DIY Passport Size Midori Traveler’s Notebook and Inserts

by Linda | Mar 7, 2017 | my creative journal

After posting my rainbow paper free printable last week, I had to dive right in and make myself some journaling inserts. I’ve been seeing many artists using a very small sized journal for quick ideas and notes. Since I’m always running short on time, I figured a smaller notebook would be more approachable for my time constraints. The idea is that I would still get creative time in, just in small spurts.

So first thing I did was print out the rainbow paper to create a cute little passport sized notebook. I basically took the measurements of the official midori traveler’s notebook passport size. It’s pretty simple to fold papers in half and create your own journaling inserts and notebooks – easy peasy. I stapled my book together, but you can also pamphlet stitch by hand or run it through your sewing machine.

Once I got into making inserts and decorating the cover as well… I made a couple more with some cute papers I already had on hand, they are old Prima Marketing notepad papers. Once I had the inserts in hand, I realized that I needed a traveler’s notebook cover for them – duh!

I decided to use a luscious dark brown scrap piece of leather and make my own midori traveler’s notebook. I lined the inside with decorative paper to give it a bit more weight and structure. Then I punched holes, set eyelets to reinforce and strung through some pink elastic I had on hand. I realize the elastic is way too thick, but it’s the only kind that I have in my stash already. One day I’ll have to change them out!

I’ve posted before my DIY adventures with traveler’s notebook if you are interested in more of the DIY details: midori – fauxdori DIY – fauxdori to journal.

I’m happy with how it all turned out and started my first spread with just a little collaging of bits and pieces. Nothing too intensive and I’m realizing how nice it is to have a small sized journal to work in. It’s easier to get a page done and sometimes, that’s all I have time to do, a tiny little creative break!

Consider using a smaller journal if you are looking for some creative fun, despite lack of time! If you enjoy printables, sign up for my weekly newsletter for new designs, links to freebies and the latest news. Enjoy!

BTW, if you like the “love is out there” piece in my spread, it’s actually a free wallpaper printable I posted here.

My Bullet Journal Setup for 2017

by Linda | Jan 4, 2017 | my creative journal

I’m still a relative newbie in the bullet journaling world, but I thought it would be nice to share my setup, since I’m a rebel at heart and have already broken some rules.

Since I made my own handmade bullet journal, it’s all blank pages and I decided not to write in page numbers or include the contents or future log. This is from my personal experience in using the system, since I never check for things in that manner, I don’t feel the need to include them. To each his own! The point of bullet journaling is that through use, you’ll likely come up with a personalize “system” that works for you.

I’ve blogged about being a newbie and my recent update – and ultimately the most important lesson of planning is to actually spend the time to plan. Duh! I’m not saying you have to decorate and spend hours “working” on your planner pages. I simply mean that the point is to spend the time required to reflect on what you have done, so that you can plan for what you need to do and move forward. It’s sort of like exercise… I mean, there are many sports, activities, gyms, programs, etc that you can try out. But the important thing is to actually exercise and get your butt moving, otherwise, nothing will ever change!

I’m treating my bullet journal like a more organized daily art journal – which is something I’ve always had and used before. The difference is that there is a bit more organization to a bullet journal. For this brand new journal that I have started for 2017, I created an opening title/motivator page. Just something nice to look at when I open my journal up. This is the same reason why people like specific planner or notebook colors/designs – because hey, you gotta have something you sort of like to keep around you!

The next spread of my bullet journal is the 2017 calendar. I opted for a weird, non-traditional format. The days of the week are on top and it just goes through all the days of the year, row by row. Because this year has quite a few months that take up more lines in the traditional calendar format, month-by-month – I decided to just squish it all together. I don’t like it when people use the diagonal slash to split up a box for two days of the month… yeah, I’m just weird.

The next spread is a general reflection of 2016. Obviously I couldn’t remember the details of an entire year, but just wanted to write down my initial thoughts as I reflected on the past year. It helps to ground oneself of the past and where you stand, in order to plan for the future..

