One of my favorite parts of my bullet journal is my monthly spreads.  You can do so many different things with the monthly spread in your planner from documenting memories to creating a collection of doodles or even printing small photos to fit into the squares of each day.

Document Your Days in Less than 5 Minutes

I use my monthly spreads to track any highlights, milestones, or special memories that happen throughout the month.  These small little notes help me to journal for my Project Life spreads or every add snippets to my regular scrapbooking layouts.  You could create mini albums or even incorporate these notes into your art journal pages!  These monthly spreads are the juiciest part of my bullet journal for other people.  Basically - this spread in my bullet journal can give you a glimpse into our lives for that month.  In the video below, I show you a peek into how my completed monthly spread for March looks, as well as my bullet journal setup for April.

Add Creativity into Your Day

I've always been a fan of grid based art journaling.  When you deconstruct your page into a grid, it gives you multiple tiny little boxes that you can treat as small pieces of art.  A popular trend that I see on Instagram a lot is to doodle inside each day of the monthly spread for various Instragram challenges.  You can easily create a collection of your own personal doodles through this method in small amounts of time.  It's also a great way to try new techniques or mediums without "wasting" expensive materials and paper. Below is a page from an old art journal that I used this same technique with to document my memories and play with some new art supplies.

Capture Quotes and Inspiration

Another way to fill in those blank boxes of your monthly spread would be some handlettering inside each box.  This is a great way to catalog your favorite quotes or the random quotes you find on Pinterest throughout the month.  Or you could just practice lettering each individual letter of the alphabet!  There are a ton of different options for these monthly spreads if you feel like you are not getting the bang that you desire out of these pages.

As someone who doesn't have a lot of appointments that I need to keep track of, I love finding creative ways to add a bit of play and memory-keeping to my life.  If you have any other tips and tricks for being creative with your monthly spreads in your planner, I'd love to hear about them - so leave a comment down below!

Whew!  I cannot believe it is already April!  I just finally finished my December Daily album with the help of Calvinball at Get It Scrapped last month.  I feel like I can finally start to work on my 2016 Project Life scrapbook album now, without having yet another unfinished project looming over my head!  Today, I'm offering a glimpse into my Project Life process and my plans for 2016.

Last year in 2015, I really struggled with documenting our year.  I had decided on using an 8.5x11 album, because it would be easier for my young daughter to handle.  However, the size of the album turned into a huge stumbling block for me in creating the layouts and documenting our lives.  I couldn't fit enough pictures on a page, and I couldn't find pocket page protectors that worked with complications.  All of this pretty much defeated the ideas of ease and simplicity that Project Life generally highlights.  This is probably why I focused on working on my 2015 album last month for my Calvinball project and I still only got up to April completed!

2016 Project Life Plans

This year, I'm returning to my previous Project Life methods.  I will be working with the 12x12 size Project Life album (Cinnamon edition).  I will be working on my album in a monthly manner instead of the typical weekly spreads.  This is how I've done Project Life for the last 3 years, and it just seems to work the best for me to let the flow of the photos guide me rather than worrying about what weeks the photos coordinate with.  This method also allows me to pull the larger stories out and create full layouts, which I intermix with the pocket pages to better tell our 2016 story.

Intentions for 2016

I really love this memory keeping project - despite never having completed a full year!  One thing I definitely want to make sure I include in these pages for 2016 is more of my art projects, trials, and experiments.  I also want to include more of the learning activities that we do with Atty to document that aspect of our lives better than in the past.  Lastly, I'm including my word of the year (Focus) in my album this year.  Ideally, I want to do at least a page every month to honor it's impact on my year so far.

Title Page for 2016

I switched things up immediately for 2016 with my title page.  Instead of using a traditional Design A page protector (4 horizontal 4x6 spots and 4 vertical 3x4 spots), I opted for a Design D (4 vertical 6x4 spots and 4 horizontal 4x3 spots).  I picked some of my favorite photos of our family so far in 2016, and made sure everyone was represented.  The products that I used were the new Becky Higgins Project Life kits - Lucky Charm (value kit) and Be Bright (themed kit).

How are you approaching your memory keeping for 2016?  Are you using Project Life or a different style for this year?  Let me know in the comments below!

Nature Box for Storing Random Bits

She also picks up random bits and bobs that we find on our walks.  She's done this ever since we started our daily nature walks.  Some days it might be a special stick that works really well as a drum stick and others it could be a pile of rocks that tickled her fancy.  Everything she collects goes into her nature box where she can continue to explore and discover new things about her special pieces.


Every so often the box starts to get full and we need to repurpose these treasures.  So we make fun art projects that we can continue to enjoy.  Last summer we made a sculpture piece using a recycled egg carton and a selection of pieces from Atty's nature box.

Recycled Egg Carton Project

Supplies -

• paint or markers
• nature objects
• egg carton or recycled cardboard
• Aleene's tacky glue

First, she painted the carton with some paint dobbers and her chalk paint.  Then she selected the pieces she wanted to add and told me where she wanted to place them.  I applied some Aleene's Tacky Glue and adhered the pieces on to the egg carton.  The Aleene's holds pretty much anything on - even rocks and sticks!  Once her masterpiece was completed and dry, we hung it on our art wall.  She still enjoys looking at it and touching the special treasures she chose to include.

