I've not shared much from my Discagenda yet, but I thought I may as well share one of my February spreads today! I used a lot of the things that came in my February Brimbles Box, along with a few of my favourites that I use every week.
A little run down of what my Discagenda is used for, because I don't use it every day. I use this planner one a week on a Sunday to pretty much gather my thoughts and plans for the week ahead. More than anything it makes me sit at my desk, and wind down at the end of the week. I mark out important dates for the week ahead, write things I want to aim to do on certain days, and pop some weekly goals at the side. I then transfer most things across into my bullet journal planner as that's my functional planner. This is purely for me to enjoy sticking down stickers, and creating a pretty spread, plus I've found that it most definitely helps me to gather my thoughts.
I used the check list stickers on one of the sticker sheets in the February Brimbles Box to mark down some things I needed to remember to take with me to my trip to Nottingham. I found that these stickers work best when you write on them with a permanent marker of some kind. Plain gel ink pens just don't cut it. That's not a massive inconvenience for me though, I always have some sort of marker sitting on my desk!
I used quite a few of these little love bug stickers on this spread, they are so sweet! I combined the pink heart/lace style washi tape that came in the Brimbles box, with some brown squiggle washi tape. Then I added a popcorn sticker and the 'Date Night' sticker to mark a bit of chill time with Jack. He works in hospitality, so his shifts usually mean the closest we come to a date night is collapsing on a sofa with a film and stuffing our faces with popcorn. I'm totally fine with this being our version of a 'Date Night' though haha!
So that's how my planning spread turned out, I definitely love using things that correspond with one another in this planner! The Brimbles box is brilliant for this!
As soon as I opened my January Brimbles Box, I knew exactly where I was going to use it!
I recently got myself a new work planner in the Kikki-k sale, I went for a nice smart black one this time. The whole 'new year, smarten things up' vibe got me good. But seeing as black, gold and white was the main colour scheme, it meant that the January Brimbles Box was just perfect for this planner!
I decided to make myself some plain dividers out of white card, because even if I move out of this planner, or change up the dashboard somewhen, the sections in this planner will always stay the same. So it makes sense to have something that will go with any colour scheme, rather than remaking them each time.
I put together the DIY marble circle paper clips, I used a bit of E6000 glue and they stuck to the gold paper clip really well. I decided to attach the black marble one to the top of the mini dashboard to break up all the white marble a bit.
It was a very simple DIY but sometimes they are the most fun! Being able to quickly make a few random pieces into something useful, and pretty, is a really enjoyable, and relaxing process.
Of course I had to attach the amazing snowball charm to the planner! It's really nice to look over at my line up of planners and see something a little different, compared to the usual dangly charms I have attached to them. The large lobster clip on the end of it is really handy too, if it's getting in the way at all, or I want to move it about for a photo I don't have to open the planner rings to do so! I just unclip it and move it about.
I'm really happy with my current work planner setup, I love it when a planner is all colour coordinating! The Brimbles Box is definitely perfect for this. Anna's does a great job at designing the products in the boxes so they all coordinate brilliantly!
With this month's Brimbles box I decided to use the contents to decorate my journaling pages.
I recently went to see Zootropolis at the cinema with my brother, and seeing as it was a kind of fun film, the April box had lots of fun bright things that just went really well with what I was journaling about! I absolutely loved working with such bright colours, and fun stickers!
These journaling pages didn't have any photos on, I decided to just use the things I had collected during the day. We actually got given a free sticker book and stickers when we went to see the film, so of course I didn't turn that down. It was a lovely day spent with my brother, and I also beat a few anxiety worries, so definitely a day to be documented! Hence the use of the pink 'Documented' sticker on the page on the left.
I of course kept the cinema ticket to stick in! One of the many reasons I like buying tickets at the cinema rather than online, is because you get a 'proper' ticket. They look a lot nicer in a journal or scrapbook! We also got charged for teen tickets rather than an adult, which was highly amusing. I'm nearly 22 and my brother is 19... But hey! All I said was 'two tickets to see Zootropolis please' so I'm not going to complain if they want to charge us less. I used the cry laughing emoji sticker to represent the 'lols' we got out of that.
On the other side of the flap I stuck another one of the stickers we got, and I popped one of the little sticky tabs from the sticky notes that were in my Brimbles Box. I tend to use any sticky tabs that already have words on, like stickers. Because the film sticker was quite dark, the sticky tab really helps to break up all the dark colours. Without it there, it would have just looked really glum and bland.
