Moving in to the Foxy Notebook System

Hi everyone! This is Jes. Kris mentioned last week that she and I have joined theFoxy Fix design team.  I'm over on their blog showing how I use the Foxy Notebook system. We have received several comments on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube asking about our setups, and I wanted to share with you all as well.

Be sure to check out the Foxy website as well! http://foxy-fix.myshopify.com/

I'll first do a quick walk through, showing how I set up my Foxy Notebook and inserts. I'll also show you how I've incorporated the new Bujo Foundation and Elements stamp sets into my bullet journal system. My notebook of choice is the new Rowena 2.0, in the Grand 8 (A5) size. (I actually changed my cords out to the gorgeous mint straps, but I forgot to take a photograph before sitting down to write this up, so you'll have to wait to see those next time!)

 My Foxy Notebook currently holds two Notebook Inserts, two other previously purchased journals that contain information I need on hand, and a dashboard insert. I love the dashboard because it lets me change out the covers as the mood strikes. I decorated this one with the lovely Floral stamps (design 1).

The first page in my first insert is my bujo key, and following that is my June monthly spread.

I used several stamp sets in this layout.  For the large boxes at the top, I used one of the columns from Column Set 1. The squares are stamped with the Square Set.  A trick to lining them up (which I actually thought of AFTER I finished this entire page!) is to use a t-square ruler and lightly trace a frame work in pencil.  I ended up just eyeballing it. 

The days of the week and June header all come from the Bujo Basics Part 1 set, while the banner around June and the numbers are all from Bujo Basics Part 2. Finally, I used Bujo Dividers and Borders Set 2 to separate my days from my notes section.  To stamp the borders, I used my long block from Fiskars, but it was hard to hold, and the bottom part of the border was difficult to align. I recommend getting a block with a good grip like this one from My Sentiments Exactly. 

After my monthly calendar, the next few pages are my weekly spreads for June. Many people plan day by day in their bujo's, but that doesn't work for me.  I stamp out a basic weekly layout, and if I end up needing more room for to-do items, I create a master to-do list on the next available page.  For June, I chose to make several weekly spread layouts to give you an idea of all the different things you can do with the Foxy Fix stamp sets. I haven't listed every individual set, but you can find all the sets I used here: http://www.foxyfix.com/collections/clear-stamp.   

This tracker was created using the mini calendar stamp found in the Tracker Set. You can only track seven things at a time, but that's perfect for me.

Here is a close up of my weekly spread. The boxes are not all lined up perfectly, so this is where that t-square I mentioned would be helpful again.

Kristine Bryant, one of the other two designers, challenged me to do a layout using only the new elements sets. Challenge accepted!  Can you believe this entire spread is made with only three stamp sets? All the framework is done with the Floral Page Layout Design 1 set, and the days, dates, and banners are all from Bujo Basics Part 1 and 2. 

To get the florals in the right place, I drew a line down the center of the page and stamped out all the corners on either side of that line, then lined up the other half of my box with the first set of corners. So much easier than how I did my monthly spread! 

If your area is too small to allow you to have four corners, you can cheat a corner using one of the straight vines, like I did here.

Finally we have my favorite spread so far!  This layout features the Hexagon Set and the Bujo Dividers and Borders Set 2. (It's a bit difficult to see the left side well in this shot, because I used yellow, but you'll see it up close in a moment.) 

This week is extremely busy, so I knew I was going to need a lot of room for my to do list. But for such a busy week, there weren't very many things that needed a specific day.

The boxes at the top will be perfect for things that have a deadline, while the checklist below will help me keep my to do list straight. 

The weekend days share a box so that I could fit all 7 days on one page and because there is very little happening those days.  The four large hexagons on the lower part of the page will hold my notes for the following week, menu plan, daily activities with my daughter, and any bills that need to be paid. 

Some of you might be experienced stampers, and many of you probably aren't - regardless, you're probably all wondering how various ink brands work in the Foxy inserts. (Yes, you see Memento dye ink in these photos!)  I'll post a video in a week or two showing the different kinds of ink and how they work on Foxy's paper.  

