dear friend...the journal of a lifetime

Dear Friend...

You have been in my life for so long, I can't even remember a time when you weren't around. We have been so much together, we grew up together, did crazy things together. Where has the time gone? I don't know how to tell you how much you mean to me, I just can't seem to find the words to express that and to thank you for being the bestest friend a girl could ever have. You turned 30, how on earth did that happen? The last time I looked we were sitting together under the fort we had made playing with your sylvanian familes and now look. We are all grown up with proper jobs, houses, cars and significant others. You have been through it all with me and you probably know me better than I know myself. You tell me when I am over thinking things again and you plant my feet firmly back on the ground. I don't know what to give you for your birthday so I give us this. I give you the gift of time and memories. I will take you to London for the day shopping, to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and then I will take you to see Phantom of the Opera. I also give you this, the gift of our friendship...

That was five years ago this coming September. I had no idea what to get my bestest friend in the whole wide World for her birthday. She has everything, short of giving her the moon what could I give her? Then one day I stumbled accross this journal in a gift shop and I had a 'Eureka moment'. I bought it, followed the prompts, wrote my memories down and pasted photos of us in.

She loves it and it sits proudly on her bookshelf. We were talking the other day about something and she said 'hang on a mo' and went and got this book to look at something. You know I had totally forgotten about it until that day, she hadn't, she reads it regularly. I asked to borrow it so I could read it again and remember everything that I had written and to also share it with you as I know my journal and memory keeping friends you will love it too!

The book is by 'from you to me' and they have loads in the range for most relationships so if you are looking for a gift for a hard to buy for person, this might be just what you need!

Creating Daily

During the Christmas break I shared with you what I received for Christmas, well I thought I would give you a bit of an update on how I am using two of the things...

I was very kindly given a Paperchase bound diary from their Dreamscap collection. As you know I do love my ring bound planners for the flexibility of being able to move things around and in/out, Mr B also knows this but he bought it for me he said because he knew that I would like the cover design and thought that I could make use of it somehow. Oh how right he is! How could you not love the design? It is simply beautiful. The paper inside is a cream colour but so beautiful and smooth as well. I do love it.

oh by the way I am showing you photos of my messy artists desk too lol!

I also received a set of Spectrum Noir pencils. I knew they did markers but had no idea that they did pencils too. I have coveted the Prismacolor pencils for a while now but have never taken the plunge to buy them. I don't know why. I see people use them in videos etc all the time but I wonder if I would enjoy using them too. When I think of pencils I always think of the cheap kids ones that you have to really work at to get any colour at all. I know everyone raves about the Prismacolors I am just yet to try them for myself.

So what am I doing with these two things? Well I am putting them together and creating daily. I am working in my Fauxbonichi in the evenings when we finally sit down to watch some telly. After I have done with that I then pick up this book. I love love love my Fauxbonichi don't get me wrong and I do find it relaxing but I do have to think about what I have done that day to record it. Once I have done that I pick up this book and this set of pencils, nothing else and I let my mind wander off and draw whatever it needs or wants to. Whatever comes out of my head goes onto that paper. No carbon pencil and eraser, nope just straight down with coloured pencils. No thinking, no worry about mistakes, just creating and letting the mind go. I love it, not that any journal or creativity is particularly stressful, nor should it be, but there there is something about just letting your mind wander through the extension of your hand and a coloured pencil or two. I have even found a couple of characters that have come out on the page that I would like to develop and take further so that is great.

I am still not sure about the pencils as to whether or not I like them. I don't know if it is just pencils in general that I am comparing to other media but they just don't seem to be as pigmented as I would have liked them to be. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I am expecting too much from a pencil I don't know. Blending wise I haven't yet worked out how to really do that. I know you can buy blending solution but I don't really know what that is and how you use it so I really must look into that. There doesn't seem to be that much information so I will keep digging around.

Anyways for now I am just enjoying my little doodle time at the end of the day!

Christmas Journal

I was having a little rummage the other day in one of our local charity shops and I came accross a Christmas journal. I thought I would share this little nugget with you as I thought you might be able to get some inspiration from it for your own journalling and planning this Christmas or that you might like to pick one up for yourself!

