Hey guys...summer is winding down here in the US, and it has gone by so quickly! Because my family and I were on the move a lot, I was feeling stressed about keeping up with weekly spreads in my digital BuJo. I'm wondering how the rest of you worked in your journals this summer. Did you keep up with entries everyday or every week? Did you put it on hold altogether? Or, did you choose to keep a simplified version like I did?
One thing that sparked a change in my journaling habits this season was paddle boarding. When my family and I headed up to the mountains for a quick weekend getaway. When we were spending time playing in the lake, I noticed so many people with paddle boards, and was intrigued. One of the guys that came down to the lake with his kids had an inflatable paddle board, and so I asked him a few questions about it. A couple of weeks later, my husband and I found ourselves taking a beginner's class so that I could see what paddle boarding was like. I wasn't sure what to expect, but even though it was a big frustrating at first, I ended up really enjoying myself, as you can see below:
Shortly therafter, my husband and I got inflatable boards, and I spent the last few weeks of August out on a nearby pond enjoying the water on my new board.
So why am I telling you this? Because during this beautiful time of year, being outdoors and active is taking priority over me making a lot of pretty spreads in my digital bullet journal. I still want to document my memories, but weekly spreads aren't cutting it right now. So instead of not doing anything, I settled on a simplified format that still allows me to keep track of appointments and such, but still give me time to get out on the water and enjoy time with my family.
Here's my video to go along with this post, if you'd like to see it:
Before we jump into my summer pages, here's what my May Memories page ended up looking like:
Here's what my journal entries consisted of for each month: I'd include a calendar, and facing it on the opposite page were sections for appointments, birthdays, events, and so on:
Because I was gone at the end of May and the beginning of June, I opted to use some pages from the Everyday Planner kit. This is the same kit I used earlier in the year to do my initial BuJo set up, so I it was an easy choice to use it again during a busy and hectic month. The two page format I used above is what I stuck with for the summer.
There were just a few additional pages I added each month. In June, I did some digital stitch meditations, which are basically drawings of squares where I digital drew or "stitched" embellishments and threads on them. I did some fabric squares when I was at my art retreat, and if you want to see more what the traditional stitch meditations look like, check out the work of Liz Kettle. Stitch meditations are her original idea, and she does them instead of a traditional guided meditation because that works better for her. I love this idea, and have started doing my own fabric meditations here and there, but wanted to see if I liked doing a digital version in my BuJo. It was pretty fun --- I'm not sure if this is something I'll do long term, but I'm trying it out for now.
I'm also doing the the Petite Floral Doodles Class from Erin at the Petite Planner blog. I'm so not finished with the class, but it has been fun so far. This is my first try at the exercises and then I'll be popping pages for this class randomly throughout my journal as I see fit.
And as I generally do, I'm putting in a page of memories for each month in the summer. Here is June's.
For July's spread, I used the calendar I created and offered as a freebie when my YouTube Channel reached 100 subscribers. You can pick that up here. The rest of these pages are hand drawn (please note that in all of my spreads, I've blocked out the birthdays listed here to protect the privacy of my friends and family...so that explains the random red rectangle on the birthdays section below).
The next spread here was created by using a calendar offered by the Petite Planner. If you like here calendar, you can get it by joining her email list, which will grant you access to her VIP Resource Library.
On this spread, the calendar grid and title treatments are Erin's, as well as the sheet with the journaling spaces, banners, and the orange accents at the top. Everything was black and white, except for the word August, so I colored in the elements to match the lettering Erin created. I created the word art and the orange drawings the bottom myself.
The only other page I've done so far for August is this packing list for Brave Girl Symposium, since this will be the only one I'll have time to finish before the summer's over, and I only decided last minute to go that event. It looks a lot like the one I did last year for a similar, trip, but I'm adding in a bit of color since I threw in some of my Bitmojis. When I return from Symposium, the plan is to add some drawings into those two wonky rectangles on the bottom left page.
I hope you guys enjoyed seeing these abbreviated summer pages. I think it's fine to simplify areas of our life when things get busy, and this worked really well for me. I hope you guys that are in the summer season are enjoying the last few days of this lovely time of year. Give me a holler and let me know what you do with your BuJo in the summer. Do you choose to keep going full bore with the same types of pages as you do in fall and winter, or do you simplify? Or maybe you do more? I'd love to hear what works for you.
