Out of this world planner

This month's space-themed Brimbles Box put such a big smile on my face. When I filmed my unboxing video earlier in the month, I was just so excited to open up the goodies in the box because the theme and the colours and patterns just speak to me.

From the moment I looked at all the goodies I was already formulating the first (of many, I assure you) space-themed projects that I could use this kit for. (Also, plotting how many of the pink galaxy papers I need to order so I never run out of them!)

Aside from one sticker (a weekend banner from PopMixDesigns) everything in this layout comes from the Brimbles Box, and it was so fun to play with the colours in this box. The blues and pinks were off-set by the yellows.

I also use a Sharpie Fine pen to add my border/divider details.

Items used: Stickers, https://www.mrsbrimbles.co.uk/product/shootin-moon-jumbo-page-flags/, Stamps

As always, I'd love to chat to you about planners and crafting. You can find me on YouTube and Instagram.

Happy planning!

Stef xx

Mind over Matter

Most days I have great ideas, loads of "to do's" that I plan to do but I ultimately fail at getting them done. I am forever saying to my husband "tomorrow I want to organize my drawers" 'this weekend I need to clean out my closet" but guess what...those days come and go without results. 

My problem is as long as I say it out loud it doesn't mean anything. I would say I am a bit of a type A person but since retiring I am a bit more relaxed about things. The problem for me lies in the fact that because I am type A and I don't accomplish these random things in my head they continue to bog up my head. A person like me that don't accomplish these goals will just go nuts at some point ha ha, cause we haven't done the things we said we were going to do. 

So I am constantly nagged in my brain of all the task uncompleted. SO for me I have to rely on "to do" list and PLAN the items in my planner. Seeing them on paper makes them a permanent task that if I do not get the chance to mark off will drive me insane. Plus its goals for the day and I always try hard to complete what I have given myself to do.

So if you are remotely like this I suggest writing down a "to do" list and then taking your planner and spreading the task out and designate them for particular days throughout the week. Therefore not bogging yourself down but giving yourself a realistic goal that you know you can meet. It will make you feel so accomplished. I know I felt defeated if I talked these task out loud and didn't get them done. 

Something about pen to paper does it for me. It makes it real and then therefore I personally set a goal for myself and make it happen. Try it sometime you will see it does make a difference. I own multiple planners so I try to designate one for my shop things and then use one for my everyday home life. You can also cross post them so that each planner is sync'd so if you do not open the other up you still have an idea of what you need to accomplish. 

Everyone has a particular system. Make your system work for you but I am telling you most people who enjoy planners are probably people who are very much like me. I personally feel I am much more disciplined using a planner. Maybe I don't need 10 of them but I switch off depending on what colors I feel are going to make me happy for a while. 

I hope this little ramble will help you get a system that works for you. We are all not perfect but we strive to make our life easier and productive and when planners came into my life I am much more focused. This post will be on Mrsbrimbles blog so please visit her blog, check out her shop!

Happy Planning!

I wanted to share some really cute items from the March Brimbles box with you. I wasn't sure I would love the space theme because I just don't have small children around or anything but I have to say it was one of my absolutely favorites!! I LOVED these stickers and ephemera! I am sad I used all the stickers!!!

Planets and Unicorns

They go perfectly together in my world. Go jump on your unicorn and fly through the pastel Galaxy filled with friendly planets and happy stars! Capture your favorite things in your glass jars and collect little fluffy clouds along the way. This is how your weeks fly by and don't forget to write down your favorite quotes and wishes



Just breathe and enjoy this month's Galaxy themed box because... remember... there is always room for more ideas and inspirational things to do.
 

For example, for the first time I took a 12 x 12 piece of Galaxy scrapbook paper and challenged myself to cut out a Unicorn head from scratch. (without drawing it first.) This is like drawing without using an eraser. You will surprise yourself!! Your brain designs the shape and your hands will create it.
 

