(upbeat music) - Thank you to Squarespace
for sponsoring today's video. Hello, my little doodles. It's Amanda, welcome back to my channel. Today of course I'm doing my January 2021 bullet journal setup. This is the first monthly setup for 2021 which is kind of crazy, but if you are interested in more of like the overall 2021 beginning
pages of bullet journal set up I'll be sure to link the video that I just recently posted
over here, somewhere up here if you guys want to check that out. But as I mentioned in
that 2021 set up video this is going to be my fifth year bullet journaling which is kind of insane. The amount of bullet journal setups that I've done at this point. I don't even know how
many bullet journal videos that are on my channel, but I'll be sure to link
that playlist down below for all of your inspiration purposes. But I really want my
overarching theme this year to have some subtle
references to that first year where I started bullet
journaling on my channel, because it was kind of like the beginning of a big journey for me. So I thought it'd be nice to have some subtle hints towards that. We'll see what we can integrate
into this month setup, but without further
ado, come plan with me, grab your bullet journals, your notebooks, washi tapes, all the things, and if you're just planning
on watching and relaxing grab your cup of tea and
a snack and let's go. So for my January 2021 theme I decided to go with a
minimal paper crane theme and the main reason why
I decided to do this is the meaning behind it. I have a very vivid memory
from elementary school and my teacher read us the book "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes". If you're unfamiliar with
the story or this book I really recommend you look into it and read the original story. I'll be sure to leave a link down below. It's based on a true story
but I'll give you guys a short summary of the book version. Also, if you're sensitive to hearing about terminal illnesses,
please skip ahead a little bit. But the summary is that there
was a young girl in Japan who's diagnosed with
leukemia from the radiation caused by the Hiroshima
atomic bombing in World War II and during all the time that
she spent in the hospital she decides to fold a
thousand paper cranes because of a Japanese
legend saying that a wish would be granted by the
gods if that was done. Her wish was to live through the disease and to fulfill her dream of
being on the running team and unfortunately she does pass away before finishing the thousand cranes but her friends and
family finished the rest of the cranes for her after her passing. So nowadays senbazuru
which means a thousand origami cranes in Japanese, yes, I did look up the pronunciation but please don't make fun of me for it. But they're given as a
special gift to friends and family who are ill as
a wish for their recovery and they're typically held
together on strings to hang up. I'll insert some pictures of them. It's really beautiful,
especially with all of the colors and a lot of times they
hang from the ceiling. And I also looked more into
the legend and the reason why they do this is because the crane is seen as a mystical creature and is said to live a
thousand years which is why a thousand paper cranes are made. According to the legend,
the cranes must be finished within a year in order
for a wish to be granted or for good luck to be granted
and now they're often seen as a universal symbol of
peace, often at war memorials. Anyway, that was a lot of
information but I did just want to give a nice background for it. I remember learning about
this in fourth grade and it just really stuck with me. Our class even decided to try to make a thousand paper
cranes by the end of the year, we got pretty close to a thousand
but we actually didn't end up finishing because our teachers had to ban folding paper cranes. Everyone was just
folding them during class and getting really distracted. I remember folding a lot of
tiny ones with sticky notes or any piece of paper that I could find. So because of that, I can
probably fold a paper crane with my eyes closed, but I
will do a mini paper crane tutorial at the end of this in
case anyone actually wants to learn how to fold their own paper crane. That was a really long
tangent but hopefully it was interesting for you guys. I think it gives a lot more
context as to why I chose this theme for the start of 2021. I think we could all use some
good luck or a wish this year and since it's also a
symbol of peace and healing, I feel like it's the right energy to bring into the new year, also who knows maybe between
the amount of paper crane doodles that I do and any of
you guys do while recreating this theme maybe you
will collectively draw a thousand cranes by the end of the year. And by the way, in honor of
this theme I will be donating to the LLSC, which is
dedicated to funding research and finding cures for leukemia
and Hodgkin's disease. I'll leave a link down below in case any of you guys want
to join me in donating. I haven't even really
talked about the cover page but I did keep it really
simple because I wanted it to feel kind of peaceful and for the focus to be on the actual meaning behind it. I drew paper cranes at different angles and in different sizes hanging
on strings from the top of the page, inspired by
a lot of the installations and memorials as well as
a lot of illustrations that I've seen for the cover
of the book, the Sadako book. And I used my accent
color really minimally, just a simple circle in the background which is also coincidentally a very important shape in
Japanese culture as well. I didn't intend this, but
with the color that I chose, it ended up looking like
the sun or an egg yolk, which is cool as well. But you guys can change
out the accent color if you want or even color in the cranes. It's a really customizable
theme because origami papers come in all colors and patterns. Anyway, on the page next to
