I love this loose, whimsical watercolor space theme in my bullet journal! I love it so much that I’ve used this whimsical watercolor space theme before in different variations – twice. Do you ever have a theme in your bullet journal that you love and want to revisit? I don’t think this will be the end for space themes for me.
Here are my previous space themes if you want to check them out, too.
April 2018 – Inspiration
May 2020 – Inspiration
If you’d like to ignite a little space-creativity, check out my creative universe drawing/lettering prompts – for those times you don’t know what to letter or draw, here is a great way to score some space-related inspiration.
Table of contents
- April 2018 – Inspiration
- May 2020 – Inspiration
- Plan With Me on YouTube
- Whimsical Watercolor Space Cover Page
- Adding Black Page Inserts
- Brain Dump Page – Out of This World Thoughts
- Circular Habit Tracker
- Weeklies – Fun & Easy Whimsical Watercolor Space Theme
- Ways to Add Whimsy to Your Bullet Journal or Art
- Bright & Color Shifting Watercolors
- When Your Watercolor Bleeds Through the Pages
- Supplies Used
- Ease of Creating a Whimsical Watercolor Space Theme
Plan With Me on YouTube
Watch how I set up this whimsical watercolor space theme in my bullet journal. Hit subscribe if you’d like more content from me!
- 00:00 Plan With me
- 00:36 Welcome Page – Theme Introduction
- 00:50 Welcome Page Inspiration #1
- 01:26 Welcome Page Inspiration #2
- 01:42 Welcome Page Painting
- 04:30 Monthly Calendar
- 05:44 Inserting black pages with washi tape – Habit Tracker & Brain Dump
- 07:37 Brain Dump Inspiration page – “Out of this world Thoughts”
- 09:15 Habit Tracker
- 11:20 Weeklies #1
- 13:20 Weeklies #2
- 14:00 Weeklies #3
- 14:55 Weeklies #4
- 15:50 Journal Page
- 16:53 Filling out the Calendars – Monthly & Weeklies
- 19:26 Final Flip Through
Whimsical Watercolor Space Cover Page
The cover page for February is a recreation of my April 2018 welcome page, but this month is also heavily inspired by my May 2020 space theme. I don’t know what it is, but I find myself painting a lot of galaxies and space-related items outside my bullet journal.
I brightened the colors on this cover page from the original one I created in 2018. Plus, I added a few more elements – primarily stars.
Adding Black Page Inserts
This month, I decided to add some black pages into my journal with washi tape for some of the weeklies and the habit trackers. I love using black paper because the color-shifting watercolors show so differently on black paper versus white paper. The real key to adding pages to your bullet journal is to use tape on both sides of the sheet. In this case, the sheet was not as wide as the width of my bullet journal. So I used the washi tape to extend the sheet just a little bit.
Brain Dump Page – Out of This World Thoughts
Keeping with the whimsical watercolor space theme this month, I added a fun brain dump page called “Out of This World Thoughts.” I also used this one before in my May 2020 bullet journal. I scaled down the size of the earth since the brain dump page covered the left side instead of a full spread. Find more alternative brain dump page name ideas in this post.
Circular Habit Tracker
What goes better with a space theme than a circular habit tracker? Seriously. I’d love to know. It’s been a while since I’ve made a circular habit tracker, and it gave me the chance to dust off my favorite circle-making tool.
Weeklies – Fun & Easy Whimsical Watercolor Space Theme
All weeklies are similar but different enough to have their own look. I added another set of black paper inserts for part of the weeklies for extra fun. I didn’t think through the weeks that had half the week on white pages and half the week on black pages. It did make it challenging to write the tasks for the week. I’ll probably use gel pens or acrylographs from Archer and Olive for the month so that the writing will show up on both white and black pages.