There are some beautiful illustrations throughout the book which are just charming.

There are some really interesting prompts, some I hadn't thought of for myself.

I won't be using the book as a planner for this Christmas but more as a retrospective record of the Christmas that has just been.

I am really happy with my £1 purchase, probably one of the best £1's I have ever spent because now I have a dedicated place for keeping all of my Christmas memories!

My Fauxdori Set Up

A few of you have been asking to see more of my Fauxdori and how I have set it up. It is not that I didn't want to show you or share it with you it is just that there is nothing that spectacular about it. The cover is beautiful and well made but I don't do anything different with mine or out of the ordinary that you haven't already seen from other peoples. Still I love to look at other people's set ups so it is only fair that I share mine now isn't it!

A lot of you were worried when I put my fauxdori up for sale on instagram thinking that I had abandoned it. I can assure you that is not the case. I sold my first fauxdori because I saw one that had come up for sale that I really really wanted and to make room for it and to raise the funds to buy it, I sold mine original one. I was sad to see it go as we had become good friends but I wanted this one for a couple of reasons. Firstly it was wider so I wouldn't have so much over hang with the notebooks, the leather was sturdier, it was chunkier to hold more and lastly I knew it would be really well made. And it is. This was a fantastic buy and I really do love it!

On the outside I have a charm that I purchased from Etsy. It wasn't very expensive at all but I love it. It has a cute Bambi and thumper along with the skunk that I can never remember the name of. It doesn't sit quite right due to the way the loop is but I don't really care, I like the way it looks on there anyway!

 

Then inside I have a folder which houses little pieces of ephemera to use in my journal and a couple of notebooks.

It is quite hard to do a set up post just in photos especially as I don't really have that much inside my faauxdori but I really hope you have enjoyed a little peek and some more upclose shots! It is much easier to see the full workings and the insides in my video...

Using watercolour in my Fauxbonichi

Last Tuesday I shared with you my new Fauxbonichi and I was met with some lovely lovely comments from you guys both here on the blog and also on YouTube not only welcoming me to the Hobonichi / Fauxbonichi community but also about my style of journalling in said book. I have joined the fauxbonichi group on Facebook (although I don't use facebook all that often) and have been looking on Pinterest and watching flips on YouTube. I am really loving how so many people are embracing this style of journalling far more than  people have with other journals and I hope everyone keeps it up as I love looking at what everyone is creating!

Some may argue that this style of journalling is not new and has been around for years which is true but I am all for anything that gets people to journal more and get creative so bring it on I say! I for one am thoroughly enjoying my journal time of an evening.

Some of the comments that I received were also about using watercolours in my fauxbonichi. To recap the book that I am using is the leather look grid notebook by Paperchase which I actually purchased on Amazon but I believe Barnes & Noble stock one that is very similar. Now I have been using watercolours for years and years, the ones I use are by Winsor & Newton. People were both concerned and interested about using watercolours in the journals on non watercolour paper. In my experience you can use watercolour on any paper. Any. The key thing is to practise, practise with your watercolurs, learn how they work and how much water you need to acivate them.

Unless you are doing lots of wet in wet techniques then you can use any paper. The key is to keep the paint / paper fairly dry. The only paper that I have had difficulty with (although not impossible) is cartridge paper as the fibres come apart a lot more easily. As long as you keep the paint and paper fairly dry you will be absolutely fine I can assure you and don't go agressively at it either.

The type of watercolours you use will also affect this but again it all comes down to practise and learning how your media works. Cheaper paints will typically need more water to activate them and will be less pigmented, this means that you will be applying lots of watery colour to your page to get the colour intensity you want. If you can stretch to a better quality set this would be best.

In the video I talk more about this and also show you how I have coloured my page in with watercolour and how it works...

Upcycling Autumn into my journal (fauxdori) and Filofax

If you follow me on instagram you may have seen this picture. This was a flyer that was put through my door by a local estate agent and I received it twice. The first time it came through my letterbox I stuck it into my journal because I wanted to journal a bit more about Autumnal things so it seemed very fitting.

