I’ve blogged about bullet journaling in the past – my first attempts, make your own and my setup and over time I’ve taken what works for me and carried it into using printables for my planning needs. I think of it as a hybrid, my bullet journaling alternative method of planning.
For me, it’s become only about planning for projects and tasks list. It’s not a hybrid book with all sorts of other journaling content. It’s mostly because I already journal a lot and I didn’t really need another book… and bullet journaling was never enough, because it’s pretty difficult to get mixed media art in that kind of practical journal.
So in this video, I share my process of planning for the new year and how I used printables. It’s flexible like the bullet journal, but I don’t have to redraw layouts if they work for me and I don’t need to change things. Plus perpetual calendar pages have always been my jam!
You can download all of the yearly planning printables you see in the video for free, here on my blog.
I hope that by sharing my process, you’ll see that we all don’t have to jump on the bullet journal bandwagon. Maybe a hybrid approach works for you or maybe you need more journals and you just can’t be a one book girl. What’s truly important is what works practically for you, to get things done and help you feel on top of your goals!
I created this cute little girl design a while ago for a guest newsletter, but not sure if it ever got posted or used. Either way, I figured it would be nice to share with everyone here on the blog and practice my skills in making a desktop and phone wallpaper.
I was thinking about how much time we spend in front of our computer screens and mobile phones – and how we could use it to our advantage by having an inspirational visual.
“Live Creatively” was the saying that came to mind, because I think it can encompass so many things, so many parts of our lives.
So whatever is top of mind for you and your life, I hope these wallpapers can help you on your journey to live creatively.
I might be the only geeky person that thinks this is the coolest thing in the world, but recently I saw a perpetual calendar that is basically a bunch of numbers and you slide a frame over the appropriate set of numbers that represent the current month.
OMG! I think it’s totally cool and had the idea to create my own printable of those numbers, because it means I can print out a bunch of copies and cut out the appropriate part that applies to the current month. It saves a load of time and I can have them ready with my crafting and journaling supplies.
You can have a Sunday start or Monday start – or even a Tuesday start if you are weird like that! The point is that the numbers are ordered and you will get a perfect calendar month each and every time. It’s really great for creating mini calendars to stick in your planner. I personally use them for different daily checklists. Like tracking my vitamin intake, no-spend challenges and similar checklists. Whatever you need, it’s a great way to check things off on a mini-calendar. You can easily washi tape it to the wall, fridge or personal notebook.
I don’t know about you, but even though I live crafting, I can live without messing with inks to stamp a perpetual calendar or even writing out all the numbers every time… which especially sucks if you make a mistake!
You can download the PDF of multiple calendars on a full page to print easily or download the single JPG image and size as you need.
It’s amazing the print quality you can achieve from your home printer these days. Technology has really progressed and although there is no replacement for professional, bulk printers out there (love you guys) – it’s extremely convenient to be able to print from home, whenever you need it – instant gratification!
I love designing and using printables (no surprise) but I understand that most complaints center around the usage of ink. Printers might be affordable these days, but their ink cartridges seem to be the most expensive things in the world! I get it and feel your pain. You can imagine that I go through a lot of ink every year. But whatever solution you have at home, I know that it makes sense to make the most out of our ink cartridges and use it to the max.
So here are a few tips about printing from home and using up those ink cartridges to the max.
Take your time – if you don’t want to waste or misprint, make sure you slow down, take your time and check all the settings and preview. It’s easy to just get trigger happy and press print a zillion times… then you realize the paper setting was wrong or quality was set low – whatever – and you’ve got a huge stack of misprints! It totally pays to double-check before hitting print.
Test print and click cancel – if you are just starting out and not sure on the best papers and settings for your purposes, it’s okay to test a swatch! You can cancel a job and it’ll stop the printing and you save ink! There’s no need to let the whole thing print when you notice something is wrong or if you just wanted a partial print to see the quality!
Greyscale and Fast quality – I find that it saves color ink to print b/w work with greyscale selected… instead of using colors to mix and create black, it uses the straight black cartridge. I also find that it helps to print some items as Fast quality – especially black and white items that you really don’t need that true black. It really does save ink!
Batch printing lower quality prints – My biggest tip is to save things you want to print in a folder, so you can batch print at a later time… namely, when your printer is nearly out of ink. This is for stuff that you maybe don’t need at full quality or wouldn’t mind if it was a bit streaked or light from lack of ink. You know that dreaded warning of low ink and to change the cartridge? Ugh!
The issue is that it’s not totally empty yet and it might only be some colors and not others. So when I get that message, I rock out my “to print” folder and print them all out until there really is no ink left. I printed everything you see in the photo above when my ink was “low.” You can see the last couple prints were streaked and missing some spots of ink, so I knew that I was truly at the end at that point.
However, sometimes it’s only certain colors, so you can still get some other types of printables out before tossing the ink cartridge for good. See above how vintage prints seemed to still work! I think especially if you like shabby chic, vintage looking printables, it’s actually pretty cool to get the ink variations at this point of the ink cartridge life. If you are using your printables for art journaling, all the better as you might not want perfect prints anyway.
So those are my tips for home printing. You can save a lot of ink and money with just these few tips, making your ink stretch to many many printables. I hope you found these tips useful!
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.
Angel policy: All free printables posted are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. Feel free to share as long as you link back to this website. Thank you for spreading the love!
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