There is plenty of scrapbook paper in every single Brimble's box so don't be afraid to make mistakes. And I tell you what! Most of the time you get beautiful ideas by making "mistakes". That's why I call them "Happy accidents"
 


If you're interested in Unicorns and how to draw and paint them, this is definitely something for you:mrsbrimbles.co.uk/…/unicorn-magic-draw-paint-unicorns

Travelers Notebook Journal & Vision Board

This month's box went perfectly with a new Travelers notebook I bought! So it seemed only fitting to make the various inserts for it with things from the box. Firstly, I really wanted to make a folder to store stickers, receipts, etc. After cutting it to size and sticking down my chosen ephemera & washi, I covered in it sticky back plastic. I find it's not as thick as acetate and so there is less bulk. Not to mention I love the feel of it.

   

 Next, I needed a new vision board. So using my chosen card, I cut it to size and stuck on cork board. Now it's all ready for me to start adding everything that inspires me and things I'm believing for.

 

Here's an example of another vision board I made to give you an idea of how it looks when filled...

 

I really hope this has inspired you to get creative with your own box! If you would like to know how to subscribe, click HERE! Thanks so much for stopping by!      

Daisy' Disagenda Pages

I've not shared much from my Discagenda yet, but I thought I may as well share one of my February spreads today! I used a lot of the things that came in my February Brimbles Box, along with a few of my favourites that I use every week.

A little run down of what my Discagenda is used for, because I don't use it every day. I use this planner one a week on a Sunday to pretty much gather my thoughts and plans for the week ahead. More than anything it makes me sit at my desk, and wind down at the end of the week. I mark out important dates for the week ahead, write things I want to aim to do on certain days, and pop some weekly goals at the side. I then transfer most things across into my bullet journal planner as that's my functional planner. This is purely for me to enjoy sticking down stickers, and creating a pretty spread, plus I've found that it most definitely helps me to gather my thoughts.

I used the check list stickers on one of the sticker sheets in the February Brimbles Box to mark down some things I needed to remember to take with me to my trip to Nottingham. I found that these stickers work best when you write on them with a permanent marker of some kind. Plain gel ink pens just don't cut it. That's not a massive inconvenience for me though, I always have some sort of marker sitting on my desk!

I used quite a few of these little love bug stickers on this spread, they are so sweet! I combined the pink heart/lace style washi tape that came in the Brimbles box, with some brown squiggle washi tape. Then I added a popcorn sticker and the 'Date Night' sticker to mark a bit of chill time with Jack. He works in hospitality, so his shifts usually mean the closest we come to a date night is collapsing on a sofa with a film and stuffing our faces with popcorn. I'm totally fine with this being our version of a 'Date Night' though haha!

Over here I added a few of the decorative teardrop shaped stickers, I've dotted some of the pink washi tape about too, and also popped another love bug down! I used the arrow sticker to point out we were going to Nottingham for a night. I definitely love the variety on this sticker sheet. I'm able to use this sheet in both my planning, and journaling!

So that's how my planning spread turned out, I definitely love using things that correspond with one another in this planner! The Brimbles box is brilliant for this!

- Daisy X

A peak into Kelly's Art Journal

This months Brimbles Box was so cute! It had a slight Valentines feel but also a Happy Mail/Letters/Memory Keeping feel to it. When I got the box I decided I would use the planning stickers for my Bullet Journal and most of the other box contents for my art journal. What came in the box? 12x12 scrapbook paper x2 (one side multicoloured paint splashes/one side lovebugs) 12x12 scrapbook paper x2 (one side loveheart envelopes/one side pink type writers) 12x12 scrapbook paper with journal cards Hearts washi tape Ephemera Sequins! Lovebug sticky notes Planner stickers Decorative stickers Enamel dots Before I get into it, I just want to say how much I LOVE the sequins! I'm really drawn to neon and bright colours with my art journal work at the moment. I've used the sequins in the spread created for this post but I already have another page where I plan to use them again! What did I do with the contents? First up I created a weekly spread in my Bullet Journal. I really don't mind a good bit of white space from time to time. I have a lot going on at the moment and being able to have a bit of colour but also be able to write everything out works well for me. Recently I've started planning my days by time. It means I can stay on track and feel like I've been productive at the end of the day.

