In Which I Share Some Journaling Favorites

One of my favorite ways to journal is (informally) called "etcetera journaling." This idea came from one of my favorite blogs/bloggers, Allison @A Farm Girl's Life. I am admittedly behind on journaling (my last page done is the first one shown here; back in mid-December), but I thought it would make a fun post anyways.

Etcetera journaling (at least, in the way I use it) is kind of like a mix of art journaling and junk journaling--picking up randomness like nametags from events, business cards, used envelopes, or even wrappers. I have a lot more planned for this journal, and will probably post about it again. I'm a beginner at this, and still developing my art skills...I'm not that great of an artist, though my friends would beg to differ (you know who you are).

Without further ado, let's get started.

This is my most recent page, and one of the simplest, but also one of my favorites. I love this one, a memory of a trip I took in December to meet my dear friend Alayna, and attend a formal ball with her and some mutual friends. Just a simple doodle and a ton of words remembering the trip. (And here I note--art journaling does not need to be impressively skillful. This was not my best artwork, but it still remains one of my favorite pages. For me, etcetera journaling is more about recounting memories than making the next Monet. ;D)

This is a better example of what I'd call junk journaling, though none of these precious pieces of birthday cards are what I'd call "junk." One does not need to keep every birthday card one gets, of course, but I wanted a memory of how many friends showed me love and kindness on my birthday. So, here