I absolutely loved putting these layouts together, and I hope you enjoyed this walk through of the first month in my Foxy Notebook.  If you have any questions or comments, please be sure to comment below!  I'd love to know what you think. 

Make sure you subscribe to the Foxy Fix blog so you don't miss a post!

Find us on Facebook, and follow The Foxy Fix and the design team members on Instagram for more inspiration:

The official Foxy Fix account: @thefoxyfix

Jes Brandon (that's me!): @jes_planning

Cheryl Reiter: @cherylreiter

Kristine Bryant: @teachplancraft

Watercolor Divider for Personal Sized Planner

Hello! It's Jes, back again with another fun craft.  I woke up with a nasty headache, that has lingered all day. I needed a simple craft that I could do on the couch and didn't have to think about too hard.  Sure, I could have pushed this post off till tomorrow, but I've been working hard to meet my posting goals, and I wasn't going to let a headache ruin my solid streak.  I decided to make a simple but fun dashboard for my new personal sized planner.  Here is a look at one a did a few days ago, just for fun.

I used Count Down and College Plans from Sweet Stamp Shop to create that divider.  I just stamped, colored, cut, and glued. Then added the sentiments from Count Down. The tab is from the Labels and Tabs set from Studio L2E.

For today's project I decided to do a simple watercolor dashboard and spruce it up with a single sunflower.

Supplies needed:
Watercolor Paper
Markers or watercolor paints (I used Tombows)
A hole punch
Water Brushes (or a brush and cup of water)
Stamps and ink

I have this Canson Mixed Media notebook, that I used to pre-stamp all of my favorite stamps. I can toss it in a bag with a few markers or colored pencils and color on the go, or while watching TV.  So, I just tore the sunflower page out to work with today.  The sunflower stamp is from the Our Friendship Grows set by Lawn Fawn.

I absolutely hate to measure. I don't know why, but I do. So I just traced the last divider I made, and slid it down the page a bit to put the tab where I wanted it.

 Next, I laid down a solid foundation of color in an ombre pattern. Then, I spritzed it well with a little mini mister bottle I picked up from Walmart ages ago. I wanted it good and wet. Using an old dry rag, I soaked up all the excess water, and lifted a bit of the color off, because it was too dark for what I wanted.
While my divider was sitting to the side drying, I colored in my sunflower and pot.

I wasn't thrilled with the way the pot turned out, and ended up coloring over it again with my tombows before I attached it to my divider. I cut these out using my amazing Gyro-Cut tool (seriously if you don't have one GET IT! Then come back and tell me I was right and you adore it :D ). I love that I can fussy cut detailed images in such a short time, and get such clean lines. 

 

See? It's awesome, right? When you're finished admiring how neatly that cuts, we'll move on. I'll wait. 

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Ready? Next up, I attached the flowers and flowerpot to my divider.  I ended up sketching in a stem and leaves, because I wanted smaller leaves and a smaller stem than what are provided in the set. 

So, glue them down nice and snug, and you're ready to hole punch.  This was actually a bit flimsy for my tastes, so I went ahead and traced it on a piece of heavy card stock and then adhered it to the thicker piece to give it the sturdy feel I prefer.  Finally, I grabbed an insert from my planner to line up the holes (my six hole punch doesn't work and I need a new one) and punched out my holes.  Then, I just popped it in my planner and I was ready to go.  From start to finish, including drying time this took about 35 minutes.

Do you love this? Hate it? Do you have any questions, or thoughts, or tips? Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.  I love comments, and will respond to all of them!

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @jes_planning. 

My New Bullet Journal

Hey, everyone!  It's Kristine with you today, with another post in my long quest to find planner peace.  You guys - I think I may have found it!  I am using something now called a bullet journal, and I absolutely LOVE it.  For anyone who hasn't heard of it before, there's a short, very informative video on www.bulletjournal.com to introduce you to what bullet journaling is and how to get started.  If you're at all curious about it, take a look at the video, then keep reading.

