If you’re new here, Blogmas At Home is my annual festive series here on the blog, where I share daily posts full of festive fun & creativity throughout Advent! Christmas is my all-time favourite holiday, so I’m always practically overflowing with seasonal ideas to share with you guys. This is the third year of Blogmas At Home (big wow!) and I’m so excited to celebrate the season with you!

A little note before we get into today’s post: if you want to make sure you don’t miss a single DAY of Blogmas At Home this year, you can sign up to my newsletter! You’ll receive an email notification every time I release a new post, so you won’t miss a thing. The sign up link is in the side bar, right over there (—->)!

It’s become a bit of a tradition that my first Blogmas post of the year is my December bullet journal setup and this year is no different! Today’s post is all about my final, monthly bullet journal setup of 2025 (can you BELIEVE it’s the end of the year already?!).

Naturally, when deciding on a theme for my December setup, I headed straight to Pinterest (you can find my account here!). I saw this pin, which depicted a bunch of festive border design ideas and the one with the red berries really caught my eyes: it just feels so fun and Christmassy, but still very elegant and pretty! I decided to base my setup this month on that border, so I’ve used it copiously throughout, along with lots of torn kraft paper (my FAVE) and my beloved alphabet stamps.

Because it’s the festive season, I’ve included a few special spreads this month: the basic setup follows the same format as my typical monthly setups, there’s just a little extra, Christmas whimsy!

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Advent(ish) Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
• Christmas Day + New Year’s Eve
• December Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To make this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Sakura Pigma Micron: 05 Black.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pen: 990 Light Sand.
• Crayola SuperTips: Dark Red.
• Alphabet stamps and black ink pad.
• Glue stick.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Ruler.

Cover + Quote Page

Recently, I’ve been moving away from quote pages in favour of slightly more ‘useful’ spreads (specifically, my ‘Things to Look Forward to‘ pages!). However, as I’m sure you know by now (or at least, can tell!), Christmas is my favourite time of year, so, honestly, I don’t really need reminders of how exciting life can be: it’s just a universal truth that once the Christmas lights go up, fun is to be had! Because of this, I did opt to include a Quote Page this time around: nothing fancy, just a little ‘Sleigh bells ring’ moment!

Honestly, this first spread was super easy to create (as was most of the setup, really)! I drew the borders with my Sakura pen, added the berries with the red Crayola and the leaves with the beige Tombow, then stuck in some torn up brown paper. I stamped in the lettering and that was it!

Monthly Calendar

I had a lot of fun making this Monthly Calendar, even though stamping in all of the dates was… a little labour-intensive (and the dates actually take up most of the calendar boxes)! Also, if you’ve noticed where I messed them up… no you haven’t.

To get the torn edges on the calendar section itself, I folded along the lines I wanted to tear, smoothed the creases down really well, then repeated that process, folding the paper back the other way and smoothing it again, so the crease was really well-defined. This meant that when I gently tore the paper, the the paper naturally tore along the crease I had made, which kept the section really uniform (which is useful, for this style of calendar!).

Advent(ish) Calendar

I completely forgot to add a heading to this spread, but it is my Advent(ish) Calendar spread! I’m calling it an Advent(ish) calendar because it includes the days after Christmas too. I plan to use this in pretty much the same way as my beloved Daily Sunshine page from my previous setups: each day, I’ll write one fun, (likely festive) thing that happened. This time around, though, there’s the added fun (read: effort) of having to locate the right date first!

Weekly Spreads

Into the Weekly Spreads now and I’ve kept the layout the same as the previous months— it’s just been working so well for me! I’ve trimmed down the central pages in this section so that, no matter which week you’re on, you can always see the task lists on the far left and right.

I used my corner rounder to soften up the edges of the cut pages: they can be pretty sharp, so I am hoping to minimise the risk of injury as much as possible!

Each internal spread is dedicated to a single week. I’ve split each one into 8 sections (2 down, 4 across) and used the spare section for the weekly subheading (which helps me to navigate through the setup and know which week I’m actually on).

To separate out the other 7 sections, I used that same berry border I’ve been using throughout the setup. It’s a bit more full on here, but I just love how pretty it is!

At the top of each daily box, I stamped in the first letter of the day of the week and the date itself.

Christmas Day + New Year’s Eve

This Christmas Day & New Year’s Eve spread is fairly minimal: just that same, berry border all the way around and a piece of kraft paper stuck in for the heading (or here, I guess, the footing!). I want this spread to have a scrapbook-y feel: I’ll fill it in after the respective days with photos and notes and little mementos, so that I can look back on all of the festive fun!

December Review

Finally, we have my December Review page! This includes all the same content as usual, but with the same berry border and torn kraft paper vibe as the rest of the setup. I’m particularly fond of how the ‘December Playlist’ subheading follows the shape of the torn edge in that top left-hand corner!

As always, I have spaces to note down my favourite songs from the month gone by (here’s betting they’re all Christmas songs), the year-end ATP & WTA (tennis!) rankings and my favourite memory from the month (here, indicated by a smiley face, because how on earth was I supposed to fit all of those stamped letters in that tiny space!). The blank space on the right-hand side is left blank, so that I can stick in a fun polaroid from December later on.

Final Thoughts

I’m so thrilled with how this setup turned out: it feels super festive, but also really soft and elegant (plus, it uses torn kraft paper, which is one of my favourite things to include in my journal!). It was surprisingly quick to set up: I didn’t worry too much about being perfect but it still looks really neat and precise, which is magical!

I do wish my number stamps were slightly smaller, because they do rather take over the monthly calendar boxes, but I can’t quite justify buying more stamps: guess I’ll just have to make do!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my December bullet journal setup for this year and that you’ve enjoyed the first day of Blogmas at Home 2025! I can’t wait to celebrate this festive season with you. See you back here tomorrow?

