A new design theme in the new journal.
Before July, I setup an ice cream inspired design theme in my journal. However, since I switched from a Camel Bullet Journal to a Tumbitri Meri Dotted Notebook journal, I had to redo my July setup. I had the choice to recreate the ice cream inspired design theme I did last week or try something different with a complete redesign. I opted for the latter.
The ReDesign
I started this on July 3rd and didn't want to put off setting up my design in the new journal any longer. I recalled the ice cream design in the other journal took time to do, and I simply wanted to get this redo done faster.
I initially didn't have a design theme in mind. I figured the easiest first step was to layout my pages. I worried I'd need to adjust the sizes of my calendars and boxes, but fortunately there's roughly the same number of dots per column and rows in the new journal as there were in my other journal.
As I drew the lines for calendars and boxes, I then thought about how easy it is to ink blend. After all, I just did that a couple days earlier to setup the first few pages of the new journal. Since I'd have my stamp inks out, I figured using a couple stamps for decorating would be quick and easy to do.
However, I didn't want to spend time making a title page or sketching a coloring book style Mood page. After a little thought, all while I drew the lines, I decided to grab a quote sheet and some inspiration from my Creative Hearts Hot Buy paper pad.
The paper pad consisted of pinks, blues, and oranges. I was inspired to stick with that color scheme in my design. The paper pad also featured many butterflies. I happened to have several butterfly stamps, so I thought it was a nice way to tie in the paper pad's design.
While looking at my pack of butterfly stamps, I realized one stamp in particular would be perfect for setting up the Mood page. As far as I was concerned, this turned out to be the quickest, easiest, and best idea for my journal design.
My Mistakes
I made several mistakes during my redesign, as I often do with any design or project I attempt. Below are just a few of my mistakes and how I attempted to correct or mask it:
Gold gel ink needs time to dry. Unfortunately, I flipped the page before letting it dry completely and it left unwanted marks on the adjacent page. Since I drew inspiration from a paper pad, I cut a small quote from one of the sheets and adhered it over the unwanted marks.
Either I didn't space the butterfly stamps well on the Mood page, or I should've used a smaller stamp. I didn't have enough room for 31 stamped butterfly on a single page. I ended up placing a couple stamps and my legend on the adjacent page.
When adhering the quote sheet to the Title page, I shouldn't have flushed the edge of the sheet directly against the bind of the journal. Doing so prevented the page from folding and laying flat. It caused the butterfly stamps on the left pages to not fill-in completely towards the center. To correct this, I simply placed my fingers under the page I stamped on for full coverage. As for the Mood page, I used a Posca paint marker to recreate the body with a large head for writing numbers over.
Any marker over a Tombow brush pen will smear the Tombow ink. Perhaps this happens because the Tombow ink is water-based? Then again, my Pen Gear inks are water-based, but the ink doesn't smear when I use a marker over it. I'm not sure, but I'll remember to use archival ink or my Pen Gear pens for areas I may use a marker.
I'm a grown adult who seems to sometimes forget how to count. Why? It doesn't make sense! I refuse to say anything more on this.
The Contents
Since I've written enough blog posts about my journal pages in just the past week, below are images of the new redesigned pages. Not much changed between last Tuesday's layout and this week's layout, except I excluded one hobby tracker from my Trackers page.
My Thoughts
While I liked the ice cream themed design I setup previously, I really like this one better. It's less cheesy, but still colorful. I especially like how much less time it took to complete. Don't get me wrong. I still love ice cream, but probably not for a journal design anytime soon. At least not until I improve my art skills and techniques.
What's Next?
I just need to decide if next month's design theme will be ambitious or simple. How about you? Login and Sign up to let me know if you like ambitious or simple journal designs.
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Thanks, and have a great day!
Simply Jelly Jam
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