Christmas Journal Finished

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This week I finished filling my Christmas journal with photographs, journaling and bits and pieces to remind me of this season.  You can see the blank journal in this post, and here are some pictures of it filled with memories.

I attached a piece of recycled gift bag to the front of the journal because the color and style matched the paper.  And tied some of our homemade gift tags to the binder rings.

 

I filled the envelopes with some holiday recipes and included some our favorite candy wrappers - Roses, anyone?

And filled the pockets with tickets and programs from the concerts we attended.

It's not a masterpiece of design, but it includes lots of wonderful holiday memories that I know I'll treasure for years to come.

Happy creating!

Ali

Double Dip Travel Journal

I was cleaning out the spare bedroom last week and came across an old travel journal from 2005 documenting a family vacation in Vermont.  All the wonderful memories from that trip came flooding back to me when I read it - it was such a gift stumbling across it unexpectedly.

The Double Dip

In a piece written for the Ladies Home Journal, Sandy Fernandez refers to memories as ‘one of the secret weapons of happiness because they offer a double dip’.  She continues to say that it’s scientifically proven that thinking back on a pleasant experience stimulates the same area of the brain that made the event pleasurable in the first place.  

This was definitely true for me looking through the old Vermont album.  

  

Tips:

• Why not try leafing through a scrapbook, photo album or journal you created and see if you re-experience the original joy of the vacation.
•  Keep your scrapbooks out and enjoy them often - don't keep them locked in a closet.
•  Create journals and scrapbooks to document the everyday as well as vacations.  

 

Further reading:

• Project Life by Ali Edwards
• Calendar Tutorial by Kate Crane
• 6 Journaling Ideas by Ali Manning

Thanks for stopping by! 

Current Journal

I'd like to share with you my current journal that I made last month.  It's very similar to the one I'm giving away for the De-Stash Challenge because it combines vintage papers and patterned papers to create a unique little journal.

I covered both chipboard covers with an old Cavallini calendar and on top I collaged sheet music, handwritten letters, an old postcard, book pages, postage stamps and flash cards.  There's also some rubber stamped text, including the title and some Tim Holtz hardware to finish it off.

Front:

Back:

Here are some of the inside pages with patterned paper, old ledger paper, a flash card and an envelope.

  

And here's an acrylic page that I stuck a little note from my daughter to - I love that you can see both sides!

Some of the vintage papers you see are from a little bundle in my Etsy store - check them out if like vintage papers!

Hope you're having a creative week!

Ali

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6 Journaling Ideas

Do you journal?  I do most days and have on and off for years.  But some days I get stuck and need a little kick start, so I thought I'd share with you some of the strategies I use regularly to get me going:

1. Magazines

I don't really buy magazines, but if a friend or my mum gives me one, I usually find great journal fodder.  Below are the words I cut out of a Real Simple magazine last month - I use them as a starting point for a journal entry.

2. Blogs

I read a lot of blogs, but there are several blog authors that I can't miss and read everything they post.  They always give me food for thought or food for journaling:

• Tiny Buddha (absolute favorite)
• Scoutie Girl
• A Certain Simplicity
• Momentum Gathering
• Cleavage (this is new one I just added it to the must-read list)

3. Poems

If I don't feel like writing anything, I'll write out a poem I've read and liked in the past few weeks.  Here's a recent one I've loved by Kendra Ford:

April Wind

Branches crack and fall.

High wind

cleans the trees

of winter weight.

Unburden yourself.

Let the wind ride through you.

Open your mouth:

Let the spring wind blow every word

down the alleys and into the fields.

Let loose your dead wood.

Bloom small in the mud.

4. Quotes & Fortune Cookies
I see quotes everywhere that I pop into my journal but fortune cookies can deliver some wisdom too - don't laugh!.  Here are some I've collected:

 

5. Just Three

This is something I do a lot - I mean, a lot.  I write down just 3 things that I'm grateful for, or that made me happy, amazed me, ticked me off (insert your choice) for that particular day.  It takes the pressure off, but over time still gives you a sense of where I'm at in my life.  So, today I'm grateful that:

1. My car was fixed

2. I was able to take a long walk with my dog

3. That I made the soup we're having for dinner last night

Get the idea?

6. Pictures

If in doubt, a picture speaks a thousand words.  If I've got a mammoth pile of photos on the dining room table that I just ordered from Snapfish thinking that I'd actually scrapbook them (yeah right), then I'll pull a good one out and tape it in with a few thoughts.  How cute is my girl?

I want to know......do you journal?  What do you do to get your ideas flowing?  What do you do when you get stuck?

Ali

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