Visiting a art supply store can be overwhelming. Isles of paint, colored pencils, and dozens of options for paper confuse and bemuse my artistic vision. With so many options an artist can easily forget their purpose of their shopping spree to begin with.
To avoid overwhelm or overspending I decided to give myself one general guideline: Everything I acquire must be supplies for my bullet journal.
What is a Bullet Journal? I hear you ask. I would reply that a bullet journal, or bujo, is a creative, free-flowing agenda.
And my bullet journal is full of images and other found art that inspire me. This bullet journal is where I work on my writing, keep track of work-related projects, and attempt to maintain order in my life as a whole.
Here is a view of the items I purchased or was gifted in the last week or so. Some of cute little papers, washi tape, and a few pens in my favorite color scheme.
Sometimes I leave some pages nearly blank and let myself decide on the words at a later date.
Sometimes my bullet journal is more like a personal journal where I record memories and feelings alongside the ideas they give me for future posts here on HIVE or material for a future zine.
Lists of to-dos, an outline for my next post, cute cut outs of rabbits are all sharing space in this bullet journal. When I feel lost or uninspired, simply flipping through the ever-evolving pages does a great deal to remind me of my identity as an artist.
So, tell me, dear reader ... do you have a creative journal of some kind?
Love it!
What a gorgeous journal! I love keeping a notebook, and I try to keep it beautiful- but this is fantastic, WAY more fun to look at than any of my old stuff!
Thanks so much! I am really pleased that these pages have inspired you. My advice is to add in images whenever possible. Especially magickal ones 🕯✉
I like that!! This is my current notebook. I made some colorful designs on the cover, and occasionally do cool art inside, but mostly it’s checklists and lame stuff lol - you’ve inspired me to step up my game!
Wow! I love how you painted the cover. I imagine there is a lot of meaning behind the symbols and colors included. It is totally fine to have lists and boring aspects of the notebook. I suppose I like adding images and drawings to liven up the boring aspects of the book and life.
No im totally there with you, I want more beauty to adorn the mundane!
I was never into keeping journals but I’m glad that hive has helped you in some way to partake in this fun stuff! I do keep a note with all the posts I intend to write :D
Yes I do:)
And I love the little bouquet you sticked in it! Mine is usually full of text and flowers. And you do really inspire me to get more back into the collecting and collaging in it, it's so much fun (even though I also like full pages of little black words).
Oh and I hear your artistic struggles in the art supply shop!!
It is so sweet that you include flowers in your notebooks too! I am trying to do it more often, especially now that I am traveling back home and experiencing so many interesting flowers. I bet you encounter lots of beautiful blooms as you bike around!
It's kind of a nice way to track the travels I find, a bit like food is connecting you to the region, the plants as well change and remind you of a place later...:)
I love to see that glue stick, as well as the dried flowers.
They remind me of the past, where my siblings and I made Summer holiday scrapbooks.
Perhaps I should bring back the past in my current life, by doing something similar.
I probably have 5 to 10 different
journalsnotebooks, as I keep moving house and keep putting things in different places.I am not organized enough to keep one single journal at the same time and even rip out pages for groceries, to do lists (not that I make many) and so on, mutilating some of these books instead of caring for them.
This is inspiring though.
Perhaps I will start gluing things in a notebook too.
Giving more love and attention to my notebooks might lead to me actually using them in a more creative way.
Cheers for the reminder!✨❤️
So glad that you liked the flowers and glue stick! Recently I have been trying to include more flowers, especially when I get to visit a special places.
I totally understand your struggle. Normally I keep a few books at a time, one for each aspect of work or life. But, as I prepare to downsize and move in the next year I am trying to simplify life and keep everything in one (or two) notebooks. We will see how that goes in the long run.
One way to start is to keep two books, one that is more aesthetic and another that you can rip pages out of without feeling bad. I wish you luck!!