Gemma

xxx

My November bullet journal setup started out life as my October bullet journal setup (which never actually came into existence, as a result of the aforementioned lack of enery). I had an idea for a setup inspired by one of my favourite knitting projects: my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, with colouring pencil ‘colourwork’ designs and kraft paper accents. By the start of October, I’d just about managed to finish the layout & coloured patterns, but hadn’t gone beyond that and made the setup, you know… functional.

Around mid-October, I figured I’d be better off putting my energy into my November setup, rather than finishing off the October one. It seemed a waste to leave all of that colouring/effort behind, so I decided that I would just convert my October setup into a November setup: the pumpkins aren’t quite so relevant, but November’s still autumn here in the UK, so I think it still works??

Anyway, enough chit-chat! Let’s get into the setup…

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page + Things to Look Forward to
• Monthly Calendar
• Autumn Bucket List + Daily Sunshine
• Weekly Spreads
• November Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Colouring pencils (brown, orange and green).
• Kraft paper.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Glue stick.
• Sakura Quickie Glue pen.
• Alphabet stamps + ink pad.

Cover Page + Things to Look Forward to

For my Cover Page, I decided to fill the whole page with the colourwork design. Admittedly, this took a rather long time, but I think it really sets the scene for the rest of the setup. I used the alphabet stamps to write the ‘November’ heading on a piece of kraft paper and my brown fineliner to add a ‘stitched’ border around the edge (I was on a bit of a fibre-craft theme this month), then stuck that in over the top of the colourwork design. I really love how this turned out (even if it was pretty labour-intensive to make)!

Alongside my Cover Page, I included a spread that I’ve been really enjoying in recent months: my Things to Look Forward to Page. On this page, I can jot down all the fun things I have coming up throughout the month, so that I can check in on them from time to time and get re-excited all over again. Fun!

Monthly Calendar

To protect my sanity, I opted to draw just the chevron pattern from my colourwork design as the decoration on most of the other pages in this setup, and for my Monthly Calendar I opted to place it near the bottom. For the calendar itself, I stuck in little squares of kraft paper, then wrote in the dates with my brown fineliner (the alphabet stamps I was using sadly do not contain numbers). Finally, I stamped in the ‘November’ heading vertically, down the left-hand side of the page.

I had actually already set this spread up back when the setup was still in its October phase, so I had to add a few more kraft paper boxes to the end of the month to fit November’s layout (which is why there are 5 blank boxes in the top row… needs must!).

Autumn Bucket List + Daily Sunshine

Next up, we have my Autumn Bucket List and Daily Sunshine pages. I used a similar chevron pattern to decorate these spreads as the last spread (only with two stripes this time, rather than three), placing this decoration at the top of the left-hand page and the bottom of the right-hand page.

I plan to use my Autumn Bucket List page to jot down some of my favourite autumnal activities that I don’t want to miss out on before this season ends and the snowy, festive season begins! Autumn is my favourite season and I feel like I’ve missed a lot of it these past two months, so I really want to capitalise on the last of the cosy reds and golds!

My Daily Sunshine page serves exactly the same purpose as usual: each day, I write down one thing that happened that brought me joy or was just, in general, very sunshine-y. I’ve opted for a grid format this month, though I usually prefer a vertical format (it gives me more space to waffle!), so we’ll see how that goes.

Weekly Spreads

Into my Weekly Spreads now and I’ve used my classic layout again: trimmed down central pages, leaving a section on both the far left and far right exposed. In those exposed sections, I put my ‘master task lists’ (i.e. tasks I need to do, but don’t necessarily have a specific date for), so that I can refer to them easily throughout the month. The internal, trimmed-down pages then house my daily task lists, separated out into individual weeks.

I used a long piece of kraft paper for each of my master task lists. This means that no matter which page of the weekly spread section I am on, there is always a kraft paper accent to the spreads, so I was able to tie this section into my theme with minimal glue-ing in & effort.

For the weekly spreads themselves, I decorated the right and left side of each spread with that same two-stripe chevron design, though this time I drew it going vertically down the length of the pages and added some additional dots of colour to the pattern.

For the daily task lists, I split each spread up into 8 sections (4 down, 2 across). I used my brown fineliner to draw a ‘stitched’ border around 7 of the sections, leaving the final section plain, so that I could use it for the weekly subheadings, which help me to navigate through this section of the setup.

Finally, I used my alphabet stamps to add the weekly subheadings. As I mentioned, this particular alphabet stamp set doesn’t include numbers, so I had to write those in with my brown fineliner. It doesn’t look amazing, but I was kind of losing the will to live by this point, so I let it slide.

November Review

Finally, we come to my November Review spread! The layout of this one is exactly the same as in its previous iterations: on the right-hand page, I have the ‘November Review’ heading (here, stamped onto pieces of kraft paper) and a big space for sticking in a polaroid at the end of the month. On the left-hand page, I have sections for noting down the ATP & WTA (tennis) Top 10 players, a favourite memory and my 6 favourite songs of the month.

I also recreated the full colourwork design from the Cover Page on the right-hand page of this spread, just to really tie it back to the theme (and because I think it will make a great backdrop for the polaroid!).

Final Thoughts

I really love this spread and I’m so glad I opted to carry on with it instead of letting it go to the bullet journal graveyard when October got too overwhelming to finish it off. It was quite labour-intensive, but I think it’s really functional, autumnal and nice to look at, which is exactly what I need in a bullet journal setup this time of year! Admittedly, it probably does suit October slightly better than November (mainly because of the pumpkins), but what’s a girl gonna do? Sometimes life just gets in the way.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my November bullet journal setup!

Gemma

xxx

I opted for a super simple design this month: something really minimal (in fact, I actively challenged myself to be as minimal as possible, because, if you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I am many things, but minimal is not one of them), quick to create and easy to use.

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Things to Look Forward to in Autumn + Daily Sunshine
• Weekly Spreads
• September Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Sakura Pigma Micron black fineliners.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pen: 990 Light Sand.
• Ruler.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.

I meant what I said about being minimal this month!