The second time it came through I decided to turn it into a dashboard, so I cut it down to size, covered up all the writing on the back with a beautiful scrapbook paper in a leaf design, hole punched it and laminated it and now here I have the most beautiful Autumn scene that I can look at even when it is too wet to get outside!

Once again can we just pause to reflect on how good this looks in the nude original. I will say it ten thousand times, the nude just goes with everything!

The paisely looking page marker you see is also a bif of upcycling! This was cut out from the packaging that some pumpkin spiced reed sticks I bought came in. This is just a little bit wider than the standard markers that come with the Filofax as I just loved the design I cut it wider so that I could see more of it!

I have talked about upcycling and using random things in your Filofax a couple of times in the past so you can find out more about upcycling into your Filofax here or what you can make your dashboards out of here.

And if you didn't see it on instagram here is a bit more autumn-ness for you. I am really enjoying that tea, it is like Autumn in a mug and whilst we are talking about mugs...hello! isn't that owl mug so cute! He was a present from an Avon rep friend of mine (it's from Avon). You can see the above dashboard in the photo below before it was turned into a dashboard!

I am also hoping to enter this competion with my pictures!

Storing scrapbook papers - Ikea Expedit Hack!

Like a lot of people around the World I use the Expedit shelving unit from Ikea to house my art and craft supplies amongst other things. When I first got it I loved it because it was exactly what I needed and I had great fun stocking it all up and getting things how I wanted. As time has gone on and I have lived with it for a while I realised that it wasn't working for me quite the way in which I wanted it to.

Looking on the Ikea website the seem to have changed the name to Kallax but this is what came up when I searched for Expedit.

I love the large square spaces but sometimes they are just a bit too large. I do have boxes and drawers but sometimes they don't quite work for me.

I was expressing my frustrations with Mr B and after nearly risking his own life on opening my paper cupboard (well he did ask if I had any paper!!) we came up with an idea to customise or 'hack' my Ikea unit to suit me.

I filmed the making of it as it is so much easier to talk my way around the unit and show you how it is all looking and what goes where etc.

Basically what Mr B did was cut some wood down into just a little bit larger than 12x12 paper. He then drilled some holes into the side of my unit, pushed shelf supports in and then placed the wood on top.  Rather than my messy cupboard of paper that was turning into a right old jumbled up mess and the paper was getting ruined, I now have a nice neat stack of shelves for my papers to go on.

Each shelf houses a different kind of paper, for example one shelf is plain card, another is glitter card etc. Each thing is seperated so I can easily find what I need when I need it.

I liked it so much that I got him to convert another space for me and in this space I am storing my paper cutter on one shelf, substrates for painting and on the lowest shelf I have 12x12 sheets that are not complete but are still quite large. I have moved my scraps into one of the draws.

This simple project has given me so much peace it is unbelievable. I never knew looking for paper could be so stressful until this system came along. Thank you so much Mr B!!

The only downside is that this has given me lots of ideas in which I could further customise my unit but if it works that can only be a good thing.

Do you have any tips, tricks or storgae solutions for your art and craft materials? I would love to know!

Christmas Planning - Part 2 - Christmas Cards - Filofax Friday

Welcome back to part two in my 2014 series on Planning for Christmas. I really hope you enjoyed last week and that it has not only given you some food for thought with regards to your own planning but that it has inspired you to get started too.

This week I wanted to look at planning for Christmas cards. Every year we like to send out a more personal card to our friends and family, particularly as some of them are accross the miles. Sending out a personal card means we get to have fun and share a bit of our humour with our family that we don't get to see all that often and then they get a lovely personalised card from us. It is hard work but we do enjoy it. I am not afraid of hard work it just takes a little time to put it all together and that is what planning is for!

If you would like to see the making of our 2013 Christmas card here is the video. Whilst we ended up with just one photo, it was actually all stitched together in photoshop and comprised of 13 images, yes 13! It was all good fun and now the process begings for 2014.

Obviously you don't have to make your own Christmas cards like we do but I am sharing with you what we do and the process and planning behind it all. I do encourage you to try it though, use your phone and do a family selfie or use a self timer on your camera then upload your image to somewhere like Moo.com, Vistaprint or Photobox and use their templates to complete your design. It is relatively easy and not too costly either and of course doing it early enough means you can shop around and wait for good offers! If you need some help and ideas for yours, Pinterest is a fantastic source.

