Quickly create monthly spreads in your bullet journal: These are all the stencils you need
If you’re tired of using the same monthly spread with the typical boxes for each day layout, then it might be time to try some stencils! In this post I’m going to give you plenty of recommendations for stencils for your monthly spreads including:
- Decorating monthly calendar divider pages
- 2 page monthly calendars
- 1 page monthly calendars
- Row and column stencils
- Shapes you can use if you want more control over the calendar layout
- Months of the year (alphabet stencils)
- Alphabet stencils (for adding titles relevant to your spreads such as ‘habit tracker’ or ‘goals’)
- Mini monthly calendars (dates at a glance or habit tracking)
- Monthly overview
- Round monthly calendar or mood tracker
- Checklists
- Monthly trackers
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of these links I’ll receive a small commission in exchange for referring you (at no extra cost to you).
Most of the stencils linked in this list are sized for A5 notebooks and a 5mm dot grid, but be sure to check the size of stencils before purchasing.
Decorating monthly calendar divider pages
Not as well known as the other types of stencils on this list, but very handy if you like to do themed cover pages for each month in your bullet journal. Here are some options (especially helpful if you’re bad at drawing things like I am):
Sunny Streak Seasonal Stencils
Square calendar stencil templates
The most time consuming part of a monthly spread is of course, drawing up all of those boxes. Sure you could just get a ruler and quickly draw some lines across the page. But sometimes you might want a different aesthetic, like a gap between the boxes for each day. Here are some stencils to add variety to the boxes of your monthly calendar:
- Sunny Streak – Monthly layouts #1
- Zonon
- Zicoto
- Sunshine Sticker Co Monthly Layout Slim (170mm x 90mm)
- Archer and Olive (there are various rectangle sizes if you want do a freestyle boxes monthly calendar)
- Fun for You (boxes with rounded corners)
- Oops a Daisy A5 page size monthly calendar stencil (with a title banner)
- Oops a Daisy B5 page size monthly calendar stencil (with a title banner)
Sunny Streak – Monthly layouts #1
I made this spread using the Speedy Stencils
Yes, many bullet journal sets have a 2 page monthly calendar stencil but they’re not all the same! Some have:
- A full border on the 5mm dot grid with no space between the boxes for each day
- Based on a 5mm grid with spaces between each box for each day
- Boxes without a fully enclosed border
- Different sidebar layouts
- Smaller boxes with space either above or below the boxes for notes, habit trackers, checklists etc.
- Spacing smaller or larger than a 5mm dot grid (if an exact match is important, be sure to check the spacing before purchasing a stencil)
Speedy Stencils Monthly Layouts 1
Sunshine Sticker Co has a ‘slim’ monthly calendar stencil designed for their dot grid notebooks, but you could use it in travelers notebooks too.
Most stencils have square edges, Fun For You has a calendar design with rounded edges if you’re looking for something different
Oops a Daisy A5 monthly calendar stencil (with a title banner)
1 page calendars
A one page calendar means the boxes are too small to write in (I think). But if this is your preferred layout or you just want a big calendar that’s easy to check dates at a glance, here are some 1 page monthly calendar stencil templates:
Both of these 1 page calendars are from Speedy Stencils Monthly Layouts 1
Whaline bullet journal stencils
Row and Column Stencils
If you want more flexibility to create the boxes for each day at the size you want, or if you’re using a B5 page size which is harder to find stencils for, then try a row and column stencil.
I’ve done many posts over the years with options for row and column stencils and reviewed 5 different brands in this post.
Shapes
Most stencil sets include basic shapes that can be used for checkboxes, habit trackers or to make banners for headings. I used a flag shape to create the October heading / banner in the photo below.
Stencil Stop has some stencils with a variety of shapes
So does Notebook Therapy:
Months of the year
Paper Accents has many alphabet stencils to choose from, including this plastic stencil with the months of the year.
Amazon has plenty of affordable options. If you’re overwhelmed by all of the choices, this metal stencil from BENECREAT has everything you need – months of the year, dates for each month as well as days of the week (full word and the 3 letter abbreviations).
