Season's Greetings, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did. The Month of November has absolutely been busy, but what a wonderful surprise it was when my Mrs. Brimbles November box arrived. All The Red and Green and holiday cheer. It felt like Christmas came early this year.
The very first thing I did was complete my Weekly spread in my Kate Spade planner. I loved all the red and white striped Washi tape and lets not forget the cute Christmas Decal Washi , stickers and Bunny Stocking Paperclip, my favorite. There was so much to play with.
What I really looked forward to creating with this box is my Pockets and Dashboard. I adorned my pockets with the awesome Santa Sticky Notes and my Dashboard was The coolest Santa I have ever seen. I also included the Santa charm to my planner. The elf list pad was perfect for my Thanksgiving Menu List. I look forward to December as I know I will continue to use all of these goodies throughout the whole month.
Hello everyone it's Zinia from Abstract Inspiration here and today I want to share with you how I made a kinda minimalistic holiday planner.
Don't get me wrong, I love fluffy and overdecorated planners, especially for special occasions like this but I knew I will be really busy the next month and I wanted my planner to look simple so I won't get overwhelmed but also a bit festive.
To achieve that first I had to add this freaking adorable paper clip on the front of my planner. I really hope Anna will include more of these in her future boxes cause they are the cutest thing ever! I also used some of the red striped washi tape to bring some holiday spirit into my pen as well.
For my December weekly inserts I designed some myself (they are available to download here) so I have them pre-decorated but I couldn't help myself and added some little bits for my first week of December. Those stickers are too cute to hoard.
I used one of the elf notepad pages and cut it down a bit thinner so it would fit into my personal size Filofax. I keep track of the gifts I want to get for my friends and family. On the opposite side of that, I added a page for extra notes which I decorated with an adorable sticker from the October Afternoon sticker sheet.
Last but not least I added a Santa sticky note (they are my top favorite sticky notes ever!!) on the back of my divider to keep track of the Christmas cards I want to send.
With just a few touches of Christmas decorations and the right colors you can make your planner look festive, you don't need to over decorate if you don't feel like it.
I'm a bit late in posting this video due to my holiday but if you didn't know, I am now a stockist of the Carpe Diem planner range and I wanted to do a show and tell so you can see what they are like!
If you would like to take a look at the collection in my shop please click here
Yeah, urrrrm, I have been purchasing Christmassy bits for my planner and journals for a few months and I thought I would save them up and share a Haul video.
Here are the details of where I purchased the items:
Image Credit: Graphic and photography by Anna Brim / Mrs Brimbles
You guys, I have had so many requests to bring back the instagram challenege for December and I couldn't let you down now could I! You loved it last year and I loved it to so it makes perfect sense huh!
If you have never taken part in one of my challenges before or just need a recap here is all of the info you need:
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 voucher for you to spend £25 in my online shop: www.mrsbrimbles.co.uk/shop
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!
So here you go, here are your daily December / Christmas inspired photo prompts...
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 31 photos on instagram using #mrsbrimblesDECdaily
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 31. Do two on one day if you need to,
don't worry about missing days as long as you post all 31.
You have until 7am GMT on 5th January 2016 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 December 2015.
You DO NOT have to post everyday but you do have to post all 31
photos by 7am GMT on 5th January 2016. 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 31 photos in the time frame 1st December -
5th January 2016, 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
For the month of October, I received this amazing Brimbles Box (Personal Ring Planner) and instantly knew that I would be using the majority of these things for a Halloween mini-album instead of in my planner!
I found this tiny 4x4 album and page protectors by DCWV in the clearance section of JoAnn's Craft Store here in the U.S. and fell in love with the size! Even though some of the Project Life cards are larger than the album, I really wanted to use the entire package of Halloween Project Life cards in it... ALL 40 of them!!!
I decided to keep decorations to a minimum since I don't have my pictures to put on the pages/cards yet... I used the 2 washi tape rolls and the Crate Paper "After Dark" puffy stickers that came in my Brimbles Box; I also colored and cut out a few stamped images (from The Greeting Farm).
Here is video of a quick flip through...
(I apologize now for the bad lighting! I recorded at night so the video would be quiet forgetting that I can add music to hide the noise, lol!)
Here are some thumbnail pics of the pages in case you cannot view the video...
And YES, I did manage to use all 40 project life cards!
Except for the 3 little scraps that you can see in the background, lol!
Oh, and I still used the other items to decorate my planner for October/Halloween too :)
* * *
I hope you enjoyed seeing my little mini-album and that it inspires you to get creative with your crafty items no matter what they were initially intended for!!!
Following on from my video on Friday regarding the Paperchase Blogger Event, I thought I would share with you the items that were in my goodie bag and also the items that I purchased on the day.
