Hey guys, it's Amanda. Welcome back to my channel.
Today, I'm doing my April 2020, Plan With Me, bullet journal set up.
April means that we're officially a quarter way through 2020
which is kinda crazy. But you know, we're here.
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and all of that.
This month's bullet journal setup is going to be a little bit different,
considering all of the things going on in the world.
I know that a lot of things have been shut down--
a lot of workplaces, schools, and all of that,
so some of you guys might not need the
typical "to-do list" aspect of the bullet journal.
Nonetheless, of course, do whatever works for you in this time.
And you know, we're just gonna have fun here making some spreads and doodling.
I feel like what I need right now amongst all of this chaos is really to sit down and relax and
get some planning done and some doodling and all of that, and maybe throw on a nice Lo-fi playlist.
Those things always work wonders.
Before we get started planning, I did just want to give a quick thank you to
Skillshare for sponsoring today's video.
They are an awesome online learning community,
but I'll talk a little bit more about them later in the video.
Without further ado, you can grab your bullet journals and markers,
a cup of tea, if you're just planning on hanging out and let's get planning.
When I was first trying to come up with ideas for April
I was a little bit stuck, but then one night inspiration struck me and honestly
it's one of my favorite ideas that I've ever had and I was so excited to sit down and
come up with spread ideas and draw and see how it turns out.
So this month's theme for April is inspired by
Lo-fi now, I'm sure many of you are already aware of lo-fi
But in case you aren't I would say recently within the past five years or so,
Lo-fi has been this really really popular music genre on YouTube. There's typically
hour-long playlists and mixes and live streams of these chill beats
It's really great to listen to while you're studying or working
because there's no lyrics and I actually listen to this when I'm journaling or working.
It really helps me focus and I can't listen to anything else. But anyway, typically with these Youtube playlists or mixes
You'll see some sort of illustration or animation on the screen
I'm sure you guys are all aware of the iconic study girl: the girl who's been taking notes for ages and
occasionally turns a page and I've always loved the aesthetic. I think it's so cozy.
So while I was researching, I found the actual artists of some of these illustrations as well as a lot of other
art works and illustrations that are sort of in the same vibe that really inspired me
I would categorize them as cozy aesthetic
Typically, it's a girl sitting at a window, maybe at night
And there's just a bunch of cozy items in her apartment
so I was really inspired by that and I thought it was perfect for April because
With everything going on right now, a lot of people are working from home now and are taking school from home
So those images are reality. We're all working from a desk at home
looking through the window from the inside out. And yeah, so I thought it was really really great
and I was honestly so inspired but the thing was all of those illustrations by those artists which by the way
I'm gonna link all of them down below. I highly recommend you check them out. They're so so talented
But all those illustrations were slightly more
complicated than what I would normally do for a bullet journal setups
So I was trying to think of a way that I can integrate the ideas into my spread
So what I came up with was focusing on that sort of vini a of the window workspace as you can see
that's what I'm drawing here and
I really recommend you guys to like customize this maybe make it look like your own apartment or add
elements of the decorative items that you have
From your home. I was mostly basing mine off of the original
first to study girl image that you saw
But I did sort of throw in some elements from my own apartment like my plants and my stationary pots and all of that
So I thought it was so so fun. And even though it looks complicated guys
I promise it's actually not too hard to draw which I know sing a lot because it looks really intense, but
Just have fun with it and I actually was using the Tombow Fudenoske
hard tip brush pen to do the outlines as you can see and that's my favorite thing to use when I'm doing more
illustrative drawings like this because I'm able to press down harder when I want sort of a thicker line and
Also the variations in the line sort of gives that this loose sketchy sort of feel
So even if you do have a wobbly line or if you mess up a little it looks almost intentional
It doesn't look that way on camera
but when you see it in person
There's definitely slight wobbles to my lines and I think that adds a certain charm to the drawing.
For the lettering of April
I went with this a simple typewriter esque serif font and then for the colour palette I went with this really simple
Pastel color scheme, I think there was like three or four colors
But it's sort of this peachy color light yellow and then this turquoise color. They were tombow dual brush pens
So I'll leave the color codes down below, but I didn't even color the illustration in fully.
I just sort of did these swipes of color, wasn't even making sure they were in the line and I think that adds to the
Illustrative vibe. I think the warm color palette is really in the whole lo-fi
study girl aesthetic. What I noticed a lot was that they did use sort of warm tones a lot to signify that coziness.
