Crafting: New Skill Level Unlocked

Algorithms on YouTube kept popping up journal content that included making Dutch doors. These are pages that you cut away part of and decorate. I'm going to post a few pictures, so if I explained that poorly, there will be examples.

I've been scared of Dutch doors, afraid I'd mess up my journal, but after months (Honestly, MONTHS) of watching these videos, I felt like I could maybe give it a try.

I remembered seeing a How-To video early on in my watch history, but a search didn't turn it up, so I watched other videos, got my stickers ready, and said, "let's just go for it. It's only paper."

Although I do have decorative stickers, I decided to use geometric stickers for my first attempt. I thought they would be easier to cut around and wrangle. I also decided to use washi tape, which wasn't the best decision because I didn't have super wide washi in the correct colors, but it's okay.

I carefully placed down my first sticker. A square box seemed like a good base to build from. Then a big circle, a small circle, and some other shapes.

Then came the scary part. Scissors.

I could have used my craft knife, but the cuts seemed easy enough with scissors. It was a little tricky going around the circles, but that turned out mostly okay.

Now it was time to turn the page and put down stickers on the opposite side to match the first side. That's when I realized I didn't have enough of the pink/orange/red colorways to complete the pattern. Poor planning on my part. I went with green and blue on the opposite side.

Then it was time to search out washi tape. I don't own a lot of wide washi. Most of it is narrow to less than an inch because I generally use it in my planners.

I also had a second constraint. I needed washi tape that wasn't reliant on a horizontal pattern since I'd be running it vertically. That also limited my wider washi choices because most of my wider tapes are horizontal. I'm not entirely happy with my choices, but for a first attempt? I think it turned out well.

 

 

This is the first side I did. This is an 8x8 journal with lines. I used four rows of pink-colored washi tape on the page after the page with the cuts. 

 

 

This is the second side of the paper with the green/blue stickers. There were three strips of two different washi tapes used. 

 

 

This is a close up of the front side of the paper with the page lifted up so you can see how I cut around the different shapes.

Aside from a bit of stress about cutting into the journal, this was fun! It also turned out fairly decent despite the washi tape not being exactly right. Next up, I'm going to try a deeper page cut with stickers instead of washi tape on the backing pages. We'll see how that goes.

If you're interested in trying this for yourself, I'd recommend going to YouTube and searching for "How to create a Dutch door in a bullet journal." There are a lot of videos available. 

Form Factors

Did I mention I bought a laminating machine?

I tried to get by with the laminating sheets that do not require a machine, but they are 1) expensive and 2) only seem to stick on one side. Maybe I just did it wrong, but it looks like one side is floating loose.

I keep track of where I am in my book using sheets. I want to record some basic information for each chapter. The lamination part comes in because I don't need to keep these sheets after the book is done and printing them out over and over is kind of a pain.

Instead, I use a wet erase marker and wipe the sheet. It works perfectly. I even found some extremely fine tip wet erase markers that make it awesome to write down things.

But sometimes it becomes hard to locate the information I'm looking for because it's all bunched together on a sheet of paper with 12 boxes. I know I mentioned this part--I found a template in my files by accident that had the same general idea, but laid out differently.

Only the creator of this document wanted to keep track of different things than I did. I tried to use their form and just put my information in the wrong boxes, but that got annoying because there wasn't enough room in a lot of the places.

So I created my own form, printed out twenty copies, and laminated them two to a sheet. I started using that instead.

And discovered that my own worksheet isn't exactly right.

Because the circle takes up space in the Event box, I need a little more space there. I need less space for day/time and the characters box. I also need to add Point of View (POV) box because I've been writing the POV character's name in the character box. The character box is also a little too big.

I'd also like to add another box for side notes. For example, in chapter 6, I mention that Cal speaks at least six languages. Do I need that in my Event box? No. Is that information I'd like to remember? Yes. Do I have some logical place to put it on my form? Again, no.

Things I like about my worksheet: The Chapter/Scene circle. Previously, I'd been using the 12 box worksheet with one box per chapter and it became crowded if there were two (or even sometimes three) scenes in a block.

I like the day/time designation being on the form. This is not my primary way to keep track of timeline because I use an actual printable calendar for that. I actually have the one for the Paladin League series in a binder because it encompasses about three years at this point. However, I like having it on the laminated sheet for one-glance reference.

When I have some spare time, I'll do version two of the sheet, print those out, and give it a try. Before I laminate them. Because when I finish Cal and Io's story, I'm probably going to throw away this version of the form and I hate tossing laminated paper when regular paper can be recycled.

My Mug is (Probably) Bigger than Your Mug

I never used to drink coffee.