I'm preparing to go to a mixed media art retreat, Art and Soul Colorado, in just a few days. One of the fun things I'm looking forward to is doing trades...in other words, any participant who's interested makes us a small item to trade with others in between classes. Some make artistic trading cards, small figures, or pins. I wanted to do something a little different, so after doing some research about trades, I opted to make these key chains. Out of necessity, I needed to make something that would be light and not too heavy in my luggage, as well something that wouldn't bog me down as I carried my bag of trades around at the retreat.
I was excited to make these, not only because they'd be different, but because they look so cool. They are pretty easy to make if you have everything you need. Here's a supply list if you'd like to your hand at this. For each keychain, you'll need:
-a cork (can be used as long as it's not damaged)
You can get a bag of several corks from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XZ54BO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
-lobster keychains (also found on Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XGMKM6R/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
-2 small washers (1/2 in or 12.7 mm)
-2 larger washers (3/8 in or 9.5 mm)
-two head screws (also commonly called eyelets)
-small strips of patterned paper, washi tape, or thin ribbon (use your stash!)
A larger, thicker ribbon to put on the bottom of your keychain (cut into a strip about 1/2 - 3/4 in. wide and about 3-4 inches long)
-E6000 glue (the one with the pointy tip, not pictured)
-a toothpick, if you don't have the glue with the pointy tip
-scissors and pinking shears (not pictured)
You can see my video of the process below:
If you'd prefer a step by step without watching the video, just follow the steps below.
Step One: Gluing on the Washers
Using the E6000 glue, adhere one of the large washers to one end of the cork. Allow to dry overnight to prevent headaches when assembling the rest of your keychain(s).
The next day, glue one of the small washers onto the top of the larger washer. Again, allow it to dry overnight.
I let my corks dry overnight in a cake pan lined with plastic wrap. It was an easy and efficient way to let them dry without the corks and washers slipping all over the place.
When the corks have both washer sets completely dry on one side, repeat the process with the other side.
Step Two: Insert the Eyelets/Headscrews
On one end of your cork, start screwing your eyelet into the cork through the hole on the smallest eyelet (don't put any glue down into the hole just yet!). Tighten the eyelet down until it fits flush with the top of the small eyelet. Carefully pull the eyelet back out of your cork.
Once the eyelet is removed, take a toothpick and cover the bottom half of it with the glue. Push the glued-up pick inside the hole you created with your eyelet, then pull it back out. If you have the glue tube with the pointy tip, you can try pushing a bit of glue into the hole with that. When the adhesive inside the hole, screw the eyelet back down into the hole again until it is tightly up against the small washer.
Repeat this process with the glue and another eyelet on the other end. Your key chain should now look like the one in the photo above. Lay flat and allow to dry overnight, one more time.
Step Three: Add the Key Chain Attachment and Washi and/or Patterned Paper
Choose one end, and put on the key chain. I personally liked using lobster keychains, because they have a hook that's quick and easy to attach, but it's possible to thread the standard circular key chains around the eyelet; it just takes a bit longer.
On the same end as the key chain, wrap washi tape on the cork as close as you can to the large washer. Or, if you prefer, take a small, thin strip of digital or traditional patterned paper with the glue. Washi tape is easier to use, since it's self-adhesive, but it's not hard to glue on paper. You can see my key chain below that has paper instead of washi.
I suggest letting key chains made with paper trim dry for a good, long time. Drying time doesn't necessarily take overnight.
Step Five: Add a Ribbon loop
To add your ribbon loop, take your small length of ribbon and cut the ends with pinking shears (which keeps your ribbon from fraying). Fold your ribbon in half, then thread the loop through the eyelet. Take the loose ends of the ribbon and pull them through the loop through the ribbon. Pull the ends securely through the loop and snug the ribbon up through the eyelet. You can see the ribbon as I've looped it through the head screw in the picture above.
The key chain is finished, and making it is pretty easy!! The most time consuming part is the drying time, but once that is done, the rest of the key chain is quick to assemble.
Here's a small sampling of the a few of the key chains I made. I used plaid ribbons for the bottom of the chains, but any ribbon you prefer could easily be substituted.
Thanks for checking out this project and I hope you'll let me know if you give making the key chains a shot.
Hey guys! How is your month going so far? I'm glad May is here, and I can see some fun things coming my way, as well as some difficult things I will have to work my way through this month.
