Hi Everyone

My name is Anna but I am usually known around social media by the nickname ‘Mrs Brimbles’. I was very kindly sent a January ‘Forever Dreaming’ box to share on my social media and to guest blog here on the Lollipop Box Club blog.

This was my first time receiving a box and I have to say that it was amazing! I am a massive cloud lover and a cloud fan so this box was just perfect for me. In fact you could probably say that it was just a little too perfect. How so? Well I just wanted to hoard all the things, keep them precious and not use them. I am pretty sure some of you crafty folk can relate to that, come on own up now, surely there is something crafty you are hoarding for that perfect project?

Well here is what I have learnt in the many years that I have been crafting. That perfect project rarely exists. Usually what happens is that your hoarded item gets forgotten about and when found is either not to your taste or has gone dog eared or such. Then you kick yourself for not using it and wish you had.

I came up with a way to hoard my beloved papers but not hoard them all at the same time. I turn my papers into dashboards for my planners and journals that way I always have them and can look at them all the time and they are preserved. Then when I grow tired of them I move them on.

So if you have a travelers notebook and what like to do the same as me I have a tutorial in the video below on how to make your own dashboard. It is a super quick and easy project to do but one you will love!

You can use whatever you like to decorate your dashboard but you need to make sure it is flat to go through the laminator. The forever dreaming kit was particularly lovely because it helps us to aspire us to ‘dream big’ and what better positive affirmation to look at when you open your planner on a daily basis!

To decorate mine I decided to deconstruct the paper clip that came in the box. Not because I didn’t like it, I really do and it is because I love it that I wanted to use it on my dashboard. I have a few cloud clips so I didn’t mind loosing one to this project. Be warned…these paper clips are incredibly well made and as such I had a lot of difficulty in deconstructing it lol!

 

I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out, it really makes my soul incredibly happy! I still have some of the cloud paper left too so I need to think about how I can use it. I don’t very often read physical books but if I did it would make a great book mark. I will probably use it as ephemera in my journal.

 

Also in the box were the most amazing stickers although very disappointing. Disappointing in that there weren’t more sheets like 51 more sheets so I could use them every week ha ha! They are so gorgeous and I knew I had to use them straight away and I would definitely buy more! I don’t have many on my planner pages at the moment as I tend to stick stickers in where I have free space or where they fit and at the moment I don’t know what I have going on in the later part of the week. I will definitely post photos on my instagram of my completed pages though so you can check that out if you would like to see how the final pages looked.

 

 

 

 

These are my real planner pages and not ones that have been staged to show you how it could look so you will see on there that I have a cervical screening on Wednesday. I thought about taking it out but why, there is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact I am so wracked with anxiety about having ‘it’ done that I haven’t been for a good 10 years! That is shocking behaviour for what is supposed to be a responsible adult! After all I am a mother now and going to be 37 next month! Apparantly there has been a decrease in women having this done and an increase in problems in that area. So come on ladies let’s look after ourselves and practice some self care. You may think I have gone off on a rambly tangent but I do believe in sharing honestly and I love to see real planner pages and how stickers are actually used for real life (I do staged ones too though). And this box kind of prompted and motivated me to get it booked in. It’s funny how a box can do that but I find it very inspiring and motivated to get stuff sorted!
I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and seeing my planner pages taking shape. If you decided to make your own dashboard I would love to see your photos if you care to tag me or share with me on social media. I will never tire of looking at clouds and planners with clouds lol!
Thank you so much Lisa for having me!
Much Love
Anna x