Journaling with Unicorns

I received the Stationery Brimbles Box for February, and inside as I'm sure a lot of you know was Unicorns galore!! I only really got a chance to play around with the content of the box nearer the end of the month because I had so much happen during February. My plans were flipped upside down, but hey! It gave me more to journal about.

I really enjoyed putting together a journaling page using pretty much only products that were in my Brimbles Box, also the overall colour scheme was sooo much fun to work with.

I decided to print my photos off all in black & white because seeing as all the products in the box went so well together, I didn't want to ruin that colour scheme by slapping in some photos that were completely opposite colours. Working with black & white photos definitely makes things a little easier because it's one less things to think about when you are putting a page together.

Most of the stuff I journaled about really wasn't that interesting, it was just little moments that happened during the week. I find that these can sometimes be some of the most amusing to look back on though, so don't ever think that something isn't 'worth' documenting. You journal because you want to document your life, that includes the good, the bad, and the 'boring'!

As always I work on the background and the layout of my photo's before anything else. On here I used a journaling card from a We R Memory Keepers set I got recently from Hey Little Magpie. I used one of the weekly sticky notes, and one of the Unicorn sticky notes, both from my Brimbles Box.

Once I've got things stuck down, that's when I go in with the smaller bits of decoration.

The typewriter font stickers are from Hobbycraft, these are some of my favourite alphabet stickers to use in my journals!

The little heart stickers, the lilac arrow sticker, and the black and white striped stickers were all from my Brimbles Box, along with the pink foiled dot washi tape.

At the bottom here I created a couple of clusters of stickers and washi tape. The grey chevron washi tape is from an older Brimbles Box, the silver glitter tape is from Paperchase. The rest of the stickers I used were from stickers sheets in my Brimbles Box, including the sheet from Sea Salt & Paper.

I filled in the little section of blank space with the words 'Still working', I could have easily left this, it wouldn't have looked too bad, but I like my pages to be busy and blank space does bug me. I chose to write 'still working' because honestly nowadays it doesn't feel like I ever stop working!!

To balance out the clouds I chose to add another one at the top of this page. I again used another Unicorn Sticky note in the background, I looooove how these look these have to be one of my favourite pieces of stationery that Anna has ever designed! 

I whacked on some more washi tape and stickers. I put an envelope sticker on here because even though I didn't mention in the journaling that I went to the post office whilst I was in town, it's a really easy way to remind myself that I did. Even writing this blogpost I was like 'why did I stick an envelope there... oh duh I went to the post office that day, I remember now'.

At the bottom of this page I decided to actually block a lot of the page off with a decorative journaling card (from the same We R Memory Keepers pack). These pages weren't really about something special I'd done, they were just writing down thoughts and feelings about the week. So I just left a random amount of space, and wrote until there was no more room. 

I wanted to just have fun with some of the other bits and pieces I got in this month's box, and

I really like how little clusters of stickers and washi tape look, it definitely brightens up a page and gives you something to look at.

I hope you liked seeing what I got up to with this month's box! If you haven't already subscribed to the Brimbles Box then I highly recommend doing so, they are so much fun to receive each month, and there's always plenty to use for different projects.

- Daisy X

March 2016 Brimbles Box Reveal

**If you haven't received your box this month yet, you might want to not read!!**

It's time to reveal what was in the Brimbles Box this month, the month of March! if you haven't received yours yet you might want to stop reading! UK boxes should be with you by 3rd / 4th March and International after that.

If you would like to watch videos of unboxings from genuine customers as well as honest reviews from bloggers you can watch the YouTube Brimbles Box playlist As I say they are all very honest so you can get a better feel for what was inside. Here is my unboxing and video talk through of this months box:

So what was in the box this month? Of course there is always a postcard from me which tells you more about the theme of the box:

All boxes follow the same theme but what you receive in your box may not be the same as what someone else received. You will have received 8 items with a total RRP of £20.00

All boxes received the following items that were available for box inclusion were:

• Easter Egg Washi Tape
• List Pad with my bunny design
• 4, 12 x 12 scrapbook papers*
• Correction Tape*
• Bunny stickers drawn by Mrs Brimbles
• Planning stickers from Craftin' Chaso

* Designs and colours may vary from box to box

Those that ordered a planner box will have received an art (painted by me) dashboard as well as a planner charm*. You will have received either a Personal or A5 size depending on which box size you signed up for. 

And if you signed up for the Stationery box, instead of the planner charm and dashboard you will have received an additional Easter / Bunny themed Washi Tape and a set of sticky notes as shown in the above image.

