April - May Bullet Journal

April Bullet Journal – Pink Books

I missed books in my bullet journal and I really loved the pink and gold theme I had in June last year so I decided to merge these two into one month. The outcome? See for yourself…

The monthly front page is a simple shelf with my favourite books, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and The Catcher in the Rye.

On the following pages you can find my monthly planning and calendar and followers tracker. Originally I drew books in the left bottom corner but I didn’t like it so I covered it with the rose and washi tape. This is how you cover your mistakes in the journal.

The mood tracker is a circle, I know I said that I will try to avoid them, but I was really running out of any ideas and I didn’t know how to implement books into mood tracker. I will work on that idea and you will probably see it sometimes in the future. I love the pink and gold combination for the tracker. It is girly and soft and very pleasing.

The quote on the opposite side is combined from stickers. But I think it fits with the colour scheme. This is an easy way how to avoid calligraphy if you don’t feel like it, or simply can’t be bothered to practice for hours to get your handwriting to perfection.

The last section of the monthly spared contains my favourite: books I read, in this month I will write them onto the book spines. I am very excited about this design and idea. I hope I will read a few books so the shelf looks busy. The little box is for blog ideas.

The second part of the double page is dedicated to my monthly reflection which I write at the end of each month. The whole look is completed with some pictures of roses and miniature quote sticker. This double page looks busy and full.

May Bullet Journal - Botanische 

Hello May! Hello, long warm days. Hello, ice coffee.

This is my fav time of the year when days are slowly stretching but it is not too hot yet. When everything starts to get green and blooms. I love to look at how nature changes and wakes from the winter sleep. This inspired me to select green for this month bullet journal and I got also inspired by the amazing new Instagram account that I recently discovered. Thank you @botanischeboys.

The front page of my monthly spread is pretty standard but I tried something new this time. I had enough time to take my watercolours out and play with them. I haven’t done that in a long time. It was a challenge. I am not an artist and I don’t know what I am doing, really.

Here is what I learned from my two-day watercolour Bullet Journal session:

- If you use a lot of water on your brush it will destroy the pages (because my bujo is not meat for watercolouring). The colour will be mild and transparent (if you have any pencil sketch it will be visible).

- If you use very little water the paint will not spread evenly and the edges will not be sharp. The colour will be darker and thick. The brush strokes will be noticeable. 

- Getting the right amount of water on the brush is hard. But not impossible and by the end of the second day, I got the hang better at it.

After this experience, I did little YouTube tutorial research and I can promise you I am not done with watercolouring. I fell in love with how colour dissolves into the water and then into the paper. I love how the shades blend. 

The following section is the monthly overview. I wanted to experiment a little bit here as well so I decided to paint whole double page green and keep the calendar windows white. This wasn’t as fun as I expected. I used washi tape to protect the squares I wanted to stay blank. This took very long and it was really hard work. The washi tape was hard to paste evenly. I kind of gave up after three squares and let them be crooked and uneven. I don’t mind. Messy looks are acceptable for the bullet journals. I don’t like the outcome of this as much as I thought I would like it, but I don’t hate it either. I think it was a successful experiment, but I can improve a lot next time. Maybe I will try something similar again next month but with a different technique.

As you know I am trying to stay away from the circle mood trackers. It was my thing in 2018 but this year I am trying something new. This simple fern leave is from Pinterest and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out when coloured.

The other side of the spread is my regular: books I read this month and blog ideas. Again the leaves motifs are present and I am in love with it. I am very happy with how this looks. I think it is cute and adorable and perfectly balanced when it comes to the colour and composition of the page.

The last spread of the month is the monthly refection and a quote. The reflection of the month is something I like to do, and it is a kind of diary for me. It helps to keep an overview of the month and sum up important events and feelings – good and bad.

The quote inspiration is from Pinterest. I am very proud of this page. By this time I had some experience with the watercolours and the amount of water I need on my brush. I am very happy with the black and white details of the leaves too. The white was hard to do as I didn’t have a tiny brush so I had to use thicker one, and it doesn’t look as natural. If you look at the front cover and the last page you can notice slight progress in my watercolour technique. I hope.

I am definitely not done with watercolours and I will probably take them out again. I have to say I really enjoyed it. I found it calming, relaxing and fun. It was a break from life and all the troubles and worries and I could just think about the “just right” shade of green. It was very refreshing and kind of liberating.

If you have any questions about the bullet journal, you can always leave a comment or reach out to me on Instagram or via email.