Simple Journal Ideas, Fashion Look Books and Stinky Zink!

Dear Scribblers

A little over two months ago, I posted photos on my Instagram (@TheCraftyScribe) showing a couple of boxes of my finished notebooks and scrapbooks:

https://instagram.com/p/6kIMayKwc_/

Then last month, I uploaded pictures of the inside of one of my Smythson journals from 2009, where I'd used magazine cuttings to form focus pages of goals, dreams and aspirations. A journal equivalent of an inspiration board, or even nowadays, Pinterest!

https://instagram.com/p/8TT1Cuqwax/

I've always liked using magazine snippings to add colour and life to journalling pages. However, if you are new to this, here's one way of inserting cut-outs into your writing in its simplest form. 

If you are like me and love flicking through the fashion magazines, like Vogue and Elle, for your favourite looks to come, each season, tear out the ones that catch your eye. Even if the designer prices are out of your league, when the styles trickle down into the high street stores, you've created your own look book, so you know what you're looking for come the next season. You may even save time and money once you go shopping, as you already know what styles you're searching for. Here's some of mine from Spring/Summer 2011!

It's also fun to return to, years after, to see if your taste has changed, and remember what you actually bought.

I even cut out a title, comment or tag line, if it resonates with me: 

I sometimes add my favourite makeup to the page, or even create a separate cosmetics/skincare look book, if that season warrants it. Here I glued in a Chanel nailpolish I wanted, and then when I actually bought it, I cut out the front of the packaging and stuck that in, too!

Black Pearl is still one of my favourites, unfortunately, it was limited edition, and is now discontinued. (I have a tiny bit left, which I'm saving for a special occasion, but I'd better use it soon otherwise it'll be unusable. Sigh!) The product may be no more, but at least I have the memory and proof of owning it all there in my journal. 

Another simple way I add colour and pictures to my notebooks is, of course, photographs! Sometimes, it's via professional prints, often it's from my own home printed snaps. 

I occasionally use normal A4 photo paper in my main home printer, adding a number of smaller pics to one sheet, ready to cut out and use. 

The old way I worked, almost on a daily basis, was with my tiny Polaroid Pogo pocket printer with 3x2inch sticky-backed Zink photos, as shown here:

That's a great way to add atmosphere to a page. All I've done here was take a quick snap of this beautiful coloured glass tea-light candle holder showing the light from the flame bouncing off the walls. I was writing about the winter crisp dark nights and how lovely it was to be snuggled in at home after a day's Christmas shopping. It seems to add extra dimension to the words. 

One note: when I've gone back to the books where I've inserted a lot of Zink Pogo photos, I've noticed a strong stale smell that similar books of a similar age do not! It's a little off-putting, and can only be coming off these prints. Has anyone else noticed that?

I'm now using a Canon Selphy CP910 photo printer for all my journalling and scrapbooking needs, which I'm really enjoying. Does anyone else use a different photo-only printer? I'd love to hear your recommendations. 

I understand these are only two of many quick and simple ways of going beyond words in your journals, and knowing my very intelligent and clued-in Scribblers, I'm sure a sentence containing, "Granny" and "Eggs" along with "Teach" and "Suck" will probably come to mind, but I really hope you've enjoyed seeing inside my notebooks, and I hope to share more very soon. 

Happy Scribing!

1. Please note that I am not connected to any companies mentioned in this post. I do not receive any products, funding or gifting from these businesses. All products shown have been bought by me, or gifts from family or friends. I mention the items because I like them or have my own private opinion about them. It's just little old me talking about ma stuff! ;-)

2. If you would like to see more of anything in this series, or would like me to discuss something else, please write a comment below, or 'like' and leave a comment by my Instagram photo, letting me know what you would like me to post photos and write about. 

3. If you like what you read, don't forget to bookmark this site, and please share it with your friends. 

4. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram - @TheCraftyScribe which I update regularly with all things crafty, scribbling, beauty, fashion, the cats, sci-fi, fantasy, and the ephemera of 42*................... 