So to start my foray into bullet journaling, I picked up the Leuchtturm 1917 notebook at JB Welly (note - I am not compensated for providing any of these links; they're just here for your information).  They can also be found at Amazon and some brick-and-mortar stores.  This journal is A5 size and has dot grid pages, which I love to pieces (you can also get it with grid pages).  The paper is a lot thinner than I'm used to, which I'm not a fan of.  I get a lot of shadowing with the pens I'm using, but no bleeding, so that's something.  Speaking of pens, I'm using a black Faber Castell artist pen and Stabilo fineliners.  Also in my pencil case are a pencil and an eraser.

Now, it's not necessary to have any of this to start a bullet journal - bullet journaling is really about the process, not the "stuff."  But I like to have pretty stuff, so there you go.

The backbone of a bullet journal is the index.  The nice thing about the Leuchtturm 1917 journal is that it has an index already printed in the front that takes up 3 pages.  The pages of the journal itself are also pre-numbered, which helps tremendously.  Each time you add something to your journal, you add an entry to the index.  Here's my index so far:

Now I'll run through rest of the pages I have so far, in order (except for the title page with my name and phone number on it in case I ever lose my journal):

First up: bill tracker and birthdays pages.  Each month when I pay bills, I'll record the amount here.  The birthday tracker will help me keep up with cards and gifts I need to buy and send through the rest of the year.

Next, my future log (this is where you can record future events that you don't have calendar pages for yet).  I have to say, I don't love this.  I've seen several ways to lay them out, and I think if I do a future log in my next book, I won't do it like this.  I just don't like how it looks, and there's not enough room to write stuff.  I may just spread it out over a couple more pages.

I couldn't think of any other tracker or collections pages I was dying to have, so I went ahead next and created my monthly calendar for May.  Because of the way May started on a Sunday, I ended up with a lot of wasted space at the top row, and the May header is way too big.  For June, I will definitely change this up.

So far, the bullet journal is a lot like a regular planner - the monthly layout, the extra pages for tracking bills or birthdays or books you read or what have you.  Here, though, is where it gets drastically different - the daily pages.  Now, lots of people like to do a weekly spread over two pages, with evenly spaced areas for each day drawn out in advance.  But to me, that defeats the whole purpose of doing this journal instead of using a regular planner - by planning daily, I am free to make each day's section as long or as short as it needs to be.  Here are my first four daily entries for May:

As you can see, I'm able to experiment with different header styles and handwriting, which is fun.  Each evening, I set up the coming day in my journal.  It takes only a few minutes to write in a heading and list out the items I know are coming the next day (or even items coming in a few days that I just don't want to forget).  I create this list based on the items on my monthly spread, and add to it as the day goes on.  Each item starts out with a dot next to it, unless it's an appointment that has a certain time (small circles) or important things that must get done right away (squares) .  As an item on the list is completed, I draw an x through the dot, circle, or square.  Anything that didn't get done and needs to be moved to another day, called migrating, gets an arrow.  A horizontal line through the signifier means that the task no longer needs to be done.

After these four days were over, I discovered a doodling challenge on Instagram that I wanted to do for May.  In the spirit of bullet journaling, I set up the challenge on the next available page, even though I was only four days into the May pages.  That means that my May daily layouts will be split up, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest.  The challenge I'm doing for May is for doodling flowers:

I love this spread - all the colors are making me happy.

On the next set of pages, I'm continuing my May daily entries.

As I think of more collections that I want, I'll add them (I've already added a page for the alumni band newsletter I'm putting together this summer), and continue adding monthly and daily pages as needed.  And the book will continue on thusly, until it's full and time to move into another one.

The great thing about the bullet journal, for me, is that it can contain everything - calendars, events, work items, home items, birthday lists, travel planning, lists of books read, weight trackers, doodles, diary entries, home improvement projects - the sky is the limit.  It is a page-by-page record of my life as it happens.  And I love that I don't need 16 different planners or books to keep it all.

