This weeks pages - Sickly Sweet and yummy!

I'm feeling sickly sweet again this week. I am just loving the over the top chuck loads at it kinda thing. I know it doesn't leave much room to write but when I have weeks with not much going on, this is perfectly OK! I am just in love with this washi tape and these stickers, they are just so...yummy! he he!

Products Used
Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Gold with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: Both washi tapes are from Hey Charlie Shop on Etsy
Journal Cards: Websters Pages - These are the days collection
Paperclips: Pink heart was from Staples, the ribbon clip is from Hey Charlie on Etsy and the cupcake is from an Etsy shop no longer trading.
Pen: My Etsy Shop
Stickers: my online shop and the hole reinforces are from Annie's Paper Boutique
Sticky notes: from a recent pocket letter swap

The Planner Society Kit - May Unboxing

I had seen lots of hype about Christy Tomlinson's Planner Society Kit and I was very tempted from the word go BUT I kinda dragged my heels a little bit. I mean did I need more planner and craft stuff? Well OK, I guess *need* never really comes into it but I did love the look of it and so I caved and signed up for the subscription.

It comes from the States so us Brits have gotten ours quite a while after the gals in the States but that is to be expected. So I had already seen a lot of photos around on social media so kind of knew what to expect already but it is still fun to get yours and tear it open to see what is inside. Of course, as you would expect, I did an unboxing video so you can see it as it comes out and see the 'live' thing.



So what was in the box... there were lots of items all geared up to the creative process of planning and those included, pins to make your own paper clips, stickers, ephemera, a planner charm, alpha stickers, die cuts, scrapbook papers, date stamp, washi tape, sticky notes, paper clips and Project Life cards.

All in all I really loved the box and my brain is already whirring into life with what I can do with the items! Some I may not use in my planner but will probably use in my journal but this kit is ideal for mixing and matching. I am looking forward to next months kit already!

To find out more about the kit check out Christy's website: http://www.scarletlime.com/papercrafting.html

PLEASE NOTE: I purchased this kit (these products) with my own money.  This review is my own personal opionion on the product / company, given in good faith and has not be sponsored or endorsed. None of the links are affiliate links

June Instagram Photo Challenge

You know it occurred to me that I haven't hosted a daily instagram photo challenge since February! I was just wondering if anyone else was doing one in June and then I thought why not just do one myself he he! I am feeling so Summery at the moment and as June sees the Summer Solstice I thought why not make a Summer themed challenege! Whooop whooop!!

REMEMBER as with all of my daily photo challenges I have designed the prompts to be interpreted in a way that suits you, loosely based on the things that I love: Planners (and planner decoration), Stationery, Journals, Books, food, the season etc. You interpret them however you like but most importantly have fun with it. They are just prompts to help you. Take them literally if you like or be imaginative. Share your life or share your planner. Anything goes! You don't have to enter to win the prize, you can just play along with the prompts for fun, entirely up to you, the more the merrier!

What is the prize? Well I am giving away a box full of stationery goodies worth at least £20. I am not telling you what is inside, that would spoil the surprise but if you would like to take a look at the sort of thing you could expect take a look at my Brimbles Boxes.


Please do make sure that you read all guidelines on how to enter and the rules below oh and if you want to be in with winning the prize you will need to register on the giveaway widget below too!

Please do feel free to share the above photo on instagram, Pinterest, your blog etc or print out to put into your planner or journal.

Please do feel free to share the above photo on instagram, Pinterest, your blog etc or print out to put into your planner or journal.

The Rules for the instagram challenge...

I know, so boring that there needs to be rules but there does so that everyone is clear on what they need to do and to keep it fair to everyone participating!

• You must post all 30 photos on instagram using #mrsbrimblesJUNEdaily
• You need to be following me on instagram: @mrsbrimbles
• The prompts are just that, prompts, interpret them as you will, or if you are stuck for inspiration just post a photo anyway! If it is easier you can do a different prompt on that day as long as by the end of the challenge you have done all 30. Do two on one day if you need to, don't worry about missing days as long as you post all 30.
• You have until 7am GMT on 5th July 2015 to register for the giveaway on the widget below AND to complete the photo challenge on instagram.
• If you haven't registered on the widget you won't be elligible to win the prize so you will just be doing the challenge for fun which is totally fine with me if it is with you.You can register at any time from now but photo posting on instagram starts on 1st June 2015.
• You DO NOT have to post everyday but you do have to post all 30 photos by 7am GMT on 5th June 2015. You DO NOT have to post in numerical order, you can post any prompt on any day and any number of photos on any day.
• Once the competition has closed a winner will be drawn by random using the giveaway widget, and emailed. I will ask you to confirm / prove that you have posted all 30 photos in the time frame 1st June - 5th July 2015, if not another winner will be chosen. The winners name will appear on the giveaway widget once closed.
• The winner will be emailed by me to arrange receipt of the prize. 

