Error 626: Disney's Stitch "runs amuck" on my journal pages for May.
Since I'm not going to be visiting Walt Disney World in early May as originally planned, I thought I'd work with a Disney Stitch-themed design in my journal. Stitch is my favorite character, and I was ready for him to cause some fun chaos on my journal pages.
The Theme
If you're interested to know more about how and why I use my journal, check-out my previous post on My Journal Spread for April 2020. In short, my journal is a memory keeper.
My original design was supposed to be setup like a mini-activity book where I'd paste pics and list my favorite parts of my trip to WDW early May. Since I rescheduled my trip to a later date due to current events, I decided stick with a Disney journal theme featuring my favorite character.
I sketched a few design ideas in my sketchbook to figure out the best way to color Stitch. I avoided alcohol ink markers because they bleed through the thin pages of my journal. Yet I didn't have many Crayola water-based markers that matched Stitch's colors well. I decided to use a mix of colored pencils, pens, and markers in an attempt to keep close to Stitch's colors as possible.
I used the browser on my phone to find several Stitch drawings I wanted to replicate in my journal. I specifically mentioned my phone because I used it to trace a few of the Stitch sketches you'll see in the video and images in this post. I'd increase the brightness, place the phone under a page, and lightly trace the image with a pencil. I'd use an eraser to hold the page and phone in place so that my phone wouldn't think I'm zooming in or out of the image.
Yet I did freehand the other images to practice my sketching skills, but it was a little quicker to trace when my phone fit well under the page. So, if you see an image close to the book bind, I sketched those myself. I also sketched Scrump, the ducklings, and the books freehand because those are easy for me to sketch.
Title Page
Last month when I designed My Journal Spread for April 2020, I mentioned I rarely looked at a title page after I finish it. It's simply a page for me to practice my art skills, and I see nothing wrong with that. I consider it time well spent even though I'll probably never refer to it during the month of May.
However, I can't help but stare at the page. I feel like something's missing. Maybe I'll add some background color to make Stitch stand out more on the page. If you have any ideas for improvement, please let me know. If I don't apply it for this title page, I'll try it in a future design.
Calendar Overview
Unlike the title page, I do reference these pages regularly. Every night I fill-in the different areas of my journal, and then I review this page to see what's happening the next day or later in the week. I can view the same important dates on my digital calendar, but my other tasks and goals are currently only noted in my journal. Sometimes I need a reminder to keep working on the coloring book I want to publish.
Normally I use a light-colored marker or highlighter to write the date within its appropriate block of my calendar overview. Except I made a mistake while numbering the blocks. I used a light blue watercolor marker to fill-in the blocks to mask my errors. Fortunately, the attempt worked well.
I used my white gel pen to write over the blue colored blocks, and I liked the way it looked better than my original plan. It really stands out on the page, drawing my attention to the calendar first and foremost. I think the pages would've looked too plain if I stuck with my original plan.
Highlights and Trackers
The highlights page is my favorite page to add to every night. It reminds me to appreciate my life and identify at least one positive thing that happened each day. I think because I've done this for 9 months now, my overall mood by the end of the day have been more positive than before I started implementing creative BuJo elements in my journal.
This is especially important to me since I've spent most of my life feeling depressed, and I had a doctor a couple years ago try to have me evaluated for depression. Even after leaving work to focus on my self-care and happiness, I struggled to relax, de-stress, and feel happier. That is, until I started tracking the highlights of each day and when I take part in my favorite hobbies.
While many journal enthusiasts track their habits, I've tracked my hobbies with hopes of them becoming my habits. In fact, convincing myself to do this blog for at least 6 months have really helped with this motivation to do the simple things I like. I've found that because I've made a goal to post craft-related blogs at least once a week, I started crafting once a week. Now, because it's becoming a habit and I've received positive feedback from readers (friendly strangers) about my posts or related YouTube videos, I've started doing more arts and crafts for fun each week.
For May, I'm tracking the days I do some arts and crafts, writing, and gaming. In the past I've additionally tracked the days I "walked" my RCs, but I haven't been doing that in recent months. I'll use a colored marker to fill-in the blocks for the days I complete a hobby I'm tracking.
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
I'll note an S, R, or S+R on the appropriate line to indicate whether Shadow, Rascal, or both dogs participated in one of the 4 items I'm tracking that day. I've found that I'm bad at brushing their coats more often, so hopefully I'll remember to fill-in those lines more in May.
Mood and Wishlist
I'll confess that my birthday is taking place in May, but I won't tell you which day it is! Since I treat my mood tracker like a coloring page of sorts, I thought it was fitting to have Stitch holding a balloon for each day of the month. For some reason, I sketched the balloons too large to fit on a single page. I went ahead and let the design carry over onto the other page, but I wasn't sure what to do with the blank space.
I finally decided to treat the empty space as a birthday wishlist where I'll note the things I wouldn't mind having or doing on my special day. I enjoy lists for some bizarre reason, and I thought this would be a fun, short activity to do.
For grins, I added a balloon and gift box as my nod to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I jumped onto the Animal Crossing bandwagon and have been obsessed with the game since I started on April 1st.
Blog and Social Media Stuff
I still don't really know the best way to track my blog posts and social media attempts. I thought having a post schedule area would useful, since I've been doing just that this month. I also realized that I didn't need a large area for brainstorming, so I reduced the size of my ideas and notes area.
In April, I started uploading YouTube videos and Instagram photos. This wasn't part of my plan for taking a crack at blogging, but my site's analytics show that some of my blog visitors are coming from one of the 2 social media platforms I'm getting used to. I wasn't tracking what I posted and when, nor do I have a schedule in mind yet, but I decided to designate some space to do so for future YouTube and Instagram posts.
Long before I created my Simply Jelly Jam website and blog, I've maintained a CV and portfolio website for when/if I return to the higher education workplace. I've redesigned that website a couple months ago to make it more user-friendly. I started redesigning the portfolio part of the website until I thought a blog could serve as part of my presentation of beliefs, knowledge, and skills.
I didn't know how or what to do to best track my updates for my CV/portfolio/blog website. I just started the blog part of the website a couple weeks ago. For May, I'll try tracking ideas, notes, and post schedule until I determine exactly what I should be tracking for that site.
My Thoughts
It took hours to plan, sketch (even with tracing some Stitch images), and complete my May 2020 journal design. It was worth it, though. I love Stitch, so there's nothing I dislike about what I did. I'm still thinking about adding something to the title page, but I'm not yet convinced that doing so won't mess up the page. I guess that's OK because I can cover it up with a new sketchbook art.
What's Next?
I'm still playing around with the idea of creating a separate digital journal. Currently I'm trying to decide what program would work best for me. I'm leaning towards OneNote since I have the program on my desktop, laptop, and cell phone.
For the time being, I'll continue to plan design themes and trackers for my physical journal. Do you use a physical or digital journal? Login and Sign up to share how you use your journal or planner and the design you decided on for May.
Don't forget to subscribe below to be notified by email when I post something new.
Thanks, and have a great day!
Simply Jelly Jam
Comentarios