When I thought about a theme for October, sunflowers came to mind. Now, before we go any further, I should explain that I am no gardener. I admire flowers (especially roses, double peonies and sunflowers), but I cannot grow a flower to save my life. Flowers practically wilt overnight when they find out they're at my house. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but it seems like it sometimes.
Anyway, I said that to say this: I have no idea if sunflowers are still blooming in October. I just like them, they are a fall-ish color, and they're not difficult to draw. So that made them a perfect theme for my first attempt at drawing in my bullet journal.
Why did I decide to try drawing in my bullet journal?
First of all, if you've noticed the bullet journal themes I've shared in the past, I've been using washi tape as my main accent and taking colors from the washi tape. However, washi tape - even when used only on every other page - tends to make the pages quite thick by the end of the journal. That can't be easy on the spine.
Secondly, when I'm very busy, I don't always have time to spend on creative pursuits. Creativity recharges me, and I feel restless when I can't do something creative for weeks on end. (If you don't understand, that's okay. Fellow creative types will understand.) However, when I'm busy, I rely heavily on my bullet journal to make sure I get everything done. So if I can work some creativity into my bullet journal, I can still have a creative outlet on my busy weeks.
Thirdly, I enjoyed trying a doodle challenge last month. It made me realize that I can draw simple things if I concentrate on the shapes and details. This made me wonder just how much I might be able to draw if I practiced and concentrated. Hence the desire to try out drawing in my bullet journal.
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| Inspired by @chrochlo on Instagram |
I really love how my title page turned out!
I'm a math geek at heart, and I love it when I can find a pattern to make something that puzzles me. I used a protractor to make sure my petals were spaced evenly (one at 90 degrees, one at 45 degrees, etc.). I used a ruler to make sure the petals were all the same length.
I did freehand the shape of the petals, which is pretty obvious if you look closely. They vary a bit. The inside of the sunflower is filled with tiny little circles to mimic the seeds. It seemed like there were a million of them when I was drawing them, but I really like the finished effect.
The monthly spread was inspired by one I found on Pinterest. Unfortunately, the pin only led to the image, which had no watermark on it. If you recognize this spread, I'd love to credit the original designer.
I changed it up a little bit by adding my trackers on the righthand side and then filling in a few bare spots with partial sunflowers.
I used the same basic sleep log and budget page as usual, but I added a partial sunflower to the pages to dress them up and make them fit in with the theme.
I left my check register page without any sunflowers, since I really need all the space on this spread. I brought in the theme simply with the colors.
In case you're wondering, yes, I keep my checking account register in my bullet journal. In this age of debit cards, I burn through the check registers from the bank way too fast otherwise. I keep all of my bullet journals anyway, so it makes sense to keep my check registers in them, too.
Another big change I made this month was to try out Dutch door layouts and actually layout the entire month at once.
I discovered that I was using the same number of pages for each week, so why not make it look pleasing to the eye? The Dutch door feature ensures that I can see my weekly menu the entire week, instead of having to flip back whenever I go to the next page.
Here is a closeup of where the Dutch door is on my page, since it isn't very obvious from the first picture.
Notice on the far right of the picture that I didn't cut the paper the whole way to the spine.
Many people have noted that cutting the whole way to the spine weakens the binding of the journal and eventually makes the facing page loose where the cut was made. To prevent this, I simply cut up to the very last partial square near the middle - and then left it intact from there. In real life, it blends in. You wouldn't notice it at first glance unless I told you.
Another thing many people have noted about Dutch doors is that they tend to make mountains and valleys in the journal when too many are used back-to-back. To counteract this tendency, I'm experimenting with staggering where the Dutch door is placed from week to week.
On the first week, I placed it at the bottom. For this second week, I placed it at the side. On the next week, I placed it at the top. Cycling through this pattern should help to avoid having huge dips where I've cut out the Dutch doors.
On this particular layout, I was able to include my "to do" list on the lefthand side, which meant I had an extra block where the days are. I simply used it for a "brain dump" section, since I find those are helpful to include on a regular basis.
This is the last of the Dutch door layouts, this time with the cutout at the top. Other than that, it's basically the same layout as the one where I had the cutout at the bottom.
Once again, you can see the "Dutch door" part a little better on a closeup.
I'm excited to try this out for a month! I'll try to remember to update you next month on how it went, what I liked, and what (if anything) didn't work so well for me.
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