Get the Look: March Monthly Setup
Hey Stencil friends!
Spring is finally around the corner as March begins! I can't wait for more sunshine, green grass, flowers, and trees! Next month is my 40th birthday, so I'm hoping to savor this last month of my 30s. That being said, April is filled with beach time, so I'm also looking forward to that too!
If you're new here, I've been choosing one of Taylor Swift's 12 albums for each month's theme of 2026! For March, I decided that the green/teal and orange color pattern of The Life of a Showgirl was a perfect match for March. It's a hopeful album which is perfect as Spring inches closer and days get longer!
As I started the third month of this new monthly style, I realized that I'm starting to love the challenge of pulling small elements from the themes and songs of the albums (like the I <3 NY for the lyric "be my NY when Hollywood hates me!") and translating them to one stenciled (and stickered!) page. I can't wait to have each of the months done so I can flip through and see both how this style layout has changed throughout the year, and to flip through all the albums.
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!
New this month: If you're wondering exactly how I made this layout, you can check my YouTube channel out! Here is a link to the FB Live replay from this layout creation!
For now, though, here is how you can get my January monthly setup look:
For the front pages of this month's layout, I started by going through my stencil stash to pull out any stencils I thought matched the general album vibes or songs. Each month, I'm starting with our Friendship Bracelets Monthly Header Stencil Jan-Apr stencil. I used Zebra Mildliners to color in the beads and the included fonts to make the MAR letters in the bracelet. Next up, I added a small monthly calendar with the Journaling Basics Stencil. Once those are set up, I started building our backgrounds!
When I'm putting ink to paper on backgrounds, it's the most fun & creative time for me. There's a lot of opportunity to customize what I want my layout to look like and to play with different combinations of ink colors, layering stencils, etc. If this is something you're nervous about, you can always grab a piece of scrap paper and practice until you get the look you want! I like to have each stencil have a certain area of my page and fade it out around the edges. Here are the patterns that I used in this spread: Glimmering Pattern Stencil, Martini Glass Pattern Stencil, Showgirl Confetti Stencil, Open Hexagon Pattern Stencil, Football Pattern Stencil, Locks Pattern Stencil, and Lightning Cover Stencil.
Finally for the stencils, I pulled out two more stencils, the New York City 2 stencil and the Bead Strand stencil to add some details to pull the entire layout together. The beads are the "strings of pearls" from The Life of a Showgirl and the "I <3 NY" is to represent the lyrics "Be my NY when Hollywood hates me" from the album.
And lastly for this spread, I finished it off with a variety of different stickers from some of my favorite Swiftie owned shops! I'll tag those all and break them down in the final part of this post!
For the calendar portion of my monthly layout spread, I started with my favorite calendar builder stencil-the Rounded Brush Boxes Calendar stencil. I used the same faux watercolor technique I described in previous months with TLOAS colored inks. For the background, I used a combination of stencils like I did on the monthly cover page- (Linked above:) Martini Glass Pattern Stencil, Glimmering Pattern Stencil, Showgirl Confetti Stencil, Open Hexagon Pattern Stencil, and Lightning Cover Stencil, as well as added accents from a few others: The Kisses Stencil, The Beaded Jewelry Maker Stencil, and our showgirl on the side from the Showgirl Stencil! Once I finished adding those details, I wrote "March" above my calendar using our Showgirl Font Upper Case Stencil. I colored this in with mildliners! Finally, to complete the layout I numbered the calendar boxes with March's days, wrote the days of the week across the top, and then added some fun TLOAS themed stickers (I'll link the shops at the end)!
For the mood tracker, I kept it simple and once again used the Martini Glass Pattern Stencil (linked above!) I traced out 31 of these with a pen, then kept the pattern going by using ink to fill the rest of the page with lightly inked Martini glasses for the background. I added the title and then numbered each glass. And that was a quick and easy way to make a mood tracker! As you can see from these spreads, one great thing about stenciling is the ability to use stencils repeatedly and for different purposes. This month was definitely about all the uses for a Martini Glass stencil! 
For the final page of this spread, a One good thing a day page, I once again used stencils we've been using already in this collection! The (new!) Open Hexagon Stencil was paired with the football pattern stencil to create a side bar with lots of free space for writing! Each day I'll add in something that happened that was good that day. I'll admit that sometimes this is a hard thing to do, but it's definitely rewarding to see how many good things happen to me, even when they seem so small sometimes. After I numbered the other side of the page and added a title, that was it for my March spread!
Finally, here's a breakdown of the items I used for these spreads that aren't from my shop! As usual, I won't be mentioning all the small things like scissors, "junk" washi tape used to hold down stencils, pens (Though Sharpie Pen felt tips are my fave!), pencils, and even Mildliners. I also don't mention specific inking brushes as I vary greatly depending on my needs, but you can find some options in our Other Items section!
To start off, my notebook and the notepad paper I use are A5 dotgrid from Archer and Olive. I like using a 192 page A5 dot grid for my bullet journal, and 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.
As usual, I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink for my spread. This time in a few different shades of orange, teal, and green. Specifically the Oxide ink is great for beginners and for planners as it's smooth, blendable, and wont bleed (and rarely ghosts) on paper. They've just come out with a mini version of the Distress Oxides so it's a great option. Make sure they're in the gray containers, not the black one! You can find this at most craft and hobby stores and online stores, but if you'd like to support one of my favorite independent stores, you can find them at Scrappy Chic online (or in person if you're in Michigan!)
As for stickers, I've specifically been collecting Life of a Showgirl stickers since before the new album came out! I went through my stash (and ordered a few more!) and used bits and pieces of the Life of a Showgirl/Showgirl collections from two of my favorite Swiftie owned stores: Caffeine Queens and Sugar Pop Fizz! Both shops have a ton of Swiftie inspired stickers that you'll see repeatedly throghout this series! The best part is they coordinate so well together! For the Statue of Liberty sticker on the Cover page, I used a sticker from Adorably Amy Design's 1989 sheet (you'll see more when we get to 1989!)
And that's it! Another month of a Taylor Swift inspired layout down! I'll be working on April's Fearless theme before I know it! (And thank goodness because April is a month filled with fun and vacations and birthdays for me!)
Until then, happy Stenciling!
Courtney