This bullet journal setup ended up with a slightly strange hybrid of themes, but I actually think that they come together really nicely to form a super summer-y, happy setup. I’ve used a combination of asters, wavy line work, gingham patterns and confetti doodles to infuse this setup with some sunshine-y joy and, despite the fact I had no set plan going into it, I’m surprisingly pleased with how it turned out!

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
• June Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pens: Pale Yellow (062), Periwinkle (603) and Purple Sage (623).
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder (this is optional, but I like to round off the corners of the pages I trim down, to minimise the risk of sharp paper-induced injuries).

Cover Page

Throughout this setup, I used my Tombow pens for the majority of the doodles/decorations. I used Pale Yellow to add all of the gingham designs and draw the centres of the asters, Purple Sage to draw the aster petals and then the fine end of Periwinkle to add some little lines to define the centres of the asters. I used all three Tombow colours for the confetti doodles, then used my Sepia fineliner for all of the text and the lines, which I kept purposely messy and wavy (which, as an added bonus, massively speeds up the process!).

Typically, I include a quote page alongside my Cover Page, but, recently, I’ve been struggling with using quotes in my monthly setup: they’ve been feeling a little like something I include because I always have, rather than being an intentional addition. This month, I decided to use that space for something else instead: a list of things to look forward to in June! I’m someone who loves looking forward to things, so I think that having a list here full of all the exciting (big and small) things coming up this month will be a really positive addition to my journal.

Monthly Calendar

A Calendar spread is a staple in my monthly bullet journal setups: it really helps me to visualise the month ahead and keep track of any events/appointments. The Future Log at the start of my bullet journal is my main calendar, but it’s laid out in a vertical format (so I can fit in a whole year’s worth of events more easily!), so I find it helpful to add in a spread each month with a more visual, grid format too.

For this grid calendar, each box is made up of 6 x 6 dot grid squares. I added a little dot of Pale Yellow to the bottom right corner of each box, then wrote the dates over the top of those dots using my Sepia fineliner.

Weekly Spreads

Now we come to the Weekly Spreads, where I write my daily to-do lists. This is the section of my monthly setups that I use most frequently: it really helps me plan out my days and gives me a good overview of each week as it comes.

I’m still using my favourite layout for these weekly spreads, where I trim down the central pages of the section (and round off the corners!), leaving spaces on both the far right and left that are visible no matter what week you’re on. I use those spaces for my ‘master task lists’: tasks I know I need to do at some point, but don’t necessarily have a specific date in mind for yet.

There isn’t much space on the weekly spreads themselves, so I opted to incorporate the gingham design into the master task list sections instead. Admittedly, I’m not sure how legible my task lists will be when written on top of this pattern, but I did want to include the gingham design somewhere! I guess we’ll just have to see…

To save myself some time, I included 8 days, as opposed to 7, in the first and last ‘weekly’ spreads (June started on a Sunday and ends on a Monday this year). I often do this, just so that I don’t have to set up as many pages (less effort and less time needed: it’s a win-win!).

June Review

Finally, we come to my June Review section. This is a spread that I like to include in every monthly setup: it functions as a kind of ‘wrap-up’ of the month, which I find really fun to refer back to.

The format of this review spread is exactly the same as its previous iterations: on the right-hand page, I have the ‘June Review’ heading and a large space to stick in a polaroid from the month gone by. Then, on the left-hand page, I have spaces to note down the ATP & WTA Top 10 players at the end of the month (still have the tennis bug, apparently!), as well as a space to write down my favourite memory from the month.

At the bottom of that left-hand page, I also have six spaces to write down my favourite songs from the month. I find this particularly fun to check back on, seeing what songs have consistently been in my top 6 and remembering the memories/experiences associated with each one. To add an extra bit of whimsy to this section, I added a different, random doodle to each of the yellow dots in these sections.

Final Thoughts

This was another super quick and easy bullet journal setup, which was exactly what I needed (seeing as I started (and, thankfully, finished) this setup on 1st June!).