*42 = Life, The Universe and Everything!

Has My Little Box Jumped the Shark?*

Dear Scribblers

If you've followed me on Instagram (@TheCraftyScribe), you'll have noticed I've given a lot of time to My Little Box UK. 

This is a French company which offers monthly subscription boxes containing beauty and lifestyle items for £14.95 a month (that includes p&p). It has been operating in France and Japan a while, and in September 2014, it opened its doors to Britain. I was one of the early subscribers. 

When I received my first box, I was overwhelmed, and my Instagram post reflected that, with the comment, "My, oh, my, oh, my!" Along with fab beauty goodies (Nuxe, Laura Mercier and their own, My Little Beauty) came with a super glossy mini magazine, a laptop cover, and a notebook and stickers - be still my journalling techie heart!!!

https://instagram.com/p/tsQGPdqwTu/

I adored the second box even more, with the fabulous collaboration with Diane von Furstenberg, receiving a gorgeous scarf and brooch, along with a decent selection of beauty items. 

This went on, and I continued to sneak in Instagram photos containing the occasional item found inside the subscription box, including this photo I took at the 8 month mark. 

https://instagram.com/p/1xy56rqwb0/

I'd received some amazing parcels, including collaborations with Ines de la Fressange and Fleur de Force (although FdF was just the face, and the item collaboration in that box had been with French blogger, 'Make My Lemonade'.

Inside by now, the lifestyle bits had included: a mini-mug, phone holder, calendar, and - be still my stationery loving heart - pattern paper tape, superhero stickers, multiple-message stamp and ink pad. The beauty items had some additional impressive names of By Terry, Kérastase and La Roche-Posay.

One change had been our lovely glossy mini-mag had changed to a cheap recycled paper poster fold-out style, with no word as to why by My Little Box. Strange, as the French version of their box continued to receive the glossy version. 

Over the next few months, even though I found that not every box lived up to the standard they had set themselves in the beginning, I continued to subscribe and post photos on Instagram. 

I've noticed a change in the quality of the boxes. The collaborations have been not as high profile and with companies we don't know of, but sometimes this can be a good thing, as you discover fab new items. Like I said, sometimes, not all the time. 

The same goes with beauty items, lots of unknown names, although I received a lip/cheek mousse from a company called So Susan - Colour Hybrid in Marsala - and it's an amazing velvet matt in a perfect shade for me. It's in my top 5 lip products ever!

It also doesn't mean that just because a company is well known that you're going to always like the products. Take me and L'Occitane - I'm not a fan, so their colab on the Provence box was never going to be my favourite. Although, from what I read on the MyLittleBoxUK Facebook page, others were unhappy as the products in the box were being given away for free that week in UK L'Occitane stores! Another black mark. 

I've stayed with my subscription as I've always found at least one or two items in the box as worth having. That is until this month. Unfortunately, My Little Box raised my expectations when they sent this email: 

The email (sent on 7 October) went on to say this month's box was called the My Little Creative Box! Yippee! I thought, and Instagramed my excitement! https://instagram.com/p/8i3fx3qwab/

What was going to be in it? Maybe pens? A mindfulness colouring book? Sketch book? Little palette of paints? Maybe take the creativity into make up - cosmetic brushes? Or face paints for Halloween?... Not one bit of it!... Here's what I received on 22 October:

Can you see anything to do with creativity there? No. It's all about promoting Pinterest! 

The paper poster magazine is full of photos and an interview with a Pinterest slant, as is the gorgeously illustrated by Kanako, as normal, quote card. 

The lifestyle items have nothing to do with creativity. It's a jute bag with an advert on one side and "Collect moments not things" on the other, and a bag of tiny fiddly beads for sticking on your tech leads! They seem fine for a 8 to 12 year old, but for late teens and adults? Give us some respect! Plus the colours are more spring season - pastels - pink, blue, orange, cream grey, not quite right for autumn/winter, even if you were inclined to use them. 