For more information about Paperchase please visit: http://www.paperchase.co.uk/
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. Unless otherwise stated, all photography is my own.
On Wednesday I was very lucky to be invited to attend the Paperchase Spring Summer 2016 Colelction Blogger Event. The event was to showcase the new collection releases planned for next year so you can imagine how excited I was to attend.
The event was held at the Paperchase flagship store which is located in Tottenham Court Road, London. If you have never been and you are in London you 100% have to make a visit. I was amazed when I first went and still am every time I go. The store is huge and is over three floors. The best thing about this store is that you will find the entire collection whereas in some smaller stores they only have a few pieces from each range. I never come away empty handed, it is impossible not to! Everything just appeals to this stationery lover. Not only do they stock their own range of planners but they also have a sizeable Filofax range too!
Of course in true Anna style I vlogged the event...
On arrival at Paperchase we were greeted by their friendly team who showed us to an exclusive area of the store where their new collections were displayed for us to fest our eyes on and even touch which sounds a little, errrm, pervy but I am sure most stationery lovers will agree that you can only truly appreciate paper products when you touch them!
We had a presentation from the design team who talked us through each range, the concept behind it and how they come up with the design etc. I am particularly fascinated by this element and how companies follow trends or create them!
There was one collection in particular that really stood out for me and that was the 'get organised' range which has a sophisticated feel to it. A geometric wooden effect with rose gold or copper accents. I am pleased to report that this collection also features a ring bound planner in a wood effect with features similar to a Filofax Domino.
I also really liked the 'Parkano' collection with it's classic and clean black and white detailing punctuated with bold colours. To me this reminded me of the 'zentangles' or adult colouring books that have taken the World by storm in 2015. I know that first and foremost I am a stationery blogger but I do love a mug or two and thought that the travel mugs / cups and bottles in this collection were particularly beautiful.
I am not normally one for animal prints but I did find myself drawn to the 'Serengeti' collection, in particular to the stapler with a Zebra on the top which is so much fun! For me I think it is the black and white and the chevron look which really appealed.
And my last favourite from the collections we saw was the 'Mother's Day' collection encompassing beautiful contemporary flower designs. For me it was the right mix of chintzy-ness with a more classic feel. Really hard to describe but very pretty.
There were other collections available for us to view but they didn't take my fancy as much as these ones I have show you did but then not everything has to appeal to everyone! Don't forget to check out Paperchase on their social media accounts as they will share more of their collections on there for sure.
I have never been to a blogger event before so I wasn't really sure what to expect but one thing for sure is that Paperchase were really friendly to us and made us feel very welcome. It wasn't just a case of come on in and look at our stuff but they made it into a really fun event.
We were taken into the craft area of the store and on the table were various colours of Christmas trees on display. We were allowed to choose a colour of tree that appealed to us and we were then given a £25 voucher to spend on whatever we wanted to in the store to decorate our trees with. Whaaaaaat! Initially I did think about making it a stationery themed tree and I thought about hanging pens and paper clips on it but then I thought maybe I should be more 'Christmassy'! I had such a hard time committing to what to use. Everything was fabulous and it took me ages to decide on what to use. I didn't think I had commitment issues until this challenge lol! I settled in the end because I came accross a jumbo glittery carrot! I just had to have it on my tree and thought it would make a fab tree topper. I decided to go for a contrasty neon reindeer theme. It sounds 'interesting' doesn't it. I actually really liked how it turned out. I used ribbons that I found in their gift wrap section and craft section, reindeer ornaments from the Christmas section and also paper chains which I found in the pary wares section. Yes I went all round the store with my blue basket. I told you, I struggled to commit. It was a super fun challenege and it was really interesting to see everyones trees and the ideas and concepts that they came up with.
After the Christmas tree challenge we had a really fun craft workshop on how to make pin wheel decorations. At their Tottenham Court Road store they run craft workshops so it was really interesting for us to see how this may work. We made pinwheels which was really fun if a little tricky to begin with!
All in all I had a fantastic three hours which went by so fast. Paperchase were so lovely and it was truly fantastic and they made us feel very welcome indeed. If they asked me to attend again next year I would be there in a shot.
Oh did I mention that another highlight for me was getting to meet Daisy (MyGreenCow) and Chloe Murray. Both of these ladies I have chatted to for a while now on various social media platforms and it was lovely to finally meet them in the flesh:
I hope you enjoyed hearing about my day and seeing the new collections. Which is your favourite? I will be back with another post / video to share my haul from the day. I was very lucky to be given a goodie bag to take away with me plus I may have made a couple of purchases whilst I was there. I mean, seriously, did you expect me not to!