As Mother's Day approaches, I find myself both thankful for the blessing it is to raise my children, and the sadness for the things that are testing my mettle as a mom and a person. I remind myself that the bad things will pass, hopefully there are enough good things that are going on with my family, and that we will end up better people in the end. If you have a mom in your life, please celebrate and honor her, whether you celebrate Mother's Day or not. She will love you for it.
In the midst of everything I have going on, having a bullet journal to plan things out will help me have the most positive and productive month I can.
If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome! Just an FYI, I use the following for digital bullet journaling:
If you'd like to watch my video on this month's planning, here's the video:
Here are my page spreads for this month. At this point, I have only a few to share. There will be more later on, as I'm taking another BuJo doodling class. I hope you'll check back for more pages as the month goes on.
Weekly page spreads:
I wanted to throw this one in here, showing a better way to use my Bitmoji avatar, since the last one was a bit smaller than I intended. I made the Bitmoji a larger and more prominent in the page design here and like this a lot better. If you wanna see how I created stickers with my Bitmoji, check out last month's post.
On the spread I made for last week, I really wanted to add in a circular shape of some sort, so this is what I tried out. It was a bit of struggle, since I've not figured out a great way to use a standard template that one might use on paper, and Morpholio doesn't have any circle shapes available to use in the app. In any event, I still had fun with it. The flower shapes are from the Boho Berry Tribe Resource Library. Kara, the blogger who offers those resources, has some great stuff that you can use in your digital journals. I highly recommend you check her out.
Here is this week's spread...which I tried a little experiment with. Part of it I really like, and part of it I feel like could be better. However, I also realize that not every spread needs to be an award winner, and that my BuJo is a perfect place to try things out and it's not a big deal if things don't work out the way I expected. It was a fun thing for me to use hexagons, and in the future I'll try again and improve on this. The colors are awesome and it was fun trying it out.
For my memories and calendar pages, I decided to limit each of them to one page. April was super busy and I spent time doing a lot of basic things to keep my household running, and had some deadlines to meet. It was much easier to just use one page each for these two items. The memories page is all my work, and I hand drew the calendar grid, lettering and numbers myself. The "May" word art and the two washi tape strips are also from the Boho Berry Resource library. It was so cool working those into my calendar page.
I'm including another packing list, since I'm heading to an art journaling retreat near the end of the month. Can you tell I'm loving my Bitmojis? There isn't a ton on this page right now, but I don't want to fill too much in until I get my list items written down. I'll give you another peek next month when the page is finished.
Ok, guys...that will do it for now. I hope to be back soon with another post. Thanks for being here and letting me share my words and creations with you. Have a nice day!
Hello ladies and gents and welcome to today's post!
I'm excited to bring you a review on the The Paperless Post. This is an online
company that allows you to create e-cards, either from their website or their mobile app.
***Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I wasn't paid a monetary sum, but instead was compensated with coins (i.e. store credit) to create some cards and blog about it. However, please note that I wasn't required to give only a positive review. I'm free to give my own thoughts about what I liked/disliked in regards to their website, app, and the products available therein. All opinions in this review are my own. I'm a blogger/YouTuber who only collaborates with companies who will allow me to share my honest feelings about their offerings.***
Now on to the fun stuff...
When I was first contacted about a review of the e-cards, invitations, and stationary available on the Paperless Post, I was a bit skeptical. To be honest, most e-cards I've seen are pretty cheesy and unimpressive. I've sent very few of them to friends and family because I'd rather create something in Photoshop and send it on. Once I browsed the site and saw the quality of the items there, I jumped at the chance to play with these e-cards.
I was pleasantly surprised to find beautiful, high quality card options at the Paperless Post. Well-known designers, such as Jonathan Adler, Kate Spade, Vera Wang, Oscar De La Renta (one of my personal favorites), and more have gorgeous cards and stationery available there:
Here are some of the Oscar De La Renta cards I plan on using in the near future. These are so elegant and have gorgeous detail:
There are times when I've wanted to send a premade e-card, especially when I've used up all my paper handmade cards, and need something really nice in a pinch. Or perhaps I want to send a note or invitation to a friend who lives in a different country, and don't have time to get down to the post office. Now that I've found the Paperless Post, their beautiful e-cards and invitations will fit the bill.
Getting Started
If you'd like to try your hand at making an e-card on Paperless Post, I'd suggest doing a few things to get going. I've included useful, clear visuals here, because I feel it's easier to also "show" rather than just "tell" you how this works. Please note that there are parts of some pictures I've blurred out to protect the privacy of myself and the others I sent e-cards to. Remember to click on any of the photo thumbnails below to get a larger, better look.