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

• Your email address will be added to my newsletter database - I will not sell this to anyone else nor will I constantly be spamming you and you can unsubscribe at any time! 
• Open internationally
• You must be over eighteen years of age or have parental / guardian permission.
• The prizes stated above are the only prize(s) - no cash alternative.
• One winner will be chosen at random and notified by email. Winner(s) will be announced on this page on the rafflecopter widget after the closing date.
• If the winner(s) do not respond to my email within 48 hours a new winner(s) will be chosen.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Making your journals and planner pages look pretty

I wanted to share some thoughts with you today on making your journal pages (or planner pages for that matter) look pretty. I don't know about you but sometimes when we go on social media we are bamboozled by all of these gorgeous looking photos of journal and planner pages and sometimes we get this feeling of not being good enough or that we should put off using our journals until we have time to make it look all pretty or we have bought such a such supply. What a load of nonesense huh! It sounds silly when someone else says is but in our heads we are constantly comparing our pages to others. I do it all the time even though I tell you that you shouldn't.

Anyway here is my take on making your journals look pretty...

This weeks pages - Rainbow Brite

I am going a bit on the nostalgic side this week and getting in touch with my inner child. In fact I get in touch with my inner child most weeks as you know how much joy I get from just sticking stickers down!

The wonderful Deb from Craftin Chaos made me this amazing Rainbow Brite paper clip with matching rainbow and so I just knew that I would have to have a Rainbow Brite week and this is that week. Yay!

Products Used
Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Sky Blue with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: Sorry I can't remember where it was from!
Journal Cards: Websters Pages - These are the days collection
Paperclips: Both from Craftin Chaos on Etsy
Pen: Bic Crystal which writes in a beautiful turqouise colour!
Rainbow Brite & Sprite toys: My own from when I was a child in the 80s!

The Happiness Planner

As you know I love my planners (yeah I know that was a totaly shock to you right!), so when I saw a new planner launched I was intrigued and excited, especially as it looked so pretty and the name, well that was the main draw! I entered a competition and guess what...I was one of the lucky people to win said planner and it arrived...I thought we could take a look at it together.

I filmed my unboxing so we could see what it was like and share our initial first impressions.



I will use it and will be back later in the year to let you know how I got on and what I thought of it! Do you have it? Let me know if you do and if you like it and what you are using yours for, I would genuinely love to know!

To find out more about the planner visit their website here: http://thehappinessplanner.com/

Letter Writing - Wax Seals

I have always had a love affair with letter writing and journalling and as you will know I often talk about my dream of owning a little writing bureau for all my writing and correspondence ephemera and nik naks. Oh the though of those little draws filled with yummy things does excite me greatly! I have had pen pals on and off for most of my life and more recently I have been writing lots of letters.

When we got married we decided to send out gorgeous letter press invitations with the thickest linen paper, they were trully scrummy, I wish I had a photo to send you but I am afraid that I don't, you will just have to take my word for it, they looked gorgeous. They were sealed with a ribbon and a gold wax seal. We had a seal made with our initials J&A especially for it. I cherish that seal although I knew exactly where it was, it was just sitting there unused and unloved since 2007 until recently.

At the end of April, as you know I went to the London Stationery Show. I saw quite a few wax seals and sealing wax there (along with gorgeous fountain pens and inks, if anyone wants to send me any of those for review.......he he!!) and I was admiring them lovingly, reminiscing of the hours spent sealing out wedding invitations up. It was a great labour of love that was and a memorable evening doing all 200 of them!

When I went into Hema later that day I was pleasantly surprised to see a trio of lovely coloured wax seals at a very reasonable price of £2. I decided to purchase them as they were just so pretty and after oggling wax seals all day I so wanted to use mine badly!

I had a few letters to write and so I decided that everyone was going to get a wax seal on the back of it.

