Meet the new design team - Suzi Blu

The best thing about the internet, besides videos of cute Shih-tzu doggies with round haircuts, is finding friends that share your obsession. My obsession is stationery, and if you are a Mrs. Brimbles fan, I bet yours is, too! Fat, chunky planners with tabs and puffy stickers make me giddy, like I’m 12 years old again, and there is nothing on earth I would rather do then play in a pretty, fat planner/journal!

Hi! I’m Suzi, author of the beloved book Mixed Media Girls with Suzi Blu, Quarry, 2012, and I am super excited to spend the next year sharing my planners with you. My planning style may be a bit different than what you are used to seeing, and I believe that is why Anna Brim chose to include me. Mixed media prides itself on experimenting with non-traditional materials in new and exciting ways, and I bring that process into my planners/journals.

To me, planners are journals: hand-made books documenting our lives. So many of us are compelled to document our every day experiences and what started as scrapbooking has merged with everything else. In my planners I have to-do lists and appointments, but also experiences and observations, thoughts, photos, dreams, and art. A real, physical place I can touch and curl up with and call my home.

Yes, I consider journals to be my home.

I never really had a great home. I grew up in a stressful Italian family in New Jersey (see Sopranos), and as soon as I turned 18, my motto was, “Anywhere But Here.” I have sought the geographical cure so many times that I have stopped counting. I have lived in Woodstock, N.Y., San Diego, CA, and Reno, Nevada, (just to name a few). At the moment, I live in a cute apartment in Eugene, Oregon, (rated the #1 city in America for hippies!) two hours south of Portland. I am unmarried and without children but live with my best friend, a one-eyed dog named ‘Buddy Love’ who rescued me earlier this year.

In 2011, just months before the release of my book, my dad died suddenly from heart failure, and I fell into a long period of horrible anxiety and depression. Although I kept making and teaching art, I completely withdrew from being social outside of work. I had two dogs, Gigi and Finney, who were both very old, in poor health, and who passed away a few months of each other in 2015. I was inconsolable for months, but in April of 2016 I fell in love with Buddy. This little dog has saved me.

Art saves me too. Helping women work through their insecurities about drawing and painting has helped me move out of my grief and back into life. I first came upon Anna Brim in a Youtube video and was delightfully CHARMED by her down to earth and spunky nature.

I am thrilled to make journal/planner pages with the Mrs. Brimbles products for the next year, and help others see that no matter what one’s current artistic skill level, a planner/journal can provide a creative outlet and emotional support. I hope to inspire others with my work, and help everyone see the beautiful and healing parts of life!

Get to know the Design Team - Brigitte

Hello everyone!

Am I dreaming? Pinch me!

Once I dreamt of working for a design team and... guess what?Mrs. Brimbles asked me to be part of her fabulous team with lovely creative girls! I feel so honored to be part of this! Yay!! Did I mentioned I was HAPPY? Here's a little bit about me: My name is Brigitte and I live in the Netherlands. Since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be an artist.

Drawing was always one of my favorite things to do. It still is! So I decided to do the school of arts and I became an illustrator.

I've always had a passion for -children's books (Pippi Longstocking is my favorite!) -diorama's (the ones we made in preschool) -aquariums

-plants

-open windows with beautiful views -birds -critters -nature -fences -chocolate (of course) -pastels I guess you can say I love the romance of melancholy in various ways. Just dream away and create a world with animals, colors and nature. Does that sounds crazy? Maybe because the world is so harsh nowadays.

Teddy bear

Blanket

My piggies Kawaii and Blanket

I have a few pets running around my house and they are my inspiration for all I do.

There will always appear animals in all of my spreads and drawings because they make me smile. The fun thing is we all happen to love animals in this team! Anna must have picked us among others because of that.

I love the variety of atmospheres you can create on planner pages. To me the actual chores and planning are in minor of importance if that makes sense.

Just make beautiful pages and every time you open your planner it gives you joy and appeal like it’s your own little world you’ve created.

Every page tells its own story. I like to give every week its own color or theme.

I’m so full of ideas that I use more than one planner… all different kinds of planners… there are so many ‘styles’ to discover.

Over all I really like very ‘busy’ pages with a lot of script in it… I even love very sloppy pages with failed doodles.

I have already create some pages with theBrimbles box as you can see. I hope I can inspire you for the next year. Looking forward to work with the B-team! Click this link if you want to see all of my spreads. https://www.instagram.com/brigitteplans/ You are more than welkom to follow my Instagram Love, Brigitte

Meet the new members of the design team - Gemma

Well this is exciting !!

OK, so i am Gemma im from Essex and i live with my fiance Steven ( wedding on 01-08-17) and our two children Mia & William.

I guess i should start from the beginning ( not from when i was born as that would be a very ... very long blog)

I've always been a creative person. From a young age i was always painting or crafting or cutting up my mums new Argos magazine to make my pictures.