I have to say, I think this spread turned out SO summer-y and joyful: the gingham design makes me think of picnics, the asters are super pretty and remind me of the lovely gift from my dad, and the confetti adds a sense of celebration and fun. I’m not usually a huge fan of lemon yellow, but I really love how it looks with both of the purple shades here: the spread feels very sunshine-y and sweet.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my June bullet journal setup. Hopefully, next month, I’ll be a bit more prepared and not end up making my July setup in… July!

Gemma

xxx

Let’s get into the setup, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Inspiration
• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Eras Tour Memories
• Weekly Spreads
  • Week 1
  • Week 2
  • Week 3
  • Week 4
• June Review
• Final Thoughts

Inspiration

For this setup, I was really inspired by The Eras Tour poster (which has recently been updated to include Swift’s new album: The Tortured Poets Department) and the friendship bracelets that are famously swapped between fans at the event.

Each of Swift’s albums (or ‘eras’) tends to be associated with a specific colour, as demonstrated by the poster. Following the poster, the album colours are as follows:

• Taylor Swift – pale green
• Fearless – gold/deep yellow
• Speak Now – lilac
• Red – red (astounding, I know)
• 1989 – pale blue
• Reputation – dark grey
• Lover – pale pink
• Folklore – grey
• Evermore – beige
• Midnights – dark blue
• The Tortured Poets Department – black

For each album, I tried to find both a coloured pencil and coloured paper in the right shade. I was pretty successful with the pencils- less so with the coloured paper. I purchased this pack of origami paper to use so that I would have lots of options, but I still ran into some problems, particularly with the grey shades! I feel my Reputation grey is more of a Folklore grey, and my Folklore grey is more of an Evermore beige, but, alas, what can you do?

Equipment

• Sakura Pigma Micron pens (01, 05, 08, 10 and Graphic 1) (I purchased mine in this set).
• Sakura Gelly Roll 10, Bright White.
• Coloured pencils.
• Coloured origami paper (I used colours from this pack).
• Scissors.
• Ruler.
• Pencil.
• Eraser.

Cover + Quote Page

For my Cover Page, I wanted to recreate the graphic from the poster in a minimal (read: achievable) style. I opted to cut out the colour blocks for each album from origami paper and glue them into my journal, a bit like a hyper-organised collage. To finish off the right-hand page, I wrote ‘June’ below my collage in the iconic font from the poster. To recreate the font (which, if you’re interested, is Pistilli Roman), I sketched it out in pencil first, then drew around the outline of each letter with my 05 Sakura pen, before filled them in with the Graphic 1 pen.

For the Quote Page, I wanted to use the opening line from the introduction to the Eras Tour, which is a lyric from Swift’s song Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince. ‘It’s been a long time coming’ just feels very fitting for me! I decided to create a ‘friendship bracelet’ of era-coloured beads, interspersed with alphabet letter beads, on which I wrote the quote. To make this, I sketched a wavy line in pencil, then used my 01 Sakura pen to draw the circles for each alphabet bead. I added an assortment of round, heart and star-shaped beads, using my coloured pencils. Finally, I used my 10 Sakura pen to write in the quote, one letter per bead. I used this friendship bracelet effect throughout the setup, for both quotes and headings (though I didn’t keep the star-shaped beads in my bracelet doodles moving forward, because I just wasn’t… loving them?)!

Monthly Calendar

I think my Monthly Calendar spread might just be my favourite spread in the whole setup- I feel like it came together so perfectly! I went for my typical 6×6 grid for the calendar and used the same poster font to write the ‘June’ heading along the top. I used my coloured pencils to make bars of colour at the top of grid box, on top of which I wrote the dates. Finally, I decorated the space along the bottom and right-hand side with one long friendship bracelet (friendship necklace?), with another Taylor Swift lyric (from Long Live, which I LOVE and has, much to my dismay, recently been cut from the tour set list 🙁 …). This lyric one of my other options for the main quote page, so it felt right to give it this cool spot!