Then it goes without saying that the next page is about goals for the future. I haven’t finished this page yet, just jotted a few thoughts for now about the general feeling I would like to work towards.

After these pages, I have my various collection pages. These are just groups of information that I want to keep together, to be added to over time. This helps to keep certain types of content in the same place and I know that newbies might be wondering, but how would I know what to document? Well, over time you will have your own types of collections that work for you or are important to you.

I have included many that are pretty common, but also some that are probably personal – like my wishlist for the USA, because I visit family there once a year and I want to keep a list of things I want to buy/do, as I go throughout the year.

Here’s a listing of the various collection pages I have setup:

• USA wishlist
• reading list
• creative learning (e-classes I’m enrolled in)
• business stats
• social media stats
• biz ideas
• my personal wishlist
• waiting on delivery
• challenges

The challenges page is actually quite useful, because I print out the snapshots of the instagram challenges and stick them in my bullet journal, stacked up with washi tape. I can refer to them daily/weekly and I can either keep them or replace them over time.

Finally, I have my first monthly overview page where I can keep track of major events and happenings. On the back of this page I also include my monthly snail mail log and finances log. There’s a clip there holding papers which are things I have to take care of for the month.

Then I move into my daily pages, which are a mix of tasks, notes and logging my food intake. I create these as I go along and just see how much space it will involve. So far, it’s only been a few days in, so I’m not yet sure if I love the free-form daily page or if I might want to create more collections for certain challenges, to keep them together. I haven’t completely decided yet!

Thanks for checking out my bullet journal setup and I hope by sharing, it might have given you some ideas for your bullet journal. Not to mention the fact that you don’t have to “follow the rules” – really, it’s whatever works for you. You can find me on instagram if you want to follow my bullet journaling and creative adventures.

Make Yourself a Leather Bullet Journal

by Linda | Jan 3, 2017 | my creative journal

Today I thought it would be nice to share how I made myself a leather bullet journal to start my year out on the right foot. I’ve always made myself art journals, since learning how to bind books and since I have access to lot of leather scraps, it seems only natural for me to make my own bullet journal instead of buying on.

I actually tried to print specific page layouts and grids, but found that I didn’t really like them that much. So I decided to go with plain white paper and just go with the flow. I can sometimes get frozen into perfectionist tendencies, so I’m trying to break that bad habit! We will all have to live with our mistakes and nothing can be perfect, right?

If you’ve visited my blog before, you’ll know that I have posted tutorials for coptic stitch bookbinding and longstitch bookbinding. I personally go with the simple longstitch binding method most of the time as it suits my needs and is much easier as well. So for my new bullet journal, I created it with much of the same exact process as my previous art journals.

First I found a piece of scrap leather that I wanted to use – in this case it’s black leather with a floral print on it. Then I measured out a piece of heaving painting paper to the size I wanted for my journal – A5, so I cut my paper to make the A5 spread plus spine height of 1.5cm. Then I added 1cm to top and side to give the half centimeter space all around to protect the pages. In this case, I also left more leather on the right hand side so that it could wraparound and close my journal – although this was an afterthought, so there’s no paper in that section. I will have to fix that at some point!

The sturdy journal cover is created by gluing and sewing the heavy painting paper to my leather scrap. If you are using very thick leather, you probably don’t even need a paper backing. Next, I fold all my paper pages to make the signatures that will be sewn into my journal. I’m not very precise when it comes to measuring to the millimeter, but I do use a ruler to make sure things are good enough to look neat to the naked eye.

I pre-punch holes in the cover and signatures with my awl and with everything prepped, it’s pretty easy to go ahead and sew everything together with a big needle. Easy peasy!

In the end, I have a handmade leather journal to use as my bullet journal for 2017, although it might not last the whole year – but I can just make another one. You can do this with any kind of material, it doesn’t have to be leather. You can use cloth or felt or upcycle and old pleather jacket – hah! Just give it some structure/sturdiness by mounting your material on heavy cardstock if you need it.