Before the shoot takes place (we do shoot it ourselves) we like to have a think and jot down any ideas that we have, maybe even do a sketch of how we want it to look. We do need to bear in mind that whatever we do, we need to be able to photoshop the girls in and that is a huge cobsideration. I use the above 'shoot ideas' sheet to jot these all down on and this is a free download below.

Once we have finalised / agreed on an idea it is all just a matter of bringing it together and I do that using the above insert, again this is a free download for you below. We are leaning towards something like the image shown on the insert which I found on Pinterest, just with a little tweaking. I use this insert to work out all the props and outfits needed and all of that razzamatazz! Believe me it really helps to have it all planned in advance.

We usually shoot the card in October to allow for any re-shoot, editing and to get it off to the printers, some take longer than others to come back. As I said we have family and friends all over the place and the last posting date to Australia is 4th December - it will soon come around!

Of course buying cards is totally good too so please don't think that I am dissing that at all because I am not. There is still planning to be done for that though, they are available to buy in the shops now so why not buy them and hey, let's go really crazy and start writing them out! Everyone you do now is one you don't have to do later and just think how smug you will feel when on 1st December you can tip them all into the post box, hey why not on the last day of November so people get them on the first!

I also like to take stock of my Christmas card tracker. I like to track who I have sent cards to so that I can make sure no one has been duplicated or worse, missed! Having time to do this means that you are less likely to forget anyone as you can add them to the list but you also need to know who you are going to send to so you order the right amount of cards.

Download
This week's download contains the pages as show in the video as both personal size and A5. You will need software that can 'unzip' the folder to release the files as both pdf and jpeg.  To download the files for week 2 please click here. Please note that the inserts that I am offering as freebies as part of this series are different to the ones that I sell, so if you have already purchased a set of my inserts these are in addition for you. If you haven't purchased any of my inserts and would like to or just have a nose at them you can view them in my Etsy shop here. Please note: These inserts are entirely free and a gift from me and only the inserts provided are free, I say this because I know some people might prefer one of the other designs that I offer but it is only the ones in the freebie set on offer at this time.

Next Week
So there we are folks, I hope that has been intersting for you and has inspired you to get started with your cards. I will be back next week for more Christmas planning and this time looking at budget planning!

Giveaway
I am so pleased to have what I think is an awesome giveaway to go along with this series and I hope you will agree. The giveaway is brought to you by myself and the lovey Charlotte. Please do thank Charlotte for her kind generosity by visiting her:

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CharlottesWeb86
Blog: http://therobinsnest86.weebly.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/handmadebycharlottevictoria

Charlotte has only recently started her blog but you will not be dissapointed, she has some lovely images and planner lovliness so please do go and have a look.

So what can you win....some lovely things that is what my dears! I have three prizes for you... the first prize is everything that you see in the photo below which is.... from me: a brand spanking new red original Filofax which retails for £60.00 on the Filofax website, Christmas sticker sheet, candy cane planner charm, washi sample card and your choice of Christmas printable inserts from my shop. From Charlotte: a Christmas fly leaf, dashboard, set of dividers and pen. Everything that you need to plan your Christmas this year and every year after!

The second prize is everything you see below...from me: a Christmas dashboard, washi sample card, sticker sheet, Christmas tree planner charm and your choice of Christmas printable inserts from my shop. From Charlotte: a set of beautiful Christmas dividers.

And last but not least the third prize is your choice of Christmas printable inserts from my shop.

You want to enter? 
If you would like to enter the giveaway to win the Filofax shown above please rafflecopter below.  To enter you will be asked to follow both mine and Charlotte's Etsy shop which is mandatory to receive your entry (this is just as a thank you for hosting the giveaway but you are not expected to make a purchase!). All other 'follow' options are optional so don't worry if you don't have those accounts, it just gives you extra chances to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

By submitting an entry to this giveaway you agree to the following Terms & Conditions:

• Open internationally
• You must be over eighteen years of age or have parental / guardian permission.
• I will package the item(s) and will send in good faith but I cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage to the item in transit.
• The prizes stated above are the only prizes - no alternative colours, no cash alternative.
• The inserts are digital for you to print at home and will not be supplied printed.
• Three winners will be chosen at random and notified by email. Winners will be announced on this page after the closing date.
• If the winner(s) do not respond to my email within 48 hours a new winner(s) will be chosen.

