Settin' Up February

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It is time for another month!!! This is my favorite part of the bullet journal process. I get to start over with a new theme and apply the lessons I learned from my mistakes from the past month. I get to make those changes and make it work better for me!

After going through January, I determined which aspects of the month I enjoyed from the journal, and what to change. Feels great to start fresh!

If you want to know more about my bullet journal process, read my blog post about Setting Up January for some additional tips!

For February, I usually pick a theme centered around Valentine's Day, so I focus on hearts, pinks, reds, and purples. Valentine's Day is most definitely not my favorite holiday, but I do think it is rather defining characteristic of February. If you are super anti-Valentines, I would suggest focusing on the crisp, cold weather of February for your theme. Maybe some snowflakes?

My more specific theme for the month is Love Letters, which got me pretty excited. Envelopes are a pretty easy thing to doodle across a page, and so are hearts!

For my Cover Page, I started by using a grey KingArt Dual Tip Brush Pen to write "February" in a script font. I will make a blog post soon about how to write with these pens! The general tip is to apply more pressure on the downward strokes to create thicker lines.

I then went over that grey word with a black TomBow Dual Brush Pen to create that shadow effect. This is a super easy way to create a shadow, and you can do this with any colors (although I would recommend using the lighter color on the bottom).

Then I drew some envelopes stacked on top of each other. I sketched out the lines with a pencil before using a black gel pen, and I used a ruler for those pencil lines. I drew some quick hearts with a Crayola SuperTip Marker that I then outlined with that same black pen.

To add some fun, extra details I smeared some of the Crayola markers on my fingers to add finger prints to the page. It goes with the "love letter" theme, since it looks like I have been writing some letters and the ink is smearing around. I went for the messy look!

Then it is time for the Mood Tracker! I really love coming up with the concept for this page each month, and I hope you guys too!

For this month, I stuck to the love letter theme to have 28 envelopes for the 28 days of February. I am going to color in the heart at the back of the envelope based on my mood for the day. The moods I chose for this month are: tired, productive, happy, sad, and neutral. I am still trying to figure out the perfect set of moods to describe the various things I feel to sum up my day.

For the title of this page I used Crayola SuperTip Markers to write in cursive, then a black gel pen to write on top of it. This is a super easy title idea that I use on a lot of my pages.

A tip for these mood trackers is to pick your colors specifically that would match the mood, so when you look back at the page at the end of the month, you can more clearly see how you were feeling. As opposed to using lighter colors for the happier moods, I like to use a bright color that stands out, so when I look back at the month, I more clearly see the good days instead of the bad. Maximize positivity!

This next page is my favorite page to fill out and look back at. I got this page inspiration from @lenakellogg on TikTok! On the February Memories page, I write something I did each day. It is kinda like a mini summary of a diary! It is super fun to look back and see what you did each day, especially if you write down happy memories.

For the title of this page, I alternated pink colors for the letters, then loosely outlined each letter. You don't have to outline the lines perfectly! The messier you make it, it can sometimes look better!

This page can definitely take a minute to make, since I individually draw each box. The hardest part is measuring it out! For my boxes, I make each 5x5 grid squares made by the dot grid. Once you draw out one month in your journal, it becomes easier to make the next month since you just have to change a couple things around.

Something new I tired this time was writing the number of the date in the box with the marker, and I will write the memory on top of that number. It is always fun to try new things in your journal!

I drew some simple envelopes across the bottom of the page to tie in the love letter theme. Adding a small aspect of your theme, whether that be doodles or colors, in each page brings the month together and adds continuity that separates one month from the next.

This next page is my Sleep Log, one of the easier pages to make.

I write numbers 1-28 on the left side of the page for the date, and I write 7-5 across the top for the time (stands for 7:00 pm- 5:00 pm the next day). I like to start with a time around 7:00 because I would never go to bed earlier than that, and I end it with 5:00 because I would never (I hope) wake up that late. I draw a line using a marker to mark what hours of the night I was asleep for.

For the title, I drew an envelope with a heart closing the back. I wrote sleep log in the envelope using my SuperTip markers. I used the same three colors I used for the memories page.

This next page is my Habit Tracker. I used some of the categories I used in January, and I added some new ones/ took some out. After tracking some of my January habits, I decided which ones I liked to track and ones I did not. For this month I plan to track:

1. drinking enough water

2. eating healthy

3. working out

4. stretching

5. closed my move ring on my apple watch

6. reading in my free time

7. journaling

8. no money spent in the day

9. did a hair mask

10. did a face mask (the skincare, not for covid in this context)

I used a different layout this month that I did last month, and this one was much easier to measure out. Whenever I make a page with boxes/ something I have to measure, I like to plan it out in pencil before hand. It is way too easy to make mistakes and way too hard to fix them!! But, remember, mistakes are ok!!

For each day that I do these habits, I will fill in the box for that day. Each category has 28 boxes in it for the 28 days of February.

I really love how February turned out. It looks rather neat, and the color coordination is really pleasing! Feeling happy about your bullet journal is what really matters, and this month makes me happy!

If you want to see these pages made, checkout my TikTok page for videos of me making each of these pages! Also checkout my TikTok for more Bullet Journal content :)