DECEMBER 2021 Plan With Me // Bullet Journal Monthly Setup

[Music] hello guys and welcome to the final bullet journal setup video of this year if you're new around here hi my name is anna and today we are setting up this soft and calm december layout together i usually like to set up something overall wintry for december rather than something that screams christmas but i do think that this setup would also work as a very neutral toned christmas layout but now let's open up the bullet journal and we are starting the day from this winter village painting that is probably my favorite painting in a while i painted this on a separate watercolor paper this is from the canson xl watercolor pad and then we are going to start this picture from a light pencil sketch we are using mainly watercolors for this painting but also having a white wash paint is very useful to create all these snow accents i think it's much easier to approach a picture like this one small section at a time because otherwise it gets overwhelming pretty fast so i just started to sketch the initial outlines for the houses first you really don't need to think about any final details in this point we're just trying to set up the layout and figure out the directions of the houses if you want a little bit easier approach you could draw all the houses facing the same direction but i decided to switch the directions of the houses a little bit to add more interesting look to this painting then you can also start considering some places for the trees in the background and basically i just added a tree everywhere that had an empty looking space they can also be different sizes and colors so i think trees are very useful filler elements in a painting like this then i added some pencil guidelines also for your details like the windows and doors in the houses it is always easier to start the coloring process if you have some guidelines in place but now that we have some sort of a sketch here let's move on to the watercolor part i actually started everything by creating this neutral brownish layer for the sky i know it looks a little bit weird for now but in the end when we have all the other colors in place it will blend much better to the background but then after the sky we can start adding some initial color layers also to the houses i kind of worked on the houses in a few different rounds so this first round will be just some very light background colors then on the second round we'll start to add some details on the houses and lastly there will be kind of a finishing round to fix any small mistakes so i went with this very light and neutral color palette for this painting which is probably my favorite part about it this was actually very inspired by an amazing artist on instagram that i followed recently her account is dana sarah her design and i honestly think she deserves way more recognition so go give her a follow if you like this style but anyway now it's time to start adding all the small details that i started from this tallest tower building here you can honestly come up with any combination of window shapes colors maybe some stone or wood accents in the buildings and mixing up all of that will give a very interesting look to the painting in the end [Music] i kind of tried to avoid making the building similar and instead tried to come up with something different for each house but this is also completely up to you so feel free to change that if you want then i always went with a slightly darker color for the windows and i went over it with the white gouache paint to create these window panels i also used the white paint to add some snow on the roofs and later i also added to the trees to create a very wintery look to this painting also i think it was much easier to start with very light colors for the houses because you can always add some darkness to the shadow areas but with watercolors it's much more difficult to go lighter from the initial color you chose also something to keep in mind is that in a painting like this that has a lot going on everywhere you don't need to be super perfect with all the details because eventually you won't really be looking at any single place on this painting the end result will be much more about the overall look and style [Music] creating this amount of details will definitely take quite a while i think i spent at least a good five or six hours on this painting and if you want to create something similar but don't want to invest quite as much time on it you always have the option to only do half the size and create a one-page cover for the monthly theme i actually think that something like that would also work very well as a handmade christmas card [Music] do [Music] but now that i finished the details on these houses i just fixed some of the white details that got a little bit blended to the background and also added some final shadows and the snow on the trees i thought that adding some shadow around the houses made them stand out a little bit better from the background so that's why there's almost this shadow halo surrounding them and then as the very last step i decided to add some snow to the sky by just tapping on the white gouache paint i think i'll edit this painting a little bit and add it to my shop and as always you'll also find a digital version of this whole monthly theme from there and currently i actually have all these stickers and art prints at 20 off because i'm selling out my whole current stock i'm planning to completely rebrand and improve the shop in the beginning of 2020 so unfortunately the current sticker designs and most of the r prints are not coming back anymore so if there there's something you're interested in now's the time the link to the shop is always in the description but no pressure whatsoever and i think that's all about advertising for now and let's jump back to this painting so next i cut this in half to be able to attach it to the journal and i actually had this whole idea to create this two layer decoration system and add some snowflakes here around the painting but while i was creating this i didn't really like how it looked and i felt like it kind of was taking away from the painting itself so eventually i decided to just remove that attempt and just leave the painting like this if you like the version with the snowflakes better feel free to create it for yourself but this time i decided to go with the simpler look and the only thing i added was this december titled this sky but after that our monthly cover page is finally done and now we can flip over to the next page so here we're going to set up a bigger monthly calendar and i started by using some of these beautiful handmade papers i recently received from notebook therapy these colors honestly went too perfectly with the color theme of this whole month and i thought this would also be a pretty easy step to just skip if you don't happen to own these or you could easily replace these papers with any kind of craft paper you might have at home but i ended up choosing this ivory speckle paper and i ripped some of it to the top and bottom part of this page i actually think that the ivory tone clashed a little bit with my notebook page color i'm using an archer and olive journal and the paper in these is more on the very cool and crispy white side but after i was done with the whole spread i didn't really notice it that much anymore then i decided to use some regular brown craft paper to add some color to this spread so we're actually