Get the Look: April Monthly Setup
Happy Spring (ish)!
I can't believe how fast March flew by and I cannot believe it's (almost) April! It's a big month for me-a lot of little events, two beach vacations(!) and, most scarily, my 40th birthday. I like to think I'm being calm cool and collected about it, but a friend asked me this morning how I'm doing as I live my last few days in my 30s--and then I talked about how I'm totally fine and not bothered, but also that I feel like I've accomplished nothing in my life. Soooo, needless to say, I might be ok, but I'm not fine at all.
Which leads me into my April Taylor Swift album theme-Fearless. When I started thinking about a word for this year, I came upon "Celebrate" as a way to celebrate all the big and little things in life--but also knowing that this day would come soon. Functionally, 40 isn't really any different than 39 and 11 months and 29 days, but it feels a whoooole lot bigger. It's the difference between age range 30-39 and the whole next step---40-49. (Am I the only one who does not like that at all?!) Planning these albums per month was hard--I wanted to be able to fit them. I originally intended to use Speak Now for this month--because it's the end of a decade, but the start of an age. Alas, I ended up using it for February--and landed on Fearless. Fearless for my 40th, Fearless for what comes next in life, and Fearless for the next chapter.
Fearless was never my *favorite* album, but I like it a lot. *However*--then June 9th, 2023 happened and Taylor came out to play Fearless in Detroit. We were 3rd row on the floor and Taylor's stage crew sat her microphone stand feet away from us. I don't know if I'll ever get over that moment. Needless to say, it's made Fearless one of my all time favorite songs.
STILL--I'm not really a yellow and gold girlie, so I knew the Fearless theme would be a little hard to capture to my liking in my Bullet Journal! So, let's get down to business and see how I made it happen!
First, one monthly disclaimer: I will post direct links to items not from my shop when possible. If they're not available (or in the case of a few shops, if I've pulled from several sheets of the same thing) I'll post the shop link/collection link whenever possible. I'm not planning on keeping track of the exact colors of Distress Oxide Ink I use, but this is typically my go to ink. I won't be mentioning tools that I use when making these layouts, such as washi to hold down the stencils, pens/markers used, or the brushes & other tools I use to apply ink (or other media) to stencils. I do hope to get my life together and do a post about tools I typically use soon though!
Here's how to get the look for April's Fearless theme! (IF you'd like to see exactly how I did the entire layout, you can check out our YouTube channel for the FB Live replay of the April setup here!)
First up, as per usual, I started out with our Friendship Bracelets Monthly Header Stencil Jan-Apr Stencil! This is the last month for this one! I can't believe we're already a third of the way through the year with these! Once I had traced the bracelet and colored in the APR letters, I used Zebra Mildliners in gold(ish?) and yellow to complete the theme. Then I made an April at a glance calendar on the opposite page with our Journaling Basics Stencil. This is essentially how I start this layout every month. Once I get those basics done, it's time for the fun! Before I start each month's layout, I've been brainstorming the album's songs, fun easter eggs, lyrics, etc. Then I go through my stencils and pull out anything I think would fit the vibe of the album, have little nods (Like the books for love story, the footballs for the boy on the football team, etc) or any fun patterns that just feel right. For this month, I settled on a few that just made sense to me: The Football Pattern Stencil, Butterflies Pattern Stencil, Music Notes Pattern Stencil, Turn the Pages Pattern Stencil, Star Variety Cover Stencil, XOXO Stencil, and the Hearts and Dots Stencil. For these stencils, I took the stencil and moved them around on my pages until I felt like I had the right position, then I would washi it down and put some of the pattern on the page. I like to cover a small portion with each pattern and do a bit of fading out of it. I find that this has given me the look I've wanted, at least so far this year. I used a lot of the same colors this month, but made sure to differentiate a bit, like by using a different yellow or brown. After I was done with that, I filled in any gaps I had with the heart hands and guitar from the Musical Eras Volume 2 Stencil. After that, I used a few different sticker sets from some of my fave sticker shops to finish off the cover page of my April Fearless monthly! You'll hear more about this at the end of this post!
