Welcoming Autumn (or Spring) in Your Bullet Journal + Free Printable!

Hi! It’s Sarah from By Sarah Eliz on Instagram and YouTube :) In this post, I’ll walk you through how to create two spreads to welcome the changing seasons: one to welcome Autumn for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere and the other to welcome Spring for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere.

What better way to honor the changing seasons than to create a dedicated journal spread?

Each spread contains some festive doodles and space for you to write out intentions and seasonal favorites. I wanted to include a space for intentions because to me any changing season signifies a fresh start and an opportunity to create positive change in our lives. 

When filling out this space, reflect on the previous season and any successes or challenges that come to mind. Think about how you would like your life to go in the next few months and how you can work with the changing season to create that change.

For example, If you’re in the northern hemisphere, Autumn has arrived with the Fall Equinox on September 22nd. As nature starts transitioning toward Winter and the days become shorter and darker, we may notice our natural energy decrease and find ourselves feeling more introspective. This is a time to prioritize self-care to align with the energy and groundedness of Autumn, so one of my intentions is to create time daily for self-care.

Below the space for intentions, I’ve created a space for “favorites.” This space is meant for you to dive deep into all the things you love and are excited about for the upcoming season. Listing all the things we love is super fun and also puts us in a great mood! Cozy knit sweaters, leaves changing colors, cool air, yummy food, and pumpkin...everything? Yup, all going on my list! 

Of course, if you’re recreating this spread, you can fill the boxes with anything you like! Some more ideas are: goals, important dates, brain dump, events, or memories. You can even just keep doodling throughout the page. Gotta love the flexibility of the bullet journal system. :) 

Materials Used:

• Journal: Archer and Olive A5 Moon Flowers Dot Grid Notebook
• Black Pen: Staedler Pigment Liner in size 0.3
• White Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad Point Gel Impact White Ink.
• Black Brush Pen: Pentel Sign Touch Pen
• Colored Pens/Markers: Tombow Dual Brush Pen
• Colors used:
• Spring Page: 772 (Pink), 243 (Green), 991 (Yellow), 291 (Blue)
• Autumn Page: 192 (Green), 933 (Orange), 910 (Soft beige), 992 (Brown), N75 (Gray), 991 (Yellow), 905 (Red)

Step 1: Sketching and Inking

I first sketched my designs out with pencil; when bullet journaling and creating illustrations, embracing change through erasing and redrawing is essential. Any basic pencil and eraser will work for simple doodles like these.

Once my pencil lines were down and I was happy with them, I used the Staedler Pigment Liner in 0.3 to ink over all the sketches. Give it all a few seconds to dry before erasing any left over pencil sketches underneath. 

I used a Pentel Sign Touch Pen to write “hello” at the top of each page in a subtle brush calligraphy. 

Step 2: Color and Texture

Now, on to the fun part! Pick out your most festive colored markers or pens and bring your doodles to life. I used Tombow Dual Brush Pens to add color. To add simple touches of texture, I used two layers of color to create shadow on some of the larger doodles such as the roses and pumpkins. 

For a festive header, I wrote out the letters in “Spring” and “Autumn” in alternating colors. To create a subtle drop shadow, I used the Staedler pen again and tried my best to add ink to the downstrokes of the letters and boxes. 

Free Coloring Page Printables

Add these spreads to your journal with free printable coloring pages! Remember to scale the printable down to the size of your journal when printing. Paste it into your journal then color and write to your heart’s desire! I’d love to see your recreations of the spreads or colored in printables, tag me @bysarah.eliz on Instagram!

Video Timelapse