September 2021 LOTR Bullet Journal - One Ring to Rule Them All
I was a HUGE Lord of the Rings fan as a teenager. When the Fellowship of the Ring film was released in 2001, I was 14 years old. I fell in love with it instantly. I spent the next six months reading the trilogy, and then loved the following films just as much. I even had a cardboard standee of Legolas in my bedroom for a while!
Flash forward twenty years - it’s August 2021 and the world has changed. Australian cities are bouncing in and out of lockdown, and my partner Chris and I have started a tradition - each time our city locks down, we watch the extended edition LOTR movies. We’ve watched them quite a bit over the last two years! But this time felt different - it felt like when I was a teenager again, and the world of Middle Earth felt freshly fascinating. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to the Friendship Onion podcast, but as I watched Frodo finish his book I knew I wanted to set up my September with this epic series in mind.
Yes, I even bought the official merchandise - you might spot it in the photos below. My One Ring is silver, because 14-year-old me couldn’t afford the gold one, and in the early 2000s silver was the fashionable jewellery colour! I also have Arwen’s Evenstar pendant - I’ll admit that it needed a little clean before I featured it in these photos!
I don’t usually spend a great deal of time on my setups, but like I mentioned - we were in lockdown when I set this up! There was very little else for me to do - my work tends to be postponed even when we aren’t locked down, if there are gathering limits in place.
Setting Up my Bujo With Reference Images
I used a lot of references for this set up! All the headings are copied from a font called Hobbiton Brush Hand. I typed out all my headings in an image file in Photoshop, then airdropped them to my iPad so I could keep them on my desk within easy reach as I went. I used a reference of the Moria gates too - I imported it, as well as my text references, into Procreate so I could twist them all around without the device trying to orient them upright! I also used this amazing video as a reference for the Middle Earth map.
Pages & Spreads in this Layout:
Cover page - I was inspired by @bujoceon for this one! The text is the Black Speech inscription on the ring - the “one ring to rule them all” stuff. Yep, I used a reference photo for this! I wanted it to be gold as a reference to the ring itself (even though mine isn’t). I also wanted it to be done with a pen that dries really quickly so I could erase my pencil guide lines without worrying about smudging!
September 2021 calendar page - I’ve adapted Tolkien’s drawing of the Doors of Durin - the west door of Moria - to allow space for a calendar at the top and events at the bottom. I’m a little scared to use it - it’s so pretty untouched!
Gratitude, habit and sleep tracker spread - this layout worked so well for me last month, I’m not changing a thing as I bring it forward into September. I love having all my trackers in one place! I’ve taken some elements from the Middle Earth map for decoration, although it doesn’t correspond to the geography of Middle Earth at all.
Spending tracker - It’s tricky to LOTR theme a spending tracker! It’s the same as always, with my Hobbiton Brush Hand heading and some mountains - MOUNTAINS, Gandalf!
Mood tracker - Inspired by this stunning mood tracker by @_littlemuch and this gorgeous illustration by an instagrammer formerly known as @hey.imleah who no longer seems to be active under that username. It’s a Hobbit hole! I didn’t want to use brush pens to colour this page in because of their line-y effect, and I was worried about the colours being too harsh, so I’ve opted for pencils instead. I’ll be using a different shade of red for each mood, so each day I’ll colour a different wood panel on Bilbo’s door. I can’t wait to see how this page looks when the month’s over!
Weekly spreads - You’d never guess it’s the same layout as my floral August set up, but it is! Running to-do lists and events boxes - this layout is serving me well so far. I’ve also added more map elements, but this time I’ve tried to approximately match it to the geography of Middle Earth. It’s not perfect but I think it gets my point across!
Stationery & Supplies I Used:
I’m using a Notebook Therapy Tsuki 160GSM bullet journal in Mint Matcha for my second 2021 journal from August to December.
The gold Elvish ring text on the cover page was done with a gold Sharpie* - that link will take you to a two-pack with a silver one too!
The heading text and decorative elements (mountains, rivers, forests) were all done with the *Tombow Fudenosuke firm-tip brush pen.
The lineart for the calendar page - the Moria gates - were done with the bullet end of the *black Tombow dual brush pen, and the thick black lines were done with the brush end of the same pen.
The brown accents are the Faber Castell Pitt Artist brush pen in *walnut brown 177
The white, gold and silver gel pens are from *Uniball and you can get them all in a set!
I’ve used *Bic Intensity fineliners for all my fineliner needs in this layout.
*starred items are affiliate links
Keen on this layout? Get the printable!
You can grab it as a printable on my Etsy store! You can use it in any month in any year, not just September 2021. Just fill out the numbers for the month you need and you’re ready to get planning.