New Year, New Start.

  

Can you believe it's 2017 already? Nope, me neither and to sum up 2016 in a few words it would have to be "a big blurry whirlwind" 2016 flew by for me and I feel like for One moment I blinked and missed half of it and I'm determined not to let that happen in 2017 I'm going to grasp every positive moment with both hands and hold on tight.

So, that brings me to the January Brimbles Box and for me it couldn't have been a better box to see in the New Year with, Marble, Gold And Positivity all in One box it's definitely my cup of Tea so refreshing and simple, yet gorgeous at the same time.

Photo Credit: Anna Brim.

This year I want to focus on many things but finding Planner Peace has to be one of my main priorities of course family, health and well being are up there on the scale but I rely on my Planner to get me through day to day life and if I haven't got planner peace then everything else seems to go to pot.

It's the 12th of January as I write this and up until 2 days ago I hadn't planned a single thing I had decided I wasn't happy in my A5 which a few months ago by the way 'I loved' - I had been searching the Kikki K website relentlessly looking for Personal sized planners which Ironically 'I hate'.

One day I saw someone post a picture in 1 of the many Planner groups of her new Printable TN insert from Annie Plans Printables on Etsy and it was like a lightbulb just pinged on in my head right there and then. 

Later that night I checked out the shop and before I knew It I had bought, downloaded and printed 3 sets of inserts from there and decided I was going to use my TN as my Planner and creative journal all together, that's right everything in one place, I have never used my TN as a planner before I could never see it working I always thought I needed lots of room, since then I have realised that actually I don't, I need less.

So with it being a New Year & New Start for me it was the same for my planner, Inserts chosen I set about making some pretty stuff for inside my TN if I wanted to use it as a planner then it needed plannery things like Dashboards, dividers and tabs and this Months Brimbles box had everything I needed to get Project TN planner underway.

I started off by making my Dashboards/Dividers I wanted to use 1 of each paper to add variety and just because I love them all so much, I used one of my Inserts for quick measurements - which I won't give you as all inserts vary in size but you want to make yours a couple of mm bigger all the way around just so it wraps around the insert/s nicely once measured up I cut them quickly on my Fiskars paper cutter I have linked the one I use which I really recommend for small projects like this. 

Once cut I laminated them to make them extra durable, you don't have to do this but laminating will prolong the life of them.

After they were all laminated I folded them into shape and then attached the tabs from the box using double sided tape, folding can be a little tricky if you haven't got a scoring board or bone folder but I just use the handle of my scissors to flatten the crease.

I loved the way they looked when they were inside my TN and you can just see them popping out of the top of my Websters Pages Walnut TN which I also purchased from the Mrs Brimbles Shop which I believe is now sold out, but is available in other colours.

What I love about the Websters TN's is that they have a photo pocket on the inside cover which I wanted to put something inspiring in, my word for 2017 is Focus, so why not put that in there after all I will see it everyday. So, I made a small sticker in a nice font and mounted it on to a bit of leftover card stock from earlier and popped it into the pocket I also dressed that section of the TN at the same time.

I know it's only been a couple of days of me having this set up, but I really am enjoying it and love everything about it from the inserts to the pretties made with the Brimbles box contents, Some of the things that are left will be used on other things such as Happy mail and journal spreads and those gorgeous stamps will get used all the time but I did sneakily decorate next weeks pages ahead of time with some of the stickers from this months box and some of the stickers that I made for the Brimbles Sticker Sub this month too.

Well, that's all from me this month I can't wait to see what's in store for next months box but if you have seen the sneak peak then wow ....those Love bugs.

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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!!

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My Christmas Planner Set Up

Wow, well this months Brimbles box has arrived and all I could say at first was "wow" for 2 reasons really number 1. It's amazing the theme is right up my street, Christmas has got to be one of my favourite times of year not just for the receiving of gifts, it's not about that for me it's about quality family time, snuggly evenings, family games and good food of course and number 2. Because it hit me at just how fast this year has gone and  the fact 2017 is just around the corner. 

