How to make a dashboard for your travelers notebook

Hi Everyone

I was very kindly sent a Lollipop box for sharing with you guys and it was right up my street...

This was my first time receiving a box and I have to say that it was amazing! I am a massive cloud lover and a cloud fan so this box was just perfect for me. In fact you could probably say that it was just a little too perfect. How so? Well I just wanted to hoard all the things, keep them precious and not use them. I am pretty sure some of you crafty folk can relate to that, come on own up now, surely there is something crafty you are hoarding for that perfect project?

Well here is what I have learnt in the many years that I have been crafting. That perfect project rarely exists. Usually what happens is that your hoarded item gets forgotten about and when found is either not to your taste or has gone dog eared or such. Then you kick yourself for not using it and wish you had.

I came up with a way to hoard my beloved papers but not hoard them all at the same time. I turn my papers into dashboards for my planners and journals that way I always have them and can look at them all the time and they are preserved. Then when I grow tired of them I move them on.

So if you have a travelers notebook and what like to do the same as me I have a tutorial in the video below on how to make your own dashboard. It is a super quick and easy project to do but one you will love!

You can use whatever you like to decorate your dashboard but you need to make sure it is flat to go through the laminator. The forever dreaming kit was particularly lovely because it helps us to aspire us to 'dream big' and what better positive affirmation to look at when you open your planner on a daily basis!

To decorate mine I decided to deconstruct the paper clip that came in the box. Not because I didn't like it, I really do and it is because I love it that I wanted to use it on my dashboard. I have a few cloud clips so I didn't mind loosing one to this project. Be warned...these paper clips are incredibly well made and as such I had a lot of difficulty in deconstructing it lol!

I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out, it really makes my soul incredibly happy! I still have some of the cloud paper left too so I need to think about how I can use it. I don't very often read physical books but if I did it would make a great book mark. I will probably use it as ephemera in my journal. 

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and seeing my planner pages taking shape. If you decided to make your own dashboard I would love to see your photos if you care to tag me or share with me on social media. I will never tire of looking at clouds and planners with clouds lol!

Drawing and Developing Characters

Today I am sharing with you a video tutorial so you can see how I draw the 'me' that I use most often in my Fauxbonichi and other journals / pocket letters and I also take it that little bit further and show how I progress with my characters and how simple lines start to turn into faces jumping out at you!

How to draw Creepy Cute Doll like Characters

As you know I have been obsessed with pocket letters of late. One of the ways in which I like to customise my letters is with some of my hand drawn characters. I have been sharing photos of my letters on social media and it has been requested several times for a tutorial on how to draw these. So here I am with my first drawing tutorial...How to draw my Creepy Cute Doll characters...You can use these on your pocket letters or in your journals. Whever you feel like doodling!

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...

Doodling on your pages / Decorating with doodles - Filofax Friday

Last week I shared with you the pages that I had created as part of the Filofax Blogger Challenege to 'Pimp my Filofax'. Firstly before I go any further with this week I just wanted to say a massive massive massive (yes three massives') to everyone that voted for me. The competition was incredibly fierce with some amazingly fantastic entries and so I am very blessed, honoured and grateful that you voted for me and I am delighted to say that I came second. This is great news for me as this now means that I will be sent three brand spanking new Filofaxes from Filofax which I am able to give away to you guys! Whooop whooop! What I will probably do is give two away on the blog and one over on instagram so if you don't follow me there go and follow me so you will know when this goes live.

Also a big congratulations is due to DIYFish for coming first and also to my fellow runner up Letters in November, both of which will also have Filofaxes to give away so if you don't already follow their blogs you might want to. So watch this space for further details which I am sure will not be that far away!

So on to this week and following on from last week where I showed you the pages that I created, I had a large number of people asking for more help, ideas, share on how I created the pages and how I doodle on my pages. In fact I get asked very often about page decoration and how I decorate my pages in general. I am thinking of maybe doing a page decoration video every month or so what do you think? Let me know if this is something that you would like to see.

I am always happy to respond to requests for videos and blog posts wherever and whenever I can,  you know me I just love sharing and interacting with you. Apart from the bunnies, your second favourite page layout I created was the clouds. I decided not to show how I created the bunnies as I have previously ran a 'how to draw a bunny' series and I thought this would be a bit repetitive. If you would like to see this tutorial then please click here. That being said if you do really really want to know then I would be happy to share.

So on to the clouds. In the video I share with you how I created my pages from start to finish and I also talk about doodling on your pages as you go / once your week is already in progress and you want to fill in the gaps with your doodles.



I have said a few times now that doodling on pages is how I first started with my Filofax decoration and also how I ended up selling my inserts on Etsy. It is the roots for me and is what I know. I never had a single roll of washi tape until my birthday in February of this year. I now have quite a few but that is by the by lol! I also rarely used stickers. I live in a very small village and my nearest town has no where to by stickers, even the supermarket has a poor selection and so other than buying online and paying a lot for postage stickers were not a readily available option for me. I am also a massive hoarder and can't bear to use / waste some of the stickers that I really love! I know there are other people out there with similar sticker hoarding tendancies lol!