writing the title and the calendar on these this time i rounded the corners with this corner rounding tool i got from amazon all the links to the products are listed in the description by the way and if i forget to add something just remind me in the comments and i'll fix it right away this craft paper is actually sticker paper so it's super easy to apply to the journal but having something like this is completely optional of course you can always just glue any kind of paper in a notebook so next we are writing the december title on here and i decided to go with a white title this time then i wanted to create this white border for the weekday titles and i was actually having so much trouble with all my white pens this month so after i had struggled with these half dried pens i just went ahead and used the same white gouache paint i used previously and i think it was actually a technique that i should use more in the future as well [Music] but anyway now that this very simple calendar side is done let's move on to the page next to it so i didn't really have anything specific i needed this page for so i just decided to leave this page for some positivity and gratefulness so i titled these things i'm grateful for i try to have space like this in my blood journal at least almost every month because just writing this type of stuff down instantly puts you in a better mood but then let's move on to this empty corner here and i decided to save this for a small drawing so i really wanted to paint a little bit cuter style animal here and after thinking about it for a while i decided to go with this baby owl as always we're starting off with a simple pencil sketch and i think right away you can notice how big the eyes are in here having these very big cartoony looking eyes will make it much easier to create that cute look to your characters so that's exactly what i tried to do here i've kind of been trying to find my own style recently especially for these types of animal drawings so this baby owl was kind of also one of my practice animals but after we have some sort of pencil sketch ready i reached out for my watercolors again i started to color this with these similar neutral brown and crease tones i think it's usually easier to start painting any animals with some light brownish colors so that's kind of what i did here as well and incredibly i started to darken the colors i started to consider the placement of the details a little bit more [Music] and after having some color here in place i actually went ahead and colored the eyes which is a black pen and then to keep those white highlights in the eyes you can always go over the black pen with some kind of white paint or with your white pen one thing i was kind of struggling here was the facial expression of this owl because it started to have this kind of a little bit sad puppy eye type of expression so i tried my best to modify the shadows around the eyes a little bit which is usually the best way to change the facial expression but i also didn't want this owl to start looking too angry or anything so i was kind of struggling with this step a little bit but then lastly i colored this ever cream branch and also added some snow to this picture again and that's finally it for this wintry baby owl drawing next we're moving on to an easy monthly plan page which i honestly don't really need this month i actually spent most of december in finland to celebrate holidays with my family so i'll kind of be taking a forced vacation from my work while i'm there but anyway before that we're continuing with these craft paper titles here i used this first page to list three of the most important things i need to get done this month and then the other spread here will be just an empty space for some brain dump i don't know about you guys but i also feel like i get a lot of ideas and inspiration when i'm taking a break so if you're having some time off during december as well maybe having some kind of empty space like this in your setup might be useful but after that let's move on to this empty space in the bottom part of this whole spread and we're actually going to create this white winter village decoration here again but i think this approach will be a little bit easier than what we did on the cover page painting i actually got a lot of inspiration this month from just christmas home decoration and i saw quite a few arrangements like this with some trees and white houses so we're going to paint directly onto the notebook this time and i started by adding a light layer of this brownish greyish tone to the bottom part of the whole spread doing this will make all the white details pop a lot better and also now we're able to create some snow again with the white gouache paint then i painted this simple brown plank here on which will throw all the decorations also if you have any clips at home adding them to the corners will help to prevent the paper from wrinkling and curling too much though whenever you add this amount of water onto the notebook paper it will always show on the page at least a little bit i thought i'd just paint the houses with white paint but while i was trying to do it for the first one here i realized that it required quite a lot of paint to cover everything and make it look even so after struggling with this for a while i decided to give up on this approach and instead i reached for some basic white copy paper and started to just cut out the house shapes instead this time we are making all of them facing forward so you don't need to think about perspective or anything like that but so this time i decided to start by painting all the trees first because they will mostly be behind the house decorations and i thought it would be just easier to paint them here instead of kind of going around the houses i decided to add some different style of evergreens this time i don't know how realistic these brown evergreens are but it was mainly to add a little bit more color variation to this whole illustration painting evergreens is also much easier than it might look so even if you are a beginner with watercolors i think this is really something you can start to experiment with i usually create some sort of tall triangle shape and then just tap the color pretty messily to create the branches in each directions and to take an extra step and make the trees even more realistic looking it's usually a good idea to go over the first layer with a slightly darker tone to create some shadows under the branches then in the end you can also add some of that white paint on top of everything and i think it's a really easy way to create a finishing touch to these trees so then i just glued all of these house shapes to the paper i think this might look a little bit weird in this point but trust me all the details will really change everything so i actually sketched out some of the details with a pencil first and then i just started to trace those lines with some light colors i used this light gray brush pen for all the initial lines and details and then to create all the windows and doors and so on i reached out for the watercolors once again the decorations don't need to be anything special so you'll get really far which is some basic window shapes again i tried my best to change up the sizes and kind of the layout of all of these houses and really there is no right or wrong way to do any of this [Music] i added some of that light gray color around the houses also this time and i think it just made them