Cover Page

I did some research on ‘minimal bullet journal spreads’ on Pinterest before diving into these spreads (mainly because of my aforementioned lack of inherent minimalism). I particularly liked this design, so I tried to replicate it for my Cover Page this month, using my Tombow pen in the shade Light Sand as the accent colour, instead of the green shade in the original design.

Monthly Calendar

To keep my Monthly Calendar as minimal as possible, I only separated the grid out horizontally, omitting my usual vertical lines. I have to say, I don’t love doing this (I’m a major waffler, so I need strict boundaries to keep my notes in check!), but it did make the process of setting this spread up much quicker! I used my Tombow pen to highlight the horizontal lines, wrote the dates on top of those coloured lines, then added the SEPTEMBER title at the bottom of the page.

Things to Look Forward to in Autumn + Daily Sunshine

Next up, we have two spreads that I have recently (re)introduced to my monthly setups & am still loving: my Things to Look Forward to page and my Daily Sunshine page!

The Daily Sunshine page is exactly the same as its previous iterations: just a vertical calendar format where I can write in one positive thing that happened on each day.

The Things to Look Forward to page is a little different this month, because, instead of being ‘Things to Look Forward to in September‘, it’s ‘Things to Look Forward to in Autumn‘! There’s a couple of reasons for this: firstly, I knew I had a lot of things happening in September that I was not looking forward to (just general life stuff: appointments etc) , so I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to scrounge enough fun things together to make this page the encouraging, fun addition to my journal that it’s supposed to be. Secondly, autumn is by far my favourite season: I get so excited in the run-up to it and I just love every second of it when it comes, so I figured a seasonal version of this spread was more appropriate this time around!

Weekly Spreads

Now we come to my Weekly Spreads, for which I’ve used the exact same format as recent months: I’ve trimmed down the central pages in this section, so that there are two spaces, one on each side of the spread, that are visible no matter what weekly page I’m on. These spaces house my master task lists, where I note down jobs that I need to do, but don’t necessarily have an assigned day for yet.

I added a vertical stripe of colour down the left-hand side of each master task list, using my Tombow pen. In this stripe, I can add little checkboxes alongside each individual task, so that I can easily tick them off as I complete them.

As always, I used my corner rounder to soften up the corners of the cut pages. I like how this helps these pages fit in with the rest of the journal (which also has rounded corners!), plus I feel less at risk of paper-cuts this way, so it’s a win-win!

I opted to use the same layout for each of my Weekly Spreads this month, to speed up the process. I divided each spread into 8 sections (4 down, 2 across), and used 7 of the spaces for my daily task lists. I then used the remaining space for the weekly heading (which helps me to keep track of which week I’m on!).

As I’ve done throughout this setup, I used my Tombow pen to define the different sections, then wrote the corresponding dates/days of the week over the top.

September Review

Onto the final spread in this setup now: my September Review page. The content and basic layout of this spread is exactly the same as its previous iterations: on the right-hand page, I have the ‘September Review’ heading and a space to stick in a favourite polaroid from the month. On the left-hand page, I have sections for writing down the ATP & WTA (that’s tennis!) Top 10, my #1 memory and my 6 favourite songs from the month (or my ‘September Playlist’).

As with the other spreads in this setup, I’ve used my Tombow pen to highlight the different sections, then used my Sakura fineliners for the headings and extra decorations. For this spread, that mostly just equates to a few extra lines and some little doodles on the playlist section!

Final Thoughts

Okay, so I’m not a minimal person— we’ve established that! I’m pretty happy with how this spread turned out, though: I used every ounce of my self-restraint to keep it as minimal as possible (admittedly, that self-restraint slipped a little with my doodles on the final spread, but… oh well) and I think this definitely qualifies as a minimal setup, right?!

It may not be my usual style, but this setup was exceedingly easy to create, took almost no time to make AND is super functional, which is just what I needed this month with all of the life-induced chaos. All-in-all, yes, I do generally prefer a more detailed setup, but there’s a time and place for minimal and this month was definitely that!

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my September setup! It won’t be too long before I’m posting again about my October one (and isn’t that a scary thought…)!

Gemma

xxx

I ended up scouring Pinterest for inspiration (if you don’t follow me on there, you should! I’m forever pinning delicious-looking recipes and crafty inspirations: my username is gemmaathomeblog!). In my scouring, I found myself really drawn to the simple floral patterns, particularly this one, which reminded me of a cute, patchwork quilt! I figured this would be a great starting point for an August setup: it has a summer-y, bright(ish), pastel colour palette, with a gentle sense of cosiness brought about by the patchwork vibe.

This, then, is my floral/patchwork bullet journal setup for August 2025! Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Things to Look Forward to + Daily Sunshine
• Weekly Spreads
• August Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Coloured pencils (dark pink, pale pink, yellow, blue and green).
• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Ruler.

I wanted this setup to be really soft and gentle, so I opted to use coloured pencils throughout. I also used a brown fineliner, instead of my typical black, just to reduce the contrast and soften everything up even more. I ended up using the fineliner a lot throughout the setup, including to fill in lots of letters and scalloped borders, which took a very long time. If I’d thought ahead, I would definitely have using a thicker brown pen for this!

Cover + Quote Page

For my Cover Page this month, I really wanted to create an eye-catching, patchwork design, similar to my inspiration photo, that filled the whole page. I alternated between blocks of colour and plain, white blocks that contained flower doodles, using the same five coloured pencils throughout. I put the ‘August’ heading in the bottom right-hand corner of the design, placing one letter in each square. I also added a scalloped border all the way around the edge of the design, using my brown fineliner. I love the pretty, cosy finish the border gives the design and I think it really helps to neaten up the (otherwise pretty messy) edges!

I decided to include a Quote Page this month, alongside my Cover Page, because I wasn’t quite sure what else to do with the empty space here. I’ve not been quite so into including quote pages in my setups in recent months, but I think this one is simple and pretty, plus it sits nicely alongside the more eye-catching cover page. My quote this month is from Taylor Swift’s song, ‘august‘, because, well, of course!

Monthly Calendar

Into my Monthly Calendar now and I wanted to create a patchwork-style grid layout here too, in a similar style to my Cover Page. However, I don’t love writing in pen over sections of coloured pencil, so I opted to just draw the outlines of the block colour grid sections, instead of colouring them all in. It’s not quite as eye-catching as the cover page, but it’s definitely more functional!

Just like with the previous spread, I wrote out the ‘August’ heading in a messy, bubble-style font (painstakingly drawn and filled in with my brown fineliner), added a scalloped border around the calendar grid and added a handful of flower doodles down the right-hand side of the spread, to help tie it into the theme even more.

Things to Look Forward to + Daily Sunshine

This was a new spread combo for me last month and I LOVED using it so much, I just had to include it again this time around! On the left-hand side is my Things to Look Forward to in August page, where I can jot down all of the exciting/fun/interesting things that will (or might) be happening in August. I don’t sit down and fill this out all in one go— I just note things down as they come to me, so it’s very low pressure, but still a really fun and positive spread!

On the right-hand page is my Daily Sunshine page, which, if you’ve been here a while, you’ll recognise as one of my classic spreads. Essentially, at the end of each day I just write down one positive thing that happened: it can be anything! This helps me look back on each day with a more positive mindset (having to find a good thing even on the worst days will have that effect). It’s also so nice to look back on these spreads and relive all the lovely memories from the months gone by! I’d been having trouble keeping up with this spread recently, so I left it out of my journal for a few months there, but I reintroduced it properly last month and really held myself accountable for keeping up with it, which seemed to work, so I’m glad to have it back in my life now!

Weekly Spreads

Into my Weekly Spreads now and, as always, I’ve trimmed down the central pages (and used my trusty corner rounder, to minimise the risk of paper-induced injuries!) to create spaces on the far left and right-hand sides of this section. In those spaces, I put my general task lists, so that I can see them throughout the month, no matter what day/week I’m on.

The first 3 days of August run from Friday-Sunday this year, so I opted to just lump them in with the first full week, which cut down the number of spreads that I needed to set up. Therefore, the first weekly spread contains 10 daily boxes, while the remaining 3 contain the usual 7.

Throughout this section, I (painstakingly) drew scalloped borders around every large box (including the two task boxes). When it came to dividing up the daily boxes, I used the same coloured outline technique as my Monthly Calendar.

For the dates in the daily boxes, I drew one flower doodle in each box, then wrote the corresponding initial of the day of the week and the date itself right on top of those doodles, in the centre of each one.

I forgot to leave space for the subheading on the first weekly spread (oops!), but, on the others, I just used my brown fineliner to quickly write in which dates each spread spanned, then added a couple more flower doodles for good measure.

August Review

Finally, we have my August Review page, which has pretty much stayed the same (in terms of content/layout, at least), since October 2023! I guess that it’s been working for me, because that’s a looonnnggg time.

As always, the right-hand page features the ‘August Review’ heading (here written using a combination of the bubble-style font and a basic, lowercase font) and a large space for me to stick in a polaroid at the end of the month. This month, I decorated that space in the same way as the Cover Page, sketching out a patchwork-style design with my coloured pencils.

On the left-hand page, I have some smaller boxes (all outlined with that same, scalloped border). These will house the ATP/WTA (that’s tennis, for those who aren’t major nerds) Top 10s, my #1 Memory from the month gone by and, at the bottom of the page, my favourite songs from August. Usually I leave space to write in 6 songs, but, just because of the way this layout worked out, I only have 5 spaces this time around.

Final Thoughts

I really love this setup— it’s so fun, sweet and cosy, but still bright and summer-y: it’s exactly what I wanted (but didn’t know I wanted) for this month’s setup.

It was a bit of a pain to set up, mainly because I decided to use a fineliner for the ridiculous amount of scalloped borders and bubble fonts (very silly of me), but also because it involved a hefty amount of colouring! The colouring though, was actually quite calming: it was a bit like using a colouring book: very mindful! The fineliner-ing was less mindful, mainly because as much I love the Uni Pin fineliner, I find it SO unbelievably uncomfortable to hold?! You have to hold it a certain way to get the best ink flow but, in doing that, your finger rests just where the sharp edge of the pen is. Overall, not a pleasant experience. I’m seriously considering looking into other brown fineliners when this one runs out, just to avoid the pain!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my August bullet journal setup! Let me know what you think of it!

Gemma

xxx

For my theme this month, I was inspired by the menus that I designed for my brother’s wedding at the end of April.

I used a similar bow/ribbon motif to the menus throughout my whole setup, and the same two shades of blue coloured pencil for all of the text/lines throughout (I’m not kidding— no pens were harmed in the making of this setup). This was a super simple, super quick and easy setup (which is JUST what I needed after a busy April), though it was also kind of a lesson in not attempting to do cursive lettering with blunt coloured pencils (your girl was STRUGGLING), so, you know, there’s positives and negatives.

Anywhooooo, let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
• May Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

I only used 5 pieces of equipment to create this setup (I really meant what I said about keeping things simple this month):

• Light blue coloured pencil.
• Mid blue coloured pencil.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder (this is optional, but I like to minimise my risk of paper cuts as much as possible when I’m trimming down pages).
• Ruler.

Cover + Quote Page

For both the Cover and the Quote Page, I leaned pretty heavily on the menu inspiration, placing two bow motifs in opposite corners on the page, just like in the original design. For all of the bows throughout this setup, I used a single line of the light blue pencil to sketch out the bow shape, then added a thicker version, using the darker blue pencil, over the top.

For the Cover Page, I wrote ‘may’ in the centre of the page, first in the light blue pencil, then over the top in the darker blue pencil, just like with the bows. I used this same, cursive lettering style throughout the setup (though, as I mentioned in the intro to this post, with varying degrees of success).

For the Quote Page, I experienced my traditional, monthly Quote Panic, where I can’t decide what quote to put in my journal, despite unfailingly allocating a whole A5 page to it. Then, I remembered that my birthday is in May, so I thought a nice quote to commemorate that would fit right in. Admittedly, ‘another year on’ could sound a little morbid/morose, but, I swear, that wasn’t intentional. I actually set this page up last, and, having successfully talked myself out of adding any non-bow decorations to ALL of the other spreads, I finally caved on this one and added some hearts. Naturally, I regret it.

Monthly Calendar

I used my standard format for my Monthly Calendar this month (i.e. a table of 6×6 dot grid size boxes, with one box per day). I drew it out with the two shades of blue coloured pencils and intentionally made my lines a little wavy, to give the whole thing a more ribbon-y feel. I sharpened the darker blue pencil as much as I could without breaking the nib, then used that to write in the dates in the upper left-hand corner of each box. Finally, I added another bow to the top left and another ‘may’ heading (though a slightly less neat one here, that looks more like ‘mayo’ than ‘may’… No worries though, mayo is an important condiment that deserves to be honoured).

Weekly Spreads

For my Weekly Spreads, I’ve gone for the same layout that I’ve been using every month recently, where I trim down the central pages (which house my daily task lists) so that, no matter what day I’m on, I can always see my master task lists (which sit on the far left and right-hand side of the section).

For the daily task lists, I used the same style of line-work that I did for the monthly calendar: just wavy lines in the two shades of blue.

I also added the dates into the top-left corner of the respective boxes with the darker blue shade (again, with the pencil sharpened to within an inch of its life…).

With the remaining space on each Weekly Spread, I added a subheading (just to help me find my place easily throughout the setup). For this, I wrote out ‘may’ in the same lettering style that I’ve used throughout the setup, followed by the dates each page spans, in a simple, sans-serif font, written with the darker blue coloured pencil.

I wanted the master task lists to stand out a little bit more than the daily tasks lists, so I added bows to the top of each box and drew in thicker, more ribbon-like lines with the darker blue pencil over the top of the single line of lighter blue pencil (just like with the bow motifs I’d already drawn). I like the way this ties in the bow theme, while still using up only a small amount of space.

May Review

Finally, we have my May Review page. As always, the content of this one has stayed pretty much the same as my previous iterations: on the left-hand page, I have spaces to note down my 6 favourite songs from the monthy, keep track of the ATP/WTA Top 10s (your girl still can’t shake the tennis bug) and write out my favourite memory. On the right-hand page, I have the ‘May Review’ heading and a space to stick in a polaroid.

In terms of decoration, I used the exact same style for the right-hand page as I did for both my Cover and Quote pages, drawing heavily on the menu inspiration, with the two bows in opposite corners. However, on this page, I moved the heading to the top of the page, so that I would have space to stick in my polaroid. On the left-hand page, I filled most of the space with the boxes, drawn in that similar, ribbon-like style with the two shades of blue. I used the rest of the space for the subheadings, which I wrote in that same, two-toned, cursive style, to add an extra bit of prettiness to this side of the spread too.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m actually really happy with how this spread turned out! It’s definitely one of the simplest I’ve done (and the quickest— I think this whole setup only took me about an hour from start to finish, which is SUPER fast by my standards). Sometimes I felt like I absolutely nailed the cursive lettering, sometimes I definitely did NOT, but I guess that’s just the nature of the beast. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think coloured pencils are quite the best tool for neat lettering, so I guess I fell at the first hurdle anyway…

My favourite thing about this spread is definitely the monochrome blue thing it’s got going on. I was worried it would be too much blue, all in your face, but I actually think it’s really striking, while still being gentle and feminine, so I really like it!

So that’s my bullet journal setup for May 2025! I hope you like it— I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

Initially, I had planned to use a classic, red and pink colour scheme. Then… I watched Wicked. I’ve never been a huge fan of pink and green as a colour combination (despite Nigella’s best efforts in her 2015, Simply Nigella era), but, (for obvious reasons) ever since watching the film, the combo has just been stuck in my head. Because of that, I decided to go for pink and green hearts, which actually worked well, in a Galentine’s kind-of-way, because I LOVE the friendship between Galinda and Elphaba in the film (and musical, which is actually the first musical I ever saw live!). The colour scheme then seemed to spiral into a whole Wicked theme, that is sometimes subtle and sometimes… less so.

Long story short, this setup morphed and changed as I created it. Some pages are super maximalist, while others are much more simple and minimal. I just had fun with it and let whatever happened happen— it was a bit of a different experience for me!

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Spreads + Daily Sunshine
  • Week 1
  • Week 2
  • Week 3
  • Week 4
• February Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To make this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Sakura Quickie Glue pen.
• Heart craft punch, small (I’ve had mine for years, so I can’t give you an exact link, but there are loads of similar products available online!).
• Coloured paper: dark green, mid green, mid pink, pale pink.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Ruler.
• Pencil.
• Eraser.

Cover + Quote Page

The Cover Page was my starting point for this whole setup— it was the only page that I had any real ‘plan’ for before I started! I wanted to create a cascading effect of little hearts, almost like confetti, or the sparkles in a snow globe. To do this, I cut out loads of paper hearts from coloured paper (in my chosen pink and green shades), using a little heart-shaped craft punch (I’ve had this one for years, so I’m not sure where exactly it’s from, but you can find loads of similar ones online). I arranged them first, to check that I was happy with the positioning, then stuck each one in (rather painstakingly, I must say) with my Sakura Quickie Glue pen.

For the heading, I wanted to mimic the whimsical font from the title screen of the film, so I did my best to replicate it. I used my sepia fineliner for this and, to keep things simple, I decided to omit the drop shadow from the original font. To make the text stand out, I filled in each letter with that same, brown fineliner.

