Book Review: Dot Journaling

Dot Journaling by Rachel Wilkerson Miller

Do you like to make lists? I love making lists, it helps keep me organized, keeps me on track, helps me worry less about forgetting to do something and it feels so good to mark things off my list when they are done. This year I also jumped on the planner band wagon for dates and appointments and have also been trying to keep better track of things like health, diet and sleep habits. In the past I’ve had several calendars, notebooks and papers all over and I’d like to have everything better organized and all together and I think a Dot Journal might be my answer.

In Dot Journaling Rachel Wilkerson Miller will explain just what a Dot Journal is, how to set one up for yourself and how to use it to help you set goals, stay on track and keep organized. A dot journal is a to do list, planner and diary all in one. And you can set one up to perfectly suit your own needs. You can make it as simple or detailed as you’d like. You can even get creative and use your scrapbooking and stationary supplies (like washi tape, markers, pens, stickers and stamps) for a custom look.

In the book Rachel has load of examples and inspiration, you’ll find page layout ideas and calendar set ups for daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. And great ideas of things to keep track of like sleep times, TV shows you watch, exercise logs, shopping lists, meal plans, journaling prompts, chore charts, money and budget trackers and more.

I tried a couple of the ideas in the book and created a single page layout in a small notebook for the month of August that included tasks, goals, events and a mini calendar. I also loved one of the meal planning ideas that used Post It flags to change out the meal for each day. I used some of my Harry Potter planner supplies to create my meal plan page.

If you’re interested in learning more look for Dot Journaling by Rachel Wilkerson Miller at your favorite book shop or visit The Experience Publishing for a list of on-line retailers.

-Heather

Looking for printable journaling items? Check these out on Etsy.

More Ideas For You:

Kat’s fun masculine birthday layout has a lot of white space with a bit of confetti thrown around, a cool mixed title with some stamping and amazing banners across the top. The banners are made from bakers twine with rectangle, fishtail and round flags folded over, cut from different pattern papers. I spotted her idea on the Krafty Kat 9 Instagram page.

With Father’s Day over you might be thinking about scraping those photos of Dad you took or just about designing masculine scrapbook layouts in general. I know they can be a bit challenging but think about using richer, darker color combinations, masculine patterns like plaids, stripes, chevron and stars as well as incorporating activities they enjoy doing to create the perfect page for the men in your life. Let’s take a look today at some ideas for masculine layouts for Father’s Day and Beyond.

Jan’s father and son concert layout has a layered wide border, a custom die cut letters and alphabet stickers title and neat music related embellishments. Her main photo of the guys is the largest balanced with two concert pics to the side with room for journaling as well. Visit the Jana Eubank blog for all the details.

Manasa’s layout has some simple paper weaving of distressed strips of cardstock with stitching, this adds so much great color and texture to the page! She also added a few embellishments, gems and stitched down the sticker letter title too. Take a closer look at her Manasa Vavilapalli Instagram page.

Black and white with a pop of a single color is perfect for a formal mens layout like Sara did here using a bold yellow for the background. I love the large die cut title and how she placed one of the photo inside of a letter! Since this is for a wedding she also included sweet wedding embellishments and sentiments. Learn more at A Cherry on Top blog.

Even though Erin’s page theme is actually nautical this is a great design theme for any masculine layout that isn’t. Red, white and blue work perfectly with lots of sea life, rope, maps, buttons and ink splatters for a maritime feel. I came across her idea at the Not Just for Boys Instagram page.

Julie’s awesome layout keeps all the action vertically down the center with long strips and stripes of paper, stitching, string and ribbon, anchored by two half circles. There’s tons of great texture from wooden words, metal buttons, staples, sewing, fabric patches and more. Take a closer peek at the Hey Little Magpie blog.

Black and grey are perfect for guys, it’s also a fun challenge for yourself to dig through your stash and find everything you can that’s black and grey. Kim’s design has lots of thick chipboard arrows and tickets forming a border to the side of the photo along with layers of different grungy pattern papers and tearing too. Visit the Kimew Instagram page for more info.

Pocket pages are a easy and quick way to create masculine designs. Traci filled the left side with photos of a fishing trip adding a single sentiment strip. The other side is just one pattern paper but with a thick acrylic title, a small journaling label and some more sentiment strips, it’s so clean and simple. She breaks it all down at the Traci Reed Designs blog.

Sophies outdoorsy design has an amazing background made of strips of ruler papers in rustic colors stacked along the top and bottom of the photo. Some are torn, some are stitched and over top she layered buttons, gems, tied tags, scattered stars with larger accents like a compass, deer and a circle for journaling. I spotted this on the So Scrappy Instagram page.

For the guy who loves to travel is a wonderful layout from Angela with a large circular photo in the center with a stitched round matt and colorful vehicles all around. There’s also stitching around the background pattern paper and the title and speech bubbles are in similar colors to the cars. Find more info at the I Need Confetti blog.

For men who love to work on cars here’s a double page spread from Erin. She used rustic pattern papers in black and tan with lots of cool die cut gears with realistic looking heat embossed rust, ink pad smearing and torn vellum on the journaling. Learn more at the Crafty Concepts with Erin Instagram page.

Tarrah created an amazing tent she drew and cut from plaid pattern paper to frame her camping layout, using twine to “tie” up the sides. Around the photos are some florals and insects along with a thick acrylic camper and date label. The title is also acrylic with more flowers and a bird house accent. Find more info at the Bramble Fox blog.

I hope you’ve been inspired today to create some cool layouts for all the guys you love!

-Heather

Looking for Father’s day papers, stamps, and Embellishments? then check out these Father’s day designs on A Cherry On Top

More Ideas For You:

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