When I sit down to do my layouts there are several factor that decide where I'm going to go with it. Most important would be: How much time do I have for this?? the answer is usually: Not enough! Hopefully, I have a general idea of what I want to do, but even if I don't I just grabbing supplies and inspiration usually hits at some point. Sometimes I pull out tons of junk waiting for that "inspiration". I use a lot of stencil in my designs, because I don't have to measure (or think too much) and can already see what my end result is going to be before I even make my first line. This time I have chosen one of my go to layouts, the Horizontal Week on One Page.
Once I have settled on what my layouts going to be, picking colors is my favorite part. I love using bright colors and rainbow weeks definitely are a common theme throughout the year. For this layout I chose Some bright and happy Tombow Dual Brush Tip Pens. 
933 Orange
993 Chrome Orange
133 Chartreuse
443 Turquoise
665 Cyan
N55 Cool Gray 7
I also grabbed, my most used and favorite pen, a Zig/Kuretake Fudebiyori pen in Light Gray.
I almost always have random rolls of washi tape sitting around on my desk, so finding something to hold my stencil from sliding around while I'm working is never a problem. Washi seems to just multiply uncontrollably around here. I haven't purchased any new washi in a good year, and I know I've been using up rolls on order packaging, but the horde seems to be getting bigger, not smaller by some weird twist of the universe. I think the washi black hole must end at my desk. Are you missing any washi?? It's probably here, come get it and save me from being eventually buried in lost rolls of washi tape!dddd
Back to the layout! Tracing the boxes takes no time at all. Capping and uncapping all the pens takes more time than actually using them. Sadly, I'v done a poor job of putting the caps back on my pens more times than I would care to admit and some of my favorite pens have meet sad dried out ends. For this layout no pens were sacrificed! I used the red, orange, orangy-yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and purple pens on the 7 weekday boxes. The gray tombow was used on the tall box on the side. I only used the smaller bullet writing end of the pens, not the brush side, for tracing the boxes.
Removing the stencil is oddly satisfying to me. I can see what I'm doing, and I'm the one actually doing it , but it's still like a big reveal every time. TaDa!
My Zig/Kuretake light gray pen, has been a staple of my planning for a few years now. It just never fails to add that extra bit of "extra" to my layouts. Honestly, it takes an ok layout and makes it great. It covers up little mistakes and they become hardly noticeable. I never want my planner bag to be without it. It's magical! I used it to create drop shadows on my weekly boxes for this layout.
The tip is flexible, but not too flexible, stiff, but not too stiff. It's the perfect balance. It can create super thin lines or broad dramatic lines, depending on the angle and the amount of pressure applied. It can be layered to build up a little more color and this color never has had and bleed through on any of the pages I've ever used it on. Do you believe me now that this pen is magical?
The stencil tracing part of the layout only took about 5 minutes and then it's on to sticking some stickers on and wrapping this spread up. The Colorful Weekday Headers are perfect for this colorful layout.
Have you ever had one of those days where all yours stickers just went down perfectly without even trying? That was this day for me. Usually, I have to fiddle with my stickers and they aren't quite straight. Not today! Today my stickers behaved, and lined up just right without me even really trying. Yay for it being a day that I was taking pictures. Now it's saved in history as "The Day I Did Sticker Right".
. I added in a couple of the stickers from the monthly order freebie sheet, and the Mini Calendar and called it a day. I really need put planning on my planner and set aside some dedicated time to my layouts, rather than just squeezing it in whenever I realize I haven't done my week yet. 