Fairytales and the Brimble's Book Club

Fairytales and the Brimble's Book Club

When Anna announced the bookclub was starting up, my bookworm leapt for joy. I've always wanted to be part of a bookclub but I've not had the courage to find one to join. I'm an avid reader and I've my nose stuck in a book ever since I was a little girl. Books have always pulled me in, an entire world contained within a few pages, hundreds of people to meet, love and hate. The smell of the paper and ink, it's intoxicating! I knew I wanted to through myself fully into the bookclub and figured I should start a reading planner....and what better way to decorate it than with Anna's absolutely stunning Fairytale Forest kit. I mean it's a match made in heaven right? 

I couldn't resist the opportunity to turn some of the diecut pieces into paperclips. I had originally intended to laminate them to give them a bit more durability but it would mean I'd have to fussy cut them out again and I was too impatient to set up my planner. I'll probably go back and laminate them at a later date but for now they are holding up.

I used some sticky foam dots from Hobbycraft and found my circle punch was almost the perfect match in size, so used some white card to make the backs which help to hold the paperclip in place. The height of the foam dot means I can bunch several pages together and not put pressure on paperclip/glue join. The height also gives them a little extra definition!

I used the leaf print vellum as a sort of landing page/dashboard and used the papers to make dividers. At the minute the tabs from the kit are not labelled just whilst I work out how I wish to use each section. The beauty of rings, and the reason I chose them over strings, is the ability to easily move pages and sections about until I figure out how it'll all work. 

Next I added in some of the journal cards as tip in pieces. At the minute I'm not sure whether I will keep them just for decoration purposes but I may use the backs to write down some of my favourite quotes from the books that we read in the bookclub or as a way of keeping a record of the page numbers of paragraphs or sections that really stand out to me. Either way they needed to be included! 

The biggest problem I always come across when decorating planners is what to do with the inside cover. This is particularly true when the pockets and sections are vertical, which is the case in the Malden. I tend to plan in a ring planner, and I'm more of a functional than a decorative planner, I don't tend to add anything other than a few stickers here and there. I did a bit of Pinterest searching for ideas and decided to use one of the papers from Anna's kit and scrap from my paper stash and slipped them into the pockets. I then used some of the die cut paperclips to help keep them in place. It certainly isn't the best or most imaginative decoration but I'm happy with how it looks!

I've now come to the end of the book for this month, I did struggle a little with it, as it isn't really the type of book I tend to go for, but overall it was pretty good! One of the reasons I decided to take part in Anna's Patreon members bookclub was to expand my reading and discover other genres and authors I might otherwise ignore. Already the bookclub has done that, I've enjoyed the process of documenting my reading too, which I've not previously done. I read a book and then it sits on my shelf, having the reading planner and the bookclub questions has helped me engage a lot more with the book and notice a lot more in the authors writing and style. I can't wait for November's book!

Don't forget to check out Anna's Patreon if you haven't already! 

Till next time guys xx