hey friends elizabeth here from plant based bride back again with another video and today i am super
excited to share with you my march plan with me in my bullet journal before we get started i want to
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switching to the tabletop view and getting going on this setup i decided this month to
kind of take a step back and try to go for a theme that's a little more minimalist a little
simpler than some of the themes i've been doing recently i think i got a little carried away with
challenging myself artistically and having these big creative ideas that i wanted to make happen
and while i still love and treasure those themes and i'm sure i will get carried away again in
the future sometimes it's nice to just take a step back and do something a little simpler
for this theme as i mentioned i wanted to go a lot simpler so i'm only creating four single page
spreads outside of my weeklies i'm starting with my quote page and my cover page and then i'll have
my monthly calendar and a habit page and then get into my weekly spreads for the lettering of this
setup i am combining my standard monoline cursive with almost a fantastical fairy tale esque font
which was really fun to create i haven't used this style font in a while it was really fun to go back
to it although this time instead of using a ruler and a circle template for every line and curve i
decided to challenge myself to freehand it and see how it would go and honestly while it's definitely
not perfect i was pretty proud of my ability to freehand i feel like i'm starting to learn
how to manage my shaky hands i'm using watercolors for these leaves and the colors yet again are all
old paint that was already on my palette from past themes my palette is currently just covered
in old paint and i don't want to wash it off because i feel like there's enough paint to do
so many themes on there so i keep trying to just dip into old dried paints and trying to use as
much of it up as possible so this is the second month in a row that i haven't used any new paint
from my tubes it's all been watercolor from my palette from past themes and for this one i used
a combination of greens and browns and black i'll link those colors in the description box
along with all of the supplies that i'm using in this video if there's something that i use in the
video that i haven't linked in the description box please leave a comment down below letting me know
and i'll be sure to add it this month's theme was inspired by an amazing artist on instagram i will
link their instagram in the description box please go check them out follow them they are incredible
and that is lis selenka hopefully i'm pronouncing their username correctly they are so talented and
they work with watercolor and very intricate gold details and i have just been completely entranced
by their leaf artwork and wanted to try my hand at something similar so go check them out go see
what they're doing but the basic concept here is creating this watercolor branch with leaves
and then going in with a really fine brush and gold watercolor to add patterns and details to the
leaves it's such a simple concept but it really gives off a beautiful effect and it makes it
really fun because not only do you get to decide the shapes and layout and colors of your leaves
but you also get to decide how you want to decorate them and what patterns you want to
include and what combination and i just think it gives a really beautiful effect i feel like by
the time march comes around every year i am more than ready for spring so i often do sort of green
or botanical inspired march themes and it's funny when i had the idea for this theme and started
imagining it i didn't think at all about any past themes i'd done it didn't remind me of anything in
particular but as soon as i started adding gold to my leaves i had this flashback to my march theme
of i believe two years ago which i will link for you in the card and in the description box
down below if you weren't here back then but while the themes are definitely distinct and different
they do have a lot of similarities in the green leaves and gold accents so definitely check out
that video if you're looking for even more ideas within this realm i would say these themes are
like sisters they're definitely related but they have their own thing going on so an unintentional
reinterpretation of a past theme which is kind of fun honestly i feel like at this point after
creating bullet journals for so many years it's sort of inevitable that i will start to reimagine
themes that i've done in the past and try to interpret them in a different way or just apply
newer knowledge and skills to a past theme and it's honestly really cool to be able to look
back and compare what i did back then to what i'm doing now and to see the aspects that are
consistent as far as my art style or my aesthetic preferences i suppose as well as the things that
have changed and the ways that i've grown as an artist so definitely go check out that old
video if you haven't seen it it's kind of cool to see the similarities and the differences
and of course if you tend to create more spreads in your regular setup than i do and you were
thinking of recreating this theme and you wanted even more ideas that video will hopefully help you
out in that department for the gold accents i'm using a super fine brush and my gold watercolor
to add details to some of the leaves i'm trying to mix up the patterns in the leaves so some of
them i am trying to create an indication of the veins some leaves are completely gold
some are simply outlined some leaves have polka dots or little stripes just trying to create a
little bit of variety and add that interest again i definitely recommend you check out
lissalinka on instagram their work is amazing and they have so many ideas for
different patterns and ways that you can fill in the leaves if you're looking for even more
ideas i also thought it would be fun to add little splotches of gold little dots around the leaves
this was actually an idea i had once i realized the similarities between this theme and my past
theme from a couple years ago because i did that in that theme and it was just such a little thing
that i felt really added something to the theme and added something fun i guess almost like
gold dew that was coming off the leaves felt very reminiscent of a spring morning so i decided to
bring that back into this theme which hadn't initially been my plan but sometimes inspiration
strikes for my cover page i wanted to create a simple wreath around the header and for the header
lettering itself my initial plan had been to fill it in and have a bold black header but when i drew
out the letters as an outline i realized that i actually really liked how the outline looked
and i could not for the life of me decide between filling in the letters in black or leaving them
open so what i ended up actually doing which i think is a helpful tip for anyone who's
halfway through a spread and struggling with what direction to go i took a quick picture of
my spread on my phone and uploaded that photo into the procreate app and then i duplicated the layer
two more times so i had three layers that were the same and i left one with the letters open