You can color it in full if you want to, I mean if you have more time now that you're stuck at home
Maybe that's something you want to do. You can even try it watercolor
I think something fun would be to do like a sunset in the window or maybe a sunrise even
I know a lot of you guys are staying up late to study at home
So that could be a fun element to add as well
but for me
I decided to keep the color palette and the coloring a bit more minimal since the cover page was a bit more drawing-heavy
than normal. So on the other side of the page I had to do it
I had to make my own study girl and I actually kind of based this off myself
I gave I gave her my hair. I still drew her a ring hoodie. Of course that's classic lo-fi
study girl attire, but also that's what I wear around home anyway
but honestly, this was so much fun to draw this sort of like
animation illustration style. For those of you who don't know drawing anime was how I got into art
I actually have a video of me reacting to all of my old drawings and anime
illustrations, I'll link that above in case you guys are curious
But yeah, it really took me back to my roots almost and it was really fun to do again.
Still stuck within that minimal color palette and then I have a quote above it that says
"You are your home." A very fitting quote,
I think, since we're all staying at home.
I should hope so at least do your part, do your best, social distancing, flatten the curve... you guys know the deal?
For the next spread, which is my monthly calendar spread, I decided to draw it as if it's one of the posters slash
decorations that's taped up on our
study girls wall
And that was actually a motif that I carried out throughout the whole set up. I thought it was a fun thing to sort of
Picture all of my bullet journal spreads as if it was decorative item that was in study girl's apartment
So yeah, this is almost as if it's a paper calendar
Taped up on the wall in an imaginary apartment. It's a little bit meta and trippy, but I don't know
I thought it's fun and I kept the layout pretty simple. It's just a classic
box layout I think the individual boxes are six by six boxes in case any of you guys are curious and
I used those pastel light washes of color to
Create a pattern within the circles, but that was pretty much it for the calendar layout nothing too crazy
and on the side I actually do have these two sections for goals and intentions I think with all this craziness and
Uncertainty in the world. I'm sure a lot of your guys's regular routines have been shaken up a little bit
but it's even more important now to set those small goals and intentions and
Affirmations just to keep your mind the sane and give yourself a purpose in the morning and you know
Just take care of your mental health guys
that's all I'm gonna say but on that topic, um,
the next
spread is my mood tracker and habit record and the spread I was so so excited to make because again,
I was inspired by the whole decorative elements of our study girls apartment
So I sort of made trackers as if it was a wall in her bedroom or something
I drew all these picture frames and posters and pictures hung up on the wall. And that's our habit tracker
I basically did the mini calendars within each of those posters slash picture frames and whatnot
And I scattered the layout to make it look more like it is
Decorative in an apartment all of that and then above it
I have this long bookshelf running across and each book is sort of the mood tracker
So I did 30 30 days or 30 days in April, I think so
Yeah, so I did 30 different decorative things on that bookshelf and then numbered them off for each day in April
I think this is such a fun spread. I I don't know. I thought it was kind of unique
And I like how everything sort of scattered and jumbled up like it would normally be in someone's apartment
Oh, yeah
I also had fun adding a bunch of other decorative things to this wall space like the
String of lights across the bookshelf a lot of plants which is a big thing in these
Low-five study girl rooms and I also drew some polaroid pictures taped up on the wall
Some vinyl records attached to the wall. It's just a fun spread
I think I think you guys are gonna have a lot of fun making this you can add stuff that's in your own apartment again
And yeah, so as you can see I left space for each individual habit
I have white phone which is really important. Now that we're all trying to be very clean
I have stretching and exercising watering plants vitamins and then something for the mind which basically means something that is
Keeping my brain active like learning or practicing an instrument
That sort of thing
Of course
We couldn't do a low fight themed bullet journal set up without me making a lo-fi
playlist spread you guys already know that I love making these monthly playlist spreads and
Sharing them with you guys on Spotify and all of that. So of course for this month I had to share some of my
personal favorite lo-fi playlist and mix I
Use these all the time when I'm filming videos when I'm drawing journaling working
Anything it's just the only thing that will keep me focused while I'm working
I can't listen to music with lyrics when I'm actually trying to focus because then I just get distracted and end up singing along
so these lo-fi players have been a lifesaver for
Productivity and I'll link them all down below
Unfortunately, not a lot of them are like on Spotify. They're mostly just really long YouTube videos
But yeah, I do have some of my favorite ones trust me. I've been around the block I have
Listened to a ton. So these are my top six favorite ones and
Yeah, check them out if you guys are interested for the actual spread I drew a record player because a lot of these
Low, five songs sort of sound like they are being played on a record player. Have they had that like vintage?
sort of
What's you know grainy sound?