The beauty products are just a bit 'meh!' Almost every month (in the last 5 months), I've received a body cream. I mean, how many can one person use? Also, once again on their Facebook page, I see complaints of people receiving the exact same make and colour of nail varnish they received a few months back! Now, that's just sloppy data keeping. 

I also don't agree with their comment in the magazine editorial that it's time to say goodbye to old-school scrapbooking. Do they not see the craze of daily scrapbooking with items such as 'Project Life', We r Memorykeepers 'Albums Made Easy' and their like? What about smashbooking? Or the out and out phenomena of Pretty Planning and the planneraddict and filofaxaddict communities?

So has My Little Box truly 'jumped the shark'? Sigh! It's such a shame as they began so well. I always wondered if they would run out of steam. I had hoped not, but now I wonder... However, a fail in my eyes, does not make a disaster to all. I'm only one person, this is only my opinion, at this time. 

I could give a knee jerk reaction and cancel my subscription, but I won't. I'm going to give My Little Box the benefit of the doubt, and give them another chance, and stay with them to the end of the year before giving my final verdict. 

I'll keep you posted!

Happy Scribing!

* (Wonder what 'Jumped The Shark' means? Check out this excellent Wikipedia page, it'll tell you all you need to know! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark 😃👍)

1. Please note that I am not connected to any companies mentioned in this post. I do not receive any products, funding or gifting from these businesses. All products shown have been bought by me, or gifts from family or friends. I mention the items because I like them or have my own private opinion about them. It's just little old me talking about ma stuff! ;-)

2. If you would like to see more of anything in this series, or would like me to discuss something else, please write a comment below, or 'like' and leave a comment by my Instagram photo, letting me know what you would like me to post photos and write about. 

3. If you like what you read, don't forget to bookmark this site, and please share it with your friends. 

4. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram - @TheCraftyScribe which I update regularly with all things crafty, scribbling, beauty, fashion, the cats, sci-fi, fantasy, and the ephemera of 42*................... 

*42 = Life, The Universe and Everything!

I'm back... again!

Dear Scribblers

I'm hanging my head in shame, and putting out my wrists to slap. It's been a long, long time, since I wrote on this site, but I assure you. I've still been around. 

I have sort of defected to Instagram! Yes, I know it's a site for photos, but I've been using it more than than. I've also been putting up mini-blog posts on journalling, scrapbooking, creativity, beauty, fashion, sci-fi and lifestyle. The whole 42! 

You can find me on Instagram as: @TheCraftyScribe 

I think I found it easier to show a larger proportion of my personality there, than I had here. However, if you would indulge me, I'd like to continue as I have done on Instagram, but take some of those posts and expand on them here, for any of those who'd like to know more. 

I'm still TheCraftyScribe, and I hope you are still my scribblers, as most of the posts will still be on writing, journalling and general musings, but with a little extra content sprinkled in. 

Talking of Instagram, my next post will be all about a company I've featured a lot there. 

I hope you'll join me on this new adventure together. 

Happy Scribing!

Personal Planner - The Diary with Multiple Personalities and Personalisation - plus discount code!

Dear Scribblers

If you've been following me on Instagram - @thecraftyscribe, you'll know that I've been using an A5 planner from Personal Planner. I've found this to be invaluable as my desk diary, as the pages are clean, crisp and of high quality. There's plenty of space, with the ability to use it in a way that works for you.

Personal Planner is an on-line company, which allows you to... well, do what their name implies! You can design a planner according to your own specifications from a wide range of options. There are four sizes to choose from, and you can decide exactly the month when you want it to start. Want it to run from June 2015 - May 2016? That's cool! How about September 2015 - August 2016? That's fine, too. More traditional, and you need your planner to do a full year of 2016? That's up to you. Any 12 month period can be chosen. Plus, they deliver worldwide!