The next thing I like to do for my monthly setup is take care of the monthly calendar. I start with using the Brush Boxes Calendar Builder A5 Stencil to make the actual calendar. To get the look of the inked boxes, I use a 3-5 different colors and swirl them around in each box. This works better when there's more varied colors, but I was surprised how nicely the yellow/gold/brownish colors turned out! After that, I added the month to the top of our calendar using the Marker Upper Case Font Stencil. From there, I used some of the same stencils from the first two pages to add a little more variety to the borders. Because the calendar takes up a lot of space, it's hard to get everything on there that you want--so choose your favorites for the monthly calendar! Here's what I used: The Football Pattern Stencil, Butterflies Pattern Stencil, Musical Eras Volume 2 Stencil, Music Notes Pattern Stencil, and the Turn the Pages Pattern stencil. Once I had finished that, I numbered the days on the calendar & then used stickers to complete the look! When I was gathering the Fearless themed stickers that I have, I noticed I had two themes--one was more romantic and polished and the other more fun and doodle-y vibed. I decided to split these up and use all of one for the cover and the more doodled vibe for the calendar! (Again, you'll hear about where they're from at the end!)
Next up, I made my April Mood tracker page! While this isn't super strictly Fearless themed, I thought the vibe still fit--and it's my Birthday month, so you know I had to! This was pretty simple to make, even if it did take the longest out of any of the pages! I only used the Birthday Party Stencil for this page! The key to making this fit is to start at the bottom and do your best to squeeze in balloons wherever you can! It's a bit of a challenge to make them all fit--and I was definitely glad April only had 30 days! I numbered each balloon when I was finished and added in the header and some music notes in the white empty space! Throughout the month, I'll use mildliners to color in coordinating colors to my moods!
For the last page of my setup, I numbered 1-30 on one side of the page and added a header. I filled in the right side of the page with the Guitar and Music Bars Stencil! For this page, I will add one good thing/thing that made me happy each day! I find it's a good practice in gratitude and "celebrating" all the good things that happen to me each day, regardless of if they're big or small!
And lastly, here's all the details on the other goodies I used to make bring the Fearless vibes of this monthly setup to reality! I don't specifically mention things like the ink brushes I use, the extra washi tape I use for holding stencils down, scissors, pens, etc.
First up, my notebook and the extra paper I use are from Archer and Olive. The journal is a 192 page A5 dot grid for my bullet journal, though there's a variety of design options in this size. As for the notepad paper, it's currently out of stock, so if anyone knows someone at Archer & Olive, I desperately need that to come back (I'm hoping to have enough for the full year but it'll be close!). I attach my loose notepad pages using Tipin Tape from Lauren Phelps Designs. There are two sizes of this and it just depends on how you feel about clear tape covering some of your page. I tend to think the smaller size is harder for me to get down smoothly so I use the 20mm size, but both work great.
I use (and recommend for planners/journalers!) Tim Holtz Distress OXIDE ink! There were several shades of yellow & brown used for this layout, but in general, the Oxide ink is the best bet for minimal ghosting, no bleeding, and smooth blendability. You can find these at most major craft stores both in person and online--but make sure you look for the word Oxide on the packaging, or that the plastic case the ink is in is gray and not black! If you'd like to support an independent craft store, my favorite local one is Scrappy Chic in Livonia, Michigan.
For the stickers, it got really fun! You might have noticed that the cover page was more realistic and romantic while the monthly calendar had a more doodled and fun vibe! I used stickers from several of my favorite shops for both these looks!
On the romantic vibes side, I used stickers from the Fearless Collection from Sugar Pop Fizz! For the calendar page, I used some of the extras I had from Sugar Pop Fizz, in addition to the Fearless Character sheet from Adorably Amy Designs and the fearless deco sheet from The Sticker Party!
Overall, this month was a pleasant surprise, and I'm really happy I did it--it feels Happy (Free, confused, and lonely) in the best way--I'm excited for it to be a part of my 40th birthday month celebration!
This month will be a bit hectic for me, but if you see this before April 2nd, make sure you check out the shop at night! I'm planning on doing a flash 40% off sale for my birthday (to be followed by a real bday sale in May!)
Come back next month for May's theme-Debut!
Have a great month!
<3 Courtney