Materials Used
Note: My Zentangle bullet journal is from a past Archer and Olive subscription box. The one from Amazon is a comparable alternative.
Transcript
Hi everyone. Welcome to my channel. If this is your first time on my here, hi and welcome! I’m Emily. The tortoise shell cat you see on my videos from time to time is Izzy. Don’t let her fool you with that cute little hand-holding move there though. She’s a giant nuisance.
Anyway, today we’re doing a February plan with me video, which I had to film over the course of a few days because chronic illness does me that way sometimes. I had intended to film a Zentangle video or two before now, but January…uh… it didn’t quite go as I’d expected.
On January 6, I had a follow-up mammogram. That went well by the way. There was no change on the images, and the doctor cleared me for normal yearly screenings instead of the “we’d better keep our eyes on that” follow ups. And while I was waiting for Dan to pick me up at the hospital, though, my sister-in-law texted, “Have you seen what’s going on at the Capitol?”
A couple of livestreams later, and the only thing I could write in my January bullet journal for a few days was “HOLY S***!”
The following Monday was my brain MRI, and on Wednesday the 11th, I got the radiologist’s written report in my patient portal. Long story short, I read the words “slight concern for tumor progression” on the report and proceded to flip right the f*** out.
As I’ve said to others since that time, I might not have been completely overtaken by my anxiety if some white supremacists hadn’t tried (however unsuccessfully) to murder the Vice President and Speaker of the House, but I’ve just been fat-stacking various anxieties over the last four years anyway. When I didn’t see the word “STABLE” on my MRI report, I hit the weed (it’s legal here, by the way) pretty darn hard. The next morning I was still so shaken I was barfing up my meds.
Whew! So that’s where I’ve been. I am doing much better now considering, so no imminent catastrophes to fill you in on that I’m aware of. My oncologist is taking my case to the hospital’s tumor board and is supposed to get back with me in early February for their recommendaion. I feel like it’s a certainty that they’ll just come back with “Let’s keep an eye on things” and in all honesty, that’s just like every other day when you’re living with an inoperable brain tumor.
But back to the zentangle bullet journal.
I started off doing a quote for my cover page on a loose piece of mixed media paper and gluing that in. Initially I wanted to do a layout similar to one I’d found on Pinterest where the words were arranged on an arc, but about 30 minutes into that version I’d realized I’d bitten off way more than I could chew. So I simplified and started sketching with straight lines for my guides.
I’m masking with one of the washi tapes from the Archer & Olive subscription box because I after I finish covering the text with masking fluid, I’m going to give it a wash with India ink. If you’re in the market for a bullet journal or stickers or Acrylograph pens or whatever and you are new to Archer & Olive, be sure to check out the description. I’ve got a link in there that gets new customers 15% off their purchase. And if I refer a couple more people I get a coupon too.
I recently received an email from them that they have a Valentine box available right now. I don’t know if it’ll still be in stock by the time I get this posted, but it looked pretty nice. I won’t be getting this box because, you know, money. But let me know if you’re planning to order one and if you have it already what you think of it.
Things went a little bit better for me this time with the masking fluid. I gave everything plenty of time to dry and didn’t have any trouble removing it. I’m still using the same chisel nib shaped application tool that came with it and although it looks better, I don’t know if I’ll ever get the precision I’m looking for with it.
That said though, I don’t really mind the way it turned out on this quote page. In the places where the letters were touching and looking more like blobs than actual letters, I went in with my micron to refine the edges.
The full quote is “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public” by Dr. Cornel West.
It’s probably obvious to anyone who’s good at lettering that I’m not really. I can print neatly if I slow down and really think about what I’m doing, and I can sort of fake fancier fonts by sketching with a pencil and then just inking them. Like what I’ve done here with the word love. After I lined the letters with a Micron, I attempted a gradient fill with a couple of my metallic Gelly Roll pens — a recent gift from a friend that I am absolutely loving. Anyway, I wasn’t terribly successful with my attempt to blend these colors, but I still think it can be done if keep at it.
After that, the fatigue was setting in, so I grabbed some washi tape for decoration because it still need a little something but I wasn’t up to anything more creative than that honestly. Then I grabbed my Gorilla Glue stick and pasted it on to the next blank page in my journal. I didn’t have the camera rolling for that part, but if you ever want to know what supplies I use for my videos, I always try to put a complete materials list in the video description.
Ok, folks. I don’t know if you can tell by my voice, but I’m running on fumes here, so that’s it for today’s voiceover I’m afraid. I’ll let the music play through the rest of my spreads and the flip-through. I’ve thrown in some bonus Izzy footage at the end. I know some of you are really just here to see her anyway.
Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video. Honestly sometimes I just need the ego boost.
All right guys, see you next time!
[Music]
