I had the most difficult time finding inspiration to create my April 2021 bullet journal design. I looked high and low, but couldn’t find anything that triggered any strong feelings. I started to worry because April was just a few days away and I hadn’t come up with a theme.
Finally, on April 2, I came across a few pictures on Pinterest and videos on YouTube that sparked some interest (better late than never I guess). I eventually buckled down and settled on an underwater/nautical theme and didn’t look back.
The Design Process
The Cover Pages
Once I landed on a theme, I began to devise a plan to create my April spread in my journal. For the cover and notes pages, I was inspired by a design created by Study Susan on Pinterest and Instagram. I thought the drawings of the whales and dolphins were simply adorable and would fit well into my design. I used the pink, peach, and orange Crayola Super Tips to color the design and make it pop. The result was really cute and fun.
The Calendar
For the calendar spread, I used Amanda Rach Lee’s August 2017 design video as an inspiration. After I found a bunch of step-by-step sea doodle tutorials on Pinterest, I proceeded to draw the sea shells and other nautical elements to create my calendar design. I chose various shades of blue to color the design. I wasn’t sure if it was going to look nice while I was drawing it, but it turned out to be a pretty spread once it was complete.
The Mood and Productivity Trackers
The tracker pages worried me the most for this design, but I eventually found some ideas on Pinterest that worked with my theme.
I saw the design for the mood tracker on Pinterest and immediately knew it was the one for this page. I drew a bunch of sea creatures and bubbles on the page and numbered them from 1-30 for each day in April. I then drew the title in a curly font and added the key at the bottom. The tracker turned out better than I expected and I’m glad I created it for this month’s theme.
The productivity page took me a while to complete because it was my own creation and not based on someone else’s design. I used the sea doodle tutorials to create an underwater scene. I also chose bright colors to make it really stand out. The completed picture is actually one of my favorite designs in this spread.
The Weekly Spreads
My weekly spreads were created using drawings of koi fish and jellyfish. The first two weeks are all about koi fish. I used two shades of orange to color all of the fish and bubbles and make it look like one cohesive design.
The last two pages of the spread contain two unique jellyfish designs. I based my designs on tutorials and drawings I found on Pinterest. I used the colors pink, purple and blue to finish the drawings and tie them together.
Even though I had a tough time coming up with a theme for April, I was able to come up with a design at the last minute that was fun and a bit out of the box for me. I’m proud of myself for trying something new and learning some new techniques.
Tell me what you think of my April bullet journal design in the comments below.
