May Bullet Journal Setup 2022

While we dream of spring days ahead (shovelling a foot or so of snow), I’m excited to share my May Bullet Journal Setup 2022. I am a Fall/Winter person so the fact that I am dreaming of warmer days tells you how long this winter has been. But enough whinging! This is about my May Bullet Journal Setup and the camera theme I have chosen. As aways, I have stickers based on this theme available for free download to email subscribers in the From Blank to Brilliant Library so check those out. If you would like to watch my video setup, you can click to Youtube. Otherwise, below I am sharing the mini tutorial for creating the pull tab. So let’s get into it!

May Bullet Journal Setup 2022 Supplies

• B5 Archer and Olive Dot Grid Notebook (affiliate link – NML10 for 10% off)
• The Pigeon Letters Round brushes in sizes 2 and 6 (affiliate link)
• Liquitex Acrylic Gouache
• Mastersons Sta-Wet Handy Palette
• Tombow Mono Drawing Pens in 08 and 03
• Archer and Olive A5 Dot Grid notepad in white and black (affiliate link)
• Archer and Olive Acrylograph Paint Pen in white (affiliate link)
• Natasha Miller Letters Washi Basics Collection in Black
• Natasha Miller Letters Take a Picture Sticker set (From Blank to Brilliant LIbrary)
• Piece of plastic packaging
• Clear Sticky Tape
• Craft Knife
• Ruler
• Pencil and Eraser

Creating the invisible Pull-Tab

When I first used this kind of pull tab, it was visible on the cover page. For this design, I hid it between 2 pages. So this design took a total of 3 pages to put together: the cover page, the mechanism page, and the foundation page.

The Cover Page

For the cover page, I sketched and painted my camera. I chose a Polaroid style camera to allow the “photo” to pop out of the camera like a real polaroid. The difference would be the black “button” which doesn’t appear on an actual Polaroid camera. I added this to act as the pull tab, using black paper from my Archer and Olive dot grid notepad. This saved a lot of time and paint!

Once the paint had dried, I cut a slit at the top of the camera where I wanted the “button” to sit, and one along the middle of the bottom portion of the camera. This is where the Polaroid picture would print out.

• Once measured, cut 2 slits – one at the top of where you want the sliding mechanism to sit, and one at the bottom.
• Cut slits using a craft knife with a piece of cardboard to protect the page underneath. Make sure to cut them a little wider than just a cut line in the page.
• Next you are going to reinforce the slits with some sticky tape. This helps reduce friction on the paper causing the paper to tear.
• Measure out and trim a piece of plastic packaging. I do this by measuring out a piece of paper and using removable adhesive, gluing the packaging to the paper and cutting the plastic to size.
• Feed the plastic through the slits, gluing the ends in place with a thin strip of double sided tape or sticky tape. Don’t put too much tape down as this will cause the mechanism to get stuck

Cutting the Pull Tab and Polaroid Picture

When cutting the pull tab piece, make sure to cut it double the width so that you’re able to fold it in half and glue the two parts together. This is to strengthen the pull tab. My mechanism measured 6 boxes across, so I cut out a strip that was 12 boxes across. I folded the tab in half, and glued it together. NOTE: I cut my tab in an L shape since my mechanism didn’t line up perfectly to where I wanted my pull tab to go. This was so that the photo would pop out in the right place. So cutting the pull tab “L” strip, the top measured 12 boxes across, and the bottom measured 24 boxes across (12 for the pull tab handle, and 12 for the L shaped leg which is also folded and glued together). The L leg was only 4 boxes high.

The Photo was cut and painted before starting the mechanism to ensure the paint dried in time. I made a mistake in my measurements by measuring the mechanism too long so I didn’t get quite the effect I wanted. If I recreate this, I would make the mechanism 5 boxes smaller so that the photo is completely hidden.

Gluing the Pull Tab and Polaroid Picture

• Using your sketch as a guide, cut a slit in the same spot as the cover page into the mechanism page. The pull tab will be fed through this slit
• Move the piece of plastic where the edges were glued to the back and the very bottom of the mechanism page (between the mechanism page and the foundation page)
• Glue the L shaped portion of the pull tab to the plastic mechanism
• Feed the pull tab through the slit you made in the first part of this section
• Before gluing the mechanism, make sure the pull tab is pulled to the top of the plastic mechanism (the top of the pull tab is fully extended)
• Glue the photo to the very bottom of the mechanism (making sure to check that you have your desired effect on the cover page by sliding the photo through the slit in the cover page)
• Once happy, apply glue to the mechanism and attach the photo
• When you push the pull tab down, the photo should move to the top of the mechanism. This is how you know it’s done right

Finishing the pages

• Carefully apply glue around the mechanism and edges of the page, making sure you don’t place glue along any of the moving parts (do this on both the back of the cover page and the foundational page)
• Make sure to glue one page at a time
• For the foundation page, glue down the mechanism page while carefully feeding the pull tab through the slit
• For the cover page, carefully feed the pull tab and photo through their respective slits while gluing the pages down flat
• Go slowly when trying to maneuver everything in place
• Once glued down, push the pull tab down (hiding the photo), and then trim to size. Only trim to size with the pull tab hiding the effect, otherwise you might cut your pull tab too short

This does take some practice so definitely make a practice page first so that you understand how everything needs to work and fit together. I have made multiple pull tabs and still run into issues (see my March Setup!).

May Bullet Journal Setup 2022

For my layouts, I kept my pages the same as my April setup. I have my calendar page, notes and habits pages, and then added the monthly projects pages again. I am hoping to get into a better habit of using these pages. These projects tie into my bigger goals for the year. It is all still a work in progress which is why I love bullet journaling so much! You can keep changing and adapting as you need, or as your needs change. I have tried other planners but those are too structured for me and then I get bored. Let me know if you run into the same issues!

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If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading and following along. One of my goals this year is to be more consistent in my posting and working ahead so I have a pretty excessive content calendar in the works. Now I just need to stop planning and start creating! If there is anything you’d like to see more of, let me know down below, or over on social media. If you give this pull tab a try, tag me on Instagram @natashamillerletters so that I can share!

Talk soon!