DIY Wall Hanging Project

Recently, we had acquired some pieces that were too large for the nature box and were taking up a lot of space on our kitchen table, where they had been put temporarily.  We've had several bad spring storms that came with high winds and tornados, so she's been picking up a lot of sticks and small branches from nearby trees.
I decided to create some DIY wall hanging decor pieces for her room using these branches and sticks.  I created both of these DIY home decor pieces in a total of 15 minutes.  You could also get your children involved in the creation and add paint or markers to the sticks as a fun alternative to the ribbon and fabric.


Supplies -

• Sticks
• Scrap ribbons, string, fabric
• Other nature items to attach to string or ribbon
• Optional : Paint and markers

I simply wrapped ribbon around the branches and used additional ribbon or string to attach some of her larger nature items to the sticks.  I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to help hold the ribbon onto the sticks, as well as some decorative duct tape.  I love how these turned out.  These DIY wall hanging are a really simply way to incorporate nature into our home.


I'm constantly trying to find new ways for Atty to interact with the natural world.  How do you add nature into your toddler's (or child's) environment?

Welcome back for another inspirational jumpstart to your scrapbooking process.  This month, I have been participating in Calvinball at Get It Scrapped.  If you are a fan of the Calvin and Hobbes comics by Bill Watterson you may be familiar with Calvin’s competitive game of Calvinball. It’s a random sport-type game with no rules, points for self-designated goals and the flexibility to change the game as you play.  Calvinball at Get It Scrapped is a month long scrapbooking competition with constantly changing rules to keep things fun and your momentum going.

Sisters - Scrapbooking Process Video
 

Amazing Beautiful You - Scrapbook Process Video 
 

Welcome to another installment of my bullet journal series. Today, I've got a peek inside my current bullet journal setup for you. A vital part of my bullet journal process is using brain dumps to empty my brain. I never realized just how true the idea of "Mommy Brain" actually was until I had my daughter. Since her birth, I literally cannot remember anything for more than a couple of minutes, which is not nearly long enough to complete any sort of action. I spend the vast majority of my time trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing. That's where Brain Dumps come into play.

Bullet Journal March 2016 from The Hippie Art Studio

A brain dump is simply writing down everything in your head.  It allows you to write down every single task, event, idea, or to-do that you can possibly think of.  Once these things are written down you can then process your brain dump into lists and take actions to start getting things done.  A very handy tool when you are just starting to do brain dumps is the GTD Trigger List.  I don't use the GTD Trigger List very often anymore, but it was definitely a benefit when I first started doing my brain dump sessions.

Basically a brain dump is a way of processing your to-do list through free writing and free association.  Some people do a big brain dump weekly, while others use this technique daily.  I often use brain dumps to figure out my priorities for the week and ways that  I can batch tasks together.  For example, if I need to create 3 video previews for the week, I know that I need to schedule an hour or two to complete those tasks all at once.  I also batch writing tasks, errands, photo shoots, and video editing and voice-overs.  Doing a brain dump helps me to process all of my to-do's into real action and progress.

Brain dumps are part of my Monday planning routine, although I continue to use rapid logging throughout the week to do mini brain dumps each day.  The brain dump that I do on Monday pretty much sets the tone for my week.  I will also migrate any open tasks from the prior week (or weeks if I haven't done it already).  This allows me to see what things I may have rescheduled due to life (and kids...).

Once I've done my brain dump, I break tasks into location that these tasks can be completed in.  For example, I may need to do one task - laundry - at home, while another task can be done in the car while I'm waiting on my step-daughter.  This helps me to accomplish my to-do's, because I spend 12 hours a week at the office, 10 hours a week in the car, and I only have a couple hours a day at home before family time starts in the evenings.  One of the reasons that I try to take advantage of each location is to make the most of any free time that occurs.  For example, I spend about 10 hours a week in the car for my step-daughter, waiting for her to finish her classes and activities.  So I like to make use of this time to work on certain projects such as planning, writing, and some lettering excerises that require few tools and materials.

Another benefit to brain dumps is that I can take note of things I need to do when my 2 year old daughter isn't around (or is napping) and things I can do when she's active (and wanting my attention).  I only have a couple hours each day that I can work on tasks while she's preoccupied so I have to make the most of this time.  Most of the time when she's napping, I'm filming videos for YouTube or editing videos or working on making art, and then I schedule the other related tasks my underutilized free-time when I'm waiting in the car.

Brain dumps also allow ideas to marinate over time for me.  A note can turn into a collection that sparks a whole series, blog posts, videos, or even art projects. That random thought that keeps popping up, but you keep forgetting or putting off gets captured on paper.  This act alone can often encourage you to finish it off so it quits nagging at you.

I'd love to know what your thoughts are on brain dumps.  Do you like to do them?  Are brain dumps part of your regular planning routine?