When I opened the box and had chance to take everything in I set everything out and it just screamed Christmas planner set-up at me so that's exactly what I chose to do with some of the contents, well in my case my Christmas planner is actually a Christmas section in the back of my everyday planner as it is easier for me to keep track of everything this way. 

In this months box there were 3 Amazing 12 x 12 Scrapbook papers so I started off by making a dashboard with the Santa and Reindeer one as I have laminated it I have used the back attach my hot drink sticky notes on to, these also came in the box, they are so so cute and can be used for lots of things Anna is so creative when it comes to designing stock for the boxes the items are always so versatile and unique.

Something that wasn't in the box but was from Anna's Etsy shop are my Christmas inserts, there are a variety of printable inserts on the Mrs Brimbles Etsy shop so if these ones don't suit you I'm sure something else there will, but I chose the reindeer ones who doesn't love a bit of Rudolph at Christmas eh? 

I wanted something to display my Christmas Washi tapes so I cut, punched and laminated 1 of the pages from the Santa list pad also from this months box and used is as a washi card - how cute is that list pad though? perfect for the kids Christmas lists.

I have used some of the cut apart card, the postcard from the box and the gorgeous paperclip from Cherry Blossom in the Market Square to decorate the section and I still have lots of beautiful bits from the box left to use on other festive projects.

Here is a quick look at my Christmas Section:

Have you set up your Christmas planner yet?

Until next time.

Tash xoxo

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Meet the new members of the design team - Tash

Hello ... I'm Tash and a lot of you may know me as Beautiful Planning on Instagram I also have my own shop on Etsy also called Beautiful Planning where I sell planner stickers.

I am so Happy and Thankful to be part of the Mrs Brimbles design Team and actually still quite overwhelmed if I am completely honest but so so eager to see where this next year takes us and looking forward to working with all the other amazing ladies who are part of the team.

So, about me ... I'll start with this, I somewhat dislike talking about myself it makes me cringe, and here I am talking about myself (writing actually but you catch my drift) how ironic!!
I'm really Scatty and have one heck of a nervous laugh, actually it's quite bad and often have to walk away in awkward situations, I cry a lot which comes from crippling anxiety a lot of people don't know that about me and are quite shocked when they realise the severity of it (but that's a story for a different day), I am the most self doubting person ever and my own worst critic but slowly my confidence is building and I am starting to do things I would never have done 6 months ago.

I am a self confessed Planner, Stationery, Washi, Unicorn, crafty addict and have been for as long as I can remember, I always used to hoard toilet roll tubes, bottle caps tin foil cake cases anything you can think of I also had quite an extensive Crayola collection, as well as crafting from a young age turns out I was a planner addict from pretty young too, I must have been about 6 or 7 when I was gifted a FunFax who remembers those? It was this quirky kids binder organiser which you could buy all sorts of fun inserts for, but moving on to proper planners, I started with one that I was given in my first week of  High school we had to use them for noting down homework assignments and important things to remember as well as keeping our School timetable I was forever getting told off by teachers for doodling and decorating my planner, but for me even now having something pretty to look at actually encourages me to be more productive and get things done.

I am a massive fan of Kikki K planners and won't buy any other brand of ring bound planner now, up until recently though my Kikki K's were only for sticker storage.
I was a big fan of Erin Condren Life Planners and Mambi Happy Planners until about 3 months ago and all of a sudden I just wasn't using them and found they weren't working for me so I made the decision to go back to rings I just love how versatile and customise-able they are and I am really enjoying being back in one.

I also love creative journaling and currently use a Zinnydori in Holiday Gold from Simple heart and oh my it is beautiful, don't you think?

The main reason I journal creatively apart from it being something I love to do, is so that when I'm old and Grey I can look back at my journals and reminisce on all the lovely moments I had over the years and when I'm gone my Children can get to look through them and see what amazing times we had together.

Here are some of my recent journal pages

I really look forward to sharing some of those memories with you guys!!

You can find me here: Blog // Instagram // YouTube