Hi friends! I’m Cecile from @cissyartcafe and I’m here to share with you a very simple watercolor galaxy setup for your bullet journal. One of the wonderful things about Archer and Olive notebooks is how thick their paper is, so I wanted to take this opportunity to paint a very simple galaxy cloud painting to celebrate Libra season!

Tools You’ll Need For A Galaxy Monthly Bullet Journal Setup:

• Archer & Olive A5 Signature Dot Grid Notebook
• Any single watercolor color of your choice (I’m using Windsor and Newton Artist’s Watercolor in Prussian Blue)
• A white pen or white ink
• A paintbrush
• A pencil
• Fineliner pens of your choice (my preferred is the Copic Multiliner SP pens because you can swap out the nibs and the ink cartridges, making them slightly more environmentally friendly than a regular fineliner pen!)

STEP 1

We’re starting out with a very basic monthly calendar. I’ve used my pencil to draw out my calendar grid, with enough space on the right side for a monthly task list. For reference, each of my calendar squares are 6x6 dot grid spaces, but you can make your calendar however large or small you prefer. I’ve also gone ahead and quickly sketched out my cloud shapes at the top of the page. You can make your clouds as fluffy as you’d like!

STEP 2

We’ll be painting the clouds first before we set up the rest of the monthly layout. I start at the top of my cloud shapes with the most color, and gradually wash out the color as I move down the page. With watercolors, I recommend using a light hand since you can always layer on more color as needed! Be careful not to use too much water, since soaking the paper may cause the paint to bleed through the page. 

STEP 3

Time for the most fun part: drawing in the stars! I’ve hidden the Libra constellation in the header, and I like to alternate between tiny white stars (using white ink, or a white pen if that’s what you prefer) and black ones depending on which color contrasts the best. 

STEP 4

Finally, let’s finish the monthly setup! I wrote in the days of the week at the top of the calendar and added the corresponding dates for the month of October. You can set up your monthly calendar however works best for you! 

And that’s it! I hope you try out this very quick and simple galaxy tutorial for your monthly setup. I’ve also attached a matching A4 monthly printable for you if you’d rather print out a monthly calendar instead of making it yourself! (Just print it at 50% size if you’d like it to fit on one page of your A5 notebook.)

If you try out the tutorial or use the printable, please tag me @cissyartcafe on social media, I would absolutely love to see your recreations. Don’t forget, you can also use the code CISSYARTCAFE to get 10% off your next Archer and Olive order!