April, though, is another story (new month, new me and all that). I’m back to my usual bullet journalling ways, with a proper (albeit still relatively simple) setup, vaguely inspired by 70s-style line art, but mainly just an excuse for me to pass some time by colouring.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

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

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Coloured pencils (for reference, I used the shades Yellow Ochre C050, Sea Green C380 and Pimento C540, from a much older version of this set, which is crazy expensive and not at all necessary for this setup, but very nice all the same).
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Circle stencil (specifically, I used the 30mm diameter circle stencil from this set).
• Pencil.
• Ruler.
• Eraser.

Cover + Quote Page

For my Cover + Quote Page this month, I opted to go for a pretty minimal, but still quite striking design, with this big line art detail and block capital heading. To make the line art, I sketched out the design with pencil first (using the circle stencil to map out the rounded shape of the corners), before adding the colour (coloured pencils, after all, cannot be erased if you go wrong…). To make the block capital heading, I drew the outlines of the letters with my brown Uni Pin pen, then (rather painstakingly, I must say), filled each letter in with the same pen.

It took me a while to decide on a quote for this month, but I eventually settled on this lyric by Ed Sheeran. I’ve been listening to Subtract again recently, and I just though that this quote had the perfect, sweet, springtime vibe that I wanted for this month.

Monthly Calendar

As usual, for my Monthly Calendar, I’ve opted for a simple grid format (where each box is 6×6 dot grid squares). I drew out the grid with that same brown pen, then wrote in the dates with the same pen. I also added a thin, drop shadow border to the boxes, just to help them stand out and add a bit of dimension to the spread. I placed the ‘April’ heading on top of the line art design on this spread, but I’m not super happy with how it looks… I definitely prefer the contrast of the brown text against the white page— I think it gets a little lost among the other colours here.

Weekly Spreads

Into my Weekly Spreads now and, as I’ve been doing in all of my setups recently, I’ve trimmed down the inner pages so that my master task lists on the left and right are always visible, no matter what week I’m on. I used my corner rounder to soften the corners of those trimmed pages, partly because it fits with the vibe of the rounded line art, but mainly to minimise my risk of paper-induced injuries!

For the line art in this section, I tried to make it so that, no matter what page I’m on, the line art flows seamlessly from one side of the spread to the other. This took a little extra time, but I do think it looks really neat.

I added drop shadows to all of the boxes, just like with my Monthly Calendar, to help them stand out on the page. I also added some simple lines to the daily task boxes and page headings, just to add a bit of extra detail.

My daily task boxes aren’t huge this month (serves me right for all of that extra decoration at the top of the pages), but they’ll still be helpful for jotting down events and appointments, especially considering I have all the extra space for listing general tasks on the left and right side.

The last three days of April fall at the start of a new week, so I opted to include smaller sections for the first four days of May on my final weekly spread too, just so I can have a clearer picture of the whole week, when it comes.

April Review

Finally, we have my April Review spread, which, as always, features a large, empty space on the right-hand page for me to stick in a polaroid from the month gone by, then more specific boxes on the left-hand page for me to fill in at the end of the month. These boxes are pretty much the same each month: I have one to list out the tennis top 10s (ATP & WTA, respectively), because I like to see how they change over the course of the year, one to write down my favourite memory from the month and one to note down my favourite songs from the month (I like to narrow this list down to six each month, so I’ve split that box up in advance). I ran out of space for a subheading for my music choices, but I’ll remember what it’s for!

Final Thoughts

I really like this setup— it was super easy to create, but the process was also quite mindful (it was basically 90% colouring, which was very fun). It’s simple and relatively minimal, but it doesn’t feel minimal (which is good, because I’m not a very minimal person). I continue in my belief that drop shadows make everything better, and I think that this setup really supports that hypothesis!

I have had a few issues with the coloured pencil sections transferring to the opposite page while the journal is closed, but it does come off pretty easily with a gentle erasing, so it’s not the end of the world (just a little annoying). I would have liked to include more colours in my line art— perhaps some more earthy browns or oranges, to really give these spreads more of that 70s vibe, but I didn’t want the line art to be too fussy (with thinner lines) or too dominant (with more thick lines) on the spreads, so I had to narrow down my colours a little.