it I did a simple quote page that has a quote from the book. It says, "I will write peace on your wings "and you will fly all over the world", and I just thought it was
such a beautiful quote. So I drew a couple of paper
cranes in a crescent shape and also kept the lettering pretty simple. Moving on to my monthly calendar spread, so to keep with this minimal
theme that I had going on I only drew the horizontal
lines in the calendar. I think the grid spacing
for this was five by five dot spaces for each day and I had a simple highlight up top for the days of the week. Did the numbers in colored circles. For the header I just doodled
a bunch of paper cranes as if they were flying across the top. I did connect them with that
golden yellow colored marker in sort of a wavy line so
that it looks like string and I added those same beads that I did on the cover page as well and I added some at the bottom
so it kind of looks like the string is going around
the page, if that makes sense. And then on the side of my calendar spread I added two sections,
one for my monthly focus and one for my monthly
priority tasks, which is just, you know kind of tasks that I want to do throughout the month. By the way, I know these
origami cranes look a little bit difficult to
doodle, but it helps to actually have a paper crane in front of
you so that you can rotate it at every angle and see
the construction of it. But let me know if you guys
want to see a doodle tutorial or something, maybe I'll post
one on Instagram or Tik Tok. Next step we have my
monthly tracker spreads and this month I did a
chart layout for both my habit tracker and my mood tracker. I know usually I do like
individual mini calendars for my habit trackers, but you know, to keep in line with this
simple theme that I had going on I wanted the layouts to be really easy and quick especially because
I know a lot of you guys are starting bullet
journaling for the first time at the beginning of this year. So hopefully they're kind of like an easy quick layout that you guys can recreate depending
on what suits your needs. So for the habit tracker
I wrote the numbers of the month horizontally and the habits that I want to track vertically and then I just outlined the box. I wanted to fill it in for a pop of color so that it matched the, you know, the solid circle on my cover page. And when I'm filling it
in I just add a black dot or I'll check off whatever habit that I end up doing for that month. For the mood tracker I did a similar horizontal line graph layout. I actually staggered the two
big sections so that the title of each are like one's on the left side and one's on the right side
and that way I could also add some hanging paper cranes
above the title of each which I think added a nice, subtle touch and I think it turned out really cute. I know I say this in every single video but I get a lot of questions
about what supplies and pens and everything that
I use when I bullet journal. So as usual, everything
will be linked down below in the description box. I actually didn't use that
many supplies for this month. It was pretty much only
the one fine liner, the one colored marker, and my notebook. Oh, and a pencil of course, but yeah, minimal theme, minimal spreads
and also minimal supplies. So I see a lot of comments from people saying that they don't
have a lot of stationary, and don't worry you don't
need a lot of stationary in order to bullet journal. You just need your notebook and
a pen and you're good to go. The next spread is my playlist spread. So for this, I decided to draw a border around the whole page and it
actually has an arched top. I'm also really impressed with myself because I didn't trace that curve line. I did it free hand and it
turned out pretty well. So, you know, I can do more
than just draw straight lines without a ruler guys, it's a flex. I thought it would look cool,
but also it kind of matched all the round edges that I've been doing for this whole setup and I
think it looks really nice because the paper crane
doodles are so angular and everything that I
do with the accent color is a bit rounder and
softer for the shapes. So it's kind of like a nice contrast. Since it ended up looking a
little bit like an arched window I drew some paper cranes hanging
from the top of the window and of course added the title
with some cursive lettering, and then I just printed
out the album covers and wrote the songs below them as usual. I love sharing my favorite songs that I've been listening to so I'll be sure to leave
my monthly Spotify playlist down below in case you guys want to listen to any
of my favorite songs. I highly recommend, you know, check it out but I won't talk about
all of them too much here. I do want to give a couple
of special shout outs. So I have of course been loving the new album by my all time
favorite artists Yerin Baek and also ENHYPEN's new album, as well as a new artist
that I recently discovered called Yourbeagle. So again, check out that
playlist for the full list. You guys have seen me make
playlist spreads like this a lot if you've seen literally any
of my previous monthly spreads but it's kind of like a nice time capsule so that I can see what type
of music I was listening to at that specific time. Moving on to the next spread, since it's the beginning of
the year I wanted to map out my entire vision for Shop
Amanda Rach Lee in 2021. So I made a blank space for
me to jot down any ideas, think of anything that I
want to release this year, what I want to do and what I want the
whole brand to be like. So I have a lot of ideas
and things that I want to do this coming year,
especially things that I didn't have a chance to do in
2020 due to the situation. So I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully I can make some
of those things happen. So look forward to all of that guys. Finally we have the first
weekly spread of 2021. And again, in keeping with
the minimal layout and theme I did a similar style
to the monthly calendar where I only drew the horizontal lines. Doing this gives you a lot
of like negative space, you know it kind of just makes