 

Coping with this crazy life - Journal your socks off!

All in all I have a fantastic life if I do say so myself but I suffer like most from this condition of being human. I bet dear reader you have this too from time to time sometimes, no doubt, for what seems like longer than most. It is a subject that many people talk about even scientists, it is the one thing that unites us all as human beings, we are just that, human. Good stuff happens, bad stuff happens and in my personal opinion it is how we deal with those situations that ultimately reflects how happy we are in general.

I am not coming at you all 'chirpy chirpy isn't life wonderful' in an annoying way, goodness gracious I have seen one heck of a lot of rubbish in my life, some of which I have gone over before in videos and blog posts, but I have gotten through it, I am still here to tell those tales. It is one of the reasons why I journal, to get me through the rubbish, to cope and process what is going on around me so that I can learn from it, develop, grow as a person and move forward with my life. Everything we go through makes us who we are and from time to time we need to develop a way in which to cope with those situations. Journalling is my method of coping.

Please do watch the video as I can express it so much better verbally!

So my journal is my coping mechanism and during this traumatic stage in my life I have ditched all my journals and started a new one just for this particular coping strategy.

This journal is a Moleskine sketchbook and I used one pen, the Papermate Flair. All other journals got pushed to the wayside because I wanted a journal just to deal with this situation and only this situation, it is just what I wanted to do and how I was going to cope and it has helped.

In this journal I wrote reams and reams, just writing about how I was feeling. I poured my heart out and I shed some tears but it was all for the purpose of healing and gaining some perspective. There are people dealing with much bigger problems than I am and this is just a small part of my life, I need to remember that so I can heal and move forward and get my life back.

It is not my best work artistically but it has meaning to me. The little sketches and the little affirmations and words of encouragement I gave myself are what gave me the push that I needed. Sometimes I just wrote to say that I was sad. Sometimes I wrote long stretches of writing, other times it was really short. It all helped get me through.

I also documented my journey through my appointments at the doctors and physio; when I went, the advice given, all of that helped me to see how I was improving and how far I have come because I have come a long way. I even took photos as my hand looked bad and I thought it was never going to get better, even one week after that photo I can visually see the progress. I all helped me cope, get through and continue to climb upwards.

It is going to be a long journey and no one said it would be easy. I see the physio again in three weeks time, the consultant in four weeks but at the time of injury they told me I was looking at a 12 week (at least)recovery period. I need to stay positive so I can get to that point. I have come this far, why give up now?

Hopefully you can see now why I journal and what a difference it makes. I didn't write this post or record the video for sympathy, I just wanted to share another reason why I journal and how it is a good coping mechanism.

I hope dear friends that this has been useful to you in some way and I hope that if you are struggling with a situation at the moment that you can find a way to cope as I have done for me. Much love to you x

When you have no inspiration but want to create and journal anyway!

I think they say it is a sign of getting older when you feel like the weeks are rushing by but seriously I really do think that they have. I have not had a chance to get to my journal all week due to various events and then when I have time I don't always have the energy.

I often say though that when I have had times away from my journal that it pulls me back eventually. There is never a very long period when we are absent from each other we just can't bear to be apart for too long, really we can't.

Today I wanted to create. I wanted to spend time in my journal. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do and I had no inspiration either. I mentioned at the very begining of this mini series that sometimes you just are not inspired but you want to create for the sake of it anyway and today for me is one of those days.

This is quite a complex page and the process of how it came to be but I explain it all in the video.

Where to start? Well for starters my desk was a right state, nothing was getting done unless that desk got tidied, I didn't physically have the room to work even if I wanted to. Tidying your desk is a good thing though as you sometimes uncover things that inspires you to create and this instance it did. Whooop whooop!

