Happy new year to all journalers and non-journalers! The arrival of the new year means a stressful, but exciting first few weeks for us devout bullet journalers (at least the ones who do the entire year‘s journaling all at once). Despite another lockdown cancelling all near-future plans, you’ll finally have time to start the bullet journal you may not know that you need! Bullet journals are a great way to sit down and have some you-time, as well as express and develop your creative side.

I found myself reaching back for the same few things throughout this journal. I had no set colour scheme when I started out, but kept returning to green, brown, and black and white as I went, so the washi tape sets (from Amazon) I was gifted were perfect. Along with the classic Tombow dual brush pens, gelly roll pens and gel pens from Paperchase have also become a part of my holy grail.

My journals often radiate chaotic energy, and every month is usually themed differently as I’m so indecisive. I was, however, set on including quotes from my favourite literary pieces. They were thus the only reoccurring pattern in my journal, but you can journal an entire year using one theme if you prefer that.

At first, I felt incredibly creative, as one usually does when starting out, and whipped out some cheap paint I’d bought from HobbyCraft. I’m no artist, but I love painting clouds, so I dedicated the month of January to that. Every week was a different colour, but all of them consisted a painting of clouds and a matching page for my planning.

After all that painting I didn’t want the rest of my journal to look disappointing in comparison to January. Still, there was absolutely no way I would put that much time and effort into the next months. One thing that has always worked for me is outlines, especially of skylines. Thus, a few of my months consisted of black and white ’city’ themes; my laziness rendered me incapable of continously tracing real cities, most of the buildings are just random lines.

When bullet journaling, I often find my inspiration online – Pinterest is your best friend. I’ve really been loving the beige newspaper/ripped brown paper vibe, but I‘ve never had any brown paper laying around until now. Wrapping paper usually has a roll of stiff, brown paper on the inside, so after christmas I was left with endless amounts and it’s been my absolute go to this year. Along with washi tape and drawings of little plant pots, they helped make super cute little spreads. I would absolutely recommend using glue to stick it down though, as washi tape is more decorative.
Whether you’ve journaled for a day or for years, these themes always work for me. Plants, buildings and the sky (whether it’s morning or night) are great and can be done in both simplistic and complicated styles. They’re a great to return to when you have no idea what to do. Perhaps bullet journaling is going to be your new 2021 hobby?

Header image credit: Celina Tran