Once i hit school i knew exactly what i wanted to be. I wanted to work in fashion and design, i always liked the process of creating something with all the prepping and then the designing down to the early stages of creating a piece onto creating the final product and watching it go down the stage, but after the first two shows i quickly realized my designs where not everyone's cup of tea and i soon fell out of love with the subject.

When i left school i went straight into collage and decided to try my hand and beauty. i loved that i could have a client come in maybe having a horrible day and after a treatment i could make them feel just that little bit better.

the above picture was of me and a friend of mine in our beauty uniforms. As you may have noticed im rather tall 5 11" to be exact.

After i qualified as a beautician i fell pregnant with my first child, Mia and then my son William two years after and i just ended up feeling a little lost. like my life was just going in circles.

That was when i started watching YouTube videos on planning. i was determined to find a way to manage my life and my anxiety.

you see when i was 15 i was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and its been a struggle of mine since. over time i have learnt to control it, but i still felt with two children me working days and my fiance working nights i needed something to organise it all.

that was when i stumbled across a video that i think in all honesty changed my life. It was by a lady called Courtney, she was unboxing her new Erin Condren life planner and i instantly fell in love. It was like something clicked in my head and i knew it was the magic missing piece i was looking for to bring order to my life.

I ended up ordering one that same day and was so excited to get started.

I started looking for stickers for it and came across a few i liked and decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and film my first YouTube video. ( its not great hehe).

I then joined all the Facebook groups i could on planning and it was on one of those that someone suggest the Mrs Brimbles Box and as soon as i watched a few unboxing videos i knew i had to get it.

Since joining the Mrs Brimbles Happy Place on Facebook. it feels like i have a place, like ive got a safe place full of fun and caring people who have all taken me under their wings and taught me so much not only about myself but the wonderful world of craft.
Being Part of the group has helped me to open up, to face my anxiety head on and get some help, to push myself out of my comfort zone to do things like keep posting on and growing my YouTube channel which is Gemma Rose

To go into a room filled with people i don't know but really inspire too at the Mrs Brimbles Planner Con.

To going to my first ever concert and being in the very front row in a arena full of people and not freak out with my anxiety.

I have tried many different crafts over the years, weather it be making tutu's

or baking

however i really feel paper craft, planning, smashbooking, and generally just creating in general are my true calling and even though i have some way to go when it comes to practicing and learning about myself when it comes to creating and controlling my anxiety, ive never felt this calm and at peace in a long time ... and its all because i clicked on that YouTube video.

Meet the new members of the design team - Kelly

Whoop, Whoop, Whoop, Whoop, who's on the Mrs Brimbles Design Team?? I is on the Mrs Brimbles Design Team!!! Yeahhhhh! As you can probably tell, I'm so happy about this!!!! Ok so a bit of history, I first found out about the lovely Anna AKA Mrs Brimbles via Youtube. I was trying to find out about the Filofax Domino and wasn't sure whether to get one. I watched this video and was completely enabled! I have now had a turquoise A5 Filofax Domino for about a year and a half.

   

At the time, I didn't even know how popular Anna was. In fact, I think I carried on watching videos about Filofaxes....oblivious! However, I later started up my shop and asked for shop advice in a group. A little picture of Red Fraggle (Anna's profile pic at the time) popped up and helped out with my query. I still didn't know who she was! Then I found the Brimbles box and subscribed. Then I found theYoutube channel (again). Then I found the group. THEN I found Anna!! I had a huge fan girl moment (after a wine) and sent a direct message saying the whole 'oh my god, you're Red Fraggle! Thank you so much for helping me! You're her aren't you!? The one from my ipad screen???". Thankfully Anna doesn't use Facebook Direct messaging.

 So fast forward, I worked hard at my own Youtube channel and blog. I also put everything into my shop. I was lucky enough to attend Planner Con where I met Anna and Jon, in fact I met them at the meal the night before. We clicked straight away and I felt like I had known her all my life. I also met Geraldine Jayne at Planner Con who I'd already built a friendship with and was so pleased to finally meet face to face. The same goes for Gemma Rose and Hannah Johnson, more online friends I was delighted to meet. [gallery ids="963,960" type="rectangular"] Through this my networks built. I got speaking to Daisy, Chloe and Tash. Again three lovely ladies I am so pleased to have in my life. There are some new people I have now got chatting to in the team and I love them all. So welcoming and friendly (Hi Debbie, Stef, Brigitte, Suzi and Margie!). In fact I was so excited to see Suzi Blu on the team as it's another Youtube channel I love. With the team itself, I randomly applied on a whim around Christmas last year. The applications weren't open but I take chances. You never know what will happen. Of course nothing happened but Anna invited me to apply again this year with everyone else. FYI this isn't why I got on the team, because I'd already tried once before. Lot's has happened since then. I wasn't sure the team would be expanded with all the changes at the moment but when I saw the application post I knew I had to try again. I applied straight away! I didn't know what would happen, there are so many talented people out there. I kind of applied and put it out of my mind, so I wouldn't over think it. When I got the email from Anna inviting me to be on the team, I literally squealed haha. I was sat with Jeni Bristow (another member of Mrs Brimbles Happy Place). She was thrilled for me and couldn't wait to hear more. It took about 4 days to process the fact that I had been accepted. It fell at the same time as the UKPA Big Meet 2016 so there was a lot in my head. I've now had time to sit and bask in my happiness. I can't wait to see what the future will bring, exciting times ahead!! Kelly xxx Anna's announcement Anna's tips on applying to a creative design team

Meet the new design team - Hannah

This is exciting and so daunting at the same time! Hi I'm Hannah! I pop up in the Social Media world mostly as HannahJPlans but also for worky bits as Daisy Media. My planner adventures tend to get shared on both!