As I mentioned before, I left more leather on the right hand side, so that it could wrap around the journal to act as a cover. I sewed a piece of elastic in that part for the purpose of closure, but without the paper backing, it’s not very sturdy in this section. Not sure if I want to add just another strip of leather to something else. I’m going to wait and see how I feel as I use the journal.

I’m quite happy with the results, even if the wraparound closure is a bit clunky. Hope you are inspired to make yourself a bullet journal or any kind of art journal, because it’s pretty easy to do!

If you don’t like blank pages, try binding up a bunch of mixed media papers and you’ve got yourself a very pretty art junk journal. I’m pretty sure the process is easy enough even for kids to do. Just punch the holes for them and use blunt needles! You can find me on instagram if you want to follow my bullet journaling and creative adventures. Thanks for checking out my handmade leather bullet journal process!

Art Journal Reflections

by Linda | Jan 1, 2017 | my creative journal

When a new year rolls around, I definitely find myself reflecting back on my past work and what I should focus on in the future. This year, I decided to pull out all my old art journals from years past. I have more sketchbooks in my parents house back in Southern California, but here with me in Italy, I have journals from around 2009-2016. Wow, 7 years is a long time and suddenly I felt a bit disappointed in myself. I mean… one should be able to accomplish great things in that long span of time, right? A pile of sketchbooks suddenly didn’t seem like a great record of my achievements… but then again, there were definitely long periods when I barely touched a journal, especially when my son was born. I always say that motherhood kicks my butt every single day!

I thought it would be fun to share snapshots of my progression as I look through my own scribblings, from oldest sketchbook up to present day. I was able to put them roughly in order, although there is some overlap because I’m notorious for working in multiple journals, starting new ones and never finishing… but more on that later…

So this first journal is actually a compilation of random loose artwork that I created. I simply decided to bind them all together by sewing scrap pieces of leather together to create a full page size journal. With simple longstitch binding, I put it all together and here are some snapshots of the inside.

Looking at these older works, I realized that I used to experiment more with different mediums and color. It’s making me miss watercolor, even though I’m a total novice at it. I’m sort of infatuated with painting as well – but I’m not one who loves messy hands, so watercolor would probably suit me better – especially now with little kids. I suppose from this first journal I should take away the observation that creative experimentation is a good thing and I should do it more – the whole point of art journals, don’t you think?

My next journal is the phase when I really concentrated on drawing and doodling. Lots of variations and cartoon drawing practice. I made this sort concertina-type journal and I don’t really love it because I wanted to bind it in a spine book format all together, so it just makes the pages not lie totally flat. The point of concertina is to open up the folds! Oops. Live and learn.

There is also a lot of watercolor in this journal, as well as markers and colored pencils. I suppose, the observation is that I used a lot of color, whereas nowadays it’s not a common thing in my journals. Weird, because I do love color… maybe I’ve gotten afraid to use it. I have always considered myself in need of help in the color department. I’ve never had formal color theory art school training, so it’s all sort of a mystery to me. But maybe I’m making it to be a bigger issue… I should just go for it. More color!

My next journal is definitely a mixed media art journal style. I upcycled a clothing catalog booklet, so I had to gesso over each page. I used a lot of paint and got quite messy (tried to), so the pages are thick and sometimes stick together. I was following Crescendoh a lot and definitely attempted to let go and experiment more.

I found that I liked collaging, so that part of mixed media really appealed to me. Paints still felt really messy, so it was this weird struggle of really loving the look and wanting to play, but then being bothered by the messiness. I obviously also incorporated just blank ink drawings and some watercolor still.

At this same time I also made myself a little A-Z art journal, which I have already blogged about showing each and every page – so you can check it out here. It’s definitely a mixed media art journal where I played around with paints and collage and illustration. Definitely a mix here as well.

My next journal is small one that I received from a handmade book swap and I really like the smaller size. It was also a period of my life that I didn’t have much time in general, so little doodles here and there was all I could pull off.

I started off with some collage, but this journal is definitely the point where I turned mostly to the black ink pen. Doodling was accessible and easier to do with limited time. Perhaps though, it has become a bit of a crutch for me, as I have really steered away from any other mediums and experimentation. Uh oh!