I have these stencils from Zicoto which include all the essential templates if you want to set up multiple types of monthly spreads:
- Boxes for each day with the days of the week to create a 2 page calendar
- Monthly goals (the 1 to 5 stencil)
- Checklists
- Habit trackers
- Word stencils for the months of the year
- Mini monthly calendar for habit trackers or an annual overview
- Mood trackers
There’s even some common words you might add to a monthly calendar like day off and birthday, but unfortunately the font of these is disproportionately large versus the other templates so they might only be suitable for separate checklists.
Alphabet Stencils
If you can’t find any stencils with the month’s pre-written, here are some alphabet stencils so you can write your own words
- Paper Accents – Roman Alpha
- Paper Accents – Bubble Alpha
- Paper Accents – Adventure Alpha
- Oops a Daisy has plenty of alphabet stencils to choose from in both uppercase and lowercase
- Tenare alphabet stencils (multiple sizes and fonts)
Oops a Daisy review (UK stationery brand) – bullet journal stencils, washi tape, stickers
Mini monthly calendars
If you like to see the past month, current month and next month’s dates, there are various brands offering mini monthly calendar templates:
- Zicoto stencils
- Speedy Spreads Journal Stencils (Weekly Layouts #1)
- Speedy Spreads Journal Stencils (Weekly Layouts #2)
- Zonon stencils (set of 24)
- Vloso
- Circles to write the dates in dates – monthly overview (Fun for You)
These mini monthly calendars also make handy habit trackers on a monthly planning page.
Related post: 100 things to put in your habit tracker of your planner or bullet journal (plus free printable habit tracker)
Monthly Overview
Since there are so many ways you could do monthly overview pages I’m not linking any specific stencils. Instead, I usually mix and match stencils from various brands to create the monthly overview layout. Some stencils that could help speed up the process:
- Mini habit trackers
- Mini monthly calendars
- Project plan / priority boxes
- Checklists
- Alphabet stencils with words you use every month such as to do, birthdays, appointments
Similar to a pomodoro tracker on a weekly spread, you could add mini monthly calendars to the monthly spread to track what days you’ve worked on projects or any other goals you have.
All stencils in the below spread (including the 1 to 3 is used for my project planner), are stencils from this Zicoto stencil set.
You can see the difference between filled in and non-filled in letters – I prefer the filled in look so it makes it look less like I’ve ‘cheated’ and used a stencil.
Round monthly calendar or mood tracker
There are some stencils that have a circle or snail shell look to them, or you can create the below type of mood tracker using the Helix Circle Maker.
Checklists
Some stencil sets come with entire list stencils but I rarely use these. Sometimes the line spacing on the stencil I’m using isn’t compatible with the dot grid spacing. I prefer to write on every second line in my bullet journal to keep my spread neat and not have text bunched up close together, so to make checklists I just use a shape. Most stencil sets come with the basics like a square or circle so that’s really all you need.
The pre-made checklist stencils with the lines would be useful if you were using a notebook with blank paper and no dot grid though.
Monthly Trackers
Some stencil sets include a set of 31 circles, squares or hexagons that you can use for monthly trackers. You could also draw these types of spreads ‘freehand’ if you have a shapes stencil (ideal way to use shapes that are too large for checklists).
- Notebook Therapy Shapes stencils
- Zicoto stencils set
- Zonon 24 piece set
- aleks melnyk no.423 metal stencil
- BENECREAT stainless steel stencil
Monthly exercise tracker I made using the honeycomb stencil from this Zicoto stencils set.
aleks melnyk no.423 metal stencil
BENECREAT stainless steel stencil
I hope this post gave you some ideas for adding variety to the monthly spreads in your bullet journal.
More ideas for the monthly spreads in your bullet journal
- How to use the monthly notes pages of your planner
- 10 Different ways to do a monthly goals review in your planner
- 12 Planner Layout Ideas for Monthly Habit Tracking in Your Bullet Journal
- Best stencils for bullet journal daily, weekly and monthly spreads
- 12 Monthly planning bullet journal spreads (you can do in 5 minutes or less)
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