In fact, I couldn't stand the taste of it. At all. But I needed a wake-up boost. I tried those caffeine pills (I don't know if they still sell them or not), but when that boost wore off, it was crash and burn time. There was no taking another one and continuing the energy.

Once that baby was done, I hit the wall and that was it. And I ended up with a horrible headache. I only took them in desperate--very desperate--times.

I don't drink pop. I can't stand carbonation, and if you think that was inconvenient, you have no idea. It was especially bad when we went on field trips in school and all the other kids had pop cans wrapped in tin foil and I had nothing to drink. This also means to caffeine from soda.

The need for caffeine increased when I worked for Northwest Airlines. Early mornings, long days, going home and trying to write, and once I sold my first book, the need to stay awake became worse. I went from writing a book in 18 months as an unpublished author, to having a four-month deadline for my second published book. Can we say terror?

Someone suggested I try International Coffee. (Not sponsored!) It was flavored instant coffee and the French vanilla became my lifeline. It was also expensive, but I got addicted fast. I still remember one Saturday sitting in the chair and not moving for hours. I finally thought, why am I sitting here? I have things to do and I had enough sleep, but I feel lethargic. I decided to make a cup of coffee. Instant coffee. Instant energy.

And then a friend sent me real coffee because she didn't realize what I was drinking. Two pounds of ground coffee from an actual coffee shop. I had to use my parents' coffee maker because I didn't own one. I had a lot of trial and error with sweetener and creamer and then I discovered nirvana.

When I finished the coffee she sent as a gift, I went online to try to buy more from that coffee shop, but the shipping costs were cringe-worthy. I was still living in Minnesota then and Caribou Coffee (Not sponsored! Sadly, I buy all my own coffee) was all around me. I tried their bags of coffee and that's what I've been drinking ever since.

In the large mug. The huge mug. The mug that probably holds about 28 ounces of coffee.

Now, before you worry about my caffeine intake, I’ll confess that I make my coffee on the weak side. Even after all these years, I’m still drinking what I’ve been jokingly told is dessert coffee.

And honestly? That’s accurate.

My brew is probably half-strength, filled with stevia and creamer, and sort of on the blonde side. I love the taste of dessert coffee. I’m just still not a fan of the unaltered stuff. It’s coffee with training wheels—and I’m fine with that.

And if my mug is bigger than the average mug, I’m probably still not getting the caffeine hit a real coffee drinker gets. Creamer takes up space.

Tools That Almost Work

I'm always looking for new things to try when it comes to writing. New ways to keep track of things, new ways to think about a story, new software.

A few months ago, I was looking for a lost file (not story related). It was a template for logging word count, and while I had a copy that I was using, I didn't know where the original was. I ended up doing a search in File Explorer and it was in a weird folder that must have made sense to me at the time.

High Priority To Be Printed.

I don't know why I thought I wanted to print a spreadsheet, but I also found some other tools and templates that I'd purchased to try with writing. One of them had promise.

I've blogged about the Twelve Box Comic Panel that I use (when I remember) to keep track of scenes in my book. It's helpful to glance and know whose Point of View I was in, a sentence or two about what happened in the scene, and where it took place. I even laminated these sheets so that I could use them with wet erase markers. I don't need to keep these pages once the book is finished, only while I'm writing.

But one of the tools I bought had a four column list of things to keep track of. The items were: The chapter (I divided the circle in half to keep track of scene, too. Like Ch 1/Sc 2), external conflict, plot point, day/time, internal conflict, setting, and characters. (No pictures to share since I purchased this template and it wouldn't be fair to the creator.)

I liked this layout. It does the same thing as my Twelve Box Comic Panel, but things are separated out instead of lumped into one box.

Since it seemed like something that would work for me, I started to use it and I liked it. Mostly. I discovered that I don't want to keep track of the external and internal conflict chapter by chapter. I also discovered that it did not give me enough room to record my plot points and there were times the box for characters was too small, too. 

I tried to create my own template based on this form, but gave up pretty quickly. Sadly, my graphic design skills are poor. Very poor. And while I probably could eventually come up with something I liked, it felt like a lot of time where I wouldn't be writing.

Then I had another idea. I have all these stencils I have to use in my planner. What if I used them in my series notebook to draw the boxes in the sizes I want/need?

I did a trial run last night after I was done working for the day and it seems it might work out.

When I talked about creating my own writing planner, I think I mentioned that I tried planners created by other authors that just didn't work for me. Some of it was because of how my brain works and some of it was because they wanted to keep track of things I didn't and there was a lot of wasted real estate. When I bought a dashboard planner and altered it to work the way I needed it to, it was a revelation.

This template/form is kind of the same thing. Once I get it to work for me, it will be fabulous. I just need to do some resizing and relabeling first. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving for my American friends!