My next journal I might have started as I neared the end of the previous small one. I made this out of a shopping bag, because I loved that brown shiny material and use some leather to finish off the binding. I might have also wanted a slightly larger journal for some experimentations as well.

I still see collage here, so it’s definitely something that has stuck. I was obviously into old book paper and trying to figure out if I could incorporate it with my drawings as many other illustrators draw on vintage paper. But of course I was just going through the motions, I’m not sure the book paper adds a whole lot. In terms of the line drawings, I definitely starting using a lot of sharpies, so super thick lines. That meant more simplification of my drawings, rather than being tight or detailed. Not sure if it’s a good or not good thing?

The next journal might have been started in conjunction with the previous as well. It’s an art journal I made for myself but with super thick painting paper. So this was definitely my mixed media attempts to incorporate paint and messiness into my creative practice.

I actually had the honor of sharing a little tutorial of how I create some pages on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s blog here. Because the paper was so thick, I created and bound each page into the journal as I went along. I also drew a lot of loose leaf paper and just collaged it into this journal as well. You can see that I was finding it hard to just stick with one journal and work through it chronologically. It’s all a big mash up for sure.

My next journal is a leather bound journal I made for myself with a wraparound closure. I just really loved the metallic leather I salvaged, so had to make the journal immediately. I probably started this one while my other ones were in progress as well.

Looking inside, you’ll notice it was pretty much all black ink doodles. I was going through my first pregnancy at this point and was really tired most of the time. I also noticed that I was drawing little doodles here and there, but didn’t actually journal as much in words. Most everything was black and white, but I did find this one color image above. I messily smeared in the paint to add color and really like the loose look. Why don’t I do that more often, right?

My next journal is another leather bound journal I made, but no wraparound closure this time around. The wraparound was sort of annoying and in the way. Since I don’t travel with my journals, the extra protection was not necessary. At this point, I had my first son to take care of and there was definitely less time to get messy. It was about stealing some creative moments here and there when he was asleep and I wasn’t too tired to get some creative playtime in.

In looking through this journal, I actually really love a lot of the drawings during this time. I sketched in pencil as well as black pen, and it seems like I took more care in creating each doodle. There are obviously huge gaps in timeline in this journal, meaning, it’s not like I created every day or even every week. I suspect there are giant gaps, but I’m not great at dating things either. But I think it was more about when I did find the time, I savored it and dove in. But if I didn’t have time or didn’t feel like it, I didn’t really force myself to do anything at all. Maybe that’s why it seems like the quality was a bit elevated, because I only put in something when I had a spark.

I’m not sure if this is good or bad thing. Journals are supposed to be a space to experiment and explore. It’s not just about creating a pretty collection. But it’s certainly nice to have a cute collection in an entire journal instead of pages you end up hating. Haha! At this point I also started to develop my little girl characters and made them a bit more realistic in terms of the eyes, rather than just dots. It’s all still cartoony, but I felt a bit more confident drawing them.

My next journals are definitely a mish mash of pages. I realized that after having a kid, I sort of fell off the bandwagon of journaling in any kind of consistent manner. I’m also a scrapbooker, but fell off that bandwagon as well, even though there were many attempts to restart. I know there were probably months at a time that I created nothing at all. I’m not sure if it was the time or the motivation… or a combination probably. I made the mistake (twice) to not really take a long maternity leave. I mean, I took some time off, but I quickly got back to work because as a freelancer designer, time is money. I couldn’t turn away client work for months – I just couldn’t afford to. But it meant that sometimes I had to work for deadlines that clashed greatly with my personal life… caring for kids, when they get sick and need you. It’s just so different than being adults in the household.

Anyway, looking at this particular journal put together with binding rings and loose leaf pages, I noticed that I started to draw a lot on loose leaf pages. This means there’s no good chronology because I don’t naturally date or label things all the time, except for when I would join challenges like #The100DayProject and other similar efforts on my instagram. I can see some little periods of consistency when I committed myself to a challenge. I suppose that is why challenges are so popular, to get you to create consistently!

