The Problem With Journal Supplies... Uber Frustrated!

The Background

So I've mentioned recently that I've been papercrafting and working on my BuJo (Bullet Journaling) a lot. I am having so much fun creating dashboards and covers and inserts. But I've run into a bit of a problem. Well for me at least. I'm not finding the diversity in paper and embellishment designs that I'm looking for anywhere because crafters, craft stores, and journal makers cater to girls and women.

So what exactly is the problem, Your Royal Pinkness? Aren't you a girl?

Yes. I am a girl. I am a woman. I am a sister, daughter, auntie, mother, wife. I'm even a step-grandma!

And I like flowers and lace and cutesy. And I like vintage and Old World and art.

But I also like camo, guns, comic books, gothic, ancient pagan designs and trucks. Do you know how many Happy Planners and accessories, journals and accessories, or washi, papers, and diecuts I have found in my recent searching for any of these themes? Less than five fingers worth. I am NOT what you'd call a 'girly-girl' very often. And yes, that does seem a little odd considering the name and color of this blog, but it is true.

I have a dwindling supply of a vintage style nature 12x12 paper pack (don't remember whom by) with compasses, vintage fish (yuck) and canoe patterns, trees, and color schemes, but they're still on the regular vintage side. I also have a dwindling supply of a DCWV 12x12 Out In the Wild Paper Stack. But there's also a lot of fishing themed papers that I could care less for. You are picking up on the fact that I find fish and fishing distasteful, right?

I don't care if you like doing it. That's great and wonderful! Believe me, I enjoy eating fish, but there will be no one in the world again who can fry up fish like my Grandpa and Great Uncle George. I don't care if yours is good, because it just isn't going to be the fish Grandpa and Uncle George caught, filleted, battered, and fried. It won't measure up. If you like fishing, by all means, enjoy. Just do not get upset with me when I decline your invitation to participate.

When I first started perusing the journaling aisle at JoAnn's, I saw the Happy Planner section and thought 'well that's a quick and easy way to start', but I don't want to get stuck with a system that requires special sizes and specially cut papers and those rings just seem so daunting! But the other day at work, a coworker was on break and placing stickers into a Happy Planner and I gravitated towards her and said "Oh Wow! a Happy Planner!" From there we started talking. So far in my journey in planners and journals I have only found two people in the last month who knew what the terms Happy Planner and Bullet Journal actually were. With everyone else, I have to pull mine out and attempt to explain it.

I thought I'd revisit the idea of the Happy Planner just because I've seen the specialty hole punches for all sorts of systems. The journaling world is starting to get quite diverse and paper crafting is becoming a topic that goes hand in hand with journaling. Perhaps...

Then this morning, I saw a YouTube video by Bloominate where she showed how to put a B6 sized Happy Planner into a TN cover. Oh now this is interesting! Let me look at Joann and Michael's Happy Planner collections again and see what might work...

Gah! Why is it ALL girly?!?!?!

Ebay, Etsy, Amazon searches...

Why is so little of this world more 'masculine'???

Uh, Your Royal Pinkness... Men aren't typically into this sort of thing, or at least what I've noticed.

I BEG to differ! If you're into crafting at all... Have you never heard of TIM HOLTZ??? I'm sure there are other makers who are male, but I can't think of any off hand as I am still somewhat new to the world of name brand crafting designers. I would unfortunately have to agree to a certain degree that the predominant gender of those shopping at Michael's or Joann's, or in the papercraft aisles at Wal-Mart and Meijer at the same time I am, are in fact female. And Tim Holtz papers are not what you would exactly call overtly feminine, for which I am quite grateful (I finally bought my first Tim Holtz product, The Lost and Found Paper Stash, just the other day), they do still fall underneath the heading of vintage.

So what is a girl to do when she wants to pick up paper packs, stacks, stashes, or pads in something that aren't so girly, aren't so cutesy, aren't so vintagey or antiquey? I'm relagated to spending a lot of money and paying a lot of shipping for designer papers that are available only through Etsy (if you can find something you like) or Amazon (through third party sellers)? UGH!!