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. Unless otherwise
stated, all photography is my own.
For October I received the Happy Mail Brimbles box. The happy mail box is described as being "solely aimed at providing you with the goodies to write / send to someone else. Some of the items that you could receive are: Post cards, note cards, greetings cards, paper, envelopes, letter writing sets, tags, ribbon, gift wrap, stickers, washi tape, pens, paper clips, anything that you would use in writing to someone or sending them a gift." As you can see from the image above it had both autumnal and Halloween themes. At the moment I am getting back into snail mail. I have kept my penpal list intentionally short as I'm building my collection of stationery and ephemera especially for it. I really want to go all out as I used to years ago.
What I wanted to show in today's post, however, is what can be achieved when you don't have an endless supply of stickers, washi etc. If you have never received a happy mail box and are new to snail mail then you can start from your very first box and get creative in your own unique way, putting your individual stamp on each item. This gives your mail the personal touch.
I use my sewing machine for a lot of projects, so it seemed fitting to integrate this into my mail. If you don't have one then you can always sew by hand. I stuck down one of the fabric sticky labels onto the brown envelope, both of which are included in the box and, picking a complementary colour thread, I sewed a couple of lines of straight stitches.
I then used some washi I had bought from Mrs Brimbles shop to decorate the rest of the envelope. The matching letter paper had beautiful narrow lines for me to write. In fact, one thing about this months box is that Anna included paper with both narrow and wide lines.
Now, if you subscribe to this box on a regular basis you will find you have a nice little collection of items to use together for your snail mail. On this occasion, as I had received a happy mail box previously, I had left over a couple of bits I could use. Namely a sticky address label. The quote found on this particular envelope didn't apply to my penpal I'm writing to, and it also blocked the space for an address. So the sticky label came in handy. Again, I used a little washi from Anna's shop.
Next, I had another penpal to write to so I decided to use the other gorgeous paper with an autumnal theme. This was the paper with the wide lines. It didn't have complementary envelopes, which was good as I could use a plain white one and jazz it up with the little supplies I had. Just a couple of stickers which, admit it we all have, and some washi transforms a plain old envelope!
Recognise the stamp from the last box?
As you can see with this last letter I completely veered away from autumnal colours! I don't know, I just struggled with the whole autumnal colour scheme this year. But that's the beauty of creativity. There are no rules! You are free to explore and that's what I have done and will do with each box I get.
I really hope you enjoy this post and that it encourages you to get creative with what you have in your own personal style.
Items I used, other than from this months box were:
"With love" stamp: Hobbycraft
Bunny sticker: The Idea Owl
"Hello There" Sticker: T K Maxx Stationery Section.
And the "For You" stamp was given to me by a penpal.
As you may well know, last year I did a Christmas organisation series whereby I took a different subject each week in October and went through how I planned and also shared some free printable inserts with you. I have had numerous requests for a planning series for 2015 and I really had no idea how I could add to this. I kind of felt that I had imparted everything that I do with you because my planning hasn't really changed so I kind of said no. Then the other day some inspiration hit me. I will be doing a different take on my videos this year. They will be much more informal, more day in the life stuff so you can follow along as I plan for our Christmas.
So here we are with the first installment for 2015.
If you would like to check out my video from 2013 just click here.
Debbie here from Craftin' Chaos I hope this post finds you all ready to gear up for the holidays. Holidays are pretty stressful to me and I am sure they are for most people. So planning ahead for all of the tasks and shopping that needs to be done can help eliminate alot of that stress. I am going to share some planning items that help me make it a much less stressful time for me. I will also share a few of my favorite products that I use and how these items can help you in everyday life not just to plan for an upcoming holiday.
First off since Thanksgiving is coming up I want to share menu planning with you. This is something I do all the time not just for holidays and it makes my life my easier and my husband loves to see what is on the menu so I work on about two weeks minimum at a time. I first plan what I am having for the two weeks and then looking day to day at the items on the menu plan my shopping list. This makes it less overwhelming if you just concentrate on each day as a whole.
I typically make a penciled in categories of how my items are in the store. Such as "Dairy" "Produce" "Meat" etc. then each day I look at what I plan to have and start penciling in what items I need to make that meal. We are simple folk and we like simple foods so it is pretty easy for me. Plus I am one of those cooks that throws this and that in and it works! I am magical in the kitchen ha ha! I am an odd bird probably cause I do love to cook and brace yourself but I do love to grocery shop. I even menu plan and shop for my grown daughter to help since her life is so busy.
I think the key to a good cook is loving to cook and I do so it just seems to go pretty easy. Although I seem to have trouble with the simplest things such as making macaroni and cheese. I have boiled it over 3 times! I blame it on my new stove. I have not grown to love it still.