So when I was able to slow down, I really like my pencil sketches and creative musings. But I also know that I was increasingly losing patience and often would sit down for 5 minutes to create something too quickly (wanting a good result) and ending up demoralized and throwing things away. Lots of loose leaf pages for sure. I suppose it was another weakness in working on cheap ‘ole copy paper. It meant I could create a lot, but it meant a lot of starting over and not accepting mistakes. If you work in a bound journal, you have to work with your mistakes, not rip the page apart. So I’m not sure if this was a growth time for me at all… I do feel as if I’ve stayed the same… a bit stagnant and stuck at times.

I definitely went through a period of just drawing girl characters with a sharpie – and I still do this. I like these drawings a lot, although trust me there’s many many that I ripped apart, threw away, started over, etc. Again, I’m not sure if this is really a great thing, because it’s feeding my addiction to wanting things “perfect” or “right” and nothing having to deal with mistakes. I have also previously blogged about drawing these little girls here. It was at least a good thing for me to create something, even if it was very simple.

Again, during this time I have started many other journals, but just a page or two inside and I would get distracted and just never got back into it. In fact, the pile of incomplete journals is pretty much the same height as the pile of completed ones I have shared so far. See the photo, below? The pile on the left are the completed ones and on the right are various mish-mash attempts at something that I could never follow through with.

Here are a few snapshots of how I tried sort of scrapbooking, memory keeping type pages, I tried to get messy and paint again (that didn’t really go far because the messiness part just isn’t for me at this situation of my life with little kids) and doodling of course.

I also still draw my girls on loose leaf pages and you can see that on my instagram feed as well. So a review of so many years past and what I have done… hmm, not sure but perhaps I feel a bit deflated. I mean, there are definitely things I love and am proud of… but also a lot of neither here nor there feelings. Confusion and lack of focus, I suppose. And now… well, it’s 2017. How should I move forward? What should I create? Can I get myself back into a bound journal? Should I just stick with loose leaf pages?

Maybe, I should stop trying to define things and have so many rules? But that is my nature. I like to have structure and a sense of control, I suppose. Virgo! I went ahead and signed up for Life Book 2017 (that’s my affiliate link), so I suppose that is a sign that I want to get back into creating and experimenting. A big part is also about self-care. Taking better care of myself and not always just sacrificing for the kids, for the kids, for the kids. I hope I don’t sound selfish and a horrible parent to complain about the kids taking over my life… ugh… that is exactly the thoughts that pop into my head, whenever I want to take a little time for myself. It’s definitely a struggle. But I know that I will be a better mother, if I take care of myself and my needs as well.

I should also note that in the past couple of years, I might have been lacking in the creative sketchbooking habit, but it might be because I worked MANY more freelance hours. I also have an Etsy shop as well as jumping on Patreon recently. So… there are other things going on in my life. But I think that is where the uncertainty comes in. I wish there could be better balance. When I do something in one arena, I don’t want the other parts of life to crash and burn. I tend to do that… really focus on one thing because I’m super excited about it and then other stuff just falls to the waysides a bit too much. Live and learn. Perhaps it’s about paying more attention to what is going on as well.

That is why, reflecting on the past and trying to use the information to live better is a nice exercise. I highly recommend you do this for yourself!

I am definitely optimistic for 2017 and looking forward to many things and doing many things. This year I also recognized my need for better planning and that is why I started bullet journaling. Despite the difficulty in keeping up that as a habit as well, I’m determined to keep at it and definitely notice a difference. I’m also more aware of my situation and that helps reduce stress and anxiety. I will definitely share my new bullet journal that I made for the 2017 start as well (can’t help by add another journal to the pile, huh)!?

I wish you an amazing year and this is probably the longest blog post of all-time. If you stuck to it all the way to this point – WOW! Thank you so much for your attention and interest. I hope that sharing might have helped you in your creative journey as well. Please share below if you want to share your blog url or where you post your journaling!