I decided to keep my bus ticket from the trip to the train station as this was one of the things I was most anxious about doing. It's a nice little reminder that I managed it, and didn't freak out! I stapled this to the page so it could easily be lifted up, and I could put things underneath it.
Underneath I added one more sticker we got at the cinema, and used this orange 'Admit One' washi tape, which was also from eBay, to decorate around it. I added one of the striped flag banner stickers from the sticker sheet in my Brimbles Box to the corner of the Zootropolis sticker. It felt a little bare without something there, so this small addition helped to fill the gap.
At the bottom of this page I wanted to add a little cluster of washi & stickers, just to help balance the pages out a bit. I went ahead and added some more of the film strip & heart washi, and then added this yummy looking donut sticker! Once we got home I ended up having a nap, watching tv & eating 'crappy' food, even though I didn't have a donut, the donut does represent the type of food I went for, haha!
Once I'd done the journaling I decided to go over random words and phrases with the highlightersthat came in my Brimbles Box. I love this technique when it comes to journaling, but I've never had more than two colours of highlighter to do it with. Now I have a whole set, so I did go a little bit crazy! I love how it turned out though, there was so much colour going on around the edges of the journaling, the written section looked very bare in comparison.
Hopefully you enjoyed seeing how I used a lot of the items from this month's box! I really enjoyed using them to decorate my journaling pages!
Can we say 'Spring has sprung' yet?! Are we officially there? Well spring definitely sprung on this Pocket Letter I made!
If you saw my video on Monday (It'll be at the bottom of this blogpost if you missed it!), then you would have seen that this month most of the ladies in the Mrs Brimbles Design Team are taking part in a blog hop (makes sense, bunnies and all!!).
We used most of the contents of our Brimbles Boxes from March to create some happy mail for one another. I was creating a pocket letter for the lovely Charlie from Sea Salt & Paper!
I'm going to talk through my thought process when creating this pocket letter, if you want to know where all the supplies are from, then take a look at the description on the video, as I listed them all there!
Top Row
So to start things off, in the top left pocket I used part of a Belle & Boo postcard for the backing card. It had a really cute section to write the address on, so I decided to have that side facing forwards. I added some brown twine along the edge as there was a large blank space next to it.
The middle card is part of the postcard from the Brimbles Box, I felt so bad chopping this bunny in half, but I think it turned out looking really nice. Postcards are a nice addition to Pocket Letters as they don't involve too much decorating, of course it'd be a bit boring if you used postcards in all of the pockets. But every now and again it's a good plan if you are struggling with what to fill a pocket with. I also added some of the felt flower shapes to the front, and put a few more of the felt shapes in the back.
The last pocket on this row is a washi pocket! For the backing card I used some packaging from the Belle & Boo letter set, and I wrapped the actual washi tape around some of the packaging from the packet of felt shapes! I put another card with washi tape on in the back of the pocket and added a bit of brown twine to the top so it pokes out.
Middle Row
I used the same pink backing card for the pocket on the left, I decided to use this card a couple of times as I thought the colours were perfect, and as I was going to have a lot going on as it is, I didn't want to add too many different colours into the mix. I made this pocket into a sticker pocket, and added some of the stickers I was putting in the pocket, to the front along with some washi tape for decoration.
The middle pocket was the pocket I had the actual letter in. I chose to use more of the Belle & Boo writing set packaging for this! I debated whether to stick it to some other patterned card, but decided to leave it by itself and have a little see through window instead! I folded up the letter, decorated it, and added that in.
The last pocket on this row was a paperclip pocket. I used the other half of the postcard I used in the first pocket on the first row, as the backing card. But this time I had the front showing. I tried a couple of ways to attach the paperclips, but this way worked the best. I simply stapled a strip of card to the backing card and folded it over, then I just clipped on the paperclips.
Bottom Row
I added another sticker pocket on this pocket letter, I feel like you really can't go wrong with stickers! I'd used a few stickers from this sticker pad on the actual pocket letter, so it made sense to send some in the pocket. The backing card in this pocket, again, was some of the card from the felt shapes packaging!