I should also definitely get a brown pen with a thicker nib, because filling in all those block capitals and drop shadows with a 0.5 size fineliner was… not the most efficient use of my time, but it looks good, so I can’t really complain!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my April bullet journal setup (especially after the March setup was MIA…). I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

In the interest of getting back into my bullet journalling zone, I wanted to keep my setup for this month super minimal, with a focus on functionality over design. When life is complicated enough to interfere with my bullet journalling, I always figure that my bullet journal itself needs to be the opposite- simple. This month’s theme, therefore, is a little different to my usual style- for April, I’ve opted for a minimal, monochromatic bullet journal setup. Typically, I opt for more elaborate, decorative themes, but I had neither the time nor the headspace for that this month. I’m hoping that this simple setup will be exactly the push I need to get back into my bullet journalling rhythm!

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page + Monthly Calendar
• Blog Planning + Daily Sunshine
• Weeklies
• April Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

For this setup, I used a ruler and my Sakura Pigma Micron pens (yep, you read that right- that’s it!). I used the 5 fineliners from this pack, which includes the following sizes: 01 (0.25mm), 05 (0.45mm), 08 (0.50mm), 10 (0.60mm) and 12 (0.70mm).

I have always used Muji pens for my bullet journalling, but I’ve heard great things about these Sakura pens, so I wanted to give them a go. I figured this setup would be perfect for trying them out and, I have to say, I really liked them. I only had a couple of issues with smudging/ghosting, and all of those were caused by my own impatience, rather than the pens themselves.

Cover Page + Monthly Calendar

In an attempt to reduce the number of spreads I had to set up this month, I opted to combine my Cover Page and Monthly Calendar. I drew a simple, 5×7 grid in the bottom right using the 01 pen, then used the 12 pen and a simple, block capital font for the ‘April’ heading in the top left. I added the dates to the calendar using the 05 pen.

To decorate this page (and the rest of the setup), I drew an assortment of lines, switching up the thicknesses by using the different Sakura pens.

Blog Planning + Daily Sunshine

As always, I’ve included a section in this setup for planning my blog posts. I drew the header in the top left, again using the 12 pen, then drew the individual boxes using the 01 pen. Down the left-hand side, I have spaces for any notes on individual posts. On the right-hand side, I have a space for upcoming projects next month (to help me try and get ahead a little!), plus a bigger section for a super secret special project that I’m hoping to pull off towards the end of this month- stay tuned!

Next to that Blog Planning spread, I have my Daily Sunshine page. This is a spread that I include in every monthly bullet journal setup that I create- essentially, it is just a space to write down one good/positive thing that happened every day. I drew a large box, using my 01 pen, to house all of my happy notes, then wrote the dates down the left-hand side, using my 05 pen. Also… let’s ignore the rogue diagonal lines on this spread… I don’t know what came over me, but they are not the vibe 🙁 .

Weeklies

While I typically like to use a variety of layouts for my weekly spreads in any given month, I just didn’t have the brainpower to dream up 5 different orientations for my weeklies this time around, so I only used one (and a half, I guess, because the 5th weekly, by necessity, had to be a little different). I also didn’t include my customary tabs this month, because, honestly, it just felt like so much effort. So that I don’t bore you to death, I’ve just included a photo of one weekly spread here, but rest assured that weeks 1-3 are exactly the same.

I opted to put my daily section s down the centre of the page- 4 on the left and 3 on the right (with the remaining space at the bottom used for any events that are coming up the week after- aptly subtitled ‘NW’ for ‘next week’). I used my 10 pen to write out the initials of the days of the week, along with the date, then used my 01 pen to section them off horizontally. I then used that same 01 pen to make one box on the left-hand side, for any notes, and one on the right, for my task list. Because I wasn’t using tabs, I numbered each weekly spread so that I can navigate through my journal more easily. This particularly weekly was for the fourth week in April, so I used my 12 pen to draw the outline of a big number 4 in the top left-hand corner, before filling it in for a super bold look.

Because the final weekly only contains two days of April (the rest of the week is taken up by 1st-5th May), I had to change my layout a little bit for the 5th weekly. I opted to split the left-hand daily section into two for the April days, then split the right-hand section into 5 for the May days. I kept the rest of the layout the same.