stand out against the background a little bit better but then the last thing i did for this whole spread was to draw these ropes so that it looks like this whole arrangement is kind of hanging from the top of the page i think this whole thing might have looked a little bit better if the houses were a little bit darker but anyway i think something like this could be a very easy holiday decoration idea that you can really play around with but now that this very simple planning spread was done we can flip ourselves over to the next page and start setting up the weekly layouts so we're gonna set up the first two weeks with this easy dutch door type of setup and i started everything by taking some of that handmade paper again this brown paper was slightly lighter than the craft paper i was using so even though i'm gonna add the normal craft paper here as well i think the colors were different enough so that it worked for this whole setup but after just gluing these to the edges of these two pages i started to set up this first weekly spread here i've really been enjoying the weekly task approach for a while now so i was continuing that also this month so this bigger craft paper box here will be for the weekly to-do list and usually for me these are a little bit bigger tasks so for example filming a video could be one of my tasks here but it will probably take me more than just one day so that's why having these weekly tasks works very well for me and i don't need to write the same task for multiple days if that makes any sense and i usually like to leave some space for any notes i might have and then on the second page there will be some room for any daily appointments or events i need to remember and if there's something that needs to happen on a certain day of the week there's also enough room for me to write that here but then let's jump to this border here that will kind of be the most interesting part of this spread so we're gonna create this big snowflake border to add a little bit prettier look to the weekly setup i sketched all of these out with a pencil beforehand just to make sure they all ended up being the same size and there will be two different types of snowflakes here so i will go through each of them a little bit slower so you can really see how to recreate them i think snowflakes are also a pretty easy decoration idea so even if you don't really like drawing these don't require much talent at all the most important thing is to keep everything the same size and as symmetrical as possible also to make it easier for yourself you can always use a ruler for the initial lines so the first one has a little bit more round shapes and then the second one is a little bit more angular and i think these were different enough to create this very cute effect here [Music] so after i had all the shapes on the paper i started to cut this border the greatest almost lace type effect to the page now you can also see how the brown paper shows under the snowflakes and when you flip this page over you get the same effect also on the other side lastly i decided to just go over all of these snowflakes with my light cray brush pen and it almost creates this light shadowy effect to them and then just as a final touch i drew these dots along the edge to kind of make the lace effect even stronger the last thing that i completely forgot to do earlier was to write the letters for the weekdays but after that i just went ahead and did the whole other page off camera so the only difference is that this other weekly spread will be a mirror version of the first one i actually think i won't even set up anything for the last two weeks in december because as i said i will be in finland and i probably won't need them so instead i just left this one empty spray for myself that i will probably use for some travel diary probably just to write down some memories and then we can flip ourselves over to the last thread of this whole setup which will be a combination of the december monthly reflection and also a whole 2021 yearly reflection in this point of my filming process i didn't really have that much time left so i decided to go with these ripped paper decorations once again they are pretty quick decorations to set up and also i think it kind of tied these monthly pages together a little bit better but after that i wrote this december review title here and then set up these few questions for myself to answer in the end of the month i create a page like this every month on my bullet journal so if you're not new here you've definitely seen me doing this before so i usually like to write one very open-ended question that will allow me to just process any thoughts i will currently have on my mind then i think it's always a good idea to list some of your successes and struggles during the month because i think it's a very easy way to reflect on the past month and it will also give you some ideas on what to maybe work on moving forward but then let's move on to this last page which will be only for the 2021 yearly reflection if you want to have more space for this feel free to maybe leave even one whole spread for it but i thought that just these few different categories will definitely do the job for me so after writing the title on this random green paper i just found from my sticker pile i started this by leaving some space for me to reflect on the yearly goals i had so i'm usually pretty serious about my yearly goals but every time there are also just some things that have changed during the year and some goals that i feel are not that relevant anymore so i think having some space like this to reflect on that is very helpful then i would highly encourage you to set up this kind of section for your biggest achievements for the year because at least i feel like it's sometimes pretty easy to forget some of your achievements especially if they happened earlier in the year so just reminding yourself of any of those achievements is a very important thing to do before moving on to the next year and then speaking of the next year the last question i have here will be just what's next but that's finally it for this whole december layout i really hope you enjoyed these soft and neutral winter vibes this month and maybe got some inspiration for your own journals i personally can't wait to start a new journal my current one is definitely very well loved and used and the new yearly setup video will be coming somewhere in the mid december there will also be a whole yearly flip through coming so if you want to stay tuned for all of that definitely consider subscribing to the channel it would be highly appreciated but anyways i think that's it for today i hope you're having a lovely and relaxing holiday season ahead thank you guys so much for watching i also hope you're having an amazing day or night wherever you are and see you in my next one bye bye

Channel: Journal Away

Views: 50,429

Keywords: bullet journal, bullet journaling, journal away, plan with me, bullet journal plan with me, bullet journal monthly setup, december bullet journal, bullet journal december, bujo december, plan with me december, december plan with me, december 2021 bullet journal, december 2021 plan with me, plan with me december 2021, bullet journal december 2021, bullet journal december setup, bullet journal december 2021 plan with me, bullet journal december plan with me, december bujo setup

Id: uumM6CsZ_ks

Length: 28min 29sec (1709 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 21 2021