Get the Look: July Monthly Setup

Happy July!

Last up in my marathon of catching up with my monthly layouts is July! This time I'm proud to say that at least I'm posting it in the appropriate month! That being said, I plan to do my August layout on my shop Facebook Live tonight, so there's a very fine line on that being proud of it! If you haven't joined a FB live, definitely check us out! I typically go live each Tuesday at 8pm Eastern, subject to schedule changes!

If you're new here, I'm using one of Taylor Swift's albums each month for my monthly layout inspiration! For July's theme, I pulled entirely from a 4th of July t-shirt I bought a couple of years ago..It says "So Long London, est 1776" with a tall ship and fireworks. Regardless of everything happening in the world today, it's still pretty cool to see the 250th Birthday of the USA--I wish it were a bigger deal to be honest. I didn't know when I chose TTPD for July that it would ALSO be the month Taylor had an epic MSG wedding! So, it seems appropriate that TTPD be July's album, since it's the origins of So High School, the Alchemy, etc. 

To me, TTPD is filled with melancholy and longing. And for me, the long hot days of July always fill me with that-longing for it to cool off, feeling like Summer (whatever that means to a 40 year old with a full time office job) is going too fast and you're missing out, and ready for the excitement the last half of the year will bring. I channeled a little of all that into my July monthly too.  But, enough of that. Let's get down to July's monthly layout in my bujo.

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! (And the fact that this JUNE blog is being posted a stone's throw from August should tell you that those hopes are not the highest right now!)

Here's how to get the look for July's theme, inspired by The Tortured Poet's Department!  (IF you'd like to see exactly how I did the entire layout, you can watch the live replay here!)

For July, let's start with the cover page of my monthly layout! For this, I use 2 A5 pages of white dot grid notepad paper from Archer and Olive. You can grab their notepads here! 

To start, I use our Friendship Bracelet Monthly Header (May-Aug) to write our friendship bracelet month.  I typically use the included font, but to play into the Typewriter vibes of TTPD, I used our Typewriter Upper Case Stencil to add JUL to the bracelets.  Next, I use our Journaling Basics stencil for my at a glance calendar.  These two are my first steps every month. 

Next up, I used a bunch of stencils to pull out themes from TTPD: Big Ben (London Sidebars), Tower Bridge (London Landmarks), and Red/Blue Fireworks (Fireworks Scene Layered) for So Long London, Seagulls Flying Pattern Stencil for The Albatross, the Bow Variety Stencil for Clara Bow, the UFO Pattern Stencil for Down Bad, the Turn the Pages Pattern stencil for The Manuscript, and a Florida outline (Florida Vacation Variety), for Florida!!!.  The last stenciling thing I did was to use the Script Pattern, Coffee Stains, and Coffee Rings Stencils to add to the sepia/distressed books/tortured poet vibes of TTPD. 

Finally, I used stickers from some of my fave Swiftie small shops, but, as usual, we'll get to those at the end!

For my calendar, I used our Brush Boxes Calendar Builder stencil and a few colors of distressed oxide ink to create a watercolor-like finish on the calendar.  This month was a lot trickier to make than others, as the colors are already so muddy.  With a very light touch, we did make it work though!  Once I had finished with those, I used our Typewriter Font Lower Case stencil to write July. After that, I used several of the same stencils I used on our cover pages to bring out the TTPD theme.  Those were: Seagulls, London Sidebars, Script Pattern, Coffee Stains, Coffee Rings, UFO Pattern, Turn the Pages Pattern, and Florida Vacation Variety. Once again, I finished this layout up with some TTPD themed stickers which I'll tell you about in the end!



For my mood tracker this month, I used our UFO Pattern stencil and traced 31 UFOs to fit the page. I then used the Typewriter Font Loer Case stencil to write "July Mood" at the top. 



I have to say I'm really proud of this page.  I had the lyric "I'll go to secret gardens in my mind" stuck in my head, so I wanted that to come across on the page. I used our Books on the Brain stencil and carefully covered all the books up with washi tape. I then stenciled the girl onto the page.  Once I had finished that, I used our Regency Window stencil to add in the perfect little stone walled window in an ivy covered garden. It turned out SO cute! I then titled and numbered this page-I use it to write down one good thing that happens/I feel each day. 

And finally, here's the details on all the stickers/other products I used in this layout! 

For stickers, I used a selection of TTPD themed stickers from some of my fave shops: 
The TTPD Decoration Character Planner Sticker Sheet from Adorably Amy Designs, Various stickers from the TTPD Collection from SugarPopFizz, and stickers from the Era 11 Kit from Caffeine Queens!

I also used 20mm Tipin Tape from Lauren Phelps Designs to attach my notepad pages into my bullet journal.  This could also be done by gluing the pages in using a glue runner, but I love the ease of use, extra space, and ability to fold over that the Tipin Tape gives me! 

I use (and recommend for planners/journalers!) Tim Holtz Distress OXIDE ink! There were several shades of pink and blue 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. 

And that's curtain call on the July TTPD themed monthly layout!  I'm going to do my best to get August's up in a timely manner after tonight's live, but until them, I hope you enjoy my July setup!

<3
Courtney