Digital journaling on paper?

February 1, 2022November 25, 2022 by elainevitikainen ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

After some years of journaling merely on paper, last year I started journaling both on paper and digitally. I really enjoyed it! Here is a look through the year. I also created a K-PoP journal for the months of April and May which includes a birthday spread that was later printed out as a small book.

This year, I decided to combine them both. I’ve created monthly templates for the whole year and have them printed out as an A5 journal. I really enjoyed the process of designing these templates. I worked on Procreate App to make unique templates that fit my needs and to include elements that I like to make it my very own.

Here is a quick guide to my journal elements:

At the moment, I’m in the process of planning a class on Skillshare on how to create a monthly bullet journal template on Procreate to be published this month. In this class, I will also share with the students some of my stamp brushes to decorate their journals, the link to the fonts that I’ve created, a file with all the months of the year and a yearly calendar. Please look forward to it. Many thanks!

UPDATE: This class has now been published. Please have a check here. Thanks!

Visual Selfie

January 14, 2022April 11, 2022 by elainevitikainen ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

As people start the year with a new journal, some have been asking what to put on the first page. One idea is an introduction of themselves. But how do you do this in a fun and creative way?

I have been creating visual introductions of myself or what some people might call a visual selfie for a while now. I’ve also covered this in my visualisation workshops. Here are some of the examples:

And here is the latest one from my Skillshare profile:

I hope these examples are helpful and give you a bit of inspiration. Let me know if you need more examples as I have a few more in my sketchbooks. Thanks!

February mini spread

January 6, 2022June 30, 2022 by elainevitikainen ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

One thing that I really enjoy is preparing a spread for my mini journal. I create spreads on Procreate in my iPad then have them printed. I’m always happy of how they turned out.

Are you interested in printable templates? Please let me know! I’m in the process of planning a class on Skillshare on creating monthly journal spread on Procreate. This template is also now available here. Thanks!

UPDATE: This class has now been published. Please have a check here. Thanks!

After all, it was a good year!

December 29, 2021December 30, 2021 by elainevitikainen ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

They say that COVID-19 will eventually come to an end. In my mind I kept asking when. Sadly, it is becoming normal for me. Wearing mask in public, washing and sanitising hands like crazy, careful what I touch, avoiding people, avoiding crowd seem to have become my standard way of living. I have learned to navigate and live with it and hoping that I won’t be infected. I don’t live in paranoia. I try to live as usual. But there are many exceptions to this, for example, I can’t just work on live settings or travel easily. But those too seem to have worked out. I overcame my fear of what will 2021 be while now, it has been replaced with what will 2022 be. However, in any case, 2021 was after all a good year!

How was your 2021? I’ll be happy to know. May 2022 be better!

K-pop Journaling

August 19, 2021October 6, 2021 by elainevitikainen ♥ 2 Comments

Lately, many journaling enthusiasts have been excited to share their K-pop journals online. For some who are new to K-pop journaling, they have been asking how this should be done. Personally, I don’t think there is any part and parcel of how a K-pop spread should look like. It really depends on your personal style.

Back in April and May of this year, I created my journaling with mostly K-pop content. This was partly because April is my birthday month, but also there were many special events during April and May which I had the chance to be a part of. The journal is in digital form and ready to be printed as a small book. Here are some of the pages:

My spreads are very different from what I have seen online. I didn’t write any lyrics of songs or any playlist. I didn’t give general information about the artists either. I just think that it is very important to have a personal touch on these spreads and in every spread in general. Think about what happened to you that day, what was special about it, what did you like about it? One thing that I recorded here are the events that I actually participated in and how I felt about them. This will surely remind me of those moments in many years to come!

But in the end, this is all just for fun and a good distraction to the ongoing pandemic… How is your K-pop journaling going? Let me know!

Elaine’s Recipes

August 2, 2021August 2, 2022 by elainevitikainen ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I love illustrating my favourite recipes. I started this habit in 2015 and posted them on They Draw website. But this time I have some of my favourite recipes printed into a small book and I’m really happy how it turned out!

How I make my stickers

July 8, 2021October 6, 2021 by elainevitikainen ♥ 4 Comments

As mentioned in my previous post, choosing stickers nowadays had become more and more difficult as there are many available stickers out there. My solution was to make them myself! It’s a fun process that I truly enjoy and I found it very relaxing.

Lately, I have lots of inquires about how to make stickers. The simplest way for me was to draw on an A4 paper then make copies on a sticker paper. I did this a few years ago but haven’t done this now. It worked and it was very convenient. However, for my process now, I draw on my iPad using an Apple Pencil and Procreate app.

I created these seven animal characters then combined them together on an A4 size canvas on Procreate.

Since my iPad doesn’t give me the option to print photo on a photo paper, I print from my computer.

I’m using an A4 size printable glossy vinyl sticker paper which is waterproof for Inkjet printer.

My printer is an Epson ET-2650. It is important to have the correct setting to print it right.

The next process is the fun process of cutting. I don’t have any of those fancy cutters so I’m cutting them by hand. Just put the music on and start cutting away while planning for what to draw next for the next set of stickers!

And there they are! I think they are so cute! I also hope this blog post answered your questions.

I’m also selling downloadable stickers ready for printing here!

All photos by Ari Vitikainen @ https://www.arivitikainenphotography.com

Stickers,anyone?

May 24, 2021October 8, 2021 by elainevitikainen ♥ 1 Comment

I have been a sticker fan since I was a child. I still am but with the wide variety of stickers available in the market, it has been difficult to have a personal preference. My profession also allows me to create stickers myself which is very convenient and to be honest, they are not really difficult to produce.

However, I have struggled with printing. Just because I don’t have the right paper. I have been printing on label papers which is wrong, very wrong! So today, I ordered vinyl glossy sticker papers which are also waterproof. I’m really exciting! I have something to look forward to…

Although, I have been selling and have sold stickers on Redbubble, yesterday, I wanted to design stickers for bullet journaling. I’m making them available for download on the links below for personal use. If you ever use them, please share how you made used of them. That would really be nice. Thanks!

I’ve been receiving suggestions on what to include in my designs. Thanks so much! I’m open to more suggestions and I’m really looking forward to get on with illustrating them. So more stickers to come!

I’m also selling printable stickers here. Please have a check!

April is here!

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021 by elainevitikainen ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

April is here and Spring arrived in Helsinki too. The roads have been cleaned and soon we can enjoy the beautiful Cherry blossoms. April is also my birthday month!

Here are my spreads for April’s bullet journal created digitally. I enjoyed making these and I’m sure more elements will be added to these pages. I’m also in the process of creating more digital washi tapes and digital stickers that I would love to share here as downloads.