Eras Tour Memories

If you’ve been here before, you might have been expecting my Blog Planning/Daily Sunshine spreads around this point, but I’ve gone for something a little different this time around. I have been struggling to keep up with those spreads over the past few months, so I figured that a month off might allow me to reset, so that I can (hopefully!) get back into using them next month!

Instead of those pages, then, I decided to make a spread to fill with all of my memories from my Eras Tour experience. I’ve left the spread pretty empty, so I have lots of space to stick in photos, note down memories and just make myself a fun scrapbook-style spread to remind myself of the night. All I did was write ‘Eras Tour’ in the bottom right, in that same poster font, and add a small friendship bracelet doodle along the top left, with the date of the show written on the beads.

Weekly Spreads

Week 1

Because June begins with a weekend, I opted to just merge the first 2 days of the month in with the next week and make one big, 9-day spread. This ‘weekly’ spread, therefore, runs from 1st-9th June, so I needed 10 boxes, one for each day, plus one for my task list. I used my coloured pencils to add coloured bars to the top of each box, onto which I wrote the day of the week and the date, using my 08 Sakura pen. I used another friendship bracelet doodle for the heading, so I wrote ‘June first to ninth’ on the alphabet beads.

I’ve made no secret about my love for using tabs to separate out my Weekly Spreads, but something about it this month just felt like… urgh… a lot of work? However, not doing it felt wrong. I contemplated so many ideas and options, but none seemed to fit a) the vibe and b) my energy levels. Eventually, I had this wacky idea to make these diagonal, waterfall tabs in the lower corner and… I kind of love it? I decorated each tab with a strip of coloured paper, to help them stand out, then replicated the same design on the opposite, tab-less corner for, you know, consistency (I’m lying- it was absolutely so that I could incorporate more colours and, by extension, more Eras. This is an Eras Tour set up, after all!).

Week 2

I kept all of the design elements the same throughout my weekly spreads, but changed up the layout for each one. This layout is fairly similar to the previous one, but, because I only needed space for 7 days, I was able to make my task box a little larger.

Week 3

For the third weekly spread, I opted for my favourite, vertical box layout, with the heading along the bottom.

Week 4

For the final weekly, I really went to town with the friendship bracelet decoration.

June Review

Finally, we come to my June Review spread! As always, I’ve used the right-hand page to house the ‘June Review’ heading and a favourite polaroid photo from the month. I haven’t bothered with a frame for the polaroid, or really much decoration at all, because I wanted to keep this side of the spread pretty simple. I did however, add a little friendship bracelet decoration along the top left of the page, with the (quite fitting, I think) title of one of my favourite Taylor Swift songs: The Best Day.

On the left-hand page, I typically include spaces to note down the ATP & WTA Top 10, my favourite songs from the month and my favourite memory from the month. I’ve opted to leave off the memory section for this month, because I’m pretty sure I know what it will be (and it already has a double-page spread dedicated to it!). To create this page, I created the same minimalist, block colour version of the Eras Tour poster that I did on my cover page, but just a little larger here. I used the 6 boxes along the top and bottom to house my favourite songs from the month, then used the 2 boxes down each side for the tennis top 10s. To finish it off, I decorated the centre, black panel with little musical and sparkle doodles, just to really drive the whole concert theme home. To keep this spread nice and light, I opted to use my white Sakura Gelly Roll for all of the subheadings/doodles, instead of my usual black pen.

Final Thoughts

I’m really happy with how this spread turned out- I love how colourful it is, without being too ‘in-your-face’ and I love how much it really feels like an Eras Tour-themed spread! I also love that it was pretty quick and easy to setup, which was just what I needed this month. I really think I’m going to enjoy using it over the next month and I’m hoping that it will help to get me in the mood ahead of the concert (and help me relive all the fun memories afterwards!).

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Eras Tour-inspired bullet journal setup! I’d love to hear what you think about it in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx