What I got for Christmas 2016

As requested in the Happy Place Facebook Group, here is what I was lucky enough to get for Christmas from my friends and family this year. This is everything I got and not just the planner / art / stationery things related to this channel so I hope you enjoy!

If you want to have a nose at my wishlists you are very welcome. I like doing this as if you find you have similar tastes to people it is nice to see what else they like, especially books!

General Wishlist: http://amzn.eu/2TyDepO
Cookbooks: http://amzn.eu/60FVUKC
Books: http://amzn.eu/j8Dnzsd

It's a bit chilly out there - Creative Journal Spread

Boxing day here in Manchester was absolutely gorgeous yet bitterly cold! It truly fit this months Brimbles Box theme. I decided to document the day in my creative journal using items from the stationery box and Foil & snow stickers by Crate Paper. I began by preparing my pages using watercolours and gesso. This gives a beautiful background which will complement the theme. Then I had to choose which journal card from the 12x12 sheet to use. I went with the cute polar bear bear as the title fit the description of the day so well! It was more than a bit cold though...it was bloomin freezing!

 

I then stuck down the card and photo and decorated the page with stickers. Using the snowflake stamp, which came with the box, I stamped on some snowflakes and thought it would look pretty to add some Glamour dust.

 

Finally I wrote about the afternoon. Sometimes, I'll draw fine pencil lines to keep my writing straight.

 I love the faux fur keyring and pen! These were a lovely touch to the theme of the box. I'm now looking ahead to the new year and will be doing a lot more journaling. I can't wait to see what's in next months box!

 

Planner Peace

Since I am in the Planner community everything I see is beautiful planners with fabulous stickers, gorgeous pictures.... lots of PINK, happiness, drawings and designs. It was, and actually is, the 'design' part that attracts me the most about it all. But let's not forget what 'planning' is all about! It's about organizing your life.
 


(I'm saying this to me) because sometimes I loose myself in decorating and finding the right colors for my 'spread' instead of actual planning my week and make my planner really fuctional. So this is the part I want to talk about... Of course I want my planner to look pretty and all but I want it to have the function of helping me through the week and accomplish things I have to do. Maybe it sounds obvious to you but for me it isn't.
 



Most of my planners are beautifully manufactured and have perfect quality. For that matter I sometimes am scared to write things in quickly on the go in bad handwriting.... I want my pages to look pretty and flawless. I mean there is a lot of 'planner deco competition' going on on the internet... since I expose pictures of my planners online. Instagram litterely explodes every day with the most wonderful spreads in all kinds of planners. But if we go back to the source of where it al began... it's just about a little black agenda with bad handwriting in it, crossed out words, cancelled appointments.... unreadable little quotes and dingy pages with dog ears.... But no one is looking forward to that when they open their instagram or pinterest accounts. At least I am not.
 

For me there is a challange in finding myself a way to let my planners be pretty and functional at the same time. Still struggling a lot but I guess I haven't found that 'Planner peace' everyone seems to talk about nowadays. In fact... I hope I don't find my Planner peace anytime soon because... it's all about the journey that makes 'Planning' so interesting.

 

I'm always searching for new ways to plan and deco my planner and even if I think I found my Planner peace... there will be something itching... and POOOF! Planner peace is gone... But hey! The best part of all this is as long as you have no planner peace there always is room for new ideas in your head and in my opinion that's what counts. I bought myself a black fake Kate Spade Wellesley planner in wich I allow myself to write ugly and slovenly and I force myself to still use washi (even the expensive ones) and stickers because even ugly planner pages deserves some deco. I'm not feeling guilty writing in there in my worst handwriting... and you know what? It actually looks really good! (Ok, there's still a part of me that wants it to look pretty but I'm working on it)

 

I guess street graffiti works the same way... sometimes you see a wall full of names and things written accros eachother... it's so messy it becomes modern art... that is how I see busy ugly planner pages with almost unreadable handwritings and stains all over. In fact... that just gave me inspiration for a new 'spread' LOL. Graffiti, streets, city, spraypaint, hiphop.... those are the keywords for a spread I'm thinking of right now. You must know I Looooove the 80ties! That's a great idea to start 2017 with! Still practicing my bubble script to write in tho.

See you next year... oh and have yourselfs a Merry little Christmas!
Love, Brigitte

Christmas Planner Pages

Hello, fellow Brimbles fans!

I'm so excited to share my planner layout with you all this week, because it's Christmas week!

This week I used items from the November Brimbles Box and one of the highlights was using the die-cut sticky note mug that came in this month's box! I don't really use sticky notes at all, especially large ones, but occasionally I do love to include them as a feature on my planner pages - particularly if they're decorative ones.

I also used one of the cut-apart journaling cards as my header background and I love the script-y font and all the Christmas-themed words!

I know a lot of people don't like to include dimensional stickers in their planners because of bulk, but honestly, using a few enamel dots here and there never hurts, and it adds a fun element to your page. Anna's gorgeous little Christmas holly was the perfect addition to my page!

Anna's hand-drawn stickers are fun and bright and I always love scattering them all over my pages!

I was so excited to see Anna's tiny word stickers in last month's box, because I LOVE tiny word stickers so much and now I have some Christmas-themed ones!

So that's my process!

I hope that wherever you are in the world that your have a Merry Christmas (or happy holiday season)! May your New Year be safe and happy and full of wonderful new adventures and opportunities!

See you in 2016!

Creative Journaling #Winter.

So, this months Brimbles box has arrived and I swear I say this every time but this one really is my favourite so far and is absolutely filled with such wintery goodness!! 

Month after Month Anna always seems to out do herself and this month is definitely no exception. 

I had 2 Winter Mess do's this month so I know I wanted to capture at least one of them In my creative journal and this box is perfect for doing just that, all though Winter doesn't officially start until December 21st the Do's were both Winter themed and using the goodies from my box to decorate the spread seemed perfect and everything just ties together so 

well.

Isn't the Snownan / Stamp in this months box the cutest? I absolutely adore it and used it to make a thick flowing border at the top of my spreads using 4 different colours of Versa Magic Dew drop Chalk ink - I used GD- 15 Turquoise, GD-60 Tea Leaves, GD-75 Pink Petunia and GD - 36 P. Petunia I chose these colours as I think they work well with the theme of this months box.

I think the Turquoise ink also matches the Washi tape from this months box perfectly so I went ahead and used this at the bottom and left hand edge to bring the page in a little, I also like to put my elements at slight angles as opposed to having them all completely straight I think it adds a bit more depth to the spread and makes it less formal.

Another thing I love about the Brimbles box is the scrapbook paper we are getting more frequently as well as it being Annas own artwork which I adore it is so so versatile, I mean you really can do lots with scrapbook paper, I think people instantly think "well, I don't scrapbook but I can't use it" but you really can you can make Dashboards or dividers, cards and Happy mail, Insert covers, last month the lovely Gemma who is also on the DT made some Christmas baubles the list really is endless.

I used some of the Tartan pattern paper in this time as this One ties in most with my spread. I used it to frame my page title and some of my photos I had printed out on my polaroid zip - such a handy piece of equipment especially when doing any sort of journaling or scrapbooking, we got so much paper this month and I am so grateful as I find I never want to use my nicest paper because I don't ever want to run out of it but now I have lots left for many other projects.

I like to frame elements of my journal spreads as sometimes I can find they get a little lost if they aren't framed and this way it adds an extra bit of colour to the page.

I finished off by embellishing the spread with some of the stickers from the box (I am going to have to purchase multiples of these) some simple stories word stickers & alphas that I already had along with some Gold Heidi Swapp Emojis and some cute Washi I had shipped from Michaels in the USA.

I really love the simplicity of this spread and the way it turned out most definitely One of my faves now all that's left to do is write my entry but I will probably save that for another day.

One last thing I did do though was attach that gorgeous fluffy White pompom Keyring to the side of my Holiday Gold Zinnydori and it looks Gorgeous!!

Blog | Youtube | Shop | Facebook Group

Winter Planner Pages

Hi everyone! This months Brimbles Box is beautiful. It has a real wintery theme and the colours are gorgeous!