These weeklies are very easy to create and look so fun. The whimsy is enhanced with thick, bold outlines surrounding the circles. When creating a whimsical watercolor space theme, you don’t have to spend much time recreating known planets. Use whatever colors suit your fancy, and that look good when blended. I didn’t spend much time recreating Jupiter’s lines or specific colors. Honestly, with this type of whimsical design, you don’t need to follow anything from reality if you don’t want to.
I love the addition of the black pages in my bullet journal this month. It shows the contrast of the colors and the pages.
Ways to Add Whimsy to Your Bullet Journal or Art
There are a few ways to make your bullet journal themes whimsical. One is by using bright colors – I tend to use a lot of jewel tones. Another way to make your theme whimsical is to add thick, dark outlines around your painting. Throughout my theme this month, I’ll doodle circles around all the watercolor planets, and they all look very whimsical and fun.
Bright & Color Shifting Watercolors
I have to admit that I missed out on using watercolor for a long time in my life. I seriously thought that all watercolors were muted, pale, washed out, and only pastel. Not sure where I got that impression, but as you can see, that is anything but the truth.
When I paint on regular watercolor paper, I do a much better job of layering the colors. You still have to be careful with how much water and color you use in a bullet journal. I paint very differently from one medium to another, but it’s just a matter of adapting.
When Your Watercolor Bleeds Through the Pages
I have found that using this type of watercolor – the sparkly, color-shifting kind- always seep through the pages even when other watercolor does not, especially on the white sheets. The black pages don’t have that issue.
I found some watercolor ground, the kind I have is Daniel Smith’s transparent watercolor ground, but they do have white and black if you prefer those options. I painted that first on the white pages, and it worked! No bleed-through!
So if you are struggling with any bleed-through when using watercolor in regular notebooks, watercolor ground works excellent. You can also turn any other surface into a watercolor canvas. Like any other material, you might have to adjust to your techniques for blending colors, dry time, and paint absorption, but for my purposes this month, it worked great.
Supplies Used
- Acrylograph Acrylic Markers – Archer & Olive
- Coliro Finetec Iridescent Pearlcolors Watercolor Paints
- Dr PH Martin’s Bleed Proof White
- Dr PH Martins Iridescent Calligraphy Ink
- Karin Decobrush Metallic
- Metallic Acrylograph Pens
- Pentel Gold Gel Pen
- Sakura White Gelly Roll Pens
- Uniball Broad Tip Gel Pens – White, Gold & Silver
- 1-31 Daily Number Stickers (5mm Size)
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- Archer & Olive Notebooks
- Archer & Olive Notepads
- Circle Maker – Helix Angle Maker (one of my favorite tools ever!)
- Coliro Finetec Iridescent Pearlcolors Watercolor Paints
- Daniel Smith – 238 Watercolor Dot Color Chart
- Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints
- Dr PH Martin’s Bleed Proof White
- Paul Reubens Watercolor Paint Metallic Glitter – 24 Color
- Princeton Heritage Series 4050 Synthetic Sable Watercolor Brushes
- Princeton Heritage Synthetic Sable Paint Brushes
- Sakura White Gelly Roll Pens
- Uniball Broad Tip Gel Pens – White, Gold & Silver
- Watercolor Ground – Transparent
- Winsor & Newton Fineliner Pens – Pack of 5 – Waterproof (Assorted Sizes)
Ease of Creating a Whimsical Watercolor Space Theme
Super easy. I would recommend creating this whimsical watercolor space theme if you are a beginner with watercolors, bullet journaling, or both. Unless you make a circular habit tracker, there’s no measuring or counting squares. You don’t need to worry about an exact look. The thick lines around the planets allow for plenty of mistakes. None of my planets are perfectly circular, and sometimes these space objects glow around them anyway. This space theme is perfect for adding a bit of whimsy to your bullet journal, plus you can play with watercolor without feeling like it has to be perfect.
I would only point out to be cautious with how much water you use in a regular journal – even those with thick pages. But I solved that issue by using watercolor ground on the parts of my pages where I added watercolor.