The Quote Page was actually the final page that I created in this setup and… I think you can tell that, by that point, I was kind of done with glueing in the hearts. As a result, this page is a little too minimal for my liking, but it was either that or a paper heart-induced meltdown, so I can’t say I’m unhappy with my decision. The quote, of course, is “Defying Gravity”, after the iconic song from the musical (and film, now!).

Monthly Calendar

The Monthly Calendar might just be my favourite spread in this setup— I really like the simplicity of it! To create it, I drew out a simple grid-style calendar using my sepia fineliner, then stuck a little paper heart into each box, on top of which I wrote the date (using that same, brown fineliner). I drew all of the lines freehand and went over each one twice to make them a bit more bold. I also added little heart-shaped details to each corner of the grid, to make the spread look a little more ornate (and to incorporate more hearts, because, obviously). To finish off the spread, I wrote the ‘February’ heading in the exact same style as the Cover Page in the space in the top left.

Weekly Spreads + Daily Sunshine

I had this crazy idea to house my Weekly Spreads inside a Grimmerie-inspired dutch door this month, just to pay tribute to this setup’s Wicked theme. In the film, the Grimmerie is an important spellbook that has a really interesting, angular shape and ornate design. However, I didn’t want to cut my pages down too much (because I like to have lots of space for my daily task lists) so, in the end, I opted to keep the pages cut straight and to draw the Grimmerie shape on, instead.

The original Grimmerie is a brown leather book, with an ornate, debossed pattern and gold hinges. I loved mimicking that ornate pattern, but I kept things simple by just using my sepia fineliner for the whole drawing, adding touches of block colour here and there, within the pattern to add dimension.

I drew the Grimmerie design on the first and last pages of my weekly spreads, so it’s almost like they’re enclosed within the book itself. As I have been doing recently, I used the remaining space on the far left and far right for my master tasks/notes sections, so that I can easily reference them at any point throughout the month. This month, I also decided to add in two smaller sections: one for any recurring, daily tasks and one for my blog schedule, just so I can keep both of those things at the forefront of my mind.

All of these design changes meant that I had two empty spaces leftover: one on the very first page and one on the very last. I’ve been hoping to get back into using my Daily Sunshine spreads (where I write down one positive thing that happened every day) at some point, so this felt like the perfect opportunity! On the first page, I have space to write down one good thing each day, from the 1st to the 14th February. On the last page, there’s space for Daily Sunshine from the 15th to the 28th February.

Week 1

Into the individual weekly spreads now! As I often do, I have merged the first two days of February (which fall on a weekend) with the first full week, just to save some time, as well as some space in my journal! As a result, I divided this spread into 10 sections (5 down, 2 across), used 9 boxes for the 9 daily task lists, then used the remaining space for the heading.

Week 2

For the first 7-day weekly spread, I went for my classic 4×2, vertical layout.

Week 3

The third weekly spread uses exactly the same layout as the second, but I’ve changed the location of the heading to the bottom left-hand corner.

Week 4

The final week of February only contains 5 days, so I could afford to give each daily task list a little more space in this spread. I divided the spread into 6 sections (3 down, 2 across), then used the space in the top right for the heading.

February Review

Finally, we come to my February Review spread. I’ve kept the layout of this one pretty much identical to my January Review spread last month, but, of course, this time around, I’ve added about a hundred little paper hearts to decorate it.

On the left-hand page, I have spaces to write in the ATP & WTA Top 10, as well as a place to write down my favourite memory from the month gone by. Below those, I have 6 spaces to note down my 6 favourite songs in February.

On the right-hand page, I have the heading (with ‘February’ written in that same, Wicked-inspired font), and the rest of the page is filled with another paper heart cascade, over the top of which I can stick in my monthly polaroid photo.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I like this setup, but I don’t think it’s my absolute favourite— I think because I didn’t have any real plan going in and it changed so frequently as I set it up, it ended up being such an amalgamation of so many different themes/inspirations all combined together that I just feel a bit discombobulated by the whole thing! Having said that, it definitely gives me the Wicked, Galentine’s, female friendships vibe that I was going for, so I think it will be a nice setup to use over the next month. As much as I love all the hearts, I could very happily go the rest of my life without having to glue a tiny paper heart onto anything, so there’s that too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my February 2025 bullet journal setup! It’s a bit different to my usual style, but it was still a lot of fun.

Gemma

xxx

The new year always seems to sneak up on me SO quickly once Christmas is over, so I wanted to get ahead this year and make my January bullet journal setup nice and early! As seems to be becoming a bit of a habit for me, I’ve gone for a super quick and easy style this month: a simple, blue plaid pattern, some (purposely messy) brown line work and, because it is me, after all, some brown craft paper.

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
  • Week 1
  • Week 2
  • Week 3
  • Week 4
  • Week 5
• January Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To make this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Tombow ABT dual brush pens, in the shades 491 (Glacier Blue) and 553 (Mist Purple).
• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Sakura Quickie Glue pen.
• Brown craft paper.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.

Cover + Quote Page

For my Cover Page, I filled the majority of the page with a blue plaid pattern, made using the two Tombow pens. I used the brown fineliner to draw a messy border around the pattern and to write the ‘January’ heading on some brown craft paper, which I stuck in using my Sakura glue pen.

It took me a while to decide on a fitting quote for my Quote Page this month— I wanted something that reflected the fact that January is the start of a new year, but most of the ‘New Year, New Me’ quotes feel a bit too… on the nose for me. As I was desperately trying to find a qupte, Natasha Bedingfield’s song Unwritten just happen to pop into my head and… it was just the perfect choice, so I went for that.

Monthly Calendar

As always, I went for a classic grid-style layout for my Monthly Calendar spread, where each of the boxes is a 6×6 square. I drew the grid and wrote in the dates using my brown fineliner, then filled the majority of the remaining space with more of that same, plaid pattern. Just like with my Cover Page, I wrote the ‘January’ heading on brown craft paper, then stuck it into the space in the top left corner.

Weekly Spreads

I usually include at least a couple more pages before going into my Weekly Spreads, but I wanted to keep this setup simple and pared back, so I opted to skip those pages this time around and go straight into my weeklies.