I found some pictures I had ripped out of a magazine that my mother in law had given me. I don't buy magazines my self but now and then I get passed an old one. There were several images that caught my eye so I decided to take them out and save them. I felt like using one of those images today and just collaging because I enjoy nothing more than spending time with a glue stick and scrap paper. I don't know what it is but I find it very therapeutic to sit and stick stuff down. I think it is a time when you can be creative and let go but not have to think too hard, it can be almost medatative.

Some times it can be hard to use papers as I have a tendency to hoard them so it is also good for me to just let go and stick them down. I like to also give the page some context or meaning with words but nothing was coming to me either but with the help of my faithful Pinterest I was able to find my way with some rather fitting and choice words. I am an over thinker, I am terrible for it which is another reason why journalling is good for me!

The good and bad side of journalling - Journalling your everyday life

Hi journal friends, I hope you have all had a fantastic week filled with lots of journalling opportunities. Are you finding it easier to find inspiration to journal about now?

 I am back this week with two videos and two different areas to talk about, the good and bad side of journalling. No wait there is no bad side of journalling itself, what I mean is journalling about the bad things that happen or about the bad side of life. Bad things happen to good people all the time and it is how we deal with the bad stuff that defines how much of a happy life we in turn have. We can choose to dwell on bad things and let them fester away inside of us or we can choose to process it and move forward with our life. In a way we sort of need the bad stuff to appreciate the good and it is also the bad stuff that helps to shape who we are as a person, it influences who we are, our attitude and our morals.

We need the bad stuff but we do also need to do something with the bad stuff, we can't let it eat away at us. For me I journal about the bad stuff just as much, sometimes more than the good stuff. I seldom 'art' about the bad stuff, instead I prefer to write it all down. I like to document the event in case I ever need to refer to it and also process my thoughts and feelings relating to the event. Sometimes I need a bit of breathing space between the event taking place and my journalling about it, just so that my head can settle and I can mull things over but I don't like to leave it for too long as then I am starting to get in the danger zone of dwelling on it! Sometimes it can be just to raw and painful to journal about straight away but to me it is important to journal about it as I can get it out of my head so as not to worry and bother me there. I know that is is all sitting in the journal if I want to go back to it. I don't have to forget about it and in some cases you wouldn't want to, either way it is still there if I want to refer back to it at any time, it just means that it is not at the forefront of my thinking all the time. I explain all in the accompanying video:

Of course, in life there are plenty of wonderful things that happen to and I also want to talk about that this week so that it is not all negative! That being said, I think the 'negative' is certainly something worth mentioning, it is important to mental health and sanity, well it is with me anyway! So on to some good stuff and also I wanted to share with you a different way and a different style of journalling. Last week Mr B took the week off as annual leave and we had a lovely week pottering around and it was also his birthday and we went away for a couple of days to London. I saved up all the receipts and ephemera from our trip and I just wanted to show you what I do with them / how I use them in my journal. Some people refer to this method as smashbooking but I prefer not to give it a definition, I just call it journalling. So in today's second video I share with you how I put my pages together and another style of how I journal:

Here are the stills of my pages:

Have a great week and I will see you for more on how I draw inspiration from around me into my journal.

Finding my inspiration to journal - Clouds

Following on from last week I thought I would continue to share with you how I find my inspiration from my world around me to journal.

We have been having some really warm weather here but at times it has also been really cloudy and also really stormy. I love the weather and I find it really inspiring, I don't know why but I just do and I especially love clouds. I love cloud gazing and marvelling at the different types and formations. I just love it! I have drawn a lot of clouds in my journals and they take on all shapes and forms. Sometimes I have people swinging off of them and also gazing up, clouds are just one of the things I really love to journal about, take photos of and also incorporate into my Filofax. It is safe to say that I just can't get enough of clouds!

So with all of that in mind, the beautiful clouds and my love of clouds I though it would be appropriate to journal about clouds and share it with you and it also gives me a chance to share with you how I created some clouds previously in my journal that a few of you said you would like to know how to do too.

One minute it was really sunny and the next minute the sun went behind the clouds and it was really cloudy. To me this seemed like the sun was trying it's hardest to shine but every now and then had to go and have a nap in a bed of clouds and this is what inspired my journal page...