(Leave comments if you have a go-to designer or seller of things "less-feminine" for paper crafting! I need help! lol)

Existing Projects

Now don't get me wrong. I have so many interests that there is a way to satisfy many of them in papercrafting. For example...

Here is a picture of some 12x12 paper packs that I picked up around 2004-2007 when I was thinking about chronicling my son's childhood in a scrapbook. Needless to say I only ever did one page with his baby picture and his birthdate. (He's almost 15!) I cut these all down to 8.5x11 sheets, saving all the scraps for borders later.

There's photography of glitz and glam stuff, peacock feathers, animal prints, pearls, lace, vintage paper, and antique stationary designs. I like it all, but it's not my only interests. I was going to use these as backgrounds for educational sheets in my School Binders. A project to explain another time.

I've mentioned DCWV's The Immortal Love Stack that I used to make a dashboard/cover for my previously shared Book/TV/Movie collections inserts. I also used that stack to create a little idea and manuscript portfolio for a supernatural (possibly YA, but probably not) novel I've been trying to write for about a year... I used a tutorial from fellow Blogger Maria Ontiveros at Gallo Organico, although she doesn't seem to have used that blog in several years.

 

 

I figured the moon and wolf imagery would help put me in the mindset of my novel's world. (So not a HINT-HINT, but definitely a HINT-HINT. lol)

I also created a portfolio for another novel I've been dabbling in for about 3 years using DCVW's Once Upon a Time Paper Stack and some decorative papers from another stack that I cannot remember the name of (it's been over a decade since I started collecting and I didn't think to remember those sort of details in the early years. lol)

This story has kings and queens and princesses and a prince or two... The overall setting was inspired by early seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones, although I haven't as yet read any of George R. R. Martin's books it was based on.

Amazingly enough the two charms came from some Bath and Body Works Color Drops nail polish bottles I bought while I was still in high school. How I managed to hang onto two cheap little charms for two decades is beyond me.

The stack is 12x12 card stock weight, but because I wanted to  have the outside shell a bit more durable, I used the cardboard back from one of those tear away legal style pads of paper to act as reinforcement between the cardstock and the interior designer paper. (You never know what trash might be useful later! Don't throw out that cardboard back when the pad is done!) I cut the sheets to the size I wanted, using the cut off section and Kraft cardstock to create the pockets on the inside. I modified Amber's (lyriclover810) tutorial on pocket folders since the papers I used for my inserts wouldn't look right on the inside with upside down imagery. Just a preference. It is also constructed like a TN with dual elastics and a closure elastic in the spine. Thanks to the heavier duty cardboard, it can sit on a shelf like a book rather than booklet and with the elastics, I can add or subtract inserts any time I need to.

I hand stitched those A5 Lined Journal Pages from Space + Quiet's Freebie Printables using Sea Lemon's Kettle Stitch Binding Tutorial by Jennifer. My stitches occur every cm from the outside cover. It is a two-page pdf that I printed using Adobe Reader, using the settings shown below. I printed 24 sheets at a time using draft quality and black ink only. I hate printing as a rule because ink is so expensive, but I also cannot write in straight lines, so they're just a very light guideline on the page.

Then I flipped the sheets over and printed another 24 copies. I don't tend to have much luck with double sided printing with top feed printers, so I checked for blank pages before flipping to print on the other side and I also removed any other paper before the second printing so that sheets didn't get stuck together and I ended up with a couple sheets that were blank in the center of my binding or sheets that were only printed on one side. The little tricks you learn with your printer over time.

Afterwards I folded four sheets at a time with my ektools scoring board, and then cut them to the desired height and width as five sets of four. The thread used is the heavyweight khaki colored thread used to stitch denim. I thought it matched well with the Kraft paper cardstock.

I think that is it for today. A rare Tuesday off meant I did what I wanted to do rather than what needed to be done. Self-care and fulfilling your own desires is what keeps most emotionally-fried moms sane. Let us have our hobbies. Otherwise we turn into raging nags. No one wants that. Trust me on this.

Her Royal Pinkness, Elizabeth I