So, where to stay with who I am..? What a question! And then there's how I got here? I'm thirty something and live in Bedford with my boys. There's Jaxon (in the picture above), my hubby Chris and our Foster Son a.k.a Our Sidekick. Like a lot of people I had no clue what I wanted to do through school. I wanted to be a teacher, vet, lawyer, paramedic, doctor, archaeologist and anthropologist at one point or another. I even wanted to be a Forensic Pathologist at one point - blame watching Silent Witness for that one! Somehow I settled on Performing Arts at University although with support from my parents I took an evening class in Sociology too. (In the end I would get a higher grade for Sociology than I ever got at school for my drama and music classes!). While being a student, Chris and I got together and although we weren't at the same school together we are kind of "High School Sweethearts" - that's probably a longer story for another time rather than here! We got engaged and then in 2007 got married. Oh and about two weeks earlier than that I turned 21 and handed in my BA Degree Dissertation - nothing like doing everything at once right? (That's me on the far left - this was our last performance but the first in the new University Theatre - yeah! And yes they are vegetable crates from a well known supermarket!)

 

I think my love of planning comes from my Mum actually. Growing up she had this gorgeous green leather Filofax that contained every piece of information about our family that you should need. If you wanted the packing list for the holiday, try Mum's Filfofax, if you need to add something to this week's shopping list, it was in there too. On the downside, I think it gave up the ghost in the end because of the amount that was stuffed in it - imagine an exploding over stuffed holiday suitcase and that was this green Filofax. If I thought my Mum would have use for it I would try and track down and replace that one. With uni finished I eventually found myself in proper Grown Up Permanent job, I was working in Customer Service and Admin - not what I think I dreamt of as a kid but it was paying the bills! I ended up staying for five years and although I could have probably stayed longer it wasn't right for me and in the end I did leave. It was only when I did leave did I realise what a detrimental affect it had been having on my well being. Throughout university and then through my first jobs, my planner had started to make more of an appearance but it was still just a way of keeping my diary rather than actually anything of a fun nature. I kept trying to keep a journal but it kept turning into the "Dear Diary" sort of thing which didn't entirely work and I'd end up miles behind and then not know what to write.

 

Following that job I worked in data entry for an energy company, again not really what I had thought I would be doing. Once my manager realise I could do all sort to an Excel Spreadsheet except tell it how to make a cup of tea or fold the laundry, he gave me extra responsibility working on the biggest spreadsheets I've ever worked on. (We're talking 20,000 plus lines - that's a lot of data!). So while my work world couldn't find it's own route, family life was getting interesting. Around 5 years ago, I went to work one morning and our household was Chris, Our Housemate and Me and I came home to being a foster carer - the story is longer and messier than that but my sofa became Our Sidekick's bed for a couple of weeks. Now we're sort of into the current history. Three years ago almost to the day, Our Sidekick had been with us two years and we found out I was pregnant with Jaxon. Rather than going back to work I decided to go self employed which meant I was even more reliant on a good system to keep all my work on track. I'm currently alternating between my A5 Original Aqua and my Personal Malden (oh yeah it's lovely and sort of fell in my eBay basket lol). My journal is in my Meadowgate Traveler's Notebook which also still has my diary inserts in it so I can switch again if I want to! I'm still figuring out which inserts work right for me. The back ones are by ChasingPlannerPeace and the Personal ones are by Wendaful.

 

-- Hannah J han.l.johnson@gmail.com http://www.daisymedia.me.uk @daisy_media

Autumn Creative Journal Pages

With the contents of Octobers Brimbles Box I decided to use it to make a very Autumnal layout in my creative journal. I had taken photos using my Instax camera of a beautiful area where I live just as the seasons were changing. I wanted to document it somehow and after I saw the gorgeous ephemera, stickers and washi in the stationery box I knew they would be perfect. I also had a couple of fake Autumn leaves which I decided to incorporate. Following is a simple two step process to the layout I created...
 




Once you have those basic steps, I find the key to a good spread is to either keep it simple and basic, or go for layers...lots of layers, being sure to leave room for any text you wish to add. That's what I went for with this spread as you can see...

 

 To watch the full process, see the video below. I hope this has encouraged you to just go for it when doing creative journaling! For more ideas check out my Instagram account

https://www.instagram.com/geraldinejayne/ 

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