1. This is an overview of my planner. Although Personal Planner offers a number of different cover colours and designs, I made my own, using favourite photos, in an Apple Mac app called Collage Factory, and then uploaded the images to Personal Planner. If it's just a single photo you want, you can upload it directly from your computer, or if you have an Instagram account, Personal Planner offer a function to import your favourite photos to create a collage directly on their website. It can't be simpler than that! (You can also choose the colour of elastic for the the closure.)

2. The planner offers the opportunity to add a yearly view over 4 pages - either a single year or two years, e.g: 2015 or 2016 or 2015/2016 or 2016/2017. Plus, an added bonus, you can add personal dates, such as: birthdays and anniversaries, which appear on both the yearly overview and the weekly planner pages.

3. There's a front page for your contact details, and any message you want to add. I included one of my favourite quotes taken from The Desiderata by Max Ehrmann.

4. Then there's the main pages. Personal Planner only offer a weekly view, but this is where the limitation ends! Everything can be personalised from the top colour bar, to the layout (column format, as shown here, and a number of box formats) which can be lined, unlined, shaded one of a number of colours, add an hours-at-work box, exercise workout info, or like me, the weather. Then there's three sections below the daily section, which can be selected as graph, musical score, to-dos, ideas, exams, lists, dinners...

5 and 6. After the calendar pages, you can decide how you want the rest of the planner to look. I have lined and graph papers, along with a contact/address list. Yes, you can input all of your personal contacts and important numbers, and the planner will come to you with it all printed in, and ready to use. If you have quite a few contacts you want added, it can take some time to type it all in, as the database is a little fiddly to use, but once you get the hang of it, it's fine. There's also blank pages, sheet music, sudoku, maps and even colouring pages available to choose from.

If you're a teacher, you'll love the options of the specially designed sections for preschool, primary and subject 1 to 4 classes.

screen shot from http://www.personal-planner.co.uk

You really do need to click onto the 'START HERE' button on the website, and play around with all the options available, to see the full extent of how you can personalise your planner. It's addictive! Oh, and did I mention that there's notebooks available too? ;)

I'm enjoying using my planner. I write everything in it from appointments, daily timetables and to-dos, ideas, record of Instagram uploads, quick reminder notes, and in the notebook section: quotes, long term goals, poems and story ideas. I occasionally play with 'pretty planning' decoration, with stickers and wash-tape, but most of the time. It's just full of my scribbles. The pages have been designed so well, that they are already lovely to look at to begin with.

Are you excited about designing your own planner with Personal Planner? Here's something to help you along the way. Personal Planner has been kind enough to offer a 15% discount code for you to use against your planner or notebook. Please go to http://www.personal-planner.co.uk and use the code: D-BMJQ-SQFJ to obtain your 15% discount. This offer expires on Sunday 3rd May 2015.

Happy Scribing! 

(In my next blog post, I'll show you how I turned my Personal Planner into the inserts for my A5 red Cuban Filofax organiser.)

Instant Murmurings from Instagram - an explanation and Èccolo World Traveler Journal

Dear Scribblers, 

A confession. 

I haven't been very active on my blog for many months. You've probably noticed, haven't you? I know. I know. I promised that I was going to post soon, and come along with a brand new spanking look. Once again, I haven't. **Hangs Head In Shame** 

However, I have been very active over on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/TheCraftyScribe

In fact, I've been using that as a mini-blog, putting up all sorts of photos, and explaining and reviewing products, and generally, having a good old muse. 

Do, I've decided that I'm going to add some of my favourite photos on here, along with a comment or two, which may be the same as you'll find on Instagram, or may be expanded on here to give an in depth look. So, here goes:

Èccolo World Traveler Journal

I can't wait to start writing in this gorgeous A5 tomato red journal. It has cream lined pages and ribbon page marker. I also love the internal gold chevron liner pages. Bought it from TK Maxx for £6.99. A bargain!  

I always adore the quality of Èccolo notebooks, and this one, once again, doesn't disappoint. If you'd like to see photos of the pages, please let me know. 

Happy Scribing!