Using sealing wax is very easy. You just light the wick and let it burn and melt the wax. You then tilt it over the position you want it on your envelope and let it slowly drip down. I find that it is easy to put a few drops in a circle shape rather than letting it all mount up in one area. It is very therapeutic to just watch the wax drip. When you have enough just blow out the flame and press your seal down hard into the wax.

I love the imperfections that it makes. All the bubbles and drip splodges are just so appealing to me. I could quite happily create wax seals over and over for no reason at all!

The wax itself whilst is a beautiful colour isn't of the highest quality but then that is to be expected from the low price tag. It is really fun though and a great addition to your everyday mail so I will definitely buy them again. I looked the Hema website and sadly they don't have this trio online but they do have a red / gold / silver set again for £2. It was gold that we used for our wedding. We had cream paper, brown ribbon and gold wax seal (an Autumnal wedding).

So if you have never used a wax seal, why not get one and have fun using it on your next letter!





p.s. I am not currently looking for any more pen pals.

The Letter Bee Box - Stationery, PenPals & Journals - May Unboxing

The Letter Bee box is a monthly box curated by Patty from Furthermore Press. The box is aimed at everyone who loves letter writing, stationery and journals. Each box is themed and all the goodies inside the box relate to that theme in some way. love it!

I filmed my unboxing so that you can get a better sense of the products or do please keep on reading for photos of what I received.

About the box:

Boxes can be ordered through Patty's Etsy shop - Furthermore Press

Letter Bee box: $35US inc shipping in US   $30US + $22.50US shipping for UK which in totaly equates to £36. Patty also offers a Petite Letter Box: $22US + $5.95US shipping, outside of the US you need to get in touch with Patty so she can give you a quote.

As many of the items are unique and hand made there are a limited number of boxes each monthso get in quick if you want one!

This months theme was Mother Nature to tie in with both Mother's day, celebrating birth and Spring. It was a lovely theme with lots of gorgeous treasures. As usual there is a card detailing all of the items inside as well as a sweet treat and some lovely tea.

On to the items then. Please note that there were also some itty bitty bits including but I have stuck to just showing some of the bigger items so for a better look at the box contents you are best to watch the video!

So I received some fun stickers

A huge selection of letter writing sets with paper and envelopes as well as note cards and post cards:

A blank greetings card and a Mothers Day card:

Two Paper Mate pens, sticky notes and paper clips:

A book mark or planner charm and a roll of fabric tape:

A frameable piece of art:

All in all another wonderful box full of goodies. I loved the theme again this month and Patty's artwork is simply wonderful. Not everything is photographed so do check out the unboxing video to get a proper sense of what exactly is in the box. Definitely value for money in my opinion!

PLEASE NOTE: I was given this / these product(s) in exchange for my honest review and opinion, the fact that I was given these does not alter my opinion in anyway. This review is my own personal opionion on the product / company, given in good faith and has not be sponsored or endorsed. None of the links are affiliate links

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!

This Week's Pages - An English Country Garden

I am back from Italy, back on English soil which made me think all garden-y. I long for English summers pottering around in the garden so here is my little garden for this week lol!

Products Used
Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in White with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Journal Cards: Websters Pages - These are the days collection for May
Paperclips: Ribbon paper clips made by me and the bunny paperclip is from Craftin Chaos on Etsy
Kraft Sticky Notes: from Tiger
Pen: Target $1 spot
Washi Tape: MT Brand
Stickers: Forget me not range from my online shop

This weeks incoming and outgoing pocket letters

Just a couple to share with you...

Incoming...

Outgoing...

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!

This week - One in a minion!

As you are reading this blog post I will be on a plane heading off to the lovely warm Italy to see my parents for the week. Mr B is staying at home and having to go to work he he...well and looking after the fur babies. I haven't seen my folks since October when the emigrated permanently to Italy so I am really looking forward to it. Needless to say I don't really have any major plans for the week, certainly nothing that I really need my planner for but I am pretty sure it will come along anyway. Or maybe not. I am doing carry on only so it depends on if I have the space (oh I so hope I do!)

My Mum loves Minions as much as I do and so I thought it would be super cool to put minions on my pages for the week I see them. The trio at the top remind me of me and my parents. I am an only child and they are just as loony as I am.

Products Used
Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in White with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: I think this was a Cath Kidston one, I have had it for so long I can't remember 100%
Stickers: From my Etsy Shop
Journal Cards: This is actually part of the packaging - upcycle / waste not want not!
Paperclips: The Idea Owl although I don't think they have them anymore.