If you're intrigued, I encourage you to spend some time on the bulletjournal.com website, then peruse online to see how people have set up their journals.  A word of caution - there are some real works of art out there.  But don't be intimidated!  The journal is primarily meant to be functional - if it works for you, that's all that matters!

Thanks for hanging out with me today and reading along.  If you have any questions about bullet journaling, leave me a message down below and I'll be happy to answer as best I can.  Happy Sunday!

Doctor Who Plan With Me

Hi everyone, and happy Monday! It's Jes today with a Plan with me video.

You know how you plan a week out and then stare at it wondering what that nagging thing you forgot was? Yeah, that would be Mother's Day this week. I even wrote down that I needed to make and send cards, but totally forgot to put it down on Sunday. So I'll have to fix that when I get back out to my desk.  Anyway, this week is a Doctor Who week, in honor of the all-night marathon my best friend and I have planned for Friday.  We're 3000 miles apart, but we make movie night work with texting, and messaging.  It's not ideal, but we'll take what we can get. What do you do on movie night? What are your favorite snacks? We love chips and dip, and gelato. Let me know in the comments! I hope you enjoy my video.

Plan With Me April 25 to May 1

Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's Kristine with you on the blog today, and I've got a plan with me video for next week's spread in my DIY Carpe Diem planner.  I am loving the flexibility of this planner, and I have to tell you - after simplifying this week and doing a LOT of reading up on bullet journaling, I think I see a switch to bullet journaling in my future - probably with the beginning of next month.  If I do that, I'm not sure how much, if any, stamping I'll be doing - we'll just see how it goes.  For now, though, I've got this spread.

A couple of things you need to know about the video - one, I chose a rather pale ink color this week, and I'm afraid you can't really see it too well in the video.  So sorry!  And the washi tape you'll see in the opening frame is not the same one you'll see me put down in the video - once the filming was over, I decided I hated that polka dotted washi and changed it, lol.

As always, thanks so much for watching!  Please feel free to leave a comment - I appreciate all feedback, both positive and negative!

Hi, everyone!  It's Kristine with you today, on this unseasonably cold April Sunday!  I don't know about you, but I don't expect SNOW in Virginia in April.  Yesterday was nuts!  NO snow today, but it is still cold - my heat is running and it's just WEIRD.

Anyhoo, I've got a PWM video for you today.  Now, I have to warn you that this week, I planned a layout of my own design in my new Carpe Diem binder.  I've been feeling kind of restricted by the structure of my Inkwell Press flex planner, and I wanted to stretch myself and try something new.  I would love if you'd take a look and let me know what you think!

Have a great week ahead, everyone!  And here's hoping for some warmth this week!

Hi everyone it's Jes.  I finally figured out my camera and I have new talk through plan with me video up on Youtube.  :)  I hope you like it.

Good morning from Kristine, all! (And for those who celebrate it, Happy Easter!) I've got another PWM video for you today, for the the week of March 28 through April 3.  (YOU GUYS - where the heck did the first three months of the year go?????)

All sources are posted at the end of the video.  Please let us know if you have any questions or comments - we LOVE getting your feedback!

Hope you all have a great week!  Mwah!

Crafting Supply Inventory

Hi everyone! It's Jes again! Have you see the new Art Collection stamp set from Sweet Stamp Shop? It is the perfect little stamp set for creating an inventory of my crafting supplies. I picked it up a few weeks ago, and haven't really had a chance to work with it. This week, I've been working on reorganizing my craft room.  Now that everything has it's on place, I needed a simple way to keep track of what I already had.  To track my stamps, I have a digital album that I can reference when I am shopping.  I needed something for my inks, markers, colored pencils, and pens that I could take along with me when I was out trying to spend all my money at craft stores. ;) I decided to make a simple little booklet that would fit in my purse, but also worked with my faux-dori travelers notebook when I take that out and about.

You'll need: Printer paper, pretty card stock, a rotating stapler (get a good one, mine is junk and I silently scold myself every time I use it), and a rotary blade or xacto knife. Optional, but very helpful items are a bone folder and a scoring board. (See below for links.)

Step one:  Score all the paper (one at a time) at 5 1/2 inches. Fold and crease firmly with your bone folder.

Step two: Add all the folded printer paper inside your cardstock cover, and crease firmly.  Then staple the pages together.  

Step three: Trim off the overhang from the side of your book if it bothers you. I tried to use my paper trimmer but my book was too think so I ended up using my rotary cutter.

Step four: Decorate your cover, if you so desire. Looking at mine here, I realize I forgot to finish adding in my markers and pencils for that final little pop, but that's an easy fix.

Last but not least, fill the pages with anything your heart desires. :) I have a similar book for my grocery shopping. One that I use as a journal of sorts, and another holds my running to do lists.  I have some for gift tracking/wishlists for my family and friends, one for quotes and things that inspire me, and a bucket list for my family.  They are perfect for tracking pretty much anything. 

 And a close up just because I really love these little markers from the set!

What would you use a little insert booklet like this for? 

Supplies:

Stamp set: Art Collection

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black

Paper: Any printer paper will work

Cardstock: I bought a pack of 8x11 card stock from Walmart

Stapler: Rotating Stapler

Scoring board: Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Bone folder: Craft bone folder

Good morning from Kristine, and happy Sunday!  Today is the day we "sprung forward," and while I'm happy that it means spring is practically here, I'm always a bit unsettled to lose an hour out of the day.  Who would think that a measly hour would have such an impact??

Well, Sunday means we've got more planner layouts for you.  Below is a link to my second-ever Plan With Me video.  I streamlined the process a little, so it's a little shorter than last time, and there aren't as many cuts and jumps.  I also tried a new camera set-up, which resulted in a little unintended camera shake - I hope that doesn't bother you guys too much, and I'll figure something different out for next time.  Always a process, lol!

Anyhoo, here it is.  Please feel free to comment and let us know what you think - the good, the bad, and the ugly.  We want to get better!  Have a great week, everyone!

Hey everyone, it's Jes again.  Kristine and I have been working on setting up our new YouTube channel this week.  Sunday she posted an awesome full length plan with me video.  It turned out great! My video this week is also a plan with me video, but I chose to do it as a time-lapse.  We like both full length and time-lapse videos, and we decided that we would give them both a go on our channel and see which one suited our styles more.  Let us know what styles you like.

(Supplies and stores linked on YT)

Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's Kristine with you again today, and I'm sharing my planner spread for next week, February 29 through March 6.  I definitely need my planner to be functional, so there is plenty of functional stamping in it, but I also like to decorate it so that it makes me smile each time I look at it.  Check out the finished product:

I just adore those dragon stamps from Sweet Stamp Shop, so I was super excited to be able to use them in my layout this week.  Let's get started so you can see step by step how I built this layout!

First off, here's what the planner looks like with nothing done to it.  I use an Inkwell Press Livewell Planner in the flex (horizontal) layout:

The first thing I usually do each week is choose washi tape.  I was very happy to see the teal color scheme for March, as the February pages were all done in a sort of peachy color and I was ready for a switch.  I chose some of the washi tape from Michaels' new Boho line and laid down strips to the left of the teal boxes. For me, the washi was a little too wide, so I used a metal ruler and a craft knife to cut it so I could peel half of it off.  (If you do this, be very careful not to press to hard with the knife - you don't want to cut through the page, just the washi!)

I did that on both pages, then added a coordinating washi tape at the top and bottom of each page, also cutting it to make it a bit thinner.  Here's what the spread looks like with all the washi in:

I use my planner for both work and home items, so I like to split the weekdays in half on the days that I have school.  I put my work to-do's and appointments on the left, and my home to-do's on the right.  To separate each day like this, I use a ruler as a guide and put black dots down the middle of each day's row (note that there are no dots on Tuesday - we don't have school that day because of the primary elections):

Next, I decided to fancy up the dates a little.  I used the banner stamp that comes in Sweet Stamp Shop's Dragon set to make new date banners.  I stamped those on sticker paper, then cut them out and stuck them down onto some patterned scrapbook paper that coordinates with my color scheme:

Leaving a little border around the outside, I cut those out again and ran them through my Xyron sticker maker:

Then all I had to do was peel them up, stick them over the existing dates in my planner, and write the dates on them in black pen.  I think the finished dates definitely coordinate better with my dragon theme!