So doodling for me is what decoration on my pages is all about and it is what I love to do. I love to doodle anyway and I regularly sit and doodle whilst on the phone or whilst working. If you do that too, you will start to see a pattern emerging. The shapes and pictures that you doodle whilst you are engaged in another activity are what your subconscious and the real true you enjoys. Save your doodles and go back to them, they will help you to formulate ideas on what you want to pull through into your Filofax decoration.

For me bunnies, clouds, stars and hearts always appear. Everywhere!

So clouds are a natural thing for me, I love looking at them and I love drawing them. I incorporate them into my art journal, they literally are everywhere around me so it makes perfect sense for me to bring this through into my Filofax decoration.

So I started off with a fresh pair of pages. These are the ones that came with the Filofax for the Pimp my Filofax challenge.

I do love to add a bit of washi tape in especially as I now have a few rolls. I know lots of you enjoy using washi tape too. I love it for adding a pop of colour or a pretty design. Washi tape in itself can help to spark inspiration for your overall decoration.

I also like the rain and find it very inspiring, the washi tape that I used hear is in a rain drop pattern and I purchased it from The Idea Owl. If you don't already know The Idea Owl also has an instagram account where she posts pictures of items for sale and you can add to your package and she sends you your paypal invoice once a month to get the items. I love the teal, yellow and purple combination - some of my favourite.

The only thing with wider washi tape is that it can infiltrate into your space that you may want to write on. You can write on washi tape but you may not want to. I do bear this in mind when I am decorating my pages.

I also like to use thinner washi tape as this doesn't take up so much of the paper. I used tape in co-ordinating colours that my penpal very kindly sent me recently and they match perfectly!

Next I add in some doodles.

I usually like to have a to do list section somewhere on my pages and I like to have this in keeping with the theme. In this case I drew a cloud shape so that I could seperate my to do's from my appointments. I also dew in rain drop shapes to use as my tick boxes.

And then come the clouds themselves.

I like to use pencil to colour in my doodles on my pages for two reasons. Firstly you don't have to worry about bleed through and secondly you can write over them really easily if you need to. I coloured them in blue as this was the first colour that came to hand whilst videoing but if I thought about it I would probably use a more co-ordinated colour and my doodles always have rosey cheeks, that is just a given! I just use fairly cheap children's pencils, not too cheap as they are scratchy and you really have to work at the colour but you don't need to spend a fortune. In fact using doodles and pencils are the cheapest way to decorate your pages over and over again!

Other items shown in the pictures in case you are interested:

Pen - Uniball Signo
Pencils - WHSmiths
Pencil Case - Taupe Polka Dot from my Etsy Shop
Fox Rubber / Eraser - Linkys Dream (in my July stationery subscription box)

I really hope you enjoyed my take and thoughts on how I decorate my pages with doodles. Please do let me know if you would like to see more videos and blog posts on this line and I will do my best.

Have a great week and see you soon!

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?

Painting a Watercolour Blue Tit (Tutorial / How to)

We have been inundated with blue tits in our garden. Well not just blue tits but also great tits and robins. It is lovely. I love to just sit in our back room whilst having my breakfast or my elevenses and watch them feeding on our bird feeder. There is something quite relaxing about watching the little birdies flitting around and I have found it to be really inspiring. In fact I took my art journal and sat and painted a blue tit whilst watching them go about their business.

I rather liked how he turned out but more over I thought you might like to also paint a blue tit so I thought that would give me a great excuse to paint another one and film it as I go! The picture on the left was the original one that I painted and the one on the right was the one I did whilst filming. You can see that they are not identical which I like. No two birds are alike and these little guys each have their own personalities too, you can just see them shining through can't you.

They were painted on entirely different watercolour paper too. The one on the left, in my journal is on really cheap paper and the one on the right is on more expensive paper. You could really tell the difference with how the paint reacted. That being said I still like the paper in my journal so I am not complaining!

As you can see that are not 100% realistic. There are elements of realism to them but I didn't want them to be real life, I wanted them to be in a cute, quirky, stylised way because, well that is just my style.

So here you go, here is my tutorial or how to paint a watercolour Blue Tit. In the video I go through the materials needed as well as how to actually do it. You can either paint along with me or stop and start as you need to. The video will always be there for you to come back to or refer to later so make sure to bookmark it.

If you dopaint a blue tit and you wouldn't mind sharing, I would love to see it. Just tweet me, instagram, email or facebook me :D

Spring / Easter Pinch Pot Project

It has been a while since I have shared, well in fact done anything particularly crafty. I have kind of gotten out of it a bit of late which makes me sad. I don't know why I haven't 'made' anything, there is no reason for it but I guess I have just been swaying more towards drawing and painting rather than making which has made me very happy.