I’m using the same layout for my weekly spreads that I have used in my setups for the past few months, because it’s been working really well for me. To create it, I just trimmed the central pages right down, so there’s plenty of space on the far left and right for me to put in some master task/notes lists, while the trimmed down pages then house the daily tasks lists. I also used a corner rounder to soften the edges of the trimmed down pages, just to tie in with the style of this setup.

Week 1

The first ‘week’ of January 2025 only contains 5 days, so I was able to give each daily box in this weekly a little more space than I usually would. The first weekly sits on the same page as the task list on the far left, so I had plenty of space to add in more plaid decoration.

Week 2

The second weekly features a full week of 7 days, so I used my classic, 2-up/4-down layout for the daily task lists, leaving a space in the bottom right for the weekly subheading. I still managed to squeeze a little plaid section in though, just to keep things cohesive!

Week 3

The third weekly is exactly the same as the second, but I’ve changed the location of the weekly subheading from the bottom right corner to the top right.

Week 4

Again, the fourth weekly has the same layout as the two preceding weeklies but, for this spread, I’ve moved the weekly subheading to the top left corner.

Week 5

January ends on a Friday this year, so I opted to include the first two days of February in this final weekly. This page also includes the space on the far right for notes.

January Review

Finally, we have my January Review page. On the right-hand page, I have the ‘January Review’ heading, written in brown fineliner on brown craft paper, plus a large section of the plaid pattern, on top of which I will stick my monthly polaroid.

On the left-hand page, I have all my usual sections: ATP & WTA Top 10, my #1 memory from the month and my monthly playlist. I laid these sections out in the same way as in my December setup, which gave me lots of space to add another plaid section.

Final Thoughts

I’m really happy with how this setup turned out and I’m even happier with how quick it was to create! I literally set the whole thing up in an evening (while watching Jamie Cooks Christmas, because of course). I also surprised myself with how much I like the purposely messy linework— I think there’s something about doing two messy lines over the top of each other that makes it look extra intentional.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my January 2025 bullet journal setup— I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

Setting up the initial pages of my bullet journal can feel like such an overwhelming task, because a) I’m not known for my moderation, so there’s always SO MANY pages to create and b) it has to be done alongside a monthly setup. I wanted to keep the design for this setup really simple and easy to create, both to make the task feel a little less overwhelming and to allow me to focus on the function of the spreads themselves, to ensure that these pages are super helpful and useless to me.

I opted to use my pastel Kuretake dot pens to decorate all of the spreads in this setup, using them to create boxes, borders and even headings. I went for a simple, block capital font and used only one, black fineliner for all of the writing. I tried to keep the setups looking clean and minimal, but also colourful and happy, which I think will be just what I need going into the new year.

Table of Contents

• Journal
• Equipment
• Nameplate
• Cover + Quote Page
• 2025 Goals
• Future Log
• Tennis Schedule + Results
• Year in Dots
• Appointments + Prescriptions
• Blog Planning
• Ideas
• Bullet Journal Planning + Wishlist
• Finance + Knit & Crochet
• TV + Reading Trackers
• Final Thoughts

Journal

For the next 6 months, I’ll be using the Snowflake Polaroid A5 Dot Grid Journal from Coral and Ink (I purchased a B Grade version, for a discounted price).

This journal is a lovely blue colour— almost a cross between a cloud blue and a periwinkle. The pages have gilded edges and the front cover features a gold foil design of a polaroid and some snowflakes. The journal also has an elastic closure, pen loop, two ribbon bookmarks and a back pocket, for storing any journalling essentials.

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Sakura Pigma Micron fineliner, black 01 (0.25mm).
• Kuretake clean colour dot pens, mild colours.
• Tombow ABT dual brush pen, N89 (I got mine in this multipack).
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.

Nameplate

I wanted to keep my nameplate for this journal in line with the theme of the other spreads, so I used my Kuretake pens to add 5 little dots of colour, before writing my name over the top (one letter per dot).

Cover + Quote Page

Like every spread in this setup, I wanted to keep the Cover Page super simple. I used a repeating sequence of the Kuretake pen colours to make a border around the page, then applied slightly more pressure to make 4 bigger dots in the centre of the page, on top of which I wrote ‘2025’.

For my Quote Page, I chose a quote from a poem I saw recently on Instagram, that really struck a cord with me. The poem was written by Josie Balka, and you can find it here.

2025 Goals

I have an on-off relationship with ‘goals’, because I’m not particularly good at following through with them and I always end up being either too ambitious or not ambitious enough with them. However, this time of year, as New Year’s Eve draws closer, I always find myself craving a little life reset and enjoying the prospect of making small, manageable changes that help me to feel happier and more aligned, so I’ve opted to include a Goals Page in this setup.

I have space in this setup for 6 separate goals and I made sure to give each one plenty of space, so that I can write down some actionable steps for each one, in the hopes that, for once, I might actually work towards them!

Future Log

Onto one of the most important spreads in my biannual setups now: my Future Log. This is essentially a yearly calendar, where I can see all of my appointments (of which there are usually very many), events (of which there are usually very few) and just a general outline of the year ahead. I set up two Future Log spreads in this journal: one for the months this journal covers (January to June) and one for the remaining 6 months of the year, so that I don’t feel completely overwhelmed and unprepared when June comes to an end.

I like to have a really clear, visual representation of the year ahead, so I use multiple calendar layouts within my Future Log spreads: there’s a mini calendar at the top of each month, so I can see the structure of each one easily, then I have a vertical calendar beneath to write in any important dates. On that vertical calendar, I like to highlight the weekend dates, just to help me visualise each week. In this particular edition of my Future Log, I used a different colour for each month, to help separate them out.

Tennis Schedule + Results

Now, onto my beloved Tennis Schedule/Results spread, for which I use 3 whole double-page spreads in my journal (worth it). I trimmed down the centre pages and rounded out the corners using a corner rounder (much easier than trying to use scissors!). I then wrote the heading for the whole spread across those two trimmed down pages, as pictured above.