1 - create an account & buy some coins. To make e-cards on The Paperless Post, you must purchase some store credit, which is in the form of coins. Coins can range in value from about 14 -30 cents apiece. See the Coins And Pricing Page for more info and to view to coin package purchase options. I believe sending a card is approximately 30 cents or so, depending on the options you choose for customization. There are free cards and accessories (i.e. stamps, envelopes, envelope liners, etc.), but it's more fun if you have some coins to buy the other options that require a purchase.
2 - Browse through the various card types (invitations, birthday cards, thank you cards, photo cards, and more) and choose some favorite designs. As you look through the card selections available, you'll see a little heart under each one. Click the heart to add the card to your favorites. I find that the process of sending cards is much faster and easier if I'm looking through designs I know appeal to me.
3 - Populate a mailing list with email addresses of those you want to send your e-cards to. This site provides a handy address book for you to plop them into. Once you're ready to email your card, you'll be prompted to choose a recipient (or 5 or 10), and all you'll need to do is check the boxes next to their names. Paperless Post's address book will auto fill the appropriate fields, and sending them off will take only a few minutes. It's incredibly fast and easy.
After this, you're ready to get cracking and create some beautiful digital correspondence.
How To Choose And Customize A Card
While this website is an awesome place to create and send out invitations, I find myself drawn more the other types of cards, such as birthday, "just because," and holiday cards.
Today, I'm going to take you through the process of creating and sending a birthday card.
First, I chose my card for a male relative who's recently celebrated his birthday (cost for this card is 2 coins):
Next, I clicked on the card, which took me into "Customize" mode on the website. From here I get to modify the text and some other options, such as envelope, envelope liner, the postage stamp and the backdrop the card sits on. While the free accessory options were great, I chose to go with items that cost a few coins here and there. Most of the cards I sent out while I was learning my way around the site/app cost me around 3-6 coins. I felt it was worth it.
After selecting the card, I clicked the arrow on the right side of the screen to get to the next section, where I choose a backdrop for it. My card will sit on the backdrop, and there are many options here. The default background is a lovely white & gray marble background, which is a fine choice, or you can remove the background altogether if that's your preference. I chose the gray fabric one, since it makes the design on the card pop (cost for that was 1 coin):
The third section allowed me to personalize the sentiment. The text options screen allows you to choose from several fonts, and you're also allowed to recolor and resize as well.
After this, there are choices for the envelope and its liner. I decided to go with the suggested envelope (which is the brown one shown below) provided with the card. However, there are other colors and styles you can choose a different one if you desire. The next arrow after that allows you to select a liner. I went with a different liner than the one that was already in the envelope and choose a white liner with fun aqua stars (cost: 1 coin):
At this point, it's time to choose your postage stamp and a postmark. I paid a coin to use the cupcake stamp since it went along with the theme of the card. I stayed with the free postmark that was already in place. You'll notice that the text on the envelope doesn't yet have your recipient's name, but don't fret. This is taken care of when the cards are emailed out.
Emailing Your Card
This step is a seamless process and can be done quickly. You can choose to send it to one or as many recipients as you choose using your address book, or if needed, you can type in a single email address in the second section below (I'm not 100% sure, but I think it costs 1 coin to email each card).
Since this card costs 6 coins per recipient, I take this into account before sending it off. In other words, if I send off 3 cards, there will be a total of 18 coins deducted from my account. There will also be a chance to preview how the card will look when it's sent to your special person (see thumbnails below). Cards created here have a fun animation sequence where it pops the card out of the envelope and allows your recipient to read it:
get your card ready to send through email
How to preview your card
card animation & how it looks
sentiment on the back of the card
confirmation email sent
If you'd like to see how the card animation in action, please watch the companion video I put up on my YouTube channel (the animation is super cool):
One thing I really appreciate about sending these e-cards is you know if your card has been sent or not. Paperless Post sends a confirmation email informing you of the card's delivery, as well as some other nice options shown above. It's also handy that you're able to go back to your virtual "post box" and see who has read your cards, how many are unopened, and so on. The post box is found by clicking on your account name or email in the upper right corner:
Other Considerations
Aside from creating a card, there are a few other things I think would be helpful to anyone who stumbled onto Paperless Post for the first time.
