Grid It: Bullet Journal with StencilGirl Stencils

 

GRID IT - Bullet Journal prep for the coming year

        I was slow to jump on the Bullet Journal bandwagon.  I have always been attracted to gorgeous planners and I follow lots of BuJo junkies on Instagram, but I figured I really didn't need one.  As an introvert, I'm never happier than when my calendar has ZERO entries on it - no interruptions, no obligations, no deadlines, nobody tugging my sleeve.  I'm also officially retired. Why on earth would I need a planner? 

Pictures clipped from an old children's dictionary, washi tape, and rubber stamping enliven the page.

       But then I began to put two and two together - if I'm designing the planner myself, I can design it exactly for my needs.  Maybe I don't need or want a lot of space for daily calendar entries, but there are definitely things I want to accomplish - daily goals, weekly tasks, projects that need my attention.  When I noticed how people were using their Bullet Journals for establishing or breaking habits that were either productive or holding them back, I saw my entry.  For sure, the creative process of

making weekly spreads and monthly habit trackers is a large part of the charm.  But I also do find that I'm much more likely to take my vitamins or lengthen my daily dog walks if I'm tracking them this way, and clean out closets if I have to keep moving that incomplete task to another spread.  At this stage of my life the things I want to track are primarily related to my health and well-being, and since I travel internationally, I'm trying to teach myself how to tell the temperature in Celsius by recording it every day to get it into my bones, so to speak.  I have plenty of other creative projects, so I don't need my planner to be absolutely stunning, but I do like it to be fun to make and fun to use, which pretty much guarantees that I will indeed use it.  I don't use all the "official" Bullet Journal techniques and strategies, but hey, this is my planner and what I don't need or find useful I don't intend to use.

        For the coming month I am keeping my palette super simple: black and white.  I've used Mary Beth Shaw's Grid Stencil Set (Set 9) to establish the layout for daily entries and some trackers.  I usually work on grid paper, but not always; mixing it up with black card stock gave some pages a dramatic punch.  You'll also notice that I use a mini ring binder (A5 size) - I prefer working on loose sheets of paper and then punching holes.  This lets me rearrange pages and sections as I go, and use whatever kind of paper suits my fancy.  Employing foldouts means the pages don't even all have to be the same size.  Of course there's some amount of collage on each spread.  That's simply a given!

I can check off daily boxes when I have completed my meditation exercise, and the journal card in the pocket will be a my gratitude journal for the month. 

      So I guess you can say that this introvert is now a convert.  Here's to a productive new year around the corner.  Happy Holidays, and happy stenciling to you all!

Stencils Used:

Mary Beth Shaw's Grid Stencils Set Set9

6 inch degraded grid by Seth Apter from December 2017 club set

Stencil Font by Mary Beth Shaw M100

Hip to Be Square Small Alphabet by Carolyn Dube S521