 

The box contained:

• Welcome postcard
• Four sheets of 12x12 scrapbook paper
• One 12x12 sheet of journal cards (to cut up)
• Snowman stamp
• Blue snowflake washi
• Snowman sticky notes
• White crystal ballpoint pen
• Hand-drawn stickers
• Hand-drawn Ephemera
• Planner stickers
• Faux fur fluffy charm

I love the drawings and surface patterns in this months box, it feels like a snowy version of the November box. Due to the colour scheme, it has a real crisp feel. I'm not using my white Webster's Pages at the moment but I think it would look amazing in there! I haven't yet used the 12x12 scrapbook papers so I may save them for a planner setup :)
 

I'm so pleased to see a Polar Bear version of the Brown Bear seen in the September box from this year. Particularly the drawing I've taken to calling the 'Mama bear', leaning overhead. I love all the drawings but my particular favourite are the mugs. I think I said the same think for the November box and the red mugs! They're so eye-catching!

 

So what have I been up to with the box? I haven't used everything yet, I have some journalling to catch up on and a lot will be used for that. As mentioned, I may also save some bits for a planner setup. This month I decided to try out the #30daysoflists challenge. As the name suggests, each day of the month, a list is sent out to you via email and you use it to journal. This month does have 31 days and there have been hints that an extra list will be sent out. I decided to use a journal card from this month's box for a list. I chose a card that was fairly minimal with a grid background and snowflakes. I've decorated with a silver gel pen, washi from the box, a mittens sticker and a colourless glass nugget (I thought it went well with the theme of the card). The list itself doesn't relate to the card design but that doesn't bother me.

 

The second thing I've done so far is a Bullet Journal weekly spread using the planner stickers. I've kept it fairly minimal as it's currently the week before Christmas so I have a lot to plan in. The more space the better! I loved mixing the drawing stickers with the planner stickers. The boy in the hat fitted perfectly with Monday and my Son's Nativity. I love how it all looks and because it's in my bullet journal, I will be able to look back over the year and see it again :)

 

That's where I'm up to so far, I can't wait to do more with this box. I will definitely use more of it for my #30daysoflists with the plan of doing a flip through on my YouTube later on. Thank you for stopping by, Kelly xxx

 Where else you can find me: YouTube Shop Facebook Instagram Twitter

Pen Pal Pockets

So December box has landed.

I will most probably say this about every box but i love it!! i did an unboxing video opening it all up and i love all the colours in it and the different tones of blues and greens obviously with Anna's art work throughout which is the best part about it.

every month there is some 12"12 card stock and this month i decided with some of that card stock i would make a new pocket book that i have been enjoying making this last month.

 

1) i first chose the card stock i wanted to use. these two where ones i got in the box.

 

2) then i cut them down to size and figured out how many pockets i wanted.

 

3) i then made some adjustments to the pockets and stuck them down, with double sided tape. then used some of the washi tape that came in the kit to frame the sides and the bottom.

4) i used one of the sticky notes that came in the box as an embellishment on the bottom left and i fussy cut one of the penguins from some of the off cuts of card i had left from cutting the pockets.

 

5)i then went through my stash and used some of the word stickers that came in the November Brimbles box just to add the the bottom right hand corner.

 

6) then i used some of the stickers that came in the December box to embellish the top and also some of the enamel dots that came in the November box just on the green pockets to give them some depth.

 

7) then i used some of the stickers from the 12"12 sticker sheet by Simple stories and used some of the alpha stickers on that sheet to spell out hello. Then used some of the other stickers to embellish.

 

8) then i used some stickers from another 12"12 sticker sheet by Simple stories called The Reset Girl to spell out the lovely ladies name.

 

9) then i just filled it with some goddies and a letter for her. 

10) finally i packaged up i used some of the washi tape that came in the box and taped the edges and used the stamp that came in the kit to stamp some snowflakes all over it and used on of the snow men post it notes to used as part of writing the address on it.  

I love how this tuned out and i still have so much to use. As i said in the unboxing video for this box in the new year i will be starting to scrapbook in a 12"12 album so the other papers from the kit will be saved ready to scrapbook and i will blog about them as and when they are done.

I also love the key-ring that came in the box so much as soon as i finished filming the unboxing video it went straight on my purse.