I am trying to work through some projects that I have half finished. Please tell me you have projects that you start and never quite get around to finishing too! I seem to have a few of them, mainly on the knitting and sewing front and I have been sharing them as I go over on my Ginger Juice YouTube channel as I have been vlogging. When sorting through some of those projects I found a part used packet of air drying clay. I knew that I had to do something with this as I knew it wouldn't last forever and it was about a year old as it was.

I have been really inspired lately by pinch pots particularly those made by Paulus Berensohn, that man is fascinating for his take on journals as well. Just search for his name and you will find loads of lovely images of the pots that he has made. In fact, I will pop the videos that I love at the bottom so you won't have to go off searching, they will be right there for you.

As you also know I have been hugely inspired by Spring and nature. Did you know that? I may have mentioned it a few times I am sure. ha ha! Well you know after many years of battling with my inner critic I now consider my self to be an artist. I am an artist and artists drawn on life around them in the art and creations and I do exactly that.

We have white walls in our house and neutral colours for our floorings and furnishings and that is because I like to change my decor with the seasons. Some is more elaborate than others. I purchase or make little bits and pieces each year and build up my collections as I go, adding to them as we build our life. But having the neutral colours enables us to do that with ease.

So taking my recent love of pinch pots, the Season and changing over my decor, I decided to use that clay I found and get a creating! I have a part project share / part tutorial for you.

You know rustic and handmade was what I was going for and it is what I ended up with. It is a simple little thing, one that gives me great pleasure and sites pride of place on my coffee table. I love looking at it and thinking, I made that. And of course there really is something quite medatative about working with your hands like that.

If you would like to see what the rest of my house looks like, with all the other seasonal bits and pieces I have you can take a nosey...

Do you decorate with the seasons? I would love to know and if you would like to share with me, I would love to see!

So here are those videos of Paulus that I mentioned above. They are so wonderful and relaxing all at the same time. I could listen to him talk over and over again. I really could. He has such a wonderful outlook on life and he comes out with such amazing quotes so enjoy!

Paulus Berensohn on pinch pots:

Paulus Berensohn on journals:

How to Paint a Galaxy Girl - Part 2 of 2

I am back with part two in the two part series on how to paint a girl with galaxy hair...

How to draw a bunny - part 4

I am back with the fourth (can you believe fourth wow!) video in my "How to draw a Bunny" series.

This week we will be taking the cute little faces that we drew last week and we will be giving them bodies with clothes, either dresses or winter coats. Next week will be the final week where we will colour and shade our friends in.

Happy bunny drawing!

How to Draw a Bunny - Parth Three

I am back with the third video in my "How to draw a Bunny" series.

This week we will be taking the cute little faces that we drew last week and we will be adding ears, either sticky up ears or floppy ones. We will also wrapping them up nice and warm with hats and scarves and also sun hats ready for the warmer weather. I love getting this stage and really seeing the characters come to life and pop out of the page. I love just leaving them like this as cute floating heads. For those of you that want to give your bunnies a body and clothes, we will cover this in part four next week.

I hope you are all practising! I can't wait to see the little cuties that you have come up with. I haven't seen any yet and I am bursting to see, so if you would like to share please please please do, I would love it!

Happy bunny drawing!

How to Draw a Bunny - Part Two

I am back with the second video in my "How to draw a Bunny" series.

This week we will be taking the face shapes that we drew in week one and starting to make them look like little bunny rabbits by adding facial features and expressions. You will see that only a few very simple lines or marks can totally change how your bunny looks.

I am really very excited to see all the little bunny rabbits that you have drawn so please if you would like to share with me do tag me in any of the social media platforms so that I can see. I am simply @MrsBrimbles on any of them! Or if you would prefer you can email me privately if you don't want anyone else to see.

How to Draw a Bunny - Part One.

If you follow me across my social media platforms and have seen my art journals and other art work you will know that bunnies for me are a reoccurring theme. Those bunnies be popping up all over the place they really do.

For a while now I have thought about sharing with you how I draw my little bunny characters and then a lovely subscriber asked me if I would share. Of course I am always happy to share so here is the very first part in a little series on How to Draw a Bunny (in my style). In this first video we will look at imagery of bunnies so we really get a feel for what they look like and to inspire us. Bunnies like humans come in all shapes and sizes so we get to look at different types of bunnies and then start to draw different face shapes.

I hope you enjoy this series and have as much fun drawing bunnies as I always do.

Part two will be published in one weeks time (Tuesday 14th January 2013) so you have a week to practise what you learnt in this video before we move on to the next one. Enjoy x

How to Make & Print your own Custom post-it notes!

I am here with my first ever tutorial! Scary stuff! I hope it comes accross OK and that I make sense in what I am talking about.

So in this tutorial I talk you through how to set up a template that you can use time and time again for printing your own custom designed post it notes. This is really useful for things like shopping lists or To Do lists or maybe you just want ones with pretty pictures on.

You can turn really cheap boring post-it notes into something more asthetically pleasing. It is expensive to buy the really pretty ones all the time so these are much cheaper because you design them yourself!

I use mine in pretty much all walks of life but they are especially useful if you use them in your filofax!

Have fun! Let me know how you get on x