Once the dates were done, it was time to add my functional stamping.  On the left side of each day, for my work items, I used a stamp from Sweet Stamp Shop's Cuppa Coffee set to put "the daily grind" at the top.  I also used a check box from one of their retired sets to make the to-do boxes (though you could probably use a the check boxes from their Feeling Today set to achieve the same result):

For my home to-do's on the right side of the dotted line, I again used the check box stamp and a stamp from Sweet Stamp Shop's Basic Tabs set that I use to track my daily language practice (I'm attempting to learn Italian for an upcoming trip to Rome!).  I used the globe from the Plan School set to make it cute.  For interest, and to further separate the work and home items, I used two ink colors that coordinated with my washi.  Once all those items were stamped, I used a black pen to write in all the to-do and appointment items:

Moving to the right side of the spread, I used one of Sweet Stamp Shop's Weekend Flags stamps and letters from their Mixed Alpha set to create my weekend banner:

I used the same stamp sets as on the left side of the spread to put my to-do's in for Saturday and Sunday, also adding in stamps from the Plan Craft, Plan Fitness, and Plan to Eat sets.  (Since I do many of the same items both days, I found it was easier to stamp each activity once and put two check boxes next to it - one for Saturday and one for Sunday.  This has really saved space in my layout!)

To finish off my functional stamping, I used icons from Studiol2e in the top two teal boxes each day.  In the top box, I track the steps of my skincare routine.  For that, I used the little banners from the List It set (four banners, one for each step - as I complete them morning and night, I check them off).  In the center box, I track chores I need to do that day.  For those, I used a variety of icons from the Iconic and Iconic Activities sets.  In my bottom teal box, I like to write in a few short words each evening to describe how my day was.  For this, I used the "today" stamp from Sweet Stamp Shop's Title Script set.  Here's how the spread looks once all my functional stamping is done:

Now comes the fun part: filling in the cracks with some decorative stamping!  I knew that I wanted to use the stamps from Sweet Stamp Shop's Dragon set, but I decided to add a little twist by paper piecing my dragons to add pattern to the dragons' bellies and wings.  To start, I chose two coordinating papers and some white sticker paper and stamped the dragon three times:

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Next, I cut around the sticker dragon and then cut off his wings and cut out his belly.  I have to admit, this part was a bit nerve-wracking!

I cut off the wings from the polka dot dragon and cut out the belly from the teal dragon, then pieced those parts together with the sticker dragon.  I dry fit them first to make sure they'd look okay.  Omg, you have no idea how happy I was to see that this actually worked!!

Once I knew the pieces would fit together all right, I ran the two wings and the belly piece through the sticker maker:

And then I peeled the backing off the main dragon body and stuck all four pieces down in my planner where I wanted the dragon to be:

LOVE!!  That dragon made me so happy that I made another one for the other side of the planner spread. The last thing I did was stamp two eggs and some fire (all from the Dragon stamp set) on sticker paper, cut out and stick them all in, and color everything (including the functional icons) with Prismacolor colored pencils blended with gamsol.  I added a couple of the sentiment stamps from the Dragon set to complete the look, and voila, it was done!

I can't deny that it took some work to get this layout done, but I also can't deny that I can't WAIT to open up my planner tomorrow and look at this gorgeous spread all week!

I hope you like the paper piecing technique and decide to try it! Please feel free to leave us a comment down below and let us know what you think about this post.  And if you do try paper piecing, tag us on Instagram (@teachplancraft, @jes_planning) so we can see your creation.  Hope you all have a fantastic week!