Iโm back from a short break in Boston, ready to restock all your favourite handmade stationery, plus some shiny new products.
These vertical leather pencil pouches are something Iโve been working on this year. Iโd made a few testers and trialled them in my brick-and-mortar stockists, but have just launched them online! You can find them in my Etsy shop, in the Stationery section.
Get your fill! I’ve made some traveller’s style leather journal covers, that can be refilled again and again with simple A6 notebooks; there’s elastic running through to keep them in place, and a handy elastic closure to keep everything shut. I’ve popped a few in my local stockists, and will be adding them to Etsy soon.
My next journal making workshop is taking place Thursday April 10th at The Galleria in Burton Latimer, 6:30-8:30pm: learn to make an A6 journal using rescued leather. Iโm hoping to do a couple of different style journal workshops in the future, so keep your eyes peeled ๐.
Looking to build on your bullet journal, or pimp your diary spread? Iโve collated a few ideas, incorporating past posts, adding updates and new ideas for you to try.
Create a simple chart, table or block system to track things – whether itโs daily activity, drinking more water or keeping on top of housework! Use a key to help keep it visually accessible, creating different colours or patterns for different segments of what youโre tracking.
I shared this in a previous post about Bullet Journaling, but as I find it so useful Iโm sharing it again! You can adapt this to suit your needs. The page is split into 3 sections: the top 2/3 (roughly) has been made into 2 columns for lists, leaving the bottom section free for notes or important details.
Sometimes itโs nice to have a place for self care and reflection. This is a great space to your imagination and get creative. Here, Iโve created a cherry blossom design, filled with some ideas of little monthly wins.
Try making this origami pumpkin in a variety of colours and patterns for a fun autumn project. Youโll need a sheet of fairly thin square paper; crease the folds with a creasing tool, or you can use the back of your thumb nail.
Start with the square of paper turned so it looks like a diamond
Fold it in half, top corner to bottom corner
Fold in half again, corner to opposite corner, along the top edge
Lift the flap youโve just folded, and open up the layersโฆ
Squash this layer into a neat diamond shape
Flip over sideways, and do the same squash fold on the other flap
You should now have a nice diamond shape, with layers that open at the bottom
Take the top flap on the left over to the rightโฆ
Fold this to the left, so the top sloped edge lines up with the central crease
Fold the bottom sloped edge to line up with the central crease
Take this layer back over to the right and press the creases flat
Next, take the top flap on the right over to the left, and make the same two folds
Once youโve taken that flap back over to the right, you should be left with a slim diamond shape in the middle
Flip the model over
Fold over the top and bottom corners a small amount to shape the pumpkin
Fold both side corners in, roughly the same amount (you can take a look at the right side to check youโre happy with the shape, and adjust these folds if necessary)
Take the small top triangle you folded over, and fold the point up, so the tip sticks out a bit over the top of the pumpkin, creating the stalk
Turn it over to the right side to see the finished result!
Whether you want to keep a visual diary, or just have somewhere to practice and progress your skills, an art journal is a great addition to your creative journey. In this post, Iโll give you a few ideas to start you off. The first thing you need is a somewhere for your art! My handmade journalsย have paper suitable for pencils, pens and some paints; if you missed them, you can check out my previous blogs about that here:
Itโs a good idea to start simple, especially if youโre just beginning your art journey (if youโre like me, you wonโt draw, paint or write anything on the first page in case something goes wrong ๐). You can often find drawing challenges and prompts online, which can be useful for experimenting with different styles and subjects (Inktober is underway throughout October, with a drawing prompt for every day).
Some ideas could be:
Still life
Nature
People
Abstract or doodles
Below you can find some helpful tips if you just need a bit of inspiration to set your creative juices flowing.
Magazines: flick through until something catches your eyeโฆ draw it!
Alternatively, look around you. What is there that you could try to draw or paint? Something with an interesting shape or engaging colours? Replicate it, or break it into basic shapes for a more abstract look.
Wanting to build on your skills? Setting a goal can be a good way to stay on track (one of mine is get better at drawing hands). Dedicate a whole page to practicing one thing.
Some other ideas: daily sketches, details, different styles, different mediums. Experiment! Doodle! Date your work and look back on your progress. Most of all, donโt be afraid to make mistakes. Perfection is overrated ๐
Join me at a local fair in Northamptonshire, or come along to a workshop and make something for yourself. I’ve got a few dates in the diary – check them out belowย ๐
Donโt forget you can shop with me online if you canโt get out and about to any of these events.
Iโm running a few workshops towards the end of the year, including leather journals & festive origami.
Iโve got 3 fairs booked in so far in and around Northamptonshire – including a book extravaganza at the start of October. That one will be the most dangerous in terms of spending money I think ๐
Keeping a travel journal is a great way to both plan and document your travels. Being a list maker, I always keep a notebook for planning and packing, occasionally adding notes or drawings while Iโm away. Whatever youโd like to use yours for, Iโve put together some ideas for what you could include – and some fun decorations examples!
PLANNING: go as basic or as in depth as you like. Keep it simple with where & when theyโre going, or plan a full-on itinerary. Here are some ideas to get you thinking: -Destination/dates -Travel/accommodation details -What to do while youโre there -Budget -Language basics
PACKING: a list of essentials is good, so you donโt forget anything important. But itโs fun to plan everything else too ๐ My top categories are: -Essentials -Toiletries/accessories -Clothes -Miscellaneous (for things that donโt quite fit in other categories!)
TRAVEL DIARY: unlined pages keeps things versatile. You can have space for writing, drawing or adding photos or tickets (in case you get such a rare thing as a paper ticket!). If the paper’s sturdy enough you can glue things in; you could also use paperclips, or stash things in the pocket of your notebook. What? Your notebook doesnโt have a pocket?! Add one yourself by gluing an envelope to the inside cover.