Any greeting, birthday, Christmas, and most other types of cards that aren't previewed as invitations can be made into an invitation. You're able to track invitations or any cards you've sent here on your tracking page, which you can find by accessing your account dashboard. Below you can see that I have only one recipient for my birthday card, but if I'd chosen to make an invitation instead and send it out to ten recipients, I could track whether or not all of them had received their invites. I could further see if RSVPs had been replied to, export a list to email or other places, or print the list. Paperless Post really rocks this functionality!
Another incredibly awesome feature is the ability to include an auto-generated map to your invitation. Here's a invitation preview of a garden party invitation:
If I chose to send out invitations to a guest list I create for this event, I can type in the address of the location, house, venue, etc., and a map is included in the email along with the card:
One of the things I love the most about Paperless Post is the impeccable, high quality and beautiful aesthetic of these cards. Being a digital scrapbooker, I'm a real stickler for high resolution, good design, visual interest, and good color payoff on any digital items. I find that you get all of these things with these e-cards.
For instance, here's the envelope and liner for the garden party card I showed you above, as well as a card I sent to my hubby last week. Check out the luscious details I've pointed out. Very few, if any, other e-cards have this amount of detail, or the same fun accessories available to their end users:
Using the Paperless Post App
Currently, Paperless Post offers mobile apps for Apple Devices. Android users and those on other platforms will have to use the website versions on their desktop or laptop computers. For those of us on iPhones and iPads, you can download apps for them here.
You can see how the apps look on your phone and tablet (images from the Paperless Post website):
After using the desktop version and these mobile apps, I came away with these thoughts.
First, I felt like the best experience happened on my laptop. It's just easier to see the various customization options on the big screen, as you can tell from the photos included here. I had to play with the app for awhile before I figured out how to change out accessories, but finally found out how to get it to work. After opening the app, I chose this path: create>thank you cards (or any other type you want) & design for online.
You can see in this first screen cap the white/gold confetti backdrop, which I thought competed too much with the design on the card. After some looking around, I finally saw the paint roller icon at the bottom right of the screen, which is the backdrop icon.
From there, I got a small pop up at the bottom of the screen showing the backgrounds.
I chose a purple backdrop from the pop up, then hit done and was taken to a new screen with the envelope options. When I clicked the the envelope icon on the lower left side, I was given a similar pop up with choices for different liners, however, I haven't yet found a way to change the envelope style or color on the app.
The iPad app works very similarly, however, I don't have photos for you because the app acted sluggish or froze up on me. I had to close the app and start over, and got so frustrated because I came up with no visual examples for you. I had better luck going to the website on my iPad, and could view and make cards much the same way as I did with my laptop. I would suggest doing that until some updates are done for the iPad app.
The one really big advantage about using your phone, aside from creating cards on the run, would be ease using the tracking functionality when you are out and about and away from your computer.
I personally think it would be nice to have to app keeping track and sending me notifications. If I was at the store buying party supplies for an event, it would be super cool to find out 2 more people RSVP'ed, so I could pick up a few more things there and then.
Also, another perk of the using the iPhone app is the envelope view. On both the computer and iPad versions, only a portion of the envelope is showing, whereas on the phone, the envelope gets it's own screen view. I love being able to see the whole thing and how cool it looks.
view on the phone (scroll with arrow between envelope & card)
website view on computer or iPad
Wrap Up And Final Thoughts
The Pros:
-quick, easy card creation
-Wide selection of versatile & beautiful card designs
-Well known and respected designers have cards designs here
-website is user friendly and easy to navigate
-easy and convenient to send out invitations and track RSVP replies
-high quality resolution on all site offerings
-good value for your money
The Cons:
-only a few free designs for cards and accessories
-some may not want to pay to send e-cards.
-No way I can find to choose a different envelop on the mobile app
-iPad app is sometimes unresponsive
-envelope not as visible if viewed online
My verdict? While there are some things I'd like to change, I still really like and enjoy using Paperless Post e-cards. I feel like customers get a good product or an inexpensive fee, the prices are comparable to other e-card services, and the Paperless Post has nice offerings that other similar websites just don't offer.
I would highly recommend Paperless Post and hope you will check them out. You can find them at www.paperlesspost.com. Should you choose to open an account with them, I believe you are gifted with 20 free coins to get started. I hope you enjoyed this post, and let me know if decide to make some e-cards with Paperless Post. I'd love to know how it went or hear your thoughts on e-cards.