How are you getting on with finding your inspiration around you?

Where / How to find inspiration to journal

I often get asked from time to time about how and where I find my inspiration from and also people have asked to see how journal pages come together. I haven't really know in what form I wanted to share this in with you all until now but I am finally doing that.



There are different styles of journalling and I tend to do some of them, all of them, a mixture of them depending on what I want to do that day for example:

• Just writing
• Art work on it's own
• Smashbooking (sticking in ephemera like receipts)
• Scrapbooking (using photographs and embellishments)
• Collaging
• Or a mixture like art work with a quote.

Why I am journalling usually infuences the style of journalling that I want to do, again there are many reasons why you may want to journal and for me those are:

• To document my day / debrief
• To record keep (momentous occasions like a wedding or baby etc)
• To process my feelings, good and bad
• For the sake of it, to art and create for fun and because I enjoy it.

No there is no need to other think this before you start, just open a book and go for it, however if you are struggling to get started then thinking about these things can be a great start. For example if we have been on a nice date to a restaurant I would want to record this and that would be the inspiration. I would likely write about what a lovely time we had and then maybe stick a photo in with some cute washi tape and then stick the receipt in. Jobs a good un'. The inspiration in that situation kind of found itself and that is easy.

What about when you want to journal but don't know what about, or if you want to start incorporating art work into your journal etc well then this can be a bit more tricky. Believe me it does up with ease the more practise you have so please don't get disheartened in the early days and give up, keep with it and I promise you that you will get there with inspiration flying at you all the time. There are times of course when you have blocks and that is natural but something will open you up again. If you do have a mental block which I often do, I just sit with my journal and collage. I love to collage I find it very relaxing and soon an idea comes to me and then I just roll with it!

To start to find your inspiration you need to open your eyes to see as well as look and try and be more present in your day and each moment. Think about the situations you have been in that day and enjoy each present moment before trying to rush to the next one. For me I find my happiness in the present moment, enjoying the everyday and the everyday is beautiful. Of course crummy things can happen and do happen but the key to your happiness is how you deal with those situations, cue your journal - process them in there! Documenting your day or having a 'de brief' with yourself is a great way to process everything that you have been through that day and helps you to clear and refresh your mind.

Every life tells a story and every story is interesting. You may not think it at the time but believe me it is! When in a few years you pick your journal up again you can look back and see how you have changed and grown as a person. Both sets of my grandparents passed away when I was young so I only remember them through a childs mind but I would love to read their journals (if they had them) to find out what life was like for them. How interesting would it be to know about their everyday lives, what they ate, what they wore all that kind of stuff. Of course there may be things that you don't want people to see in the future and that is fine, you don't have to leave your journals behind and of course you should set up boundaries with your family members for your privacy where your journal is concerened. Mr B keeps a journal and we are both respectful of each others journal space.

So start to find the inspiration in the everyday. The above picture shows Mr B on a Sunday morning having a cup of tea and reading the paper. He had had a busy week and work and on the Saturday so the Sunday was really nice to chill out with each other and it was some really special quality time together. Of course I really liked seeing him so relaxed and contented to I took this instagram snap of him which I love, it is so arty and in the journal it went along with some writing about that moment.

So moving on to my process of how I journal and how I find my inspiration and turn it into a journal page. I don't or haven't in the past eaten anywhere near as much fruit as I should, I am so bad at it but that is just the way it is. In the past week or so I have really upped my fruit and I am really proud of myself for doing that and I have gotten to the point where I am really enjoying fruit and I am actually craving it now. I love it! I never thought it would come to that being someone who really wasn't that interested in fruit. So it is so momentous for me I felt like I wanted to capture how I felt about it all and what it all meant to me. I had just been and bought some more fruit and it was a hot day and it all made me feel very happy. See more of my thoughts on this and how I put this journal page together in the video below...

 

I hope you found it interesting to see how I gathered my inspiration and then turned it into a journal page. I will do a little series of these to help get you on your way so you can see how I do it and hopefully gain some inspiration yourself.