I don't actually have any of the Happy Mail boxes left to show you but if you would like to see what was inside why not look at Daisy's video below: 

Please do watch the above video as you can see all the products much more clearly and appreciate them better and of course you can learn more about the products and what to do with them.

I hope you like it, it was a lot of hard work sourcing a collection and putting it all together! At the time of writing I have some excess boxes available to purchase as a whole as well as some individual items so check out my online shop for those. 

See you next month for April’s box. Remember if you would like to order a subscription or a one off box and you would like that box to be the April one you can order up to and on 31st March from: www.mrsbrimbles.co.uk/shop (whilst stocks last!!)

Oh and in case you missed the announcement on Facebook, by popular demand I have now introduced a monthly sticker subscription for those of you who would just like stickers and stickers only. So go and check it out and see what you think: http://www.mrsbrimbles.co.uk/product/brimbles-sticker-club/

Travels with my Travelers Notebook aka #doritheexplorie

If you follow me on instagram you will know that last week Jon and I had a mid week break to Cornwall. To be honest I haven't been blogging as much as I used to lately because, well, I kinda lost my mojo for it and felt a bit burnt out to be honest. This does happen to folks from time to time and whilst I have been loving uploading to YouTube the blog has taken a bit of a back step. If it wasn't for my lovely design team you wouldn't have seen any content on the blog at all. So you see I really needed the holiday!

As you know, because I am on the design team for Websters Pages, I was lucky enough to receive my new Spring 2016 edition travelers notebooks early and so of course I moved into them and I am hooked to be honest. Before I was only using a fauxdori as a journal and now I am using it as a planner and journal and notebook and, well, everything! I will do a seperate post on how I am using it and a set up for you for sure. So it stands to reason that I would take my travelers notebook (hereby referred to as TN as I can't be bothered to type the two long words all the time ha ha!) away on holiday with me because I never go away without a journal and a few little art supplies. I don't take that much and just like clothes, I over pack and never end up using it all anyway but I like to know it is there. Just in case like.

So a casual snapshot on instagram of my TN sparked a whole mini series for me which was named and tagged #doritheexplorie I never intended to share so much of my holiday or my TN but the relaxtion of being away meant that I was able to recharge my batteries and I was so inspired by my surroundings and by my TN itself that I ended up taking so many photos.  I thought I would share and recap with you here on the blog and in my corresponding video:



I love taking photos and I take loads that never even make it to my instagram or into my Project Life album but I enjoy looking at things creatively and I love taking and looking at photos. Of course like most stationery lovers, I do like looking at photos of my TN and so I felt inspired to just take photos of my TN wherever I was whether that was in the hotel room or out and about. I just enjoyed taking photos of my beautiful TN.

I also wanted to help inspire you to use your journals or your notebooks more and perhaps look at it in different ways. I often get people say that they would like to get into journalling but don't know how to do it or what to write about so I hope my posts inspired you a little and gave you some ideas for that. I used my journal for recording memories, writing about our day, sticking in photos, thoughts and feelings (it was my birthday whilst I was away and that wasn't an easy thing for me for reasons I won't go into in this post), notes about where we wanted to go that day etc. We have been going to Cornwall for years and at Christmas Jon bought me The Wild Guide which helped us to find new places to explore so we had lots of fun adventuring finding new places and of course putting it all down into my journal.

I love to paint when I am out and about too. I am not a natural landscape artist because I haven't had that much practise (I am still learning) but for me painting whilst out and about is so much fun especially when you are relaxed and surrounded by such beautiful scenery. I wanted to reassure you that It's not about the accuracy of painting 'what you se'e but more about enjoying the moment and painting how it feels to you to document and record! Who cares if the art teacher at school moaned at you for not being accurate. If you are painting from the heart that is all that matters!

Mr B also journals, he has done for a while now but I have helped him to up his game by encouraging him to add photos to his journal to help him tell the story more and he is hooked now too! He let me share a couple of photos of his journal and I am working on persuading him to share more of them with us. We shall see!

So I hope you enjoyed following along with me on instagram or seeing my recap here and I hope it has inspired you to start using that notebook! You don't have to be out adventuring, you can use it at home, when you go for a walk in the woods. Anything. Just get pen to paper and document your memories.

Happy Adventuring! 

 

Project Life Show & Tell

This year in Project Life I am aiming for a minimum of one 12x12 Design A layout per week (and I run from Sunday to Saturday, mostly because I do my layouts on a Sunday). 

I print my photos at home on an Epson Workmate printer on Canon Photopaper and use the Collect app on my phone.

When I scrap, I like to have a 'kit' (I subscribe to a few which makes this easier) that is my main go-to and then I draw from other elements I have lying around.