I used the same layout for my tennis spread as always: ATP tournaments are on the left-hand side, while WTA tournaments are on the right. The numbers down the middle represent the weeks of the schedule, then I write the specific start dates of the respective tournaments in the columns on either side. I write the location/name of the tournament in the next column out, then the final column on each side is left empty for the surname of the respective winners.

Because there are so many tournaments in a year, I spread this table out over both remaining pages of the spread: so January-March is on the left-hand spread, while April-June is on the right-hand spread.

I also added in my code for what level of tournament each one is (plus a little added colour, to match in with the rest of the spread): 1/4 circle = a 250 tournament, 1/2 circle = a 500 tournament, 3/4 circle = a Masters 100 and a full circle = a Grand Slam. A star represents a different format of tournament, such as the United, Davis or Billie Jean King cups.

Year in Dots

I didn’t set up a Year in Pixels spread in my last journal, because I just wasn’t keeping up with it, but it is something I enjoy doing and I like having it there for reference, particularly in terms of my physical/mental health, so I’ve decided to give it another go this time around.

I’ve changed up the layout slightly by using these mini calendars, rather than one big grid— a bit like a habit tracker. I feel like I’ll be able to fill in the spread more efficiently this way, but we’ll see how it works out. Because I’ll be using my Kuretake pens to fill this out, each ‘pixel’ will be more of a ‘dot’, so I’ve opted to call this spread my ‘Year in Dots‘ instead.

One of the problems I found with the Year in Pixels spread was that when I’d have longer periods of ill health, I’d have to keep the context surrounding that period in my head, as I had nowhere to note it down. For example, I might have had 7 ‘ill’ days in a row, but it would be because I had a virus or because I had had a particularly busy day the week before. I decided to use the right-hand page of this spread to write down any of this information, so I can keep everything in perspective.

Appointments + Prescriptions

Next up, we have a page for keeping track of my Appointments. In this table, I can write down the date of the appointment, the type of appointment and any notes on what was discussed, management plans and the like.

Next to that, I have my standard Prescriptions page. It can be hard to keep track of prescription medications: when you’ll run out of them and when you need to reorder them from the pharmacy, so this spread helps me do that. On the coloured dots on the far left, I’ll write in the date that I am filling out the table. After that, each medicine is assigned to a column, in which I fill out the number of tablets I have left, the number of days that corresponds to and the date that I will run out of my supply.

This takes a little while to setup, and a little while every now and then to fill out, but I just do it whenever I get a new set of prescriptions, so I can always feel confident that I’m not about to run out without realising! It really does make a huge difference.

Blog Planning

Next, we have my Blog Planning spreads. On the left-hand page, I keep track of some general, blog-related info. I like to keep a note of my Instagram growth every month, so there’s a section for that on the left, and the HEX codes of my blog colours, so they’re always accessible if I need to make any graphics (the section for that is on the right). Beneath that, I have a space for any general notes.

On the right-hand page, I have my master list of blog posts. In the first column, I’ll write in the post date, then, in the second column, I’ll write in the title of the post.

Ideas

I don’t like too much structure when it comes to my Ideas spread, so I’ve kept this one super simple: just a simple border, with the title written on it. I use this as a kind of ‘brain dump’ style spread, so I can just jot down any ideas I may have, at any point, without worrying about making it looking neat or orderly.

Bullet Journal Planning + Wishlist

Now we come to my Bullet Journal Planning page, where I can note down any potential theme ideas for the year ahead. I sometimes find it hard to pick a theme, so having a list that I can create/add to throughout the year makes it much easier. A lot of my theme ideas are month-specific, so I laid this spread out as a table, with one box for each month of the year. However, I also have a space for ‘miscellaneous’ spread ideas at the top, in case I have any ideas that don’t necessarily have to be used for a particular month.

Next to that page is my Wishlist spread. Unlike my Ideas spread, I do like to separate my Wishlist out into categories, so I’ve separated this spread into 6 boxes: one each for stationery items, entertainment products, hair/skin products, clothing, homeware and other, miscellaneous products.

Finance + Knit & Crochet

I like to keep a general record of my Finances, so, on this next page, I have one table to keep track of my savings and one to keep track of my income streams. In the savings table (top), each row corresponds to a month, then there are columns for income, expenses, the amount I have saved that month and the total sum of my savings since January. In the income stream table (bottom), I just have 6 spaces (one for each month of the year), to note down where my money came from each month.

Alongside my Finance page, I have a space to keep track of my Knit & Crochet Projects. While I do use Ravelry to keep detailed notes of each project, I do also like to keep a general record in my bullet journal as well, so that I can easily look back over all of the projects I have completed/started in each 6-month period.

TV + Reading Trackers

Finally, I have my Entertainment trackers. On the left-hand page, I have my TV Tracker, where I keep track of the TV series that I’m watching and how far along in them I am. For each series, I’ll write down the title of the show, then use my Kuretake pens to add a corresponding number of dots to the number of seasons it has. As I watch each season, I tick it off.

Then, I have my Reading Tracker. I mainly use Storygraph to keep track of my reading habits, but I do like to have a record in my planner too. I’ve set this one out in a table format, so the first column is for the number of the book (I record this starting in January, so the first book I read in the new year will be #1, the second #2 and so on), the second column is for the title, the third for the date I started reading it and the fourth for the date I finished it.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m so, incredibly happy with how this setup turned out. It feels like the perfect balance of colourful and minimal, fun and useful, so I’m really excited to see how it works for me over the next 6 months. While it did take a little while to stamp all the little dots, I actually found the process quite therapeutic— I just put the TV on and stamped away in a little repeating sequence of the colours and, once I’d done that, each spread was super quick and easy to finish off.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my 2025 setup! Let me know if it gave you any ideas for spreads in your own bullet journal!

Gemma

xxx