If you are not sure if journalling is for you or not but you are just tempted by it, or indeed if you want to get into journaller or just have a refresher, I have a playlist over on my YouTube channel of inspiring videos all about journals. I just you go check it out as then you don't just have to take my word for it but the inspiration from many other people that journal too. Click here to go to that playlist.

Art journal flip through

I am half way through my current art journal and I have been sharing snippets on instagram and on the Journal Gypsies blog and some of you have asked to see more. Of course I am always happy to share my art journal (or the non private parts of it of course!) but it would be a while before it was completely finished so I thought I would do a half journal flip for you so you can see how this is coming along. I will do a full journal flip so you can see what it is like when it is fully completed.

Hope you enjoy...

How to sew a zip pouch / purse / pencil case to use on the rings of your planner - Filofax Friday

 Following on from last week where by I showed you how I was using my pocket Saffiano as a purse / wallet, this week I am sharing with you how I made the zipped pouch.

I am using mine to keep my loose change as well as a hair band and hair clip as you can see! However I am also going to be making one in a larger size for my personal and A5 to use as pencil cases. I might even buy a cheap pencil case and cut open the bottom and then re-sew it up as I think this might end up being cheaper and easier to do than buying fabric and a zip!

I recorded the making of the purse so that I could share it with you too but I also took photos as I thought you might want to be able to refer back to this easier and sometimes it is easier to see in picture form.

What you will need:

• A pair of good sharp scissors for cutting fabric.
• Fabric in your choice of colours / patterns
• A co-ordinating cotton
• Needle
• Pins / Clips
• A 4inch zipper (for the pocket size, please measure for larger sizes)
• The acetate / flyleaf that came with your planner, failing that a piece of card hole punched will do (acetate / plastic will be more durable though!)

How to:

Firstly you will need to start by measuring your fabric and cutting it out. You will need two pieces of fabric cut to 13cm by 8cm.

Next take one piece of your fabric and place it 'good side' up facing you, then place your zipper 'ggod side' facing down making sure to line up the two outer edges (see photo 1). Pin or clip your zipper to your fabric and then sew approximately 5mm in from the edge in a running stitch.

When you have finished you will be able to flap your zip back over the way to see that both 'good sides' are facing you so you know you will have done this correctly (see photo 2).

Next you will need to line up your other piece of fabric to your zipper. Start by lying the other piece of fabric out 'good side' up along side your already stitched together fabric, then flip your pieces over so that your two 'good sides' are facing each other (see photo 3). You then need to pin the zip in place and sew along the edge in the same way you did for the first piece.

Now you have the zip sewn in it is time to sew up the sides. Keep you 'good sides' of fabric together, you will want to sew on the reverse so that when we turn it back the edges will be all neat and tidy. When you come to fold your fabric over to sew you may find that you need to crease your zip and push is down (see photo 4) so that you can line your side edges up better. Again pin in place and sew each of the two side edges together.

Once you have sewn your sides together you MUST now reach in and unzip the zipper. It is important that you do this otherwise you won't be able to do the rest and your pouch will be ruined. You have been warned!

Now take your hole punched acetate and trim off alongside the edge that has not been hole punched. You will need to trim off most of it just leaving a couple of centimetres from where the holes have been punched. It is better to leave too much than not enough as you can always trim this down again at a later stage.

Once trimmed, insert your acetate into the unsewn hole (the bottom) of your pouch. Ensure that it is straight and I use a clip to hold it in place because it can slip around a bit. You want to make sure that the side with the holes in is on the outside of the pouch and that you have the rest inside the pouch. (See photo 5).

Now go ahead and sew approximately 5mm in from the edge. Give the acetate a tug to make sure that it is nice and securely sewn into your pouch. You will have to use a bit more pressure to get the needle through the acetate and the fabric at the same time so just watch you don't prick yourself.

Once you have sewn up and tied / cut off your thread you can now turn the poouch outside in! You may have to tease and work the acetate through but it does come through fine. Poke out the corners and flatten it out.

You now have a zippered pouch that you can put into the rings of your planner and take along wherever you go!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have lots of fun making pouches! I think they are a little on the addictive side and know I will be making more!