April Review

Like with my other spreads in this setup, I kept my April Review super simple- I just wrote the heading in block capitals along the top-right (using my 12 pen for the word ‘April’ and my 10 pen for the word ‘review’). I kept the boxes on the left-hand page the same as I have for the past few months- along the top, I have spaces to note down my favourite memory from the month, as well as the ATP & WTA Top 10, then, below that, I have a space to write down 6 of my favourite songs in April. As always, I like to include space for a polaroid on the right-hand page. In the interest of keeping things simple, I opted to forgo my usual ‘frame’ and just decorate the page beneath with the lining style that I have used throughout the setup, on top of which I will stick the polaroid at the end of the month.

Final Thoughts

I think this setup will be exactly what I need this month- just something simple and lowkey to help me stay organised and slowly ease myself back into bullet journalling. This isn’t my usual style, and, I just admit, it doesn’t bring me quite as much joy as my typical bullet journal themes, but it’s functional and it’s clear, so I’m happy. Also, it was insanely quick to set up, which is always a plus!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my April 2024 Bullet Journal Setup! Hopefully I’ll get back into the swing of things in time for next month, so I can get back to creating the overly elaborate, crazy setups of my HEART.

Gemma

xxx

For the first time ever, I have next month’s bullet journal setup all done and ready to go in advance! Wow- what an unusual experience for this habitually last-minute journaller. Is this what Marie Condo feels like when she organises the heck out of a closet? Infinite pride? I can only assume so.

This month, I was craving something light, bright and relatively simple to create. I saw this setup by Shayda Campbell on YouTube and absolutely fell in love with it. I decided to take my inspiration from the thumbnail image, which features drawings of daisies on grey paper ‘boxes’ with rounded edges, and run with that. Even though I really loved the grey colour scheme used in the original, I wanted something a little more colourful for my journal, so I used light blue paper instead, as a nod to the blue skies that I’m hoping will start showing up more and more, now we’re officially into Spring!

So, let’s get into my ‘Daisies and Blue Skies‘ April setup!

Equipment used:

• Pale blue paper
• Artistro acrylic paint pens, yellow and white (I purchased mine in this pack).
• Tombow ABT dual brush pens, N65 and N89 (I purchased mine in this pack).
• Zebra mildliner, fluorescent blue (the blue shade from this pack).
• Crayola supertip, yellow (I purchased mine in this pack).
• Sakura gelly roll, white.
• Muji 0.38 pen, black.
• Pencil, scissors, glue, craft knife and cutting board

Cover and Quote Page

My cover page this month is very simple- a rectangle of blue paper with rounded corners, decorated with a few daisies, with a simple, lowercase header (but below the decorative element, so… a footer?). For the daisies, I first used my white Sakura gelly roll to draw a rough outline, then filled it in with my Artistro paint pens. I’ve never used paint pens before, and they did have a bit of a learning curve- I learned along the way to shake the pens very well before each use and to try out the pen on a scrap piece of paper after shaking (make sure there’s no watery ring around the pigment- this means you need to shake it more!). I also found that I got a better opacity (without saturating the paper too much) if I did a thin layer initially, allowed that layer to dry (this will protect the paper a little from the wateriness of the next layer), then did a second, much thicker, layer. Another thing to note: my blue paper was very thin, so it did saturate quite easily and crumpled up a little as the paint dried. I couldn’t find a way to avoid this crumpling- you can probably see in the photo above and, indeed, in the rest of my spreads, that I did get a few creases and bubbles, even after sticking the paper into my journal- I wonder if flattening the decorated paper boxes between a couple of heavy books before sticking them in would have helped? For the stems, I used both ends of my Tombow N65 pen and purposefully embraced a messy, slightly abstract, approach (yes, this was because I could not draw attractive, realistic looking stems for the life of me).

For my quote page, I opted for a quote from the song Mr Blue Sky by the Electric Light Orchestra: ‘It’s a beautiful new day (hey, hey)’, which I feel is very apt, both for this particular setup and for my state of mind at the moment! I decorated the space at the bottom with another rounded rectangle of blue paper, decorated with more daisies.

