Gemma 
It’s bullet journal setup time! As I mentioned in my Mid-Year Bullet Journal Setup post, I didn’t create a bullet journal setup for July this year, so I’ve been bullet journal-less for a WHOLE month now and I have not enjoyed it at ALL. Luckily though, I’m feeling a lot better and I’m looking forward to getting back into bullet journalling (and feeling vaguely organised) again!
Table of Contents
- Inspiration
- Equipment
- Cover Page
- Monthly Calendar
- Paris 2024
- Weekly Spreads
- August Review
- Final Thoughts
Inspiration
The 2024 Olympic Games kicked off in Paris on Friday and I am THRILLED. The Olympics are my favourite sporting event to watch and, because they only come once every 4 years, they always feel extra special. I wanted to do an Olympic-themed setup this month in honour of the games, but I also wanted to keep things simple because my energy levels are still a bit on the low side after being ill.
I decided to use the iconic Olympic Rings logo as my main source of inspiration for this setup. However, I have an irrational aversion to primary colours, so I opted to use slightly more muted versions of all of the colours. Furthermore, instead of drawing the rings in the classic 5-ring orientation of the logo, I just used random clusters of circle shapes to decorate the pages in the setup. I used both solid circles and rings to add a little more drama, while still keeping the essence of the Olympic rings.
As a final nod to the games, I used the official Paris Olympics font for my August headings (though I did draw the line at replicating this font on each of my weekly spreads- it would have looked great, but I just did not have the will power to do it!).
Equipment
To create this setup, I used the following equipment:
- Crayola SuperTips: dark pink and green (the exact shades I used were from this pastel pack).
- Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pen: 062 Pale Yellow, 452 Process Blue, N65 Cool Grey 5 and N45 Cool Grey 10.
- Sakura Gelly Roll, 10 Bold, white.
- Circle stencil.
- Pencil.
- Eraser.
Cover Page
For my Cover Page, I really went to town with the circle decoration and covered the whole double-page spread in an assortment of circles and rings. I placed the ‘August’ heading in the centre of the right-hand page.
For the circles, I used a circle stencil to lightly map out the circle shapes in pencil, then filled the shapes in with the coloured pens before erasing the pencil marks. I’m ridiculously bad at drawing circles freehand, so this felt like a much safer option for me!
Monthly Calendar
For my Monthly Calendar, I used the same coloured markers that I used for the circles to draw a grid of 5×5 boxes with rounded corners. I drew the boxes freehand, to make the process quicker and to tie this spread into the playful, doodle-y vibe I was going for. I added little circles of colour in the bottom right of each box, on top of which I wrote the dates (using my white Gelly Roll), as well as bigger circles at the top of each column, on which I wrote the initial of each day of the week. I put the ‘August’ heading in the top left, then filled the extra space with more circle/ring doodles.
Paris 2024
Seeing as this setup is celebrating the 2024 Olympic Games, it felt only fitting to create a spread to document some of the exciting moments of the games! On this spread, I have spaces to write down all of the gold, silver and bronze medals earned by Team GB, plus (the top section of) the overall Medal Table, which I’ll fill in at the end of the games.
Weekly Spreads
To keep things simple this month, I opted to forego my usual tabs. I also used the exact same layout for each of my weekly spreads (bar the first one, where I accidentally put my task list in a different place than I meant to), so that I could set them up super quickly (and with little mental effort).
Like with my Monthly Calendar, I drew all of the boxes for my daily task lists freehand, with rounded corners, using my coloured pens. I placed these down the centre of the page. In the top-left corner of each daily box, I added a little circle of colour, over the top of which I wrote the day of the week and the date, again using my white Gelly Roll.
For the most part, I put my master task list down the right-hand side of each spread by drawing another freehand box in a taller, thinner rectangle shape (though it’s a horizontal rectangle at the bottom of the page on the first weekly spread). For the subheading on this section, I drew a rectangle of colour and used my white Gelly Roll to write ‘TASKS’ on top in block capitals.
I added the weekly heading to the space on the right-hand page. If I had more energy (and determination), I would have continued using the official Paris Olympics font for these headings, but I just didn’t have it in me this month! Instead I opted to use my white Gelly Roll on top of my darker Tombow pen. It’s not quite as impactful, but it does the job!
Finally, I decorated all of my weekly spreads with even more circle doodles, placing them down the left-hand side and on the right-hand page, around the heading.
August Review
Last up, as always, is my Monthly Review page. I’ve kept the basic layout the same for this spread- on the right-hand page, there’s the ‘August Review’ heading and space for my favourite photo from the month. I added some more circle decorations here, some of which will still be visible around the polaroid, once I’ve stuck it in!
On the left-hand page, I have my usual sections along the top for the ATP & WTA Top 10 players, plus a space to write down my favourite memory from the month. Below those, I have a larger space to write down my top 6 songs of the month. To decorate this section, I used my coloured pens to draw these thicker rings that kind of remind me of vinyl records, which I thought was a fun way to tie the theme into this musical section!
Final Thoughts
Okay so, overall, this isn’t my favourite setup… I’m not sure if it’s just that the doodle-y vibe isn’t really working for me this month, or just that I found it really hard work to create (not in a sense of effort required- it only took a few hours to setup! I just couldn’t get into the swing of it like I usually do with my setups). Having said that, the colours are cheery and I know all of the spreads will be functional, so it will be perfect for getting back into the swing of using a monthly journal again.
I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below! Have you been watching the Olympics? My favourite sports to watch at the Olympics are definitely the gymnastics and the diving, so I’ve been loving following along with those.
Gemma
xxx