So I thought it was fitting and also for the title actually for the titles on all of my spreads throughout this entire setup
I used this typewriter ish font
I wrote down all of the mixes as if they were taped up on study girls wall
Some of my favorites are the Studio Ghibli jazz. Lo-fi playlist
I have listened to that so many times when I was trying to focus and it never gets old
It's so good. And then also city girl is one of my favorite artists for
Low-five sort of music for the spread next to it
as you can see, this is my
Quarantine routine spread, it sounds ridiculous
But I actually saw this post on Twitter and this person did make this
note on her phone about like a quarantine routine and
you know, you don't have to follow it exactly, but I thought it was really nice to sort of give yourself a ideal layout of
the day
it can be so easy to just
Sleep in all day or per Caston 8 or especially when you're at home or in my case
I just food whenever I want to procrastinate, you know, it's not it's not the greatest
So I thought it was a good idea to lay out sort of your ideal day at home in terms of productivity
Of course, not every single day's gonna follow this
But you can kind of cater it depending on your needs. So on the left side
I have time of the day have a goal and then activity and when I say like activity, I moreso mean activity options
For example in the morning I my goal is to wake up get ready for the day and try not to look at my phone
so for in the activity section, I have washing up getting ready, of course, but also
Stretching eating a proper breakfast that sort of thing for the evening. My goal is to try not to work too too late. So
My goal is to do something for fun and wind down so for my activity options I can
watch movie on Netflix
Do a face mask
What's this play games for fun? You know Animal Crossing is out so stuff like that
You guys can cater depending on your specific needs and your specific schedule for the first weekly spread of April
I did a Dutch door spread as you can see I'm cutting straight up in half vertically
I'm also random rounding out the edges. I'm very particular about
Round edges in a notebook and I highlighted the edge of each
vertical section in
One of those four color palette colors that I had going on throughout the entire month and then also again doing that quick
Typewriter serif font for the days of the week on a separate note something else that I've been doing whenever I'm making my task list
For these individual days I separate them out based on
like priority tasks things that I need to get done for the day and then also any timed
Tasks that have sort of a time deadline
So I do that when I'm doing each individual daily, which is why you don't see me doing that now
But let me know if you guys want more details of that.
All right. So on the side, I have a sidebar which is any weekly events in this case for me personally
I don't have any outside events. Don't worry. I'm not going outside of my apartment
I'm staying at home
But it's mostly to plan out any videos or social posts not sort of thing
And then on the right side
there was a
Perfect empty space and I didn't know what to fill it in with
So I thought it was the perfect space for me to draw one more
Window in our study girl's apartment home for final touches
I added all the decorative potted plants and pictures taped on the wall and a quote at the bottom that says together at home
Which is a nice?
Heartwarming short quote that's been floating around on social media
and
Added the minimal washes of color, of course, and I just really like the way this spread turned out
I can't wait to come up with more ideas for spreads throughout April. I think it's going to be really fun now
I know it's not gonna be for everyone
It might be a little drawing heavy for some people
But if anything, I hope this video could act as a sort of lo-fi relaxation
for your eyes
Alright friends just quickly before I show you the final flip through of my April 2020 Bullitt channel setup
I did just want to talk about today's sponsor, Skillshare.
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I know a lot of you guys might be bored stuck at home
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Back to the flip through.
Here's the final flip through of my April 2020 bullet journal setup inspired by the lo-fi girl cozy aesthetic
I really love the way this turned out
I love the minimal color palette and the illustrations
They were just such a blast to do and the spreads were fun to make I throw in a loaf I play list
And it's just very relaxing and therapeutic.
Alright, my little doodles, that was it for my April 2020 bullet journal setup.
I hope you guys enjoyed planning with me.
As usual, now's the time where I showcase some of your recreations so you can see them next to me.
Here, look at them!
They're all so lovely and beautiful. I love when you guys recreate my bullet journal spreads
So if you do recreate this month's spread, or any of my previous month spreads
Be sure to tag me on Instagram in the caption as well as tag me in the photo,
so I can see all of them and lurk and creep.
Even if I don't like or comment every single post, I promise I see all of them.
Every time I wake up in the morning, I just scroll through my tagged photos,
and it's my favorite part because I love seeing what little twists you guys put.
So I can't wait to see you guys's creations.
You can tag me @AmandaRachLee, and also use our hashtag #lildoodles.
I think that's pretty much it for me.
As usual, if you want to keep updated, the best way to do so is to click
that Bell button down below so you're notified every time I post a new video.
But hopefully this video could act as a nice moment of relaxation, a little bit for you guys.
Please stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy and I will talk to you in the next one.
Keep doodling, guys. Bye!