BuJo Birdwatching

 Before I start today's blog post I wanted to say a huge thank you to all those who visit my blog and take the time to leave lovely comments. I must apologise that I have been very lacking in returning your visits. I will try harder in 2022! Happy New Year to you and lets hope this is a better one for everyone!

 I have kept a minimal Bullet Journal in 2021 and found it was better suited to me than a diary. I have had pages more specific to my requirements this way.

As many of you know I love watching the birds in the garden and one of the things I did last year was to make a garden bird list for my bullet journal. I have loved filling it in and enjoyed seeing the population changes from one month to another, so decided to do another for 2022. Here is a step by step for how I made it.

I began by drawing 12 boxes using the BuJo templates ( I had to adjust the length of the vertical boxes slightly)

Next I stamped the months of the year in the boxes. The super skinny slim border is great for getting up close to the edge in a ring bound journal. 

I used a pale green highlighter through the BuJo template to highlight the months.

I stamped some of the botanical springs in Distress oxide inks around the edges of the boxes.

I used the mirror blocks to stamp a reverse image of the bird at the top of each page.

Using second generation ink I stamped another bird facing each of the others.

Using the typewriter alpha I added the year and then used a coordinating gelly roll moonlight pen to write Garden Birds at the top of the page. I added a few more doodles and then got my bird book out to colour the finches in different ways. 

Here are the finished pages. Here is last year's page filled in:

 It was so exciting to see two birds I had not seen in our garden before in the 22 years we have lived here - the Brambling and the Lesser Redpoll. 

To create this years and last years page I used:

BuJo templates #1

A6 Botanical Sprig stamp set 

Months, Days and Dates stamp set

Birds and Butterflies regular stamp set 

Mirror Blocks stamps

Typewriter Alpha stamp set

Sakura Sigma Micron pens 

Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight pens

Versafine Clair ink in grey

Distress oxide inks in Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina and Peacock Feathers 

This sort of page could be used for all sorts of things from when things flower in the garden, to butterflies, bees or other creatures. 

Thanks for looking! 

My progress into Bullet journaling

 Hi There! After creating samples for the December Bee Crafty Hochanda show, I decided that I would like to start a bullet journal. I have always had a week-to-view diary in the past and didn't find it worked particularly well for me. I wanted to start right there and then, so found an A5 pad of mixed media paper and set to work altering the cover with texture paste, inkables, paint, stamps and embossing powder (for a 'how to' check this post where I altered an A6 journal) Here is the result.

The only differences between this one and the step by step is that I brushed over the stencilled part with a wash of turquoise paint and let it dry before applying the gilding wax. I also heat embossed the art journal words border stamp. The stencil is the inkables big one Fern Flourish

Now onto the inside...

I made a pocket using foam tape and card to keep my journalling templates in, then used the big numbers and Star textures to decorate the first page. I masked over 2021 with a post it to add a bit of ink blending.

My next double page is one I already shared on social media. Every year we do the big garden bird watch, but have been talking about doing it each month to get a better idea of when our visitors come and go. We will record it here.

For this page I used the Typewriter Alpha, the templates, the months stamps, the botanical sprigs and that lovely finch from the birds and butterflies set. This was already coloured and cut out using the dies.

My next double page is an overview for the year where I can list appointments and a page for January. Not sure what I will put in the circles yet, but possibly things to do. The stamps used are the big numbers, the months and the botanical sprigs. I used the templates too.  After that I moved on to my month to view spread for January.

For this I used the templates, the month, day date stamps and the doodle art snowflake set.

For all of these I used a mixture of Distress oxide, versafine clair and distress inks. I also used ecoline pens, fine liners and some highlighters. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my spreads so far. I have certainly enjoyed doing them and am looking forward to thinking about what else to include along with February.

Thanks for looking!