Monthly Calendar Page

This spread is probably my least favourite- mainly because I think it diverged a little from my intended cheery daisy chains into a slightly thorny situation? Kind of Miss Havisham-esque. Sigh. I used my Tombow N65 pen to draw rounded boxes for my calendar- each box is 5×5 squares with a 1 square gap between each. I added a drop shadow to each calendar box using my N89 Tombow and filled the space on the left-hand side with a strip of blue paper, again, decorated with daisies.

Project Planning Page

This spread is a new one for me! I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by having multiple projects going on at once and finding it hard to keep track of all of the different elements of each one, so I am trialling a ‘project planning’ page this month. I decorated the bottom of the spread with a strip of daisy-patterned paper and put the heading for the spread across the top. The 8 grey boxes in the middle of the spread are my ‘Kanban Board’ for blog posts, made in the same way as the calendar boxes with the Tombow pens. I learned about this technique from Plant Based Bride on YouTube and I’m going to trial it this month to see if it will be helpful for keeping me on track! Each box represents one stage of making a complete blog post: 1) making, 2) taking photos, 3) editing photos, 4) making a pin for the post (I have a Pinterest up and running now! You can find it here, or you can click on the Pinterest logo in the ‘Follow me!’ section at the bottom of this site), 5) writing the post, 6) proof-reading the post, 7) publishing the post and 8) posting to social media to promote the blog post. The idea is that I’ll write each post on a small sticky note, then move it through the stages as I complete each one. This way, I can keep track of multiple posts at once! On the left-hand side of the spread, I used my blue Zebra mildliner to draw a vertical box which will house a master project list. I then replicated this box on the right-hand side to house any additional notes on my projects. I actually made this spread last, but I wish I had used the wavy line header in all of my blue boxes! On my other spreads, you’ll see that I just used a straight line made with my Zebra mildliner and used my Muji 0.38 pen to write in the header in block capitals (I obviously forgot my whole vibe in this spread was lowercase lettering), but I think using a wavy line and following that line with my lettering created a much more dynamic and interesting header.

Weekly Setups

For my weekly tabs this month, I used a craft knife and cutting board to cut out half-daisy shapes, instead of my usual trapezium-shaped tabs. For the centres, I used my yellow Crayola supertip to draw a semicircle, then outlined the petals themselves with my Tombow N89, just to define them a little. As always, I like to stick contrasting pieces of paper on the left-hand side of the first page and the right-hand side of my review page to help the tabs stand out. This month, I used the same blue paper that I have been using throughout this setup.

My first weekly spread uses quite a simple setup. The first two days of April fall on a Saturday and Sunday, so I grouped them together with the first full week of the month. My daily task boxes are grey with drop shadows, while the sections for my master task list and notes are blue. For the header, I used my white Sakura gelly roll and the same lowercase font on blue paper, decorated with a couple more daisies. I also threw in a little ‘feature’ block of daisy-patterned paper to fill in the extra space on the right-hand side.

For my second weekly, I used vertical boxes for each daily section.

For the third weekly, I split the left-hand page into 6 for my daily task lists (with an added box for Sunday on the right-hand page). The rest of the space is taken up with the notes and tasks sections.

For the final weekly, I made 7 horizontal boxes for my daily task lists. The header is the same shape and size as my daily task lists, but, as with the other weekly spreads, it is made using blue paper, decorated with more daisies.

April Review

Finally, we have my April Review spread. The right-hand side is the same layout as my other monthly review pages, with the header at the top and the space for a polaroid picture at the bottom. Instead of a frame for the photo, I decided to just use a rectangle of daisy-patterned paper, which will lie underneath the left half of the polaroid when I stick that in.

On the left-hand side, as always, I have my monthly round-up sections. As with the previous months, I have a space to record my monthly favourites, the ATP top 10 and my #1 memory. Because I already have a whole spread dedicated to my projects, it felt a bit unnecessary to have another space to list out my projects for the month on this page, as I have done previously. As a result, I had space to include the WTA top 10 as well, which I am very happy about!

So, there we have it, my Daisies and Blue Skies April bullet journal setup. I’m really looking forward to using this pretty and cheery setup (I’m also hoping that by using it, I will encourage the blue skies to come…speedily)!

Gemma

xxx