i filled the letters in with black on a second layer and then just on a whim for the third
layer i filled the letters in with green and this way i was able to quickly tap between the three
and compare how the spread looked with open letters filled in letters in black and the sort
of middle ground of filling the letters in with a soft green watercolor and i actually ended up
really loving the green which had not even entered my mind before trying this and i'm really happy
that i ended up going with the green i think it looks really pretty especially with the slight
ombre effect that i did on the letters so that they're a little lighter at the top and a little
darker at the bottom so i definitely recommend this technique if you're struggling with what you
want to do with a spread you can quickly sketch an element and then move it around to different
placements you can try different color schemes you can see if something looks better with an added
border or without i love incorporating technology into creating more analog art flipping the page
to my next spread which is going to be my calendar keeping this calendar very simple i'm starting by
recreating that merch header along the top in exactly the same way and then creating a very
simple calendar just with the horizontal lines i love this style of calendar it is so simple
and so fast to make but it just has such a nice pleasing simple minimalist look to it
and is still completely usable i'm adding a simple branch along the bottom
that is reminiscent of the branch on the quote page and i'm just mixing together different
combinations of brown and green and black to create different colored leaves some are lighter
some are darker and i tried to get a little bit of variation in the color on the leaves as well
i also filled in my march header in the same way as the cover page with that
ombre effect of the green starting light at the top and getting dark at the bottom
before i create my habit tracker spread i want to cut out my tabs for my weeklies just so that
i make sure i don't add any elements that go past where the page is going to be cut away
this time around i'm trying something a little different with my weekly tabs
not my standard tabs that i have done for a long time now this style of tab
was actually inspired by another instagramer who i love to follow and definitely recommend
who is kelseydoodles they will also be linked in the description box definitely go check them out
but they do this sort of step back style tab often using washi tape on the edges there
and i just think it is such a fun way to do tabs and also a very simple and beginner-friendly style
of tab so i wanted to give it a try in my bullet journal this time around for something a little
different working on my habit tracker yes i am kind of getting back into habit trackers i feel
like i waffle back and forth on whether or not i like habit trackers right now i'm in a place
in my life where i'm trying to get more active i feel like the last couple of years have made me a
lot more sedentary than i've ever been in my life and my body misses movement with a burning passion
so i got an apple watch at the end of last year and that's been helping me to get my butt off the
couch and get moving and i decided to create a habit tracker just to see how i'm actually
doing for daily movement so i'm focusing on stretching strength training spinning on my
stationary bike dancing and the last habit is for routines i actually recently discovered a new app
that allows you to create your own routines and i've made a morning routine an evening routine
a midday routine an after work routine and they've actually really been helping me with prioritizing
some areas of my life that i tend to let fall to the wayside if i don't have an app on my
watch vibrating reminding me that it's time to go do those things so if you're interested in
hearing more about this app and the routines i've created let me know i am considering creating a
video about how i'm using my apple watch and the impact it's making on my life i've also considered
making a video on this app specifically because it kind of feels like a game changer so let me
know in the comments if you'd be interested in hearing more about that i'm adding the header
for this spread in the bottom corner again with that fairy tale style font and then i'm creating
just a bundle of branches with leaves on this lower right hand corner just to fill that space
once that initial layer of watercolor was dry i went back in with my gold
watercolor and my very fine detail brush to add all of those gold accents
i also filled in the habits header in the same way with that green watercolor
going from light to dark and the way i achieved this ombre effect was starting at the bottom
with more pigment on my brush and then not going in to pick up any more pigment
but just wetting the brush a little bit to water down the pigment a little bit more
and blending up to the top of the letters to create a natural fade
so here i am adding washi tape to this step back tab style again inspired by kelsey doodles
i decided to use washi tape in similar colors to my leaves a mustard yellow different shades of
brown and green and what i did for this was cut my pages half a space further in than i actually
wanted the tap to end so i could add the washi tape half on the page and half hanging over so
that the washi on each side could stick together and kind of close the tab on the edge i didn't
want to have the white of the paper sticking out the side or to be able to see that gap between the
washi tape so this was my solution to that problem for my weeklies themselves they are my standard
faux dutch door rolling weekly my one and only the mvp the apple of my eye more sayings that
convey how much i love it if you're unfamiliar with the rolling weekly and you want to learn
more i'll link the video where i go into great detail where i explain how it works why i use it
how to set it up both in this faux dutch door style and also just on a simple two-page spread
it doesn't work for everyone but i must say anecdotally it does seem like this weekly layout
has been a game changer for a lot of us so if you've been struggling with daily or weekly
layouts in your bullet journal i highly recommend you check it out give it a try see if it works
for your brain because it has made such a huge positive impact on my life and i will shout it
from the rooftops forever thank you so much to function of beauty for sponsoring this video now
it's easier than ever to try function of beauty's signature hair duo you can get 20 off your
first 16 ounce custom set using my link in the description box and the pinned comment down below
so the last little look here at the spreads as i said this is a much more
minimalist simple setup than some of the themes i've been doing recently it was really nice to do
something a little more paired back and of course to incorporate gold again it has been too long
so that's it for this video i hope you enjoyed it if you did give this video a like i would love to
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a link in the card and in the description box down below and with that i'm gonna get
going thank you so much for joining me and i'll see you really soon in my next one bye friends
you