For my title card I used one of the gold-foil Project Life cards included in the kit, as well as one of the black and gold foil pockets and an off-cut from another of the cards (I don't like to waste my scraps if I can help it!). The black label, fresh start word piece and 'keep it simple' stamp are from Citrus Twist. The 'snap a picture' sticker is from the Pink Paislee stickers included in the stationary box! The gold glitter thicker is from the Maggie Holmes Shine collection.

A close up of my title card. I'm learning how to do my clusters. Slowly, but surely!

This week I tried to keep my embellishments pretty simple and repetitive through the layout. You'll see lots of black stamping (I use Versafine Onyx Black ink), cut up pieces of Project Life cards, the Pink Paislee stickers and no journaling.

I also set myself a goal for each week - at least one photo of myself, because this is my album, after all (and I was terrible at documenting 'me' last year!).

My life is a funny mix of my crafting adventures and my daily life as a Foundation/Kindergarten teacher. This week was my last full-week of Summer break, so there are a lot of classroom set-up photos with lots of really bright colours. I think the black/gold/white colour scheme helps off-set the colours a little bit so they're not too over-powering!

I cut down one of the 4x6 cards to use in a 3x4 pockets. You'll see the off-cuts of this card throughout my embellishments. Because it's quite a statement card, no embellishments were necessary.

I'm trying to use stamps a lot more this year, and one alternative to stamping directly onto whatever card you're working on is to stamp on another piece of paper and cut or punch it out. The 'epic' stamp was the perfect size to punch out of my 5/8" circle punch, and I fussy cut the word stamps 'explore' and 'this is your day.'

You can see I wasn't wasting my pocket scraps, either! The pop of black helps everything stand out.

Because the Design A pockets have four 4x6 pockets, and I predominately print 3x4 photos, I simply back two photos to excess 4x6 cards or cardstock to keep them steady in the pockets.

The gold heart in the corner was the last heart on the last scrap of the black pocket which I punched out using my heart paper punch!

I hope this inspires you to use your Brimbles Boxes to create your own Project Life/scrapbooking layouts! You don't need a lot of supplies to come up with something really lovely!

For more ideas and inspiration, you can check out my blog, Instagram and YouTube channels.

Until next time, happy crafting!

Stef xx

Matching perfectly with my kikki.K planner

Hello everyone, it's Zinia here again and today I though I'd give you a quick look of how I used my February Brimbles Box in my kikki.K lilac A5 planner. When I first saw the sneaks of this box, I knew already that I had to get the A5 one cause the colors match perfectly with my kikki.K planner.
I really loved the amount of exclusive items that we got this month. Every little piece was absolutely beautiful. Of course the first thing I did once I received the box was to put in the dashboard and rainbow charm.



You can really see how these pastel shades of purple and pink match with the color of the planner and the dividers. So here's the thing, in this planner I organize my crafty projects and my design team work so I keep things really simple. I only use very minimal decorations but still I can't resist to some unicorn magic.



I'm absolutely in love with the funfetti washi tape. It's like the cupcake frosting for your planner!



Another absolutely gorgeous item from this month's box were the exclusive stickers by Sea Salt & Paper. In just a single sheet there were so many different types of stickers to cover any planning need. I really loved the little hexagons and the more colorful pieces!



Since I didn't want to cover up a lot of my page, I cut one of Anna's exclusive sticky notes in half and added it on the top of my week. It makes the cutest mini portable to-do list!
Ok before I go I want to fangirl for a moment on the most adorable pencil I ever owned.



It always brings a smile on my face when I see the pencil on my desk.
So that's my little weekly spread (plus a couple of extras) using this magical planner box. Hope you loved your box as much as I loved mine. Until next time, happy planning!  
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Filling my pages!

 

 

Unicorns, rainbows, clouds and pastels was February's theme and when I opened up this box it felt magical. Filled with stickers, sticky notes, charms, and so much more. This was one of the most wonderful Mrs. Brimbles Box.

 

 

 

I filled my weekly pages with Sea Salt and Paper and Mrs. Brimbles stickers. The combination of the two worked wonderfully for my planning heart.

 

 

What I really wanted to focus on this months blog post was the details! I am so impressed with the quality of the items and how adorable each and every item is. 

 

 

One of the first goodies that was shouting at me to put in my planner was the magnetic bookmark. I used it to tuck inside of my planner pocket.

 

 

Who doesn't love rainbows? I captured the most beautiful picture of the rainbow charm. My heart skipped a beat when I saw this cutie.

 

 

Each planner box I receive is special to me. The time and effort, Anna, puts into each subscription box amazes me every time. Each detail does not go unnoticed. The just keep getting better and better. 

Happily anticipating my next box,

 

Violet