Finally, some ideas for decorations and doodles. You can add these to the appropriate pages as youโre planning. Think general travel icons, local foods or what to expect weather-wise.
These paper envelopes are quick to make once youโve got the hang of them. Theyโre a fun way to package small gifts, send a special note, use in a scrapbook or to decorate handmade cards.
All you need is a square of paper. Iโve used a two-sided paper, but you can use whatever youโd like. Remember my two rules of origami – fold neatly and crease firmly!
If using two sided, start with the side you want on the outside face down.
Turn the square to a diamond and fold in half, bottom point to top point.
Fold one outside point over to meet the other, but just press the middle point gently – this is to make where the centre is.
Open back out fully.
Fold the bottom point to the centre mark youโve just made, crease and unfold.
Fold in half again along your first fold line, taking the bottom point up, then fold that point down using the existing crease.
Next, youโll need to fold the outsides in to the centre so the points overlap slightly – as evenly as you can!
You can fold them over gently both at the same time until you get them to the position you want, before creasing the folds properly. Overlap the points a little for a rectangular envelope, or fold them over a little further for a more square look.
Tuck one point into another. You can glue these in place if you need to.
Thatโs it! If you want a closed envelope, simply fold the top down and secure with a bit of Washi tape.
Do you love lists? Organising your thoughts on paper? Tracking your goals? Bullet journaling might be for you!
Bullet journaling isnโt a new trend – in fact, it started to become popular around 10 years ago, so most likely youโve heard of it. It can be used to focus your tasks, track your goals and generally organise your life; often done on dotted paper, but you can use blank or even lined. The point is to customise it your way.
As with starting any new notebook, itโs easy to feel overwhelmed with all those empty pages. Some people use bullet journals a bit like an extension of a diary or planner – often with a key or index for reference. However, this can be a big undertaking at first, so my advice would be to start with one or two things and go from there; make them something you like, something fun – books you want to read, top films etc. or tracking your favourite exercise (if you have one!).
To get yourself started, you only need a few basics.
Essentials:
Journal/notebook
Pen/pencil
Nice to have:
Coloured pens or pencils
Ruler
Rubber
What about paper type? A dot grid allows you to easily draw neater lines & boxes, create charts & tables, and gives you guides to draw banners and embellishments – without hindering your creativity too much. If you want to use blank, lined or graph paper, thatโs fine too!
The biggest task is setting up the pages; using templates and guides can help, especially if youโre using blank paper – draw out a guide on a spare piece of paper and you can use it to trace again and again.
It can be as simple or as complicated as youโd like to make it. Tailor it to your strengths and needs. If all you need from it is a title and some bullet points for lists – perfect. If you want to decorate every inch of paper – go for it!
These simple flags can be made any size you want, and can be used for things like titles or tabs for section headers, or just to decorate the page.
To do/To buy
This is a great one to start with: nice and simple, easy to repeat and can be customised each week/month. (Itโs one I use all the time!). I used the dot grid to draw the outlines, then decorated the edges with coloured fine liners. Stars make a fun alternative to round bullet points.
Books books books ๐Aiming to read a certain number of books each month, or just to track your reading for the year? This bookshelf layout can help do that! The โshelfโ was created on plain paper, using a ruler and pencil, before going over in pen. You can then sketch out the books in pencil, and outline or colour them in as you finish each book.
Fancy having a go? Iโve got two styles of dot grid journal in stock: Moon Phases and Smoky Keys. Shop plain paper journals and notebooks here.
Iโve recently rescued a bumper batch of leather sample sheets and am really enjoying using them! There are some gorgeous colours and textures in there, and Iโve started splitting them into collections such as Mermaids, Monsters and Magic (this is more just for myself, because itโs fun ๐คฉ).
Hereโs some of the things Iโve been making so far:
So, youโve got a blank-paged journal and would like to use it as a diaryโฆ what do you do? Where do you start? All those empty pages can feel quite daunting!
Iโve put together a quick guide with some ideas to help you out.
If youโre looking to turn your blank journal into a diary, youโll need to make sure youโve got enough pages to last the year. My journals are 128 pages (sides) – hereโs an idea of how you could use them.
If you create weekly spreads and do each one over 2 pages, it would make up 104 of the pages (see above image, created in an A6 journal). You could then allocate 1 page per month for a monthly spread, creating it at the start of each set of weeks.
Youโll need more weeks in some months; if you have each monthly layout on a right-hand page, the the next 4 or 5 sets of double pages can be weekly spreads for that month (youโd then end up with a spare blank left-hand page, opposite the next month).
To do the monthly layout, start with a 7×5 grid (days of the week x weeks in the month; itโs easiest to do 5 weeks for all months, because of how the dates fall).
For an A6 journal, make the grid from squares that are roughly 1.5 x 1.5 cm; for A5 they can be around 2 x 2 cm (it might be a good idea to make a template to copy/trace every month). Write the days above the grid, then add the dates in the boxes.
Add a title for the month at the top of the page, as fancy as you like – make it into a banner, flag, or decorate the word. Here are some ideas:
Thatโs the main structure taken care ofโฆ what else will you need? Maybe a title page at the start, or a couple of pages for a yearly outlook? A page to list birthdays/important dates? You could have ideas/note pages each month, or have a few blank pages at the end for jotting things down.
You can create your diary however you want, with whatever pages youโd like to add, but hopefully Iโve given you some ideas for a way to start it off.
Happy journaling!
Donโt forget, you can shop my range of blank handmade journals and notebooks in my Etsy shop ๐