your spread looks really open which I think matched
the vibe of this theme. Of course, I have Monday
through Sunday across the top of the layout with just a simple highlight with that golden yellow color. And then I have two horizontal
lines to create a section for my weekly events up top. The section below it is
for any priority tasks or important tasks for that day. And then the rest of that space down below is for any other to-do list tasks. So above it, I added
of course paper cranes and I made them hang
from the top of the page and I drew one for each day and
wrote the number of the date on the wings of each crane. This type of spread layout is perfect for anyone who wants a quick layout, or maybe for someone who
doesn't have a lot of time for planning because it's essentially just three horizontal lines. You can also add more
lines depending on how much you want to break down your day. Personally, I don't like
to break down my day by time slot but if you do want to do that this would be a great layout
for that because of all of the vertical space below each day. Of course, you know, I
add doodles and lettering for an extra bit of spice but
you also don't need to do that if you want to keep it really minimal. All right, before I show you
guys the final flip through of my January 2021 bullet journal set up I wanted to talk a little
bit about Squarespace who kindly sponsored today's video. If you guys didn't know
my personal website AmandaRachLee.com was
built on Squarespace. I've been using Squarespace
for years and I love it. It just makes everything so much easier especially with their all in
one platform you can literally just drag and drop
elements onto your website. So if you're new to website
design, you don't need to worry. It's all kind of done for you. And they have a lot of
beautiful templates as well that you can use. My personal favorite feature
of Squarespace is how easy they make it to showcase
photos because photos really make or break a website
especially if you're using it as an online portfolio or using it to sell your artwork or your goods. You can actually easily import
photos from your Instagram or your Flickr directly onto your website and they also have automatic image scaling so that the photos will always look right no matter where they are on the page. And of course, if you
ever do need any help with your website they
offer 24/7 customer support. So if you guys want to try
out Squarespace for yourself or maybe you've been meaning to start a new website for the new year make sure you click the link
in my description box below. You can head to
squarespace.com/amandarachlee actually for a free trial and for 10% off your first purchase of
a domain or a website. Thank you again to Squarespace
for sponsoring today's video. They really do make it possible for me to post weekly videos and
to keep this channels going, so thank you to them and
on to the flip through. Okay so here's the final flip through of my January 2021 bullet journal setup. I really love how this turned out. It's so simple and elegant which I wanted to do for the new year. And of course I love the
meaning behind all of it. I really wish for peace and good luck for all of you in 2021. Anyway, as promised here's
a little bonus tutorial showing you guys how
to fold a paper crane. So of course you're gonna start with a square piece of paper
and fold that to diagonally by connecting the two corners
and then fold that triangle once again and then place the open part of the triangle at the bottom and you should be able to open up that flap kind of like a pocket. And when you connect the two corners and flatten it out it should
make kind of like a square and you're going to do this on both sides so that you end up with a diamond shape and keep the open part of
this diamond facing downwards and you're going to bring
those two bottom edges up towards the middle crease line and flip it over and do the
same thing on the other side. That top little triangle
section you're gonna fold it along the horizontal line and open that up and then the bottom flap
should open right up. And with all those creases, you
should be able to flatten it and create this longer diamond shape. This is probably the hardest part, but you'll get the hang of it I promise and do that on both sides as well. Once you have that flattened out bring the bottom edges of that diamond back to that middle line
again and do the same on both sides as well as
flipping it over repeating again. You should be able to see these two kind of crease lines at the top. I chose the wrong origami
paper for this, it's patterned so you can't tell, but
then once you have this you can flip the crane so that
the sides are now the front and then you can bring
those two little pointy tips upwards and then flip it
back to its original state and then this is where you can flatten out those two ends there. That's going to be the head
and the tail for one side, fold that tip downwards
so that you have a head. And this is the most satisfying part, pull the wings apart and the middle body should puff up like this. And there you go. You have a paper crane. Now you only have 999 left to go. You guys got this. All right guys, you know the drill by now. While I'm doing the outro, here
are some of your recreations from last month's bullet journal setup which was the December 2020 theme. Look at them, they're
so beautiful and lovely. If you do recreate any of
my bullet journal setups whether it be this month
or if you just want to show me what your
bullet journal looks like make sure you tag me on
Instagram at Amanda Rach Lee. You can also use our
hashtag #littledoodles. And I've mentioned this
before but I actually do my weekly spread setups live on Twitch. So if you want to see how
I set up my weekly spreads for the rest of the month then
make sure you tune in there. It's a pretty fun time. Anyway, I hope you guys have a great 2021. And if I don't talk to
you before the new year, happy new year, keep doodling guys. Bye.
