I wanted the design to say "Sul Sul" every time I opened my Journal.
Since The Sims 4 is one of my favorite games, I thought I'd work with a Sims-themed design in my journal. However, the design was riddled with mistakes.
The Theme
With the recent announcement of The Sims 4 new Eco Lifestyle expansion pack, the game is all I can think about. I just bought the entire Planet Coaster bundle during Steam's Memorial Day weekend sale, so I probably won't buy the expansion pack right away, but I'm excited to play with the new features it has to offer.
For June 2020, I decided to incorporate some of the lot trait icons I believe best reflect my IRL house environment. I tried to keep the design minimal but encountered many mistakes during the design. I started to record the design but turned off the cameras as I spent a lot of time figuring out how to mask my mistakes.
Title Page
This is the one page I didn't incorporate any lot trait icons. Instead, I "winged it" with the design of this page. I knew I wanted "JUNE 2020" on the page, but that was it.
The word "JUNE" was originally filled-in with blue colored pencil and outlined with a blue Firefly alcohol ink marker. I didn't think the color was bold enough, so I used a lighter blue Firefly alcohol ink marker over it. I struggled with typography and word art all my life, so I'm simply happy I can see the individual letters of the word well-ish.
The plumbob is my favorite part of the page! I blended the markers to simulate the gradient look. Unfortunately, I forgot that layering marker ink in this journal creates a 'shadow' on the flip side of the page. At least it looks good, especially after I used a white gel pen to create a little contrast between the blended areas of the plumbob.
I usually like a minimal design, but there was so much blank space towards the bottom of the page. I decided to make the bottom half of the page look like a marketing design for a game pack. I used stamp ink to fill-in the large area, then used a white Posca paint marker to add the text over the blue inked background. The book icon seemed fitting for a "Journal Pack."
Later while working on the calendar overview, a small part of the design shadowed onto the title page. I first attempted to use my white Posca paint marker to mask the shadow, but the yellow and orange still showed through. I then painted the entire blank space of the title page with thick, white acrylic paint. Unfortunately, the yellow and orange still showed through. The paint also warped the page, but I gave up and left it alone.
Calendar Overview
To mask the 'shadow' of the plumbob from the title page, I recreated the same plumbob in that spot. Fortunately, it didn't require me to change anything else planned for the design of the overview.
I went on to add the lot trait icons to the page. The pencil and paintbrush represents the Home Studio lot trait. The window represents the Natural Light trait. The sun represents the Sunny Aspect lot trait.
When I added the sun, the page tore. I'm guessing the yellow marker ink left the page so wet that it tore at the page causing the yellow (and later, the orange) color to show through to the title page.
As I flipped the page to mask the shadow of the sun on the title page, ink marks transferred over onto the adjacent page of the calendar overview. As many BuJo YouTubers suggest, I used a white gel pen to mask the small marks. While you can't see it well in the photos, the white marks are obvious to the naked eye. I regret not leaving the marks as is. It would've been less of an eye sore to me than seeing my white gel pen marks on non-white paper.
After coloring and outlining the calendar and "To Do:" boxes with my markers, I quoted a tool tip that almost always appears when I'm loading a save game: What Power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do... with high level mischief skill!
Highlights
My highlights page was going to be plain with a small lot trait icon towards the bottom right. After all, I write a line each day to highlight something good I wanted to remember for that day, so I needed plenty of blank space.
Unfortunately, the pencil and paintbrush icon from my calendar overview showed through onto the highlights page. Stupid me once again forgot that layering marker ink would do that.
I blended green, blue, and orange stamp ink onto the page to mask the shadow of the pencil and paintbrush icon. I realized no pen ink would show on the background well. I cut a piece of copy paper and taped it onto the highlights page.
Trackers
This month I'm tracking the days I do some arts and crafts, writing, gaming, and RC/walking (extended walking). Because of my goal to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons for at least a few minutes each day, I almost didn't include the gaming tracking calendar. Yet, if feels good to color-in the days I've completed a hobby, so I left it for June.
The RC/walking tracking calendar reappeared after I've excluded it from the trackers page the past few months. I've mostly sheltered at home and haven't "walked" my RC cars. Hopefully, this month I'll get outdoors and drive my cars again. I understand parks are beginning to reopen in my town, so we'll see if I can get to a park when it's relatively empty. It may mean early morning outings, depending on the park hours.
I also track my dogs' care and happiness. I've tracked the following for my dogs:
when they go for a joy ride in the car
when they received teeth care with brush chews or tooth brushing
when I've cared for their coat with a brush, leave-in shampoo, or bath
when they participated in extended or extra playtime
Of course, I messed up while outlining the hobby tracking calendars. I accidentally drew vertical lines through the designated area for the calendar/hobby names I wanted to track. I used a Spectrum Noir Metallic Marker to mask my mistake.
Except most pens and markers I attempted to write with disappeared over the metallic marks. I finally found an old Pilot G-2 07 black ink pen that showed clearly over the metallic mark.
The ribbon with the paw print represents the Training Ground lot trait. The figure leaning back and holding a book represents the Peace and Quiet lot trait.
Mood
I cut out a generic plumbob shape and used it to trace the 30 plumbob shapes for my mood tracker page. I like overlapping shapes, so I tried to do that on this page. Day 21 is a tiny shape to fill-in with color, but oh well.
There was some shadowing from the icons I drew on the trackers page, but I ignored it following the struggles I had with the highlights page.
I didn't rely on the typical emotion-based colors from the game. I used the colors I wanted to represent the 4 moods I track, although green seemed right for representing a good mood.
Websites & Stuff
For June, I decided to not include a brain dump or ideas area for my websites. It's wasted space in my journal. For this website, I realized planning ahead is unnecessary since I tend to change my mind the week of my blog posts. In my next physical journal, I may devote an entire page to brain dumps and ideas because it's nice to have a running list for when it's needed.
I use a separate notebook for writing notes about blog posts and portfolio items I want to add to my professional resume/folio website. I'm also thinking of reducing the number of posts to every other week or once a month to make sure I'm publishing quality posts that take me time to research.
Instead, I decided to track names/descriptions and dates for the different outlets I upload to. I've consistently upload to this website and my YouTube channel twice a week, so I included the dates on the page. Since I'm thinking of changing when I post or update my resume/folio website, and I keep forgetting I have an Instagram account, I left those dates blank and will fill them in as I upload something new to those sites.
The green WiFi symbol represents the Fast Internet lot trait. The computer with the orange ribbon doesn't represent a lot trait. Rather, it represents the Computer Science degree from The Sims 4 University expansion pack. I thought it was fitting since I have a Master's degree in Information Systems.
Once again there was shadowing of the icons onto the flip side of the page, but I ignored it because I was finished at this point.
My Thoughts
I messed up. A lot. There were mistakes made on every page, but I did my best to mask them. While I mentioned that I gave up a few times in this post, I really should've said the mistakes didn't bother me enough to continue attempting to mask them.
If anything irritated me, it was using white gel pen, Posca paint marker, or acrylic paint to mask a mistake over an area of a page that isn't actually white in color. I guess the journal pages are more off-white or light brown.
What's Next?
June will be the last month I use this physical journal. July will begin in a brand-new journal. I have the same Camel Bullet Journal because I bought it at 2 for the price of one. However, I'm thinking about splurging to buy a different brand to see how it differs.
Login and Sign up to let me know if there's a brand you recommend I give a try. Are there any bullet journals that'll allow for ink layering? I'm curious to know.
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Thanks, and have a great day!
Simply Jelly Jam
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