So here is a look at my Limelife planner that I had a "menu planning" section added on.
Another view from a past menu planning session
Once I have planned my 2 weeks of meals I transfer the info to a dry erase white board I keep in the kitchen and so hubs can see what yummies he has coming up! He loves this! (This is an old pic as you can see its NOT April! :)
So you can see this can be a handy tool even if you would like to keep track of what you spend you can mark it at the bottom of the page each week.
Then I also have a Task Pad and it has M-F on it and for the holidays I used it a bit differently which you can see but it worked for the tasks I had to do because i was using it for a span of more than a week. But you can see how this pad can be a handy dandy tool for each week to write down your tasks to do and what day you will accomplish it or if you did.
Here is a start to my holiday decorating for the week of Christmas. It is not finished but you can see the cuteness starting. I printed off some bucket list stickers to put on for each day and I also utilized the stickers from Dec Brimbles box as well as that beautiful planner charm and sticky notes.
Now again I wanted to share my planner layout. This is just one of the planners I use it is a Limelife planner. I love this layout especially for me cause I have 6 items I can mark along the left side to designate for specific task, like my shop, home, to do and more. This would work wonders for a family because unless you have more than 6 in your family each person can have their name in the box and you can have a whole week that you can write across for things to do or specifically for that one person. For a busy mother that is a great asset. If I had children at home this would be a handy tool. I have the inserts for my A5 and I also have the spiral bound in the same layout. They offer several layouts but this one I think is the best for someone that either has family to plan throughout the week for or a shop and a busy life like mine.
So basically this is a post about how not only is planning fun for decorating and getting your creativity in but you can also use it to your advantage and help to keep your meal planning, holiday purchasing so much easier. If you are handy you can create a holiday shopping page, black friday pages etc. I hope you found this information somewhat helpful
Next week is looking very bright. Rainbow Brite he he he he!! You know I love her because she appears so much in my planner and I also still have my doll and sprite from when I was a kid in the 80s. I love that they are bringing her back too!
Products Used
Planner:Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Yellow with matching folio Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages Washi Tape: Blue with white clouds from Doodlebug Designs. Yellow with stars is from Cath Kidston and the red is unknown. Pen: Target $1 spot Paperclips: Made by Craftin Chaos on Etsy. Stickers: made for me by a friend. Little strip stickers are from Handcrafted by Sheree on Etsy.
I was approached by the company Pirongs if I could do a review or show and tell of their planners for you guys. I could choose and customise any planner on their website and then one that I chose is the A4 Lifestyle Planner.
Here is my video showing you that planner and what it is like. For more information about the company please visit: www.pirongs.co.uk if you would like to make a purchase, the company have very kindly given us a 20% discount code which is: BRIMBLES20 valid until 1st January 2016
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. Unless otherwise stated, all photography is my own.
Hello, Its Charlie from seasaltandpaper.com! I don't know about you, but now that Halloween is over and Christmas is only around the corner I'm thinking about my planner set up for 2016.
I've decided on using one planner, yes you read that correctly, one planner only for 2016. Next year I'm using a faux dori with a vintage feel and my September stationery Brimbles Box contained everything I needed to get it all setup. Don't you just love it when you revisit your stash and you realise you have everything you could possibly need!?
My faux dori fits cahier size inserts and luckily this 2016 diary which I picked up in TXMaxx fits perfectly inside along with two Moleskin notebooks.
I will more than likely want to take the diary out and chuck into my bag without the notebooks so the first thing I needed to make was a pocket in the back to hold some spare sticky notes and notepaper. The paper pack which came in the September box is so pretty I couldn't decide which print to use - in the end I went with the floral paper.
I love how cute the tin pins are, again so fitting considering my theme and super easy to turn into paper clips. Here I've simply peeled them off the card and used the plastic backing to cover the sticky pad behind.
My notebooks got a quick spruce with some of the stickers from the box. The rest I've kept back to use for my weekly page decoration.
I made a page marker by laminating one of the journaling cards and added a yarn tassel - because I'm still very much obsessed with adding a tassel to everything!
I laminated a smaller one too and made it into a washi on-the-go card. The geometric and floral mix is just so pretty and matches the diary perfectly.
The cute vintage pen is the icing on the cake and finished off my decorating spree nicely. Dare I say it but I may be ready to go!
There are so many things I haven't got around to using yet, September's box was filled with so many goodies! It will all go back in my stash ready for when inspiration hits me. I love the stationery Brimbles box it really does leave it open for you to decide what to make from it. Who knew that I'd be in a vintage kind of mood in December!?