 

Everything else I've done so far has gone into my art journal. I'm so pleased with how the spread has turned out! It started off with the shaker pocket as I was desperate to use the sequins! The pocket itself is from a simple stories pocket pouch. These were A5 with two smaller pockets at the top and a larger at the bottom. I cut it down and use one of the smaller pockets. I played with a few bits and pieces to go with the sequins and finally decided to use the large jar and hearts ephemera. This has been held down with flower stickers (from the kit). In addition to the sequins, I added a small envelope/letter ephemera piece. This was then hand stitched to close, a small 1.8mm hole was punched in the top corner and a green ribbon has been threaded through. This was then stuck into the spine on the art journal spread.

 

I then created my background. I decided to use colours linking to the kit but with a slightly more pastel tone so it wouldn't take over. The spread actually covers four pages as I've used a method from the Lorraine Bell 'Plan.Journal.Play' workshop. An extra page is attached to the right hand spread so that the back and front can be worked on. There was no real rules or plan with this spread. I've been building it over a few weeks and allowing it to develop in it's own time. I gradually added bits of ephemera, paint pens, oil pastels, stamps and washi. I could see that it was fast becoming a page of gratitude and love. I decided to create a sewn pocket from tracing paper and this would hold a tag given to me by Jeni Bristow. It has some lovely words written on it. Also as it came in happy mail it made sense going with the kit theme.

 

I then realised I quite like making pockets but can't always be bothered to set up the sewing machine! I like a quick fix. So I decided to create some more pockets with the 12x12 scrapbook paper. I measured the journal cards and drew out a rectangle bigger than them on the scrapbook paper. I then drew another rectangle at half the height but about an inch wider. This section was folded back on itself and the folds (left and right) were attached to the taller card with double sided sticky tape. I didn't want to tape the bottom as it effect the height of the contents so I decided to carefully staple along the bottom. Not everyone will like this look but for my art journal it works well. Adds another texture! The pockets now hold the kits journal cards! I have one on this spread and one on a previous spread I'm still working on. Once the pocket was attached to the page I realised I wanted to create some sort of drawing to fill the rest of the space. I love jar imagery in art journal work, so decided to use the small jar ephemera. This was blank so I decided to draw a flower and doodle on the rest of the page.

 

That left the fold out page. At the beginning of the process I had stuck a type writer to one side and a quote (from my calendar) on the other side. My intention was to use these pages to write. However I couldn't think at all of what to write.

 

My Mum then shared a poem on Facebook named 'The Little Boy' by Helen Buckley. It's about innocence and youth with creativity and how we can be taught to conform until we forget how to let go. For me it was a reminded to be who I want to be, believe in myself and be strong. It also links to my art journal work. A lot of the time I over think things and try to find purpose with a page instead of going with it. My art journal for me is a place to play and escape every day life, there aren't any rules and no judgement.

 

Apart from the sticky notes, I have used everything in the box. Only this week (on a different planner spread) have I worked out how to use sticky notes in my Bullet Journal. That's mainly the reason they weren't used at the time. As sticky notes go, if I'd been using the method I'm now using they would have been very useful due to their size and writing space.

  So that's everything in this months box!
 Thank you for reading,
 Kelly xxx

Gemma's far flung galaxy....

For this months march box i intently knew what i wanted to do with a lot of the box as soon as i opened it. 

i did a unboxing for my channel as i always do. Once the video is filmed i always sit and have a good look through it all and as soon as i see the blue galaxy looking paper i knew i wanted to make a art journal for myself.

 

i also added some of the ephemera to the front. This is the first one ive made its not defiantly perfect, its the first time i have stitched a book together and i love how it turned out.

Then for the first page i stuck the post card from this months box on the inside as i really loved the quote that was on it. and the first page i did in it was a page on my daughter Mia. i love the washi tape so much  i think it will be on every page as i continue to fill this little book up.

Then for the other blue galaxy paper i pictured this scrapbook page. i wanted to leave the section on the left embellishment free as it was just too pretty to cover, however i used some of the page flags to create a layered frame for the photo.

then i used the stickers to do a layout in my planner. i love the colours and i really warming to the idea of using stamping in my planner. The stamp set this month has some really useful planning friendly stamps that i loved using.