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

So, Here's What's New...

Hey, everyone!  It's Kristine with you today, and I've got kind of an atypical (for us) blog post for you.  Normally, Jes and I post twice a week, and we aim to always have some kind of planner or craft to show you.  We've been pretty good about sticking to our self-imposed schedule, but this week I fell down on the job.  These last couple of months, things have really picked up for us - and these last few weeks have been REALLY nuts, but in the best possible way.

So, many of you probably know that for 3 months now, Jes and I have been creative contributors for Sweet Stamp Shop.  We have both used Sweet stamps for almost a year now to make projects - cards, planner layouts, bookmarks, you name it - for our own personal use (many of them showcased here on the blog), and now we get to make those things for Sweet to use in their marketing.  It's something that we've both wanted to do for a long time, as we've been Sweet fans for awhile now, and in March we were asked to join the Sweet family as monthly contributors.  We're proud and honored to be affiliated with Nicole Rixon and her amazing company. 

We didn't think life could get better...and then a couple of weeks ago, it did!  We've also both been selected to be on the first ever Foxy Fix design team.  If you've never heard of Foxy Fix, go take a look - they're an American company (as is Sweet Stamp Shop) that makes the most amazing leather notebooks and totes, and they've recently launched a line of clear stamps designed specifically for bullet journaling.  If you follow Jes and I on any of our social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube), you know that we both have recently converted from traditional planning to bullet journaling - the timing was perfect, and we caught the eye of the lovely Wan Chin Lim (@wansplansandexplorations) and Kelly, the owner of Foxy Fix.  As experienced stampers, she thought we'd be perfect (along with Cheryl Cooke Reiter) to lead the way into bullet journal stamping, and we're thrilled to have been chosen.

So with all this going on, we've both had a lot more creative deadlines to meet - and that's why you're getting this wordy post on Thursday instead of the cute card or craft you should have gotten yesterday, lol.  We hope you stick with us, because there will be lots more bullet journal eye candy coming, as well as some really super new products from Sweet Stamp Shop (seriously - you're going to flip when you see what's coming in July!!).  If you don't already, consider following both companies so you can see all their yummy products and the cool stuff we're making for them.  Thanks, and we'll see you again with more crafts soon!

Sweet Stamp Shop

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SweetStampShop/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetstampshop/

Foxy Fix
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/401187463379995/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefoxyfix/

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!