2021 Journal

Have you chosen a new journal for the year yet? It can be any journal, notebook, or set of papers you have. If journaling is something new to you, start off with something simple, something that you may already have on hand, until you find out what you need your journal to do.

If you want to be more creative in your journal you will want something that can withstand more mediums. Will you be using ink, glue, markers? All of these should be taken under consideration. Can your paper withstand the ink bleed throughs? Will the following pages have shadowing? Sometimes the paper will be able to hold the ink so it does not bleed through to the opposite side of the paper.

Next, I would decide what you will be using your journal for? Daily brain dump, creative outlet, emotional therapy, daily documentation? Knowing how you want your journal to serve you will help you in the set up of your journal. You can always change the use of your journal, you will soon discover better ways your journal can serve you.

The best thing about having a journal is that you don’t have to follow any rules! Some days I choose to just write down my thoughts for the day, and other days I choose to use stickers, stamps, inks, markers, and my favorite… COLOR!! Color always translates my mood best. I can instantly look at the colors I used for that day and interpret what I was feeling or what I wanted to convey journalling.

Some days might not have much to document, or you might not have much to say, those days exist. I still log in a journal entry. You can doodle, stamp an image and color it in, add some stickers, and call it a day. The beauty of a creative journal unlike a handmade card, or memory keeping layout is the page does not have to match. Most likely on a scrapbook page, or planner page they are unwritten rules that people tend to follow. Do the colors compliment each other? Are the proportions correct? Does it look aesthetically pleasing? All of these are considered. When journaling its more freeing of those unwritten rules. You can see a journal entry with colors that clash, mediums that would not normally go together, in spaces that are not common and its perfect!

The stickers don’t have to coordinate, the ink does not have to match, the lines don’t have to meet. Once you free yourself from the rules, journaling will become effortless. You will notice it more as a therapy session when creating your entry for the day. Of course, if matching colors are you, or if you cannot write unless it’s straight, you do you! You make your own rules in your journal. Your journal is there to help you destress, live more freeing, abandon all rules, and help you clear your mind.