This middle pocket I decided to try something new. These carrot tags came in the Brimbles Box, and I wasn't sure what to do with them. I did think about painting one, and then I had a pretty simple idea of punching out some shapes in the colours of carrots! I actually didn't have any orange paper to hand, so I used part of a colour guide booklet I'd recently picked up from Homebase. I'm actually really happy with how this turned out, it kind of acts a bit like a shaker pocket!
In this last pocket I added some twine and ribbon. I stapled some 'samples' of the different things I'd included in this pocket to the front of the card, and then on the outer plastic of the pocket I stuck down some washi and stickers for decoration.
This is what the front & back of the finished pocket letter looks like! I really enjoyed challenging myself to use mostly things from my Brimbles Box, I think I did quite well. I tried out some new techniques, and overall I think it looks super Springy!
I added some yellow twine along the left hand side and also going across the bottom section in a bow. This is something that's easy to add to a pocket letter and definitely helps to make that left hand side a little less bare.
I folded up the pocket letter and added a little bit of ribbon, along with this adorable bunny die cut I got from Noodoll. I've been hoarding him for a while, and haven't been sure what to do with him, so I'm glad he is now going to do a bit of travelling!
If you want to see the process video of how I put this pocket letter together, from start to finish, then you can do so here:
Don't forget to head over to Charlie's blog HERE, and have a look at what she created!! Here's a little sneak peak for you:
I hope you enjoyed seeing what I did for this fun little Easter blog hop!
You can find links to all the blogposts in the blog hop on Anna's post which is HERE.
Also don't forget to give them all a follow whilst you are over there! They are all wonderfully creative ladies, and run such lovely blogs.
I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend, whatever you end up doing!
So in November I received the Happy Mail Brimbles Box, inside was lots of Christmassy goodies which were of course intended to be used to create Happy Mail! But between then and now, things have been so busy, I just have not had the time to write any letters to my penpals. I thought I was moving, then it was postponed. I went up north for a few weeks, and left my camera at home 300 miles away. Everything was all last minute and completely all over the place.
BUT over the past week I've finally managed to catch up with myself a little bit! I decided to go through my November Happy Mail box and use some of the things in there to decorate my journal pages.
Just before Christmas I bought myself the Canon Selphy printer, so I'm now able to incorporate photos into my journaling! In my Christmas planning insert I left some space to add some journaling, so that's what I am showing you today.
I thought it'd be nice to have the planning, the progress and some journaling from Christmas 2015, all in one place. I might also keep this insert to use again next year as there's still plenty of space left in it even after I added a few pages of journaling!
One of the things I wanted to use were the adorable Christmas Gift Tags, I think they work perfectly to fill in some blank space and decorate the page. I layered it up with one of the Santa Sticky Notes, I feel like these have a massive variety of uses instead of just being used to jot notes down on.
I chose to round the corners of most of my photos, but for the one of my dog I wanted to add some little kraft paper corners to it, just to mix things up. I did this by simply cutting the four corners off of a kraft paper sticky note from Tiger, and then gluing them over the corners of the photo. I used my nail to dent them down so the edge of the photo's showed through, and gave a little bit of a '3D' effect.
The Owl sticker is from a 2014 Paperchase set, so I'm not sure you can find this in stores anymore.
At the bottom of the page I used the Christmas Ribbon & the Fair Isle Christmas Washi Tape from my Happy Mail Brimbles Box! I also used some other washi tape I had and the Gold Glitter Tape from Cloudy Cow. The layering I created at the bottom with these tapes and ribbon, is one of the thing I enjoy the most when it comes to decorating my journal pages.
Again the Christmas Pudding sticker is from the same Paperchase pack from 2014.
Over on this page I had some spare snowflake cellophane I picked up from Wilkos, and attached it over the top of the photo. Because the photo had a lot of black on it, adding the snowflakes helped to break that up, and they also show up really well on the black background. I attached it with staples as glue would have shown through. I then stuck a little collage of stickers and washi tape on top of it.
Last of all I added this photo of me and my boyfriend on Christmas Day both wearing the same Christmas jumper (just in different colours). We did this without knowing, we are currently going long distance so it was a nice little connection we had that made us feel a little closer (Ps. 'Scuse the cruddy lighting he took the photo in, which makes him look like a tomato).
I layered this photo on top of the left over kraft sticky note I had from cutting the corners off for the photo on the opposite page. Then I used my Typewriter Alphabet Stickers from Hobbycraft to add the word 'Matching' below the photo.
I drew some little stars around the photo and added another little collage of stickers at the bottom of the page in the blank space, and that was it!
Even though the Brimbles Boxes have specific themes and uses, they really can be used for whatever you want. Cards, and writing paper can be used as backgrounds or to add a section of journaling to a page, tags and stickers can be used for decoration. You just have to think outside the box and see what you can come up with!
I hope you enjoyed seeing how I used my Happy Mail box for journaling!
(My desk, ft. my boyfriend on my desktop! Check out my intro on Mrs B's blog for more exclusive snaps! X)
So first of all, I wanted to take the time to announce/celebrate being chosen to be a part of the Mrs Brimbles Design Team! Excited is most definitely an understatement!
I know it's been a few weeks since the Design Team was announced, but I've not yet had a chance to mention it on here, so I thought it was about time!
If you would like to have a read of my official introduction then take a nosey over on Anna's blog, by clicking here.
Since I'm on the Design Team, I will be sharing lots of fun projects, stationery goodies and unboxings on here and on my YouTube channel!
I've always loved the products Anna sells and the boxes she puts together, so I'm really happy to be working with her and the other wonderful ladies on the team!
I thought I'd share a couple of snaps of this months Happy Mail Brimbles Box!
The Brimbles box is a stationery/planner/happy mail subscription service (though you can buy an individual box if you like), this means you get a box full of stationery goodies sent to your house every month! I have done an unboxing of this particular box over on my channel, which you can have a look at by clicking here.
There were plenty of gorgeous products in this box, but my favourite is most definitely this 'hello' stamp. I have legit been using it on everything haha! Love it love it love it!!
That's all for today, I just wanted to pop on really and share a little update and a few photos with you guys. If you aren't already following Anna's blog, then head over there and do so! She runs a lovely blog full of all the crafty/planner related adventures she gets up to :)
I'm sure a lot of you know by now that I am subscribed to the Brimbles Box ! I have been since the lovely Anna started them back in January (I still can't quite believe is May already ... 2015 is flying by!).
I uploaded an unboxing video, but now I have a blog, I felt like it was the perfect opportunity to show you guys a few photos of everything I got, in a little more detail.
There was so much beautiful stationery goodness (much like all the other Brimbles Boxes I have bought!). My favourite item has to be the 'Busy Bee' pencil case, the design is just UGH LOVELY!! There were a few things in the box that I had seen/owned before. But that really doesn't bother me, especially when they are items that I have loved and used up super quickly!
This stamp (Above) was tricky to show on the video, because it's very detailed, it makes the printed image looked blurred. I don't usually use this sort of stamp, I tend to go for more simplistic designs? So I'm yet to decide if I will keep this, or put it in my RAK box to send it off to a new home. When you purchase a 'surprise' sort of box, there's bound to be at least one thing in there which isn't to your liking (saying that I've been rather lucky up till now, I've used pretty much everything I've received in my Brimbles Boxes!), I don't think it's a bad thing. You get so much stuff for such a brilliant price, it's worth taking the plunge!
I always always always! Look forward to seeing what beautiful artwork Anna has created for the postcard (and the dashboards that are in the planner boxes, but I get the stationery box, so this is the only bit of Anna's art I receive!), her talents never fail to amaze me! Her style is so adorable and I love the little rosy cheeks she adds.
I thought I would show a close up of the contents of the die cuts pack. I have had these before, I completely love them! They are perfect for pocket letters and other smaller projects. Plus isn't the colour scheme just beautiful?! I picked these and another style up from Hobby Craft the last time I went, I'm pretty sure I've also seen them in the Range too!
Of course I had to share a close up of the beautiful washi tape I received. This is two of the items I have had before. They come in a set together and I get through this washi like there is no tomorrow! I absolutely love the colours, the designs, just everything about this washi is sooo me! I've tried using it sparingly in the past, but that was just a no go. I'm super happy to have another set again. My local Wilkinsons that usually stocks it, haven't had any in stock for a while now which was a bit of a bummer.
Lastly this adorable note card which was designed by Jolly Gnome ! I've been racking my brains trying to figure out if I should use it for it's intended purpose and send it out to someone. Or if I should keep it for my Smash Book?! I think I'm going to have to wait until I create a Smash Book page with all the other things from this Brimbles Box, and see if there is any space for it on the page!
If you would like to see the full unboxing of this May Brimbles Box, then take a look at the video below:
