 Leave a Comment

Keeping with the monthly theme of “Heck Yes! It’s Fall!” September’s 1st week has an autumn look with the changing colors on the leaves.

See the September monthly spread here

I knew when drawing this out, that the leaves were small and wouldn’t hold a lot of tasks. Maybe I’ll just take the week off and relax. Probably not, but here in the US, Monday the 4th is a holiday, so I will just take one day instead.

I am a ‘sketch it out before painting’ kind of girl. So to create this weekly log, I found a simple leaf pattern and drew it out repeating the pattern with just slight differences. Many eraser marks later, I had just the right amount of whimsy to the branches and leaves. I labeled the leaves to make sure I had drawn enough!

After sketching it out, I sampled some chocolate of course. Then I watercolor painted in the tree branch and the leaves. The paper tends to get wavy when I add a lot of water or paint. So I kept as much whitespace as I could. I love the whimsy of this page not to mention the fall colors. I like to fantasize about the day when I paint hyper-realistic and you can’t tell the picture from reality. But I am not that kind of painter – at least yet. This page is nowhere near realistic

I like to fantasize about the day when I paint hyper-realistic and you can’t tell the picture from reality. But I am not that kind of painter – at least yet. This page is nowhere near realistic, but I love it nonetheless for its bright hues and whimsy in the curves of the branches and leaves.

Even though I live in Atlanta and it is still dreadfully hot, I think I need to sip a cup of hot cocoa in honor of this page. Fall here I come, ready or not because I am gearing up for cooler weather, crisp nights and a school schedule for my kids.

Tag me on Instagram (@ChocolateMusingsCreates) with your fall creations or weekly layouts. I would love to see your creative muse at work.

Here’s my process for creating this page in a super speedy video. Enjoy!

I just noticed that I have a pen mark on my left hand from when my kids couldn’t get a ballpoint pen to write. Ah well. The things you do for kids.

A pile of gathered leaves and Autumn inspiration await you. Jump right in!

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Want to know what I used to create this spread? I’ll tell you.

This post contains affiliate links. The cost is same to you but, I will receive a small commission to help support my blogging and creativity habits 🙂
All opinions expressed were solely mine and from my heart.

Eclipse/Space Layout – Shield Your Eyes!

August 17, 2017 1 Comment

The Eclipse is Coming! The Eclipse is Coming!

Warning: Shield your eyes from what you are about to see or make sure you have the proper viewing spectacles for your eyes.

Nevermind, you can look.

Monday is the eclipse across North America – and we are very near the total coverage area in the south. We are checking the kids out of school and trekking our way to a better viewing area. Thank goodness we have family in the area and don’t have to find lodging. If I owned a hotel, I would crank up prices because people would pay them to see this once-in-a-lifetime {for some} event. I am not a hotel owner though.

Perhaps I should make a calendar of when the next eclipse will be and where so I will be more prepared the next time. Well… if I’m still around on this earth. I should learn more about them. I’m sure that I just cursed myself – it’s predicted that my kid’s future science fair project is probably on eclipses. Great, can’t wait for that karma. That doesn’t lessen my excitement about this eclipse, though. So now, enough with the chit-chat.

Here is the layout for next week in honor of the Eclipse!

First off, I have to tell you that I didn’t have a compass of any sort in my possession, but I wanted to make circles. I actually wanted imperfectly overlapped circles, so it looked like the eclipse either coming or going.

I scouted around my kitchen for two glasses with different size openings. One needed to fit inside the other – but just so I could make the circles pretty close to overlapping. I offset them just slightly. On the first page, I wanted the emphasis on Monday, which is when the eclipse was happening. I chose to do a repeating pattern for the facing page. Watercolor was so much fun on these pages!

I left a large area for notes since we are making a big deal of it for our kids, I plan on recording the events here so I can tell them about the adventure in years to come. Maybe you will have more patience than I did to splatter white paint across the pages to make it look more like stars.

Did you miss the eclipse but like the layout? This layout could be used for space/celestial/cosmos theme.

What layouts did you do for the eclipse? Anything special?

What objects have you used in a creative way?

Pin this layout for later (and follow me on Pinterest for more ideas!) I’m on Instagram too, @ChocolateMusingsCreates. Follow over there for bullet journal ideas/layouts art and hand lettering.

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Here is the layout with a couple of close-ups.

Leave me a comment below and let me know what objects you’ve used in a creative way.

Minimal Open-Side Square Weekly Spread

August 15, 2017 Leave a Comment

Minimal Open-Side-Square Weekly Spread

{with Monday Start}

Great layout for a minimalist design
the names on the side added variety to change-up the layout.

The day-to-day planning is down the center of the page (except Sunday) and all the other planning is on the edge of the pages.

I left a big part of the page on the right for a quote or to do list. You’ll notice that the week starts on Monday. Not typical for the calendar I use, but I’ve really been liking the Monday start to the week. Whether it’s in my head or not, it makes me feel like my weekend is not disjointed…and possibly longer? Whatever extends the weekends right?

I tend to lay things out in pencil before adding color or pen, it reduces mistakes. After getting it drawn out, I decided the sides would be the best place for the days of the week names. Below is the video of me lettering the names. Yes, I forgot to cross the “t” on Saturday and dot the “i” in Friday – what in the world was I thinking?! Details! I discovered it later and added them as you’ll see in the final layout.

To create this layout:

Start from the center – and leave one dot to the center of the book, you could move it closer if you wanted, but it makes it easier to add tasks and notes you don’t have to write into the center of the page. I have tried to allow for white space in my bullet journal. (And let’s face it, white space in my life too!)

I always leave 2 square heights for the meal planning – it just makes it seem easier to plan meals that way. I like to have a place to jot down miscellaneous ‘next week’ items. On the right side, I included a square for blog posts and “to do” for those tasks that are not assigned to a day. But in that space, you could have: To Do Lists, Shopping Lists, a place for notes or journaling, mini-calendar, a weekly habit tracker or a myriad of other things! I love having space ‘as needed’. If you were making your own, you might decide to mash Saturday & Sunday into a “weekend” box instead. I think I might do that next time.

Pin these layouts for later (and follow me on Pinterest for more ideas!) I’m on Instagram too, @ChocolateMusingsCreates. Follow over there for bullet journal ideas/layouts art and hand lettering.

Pin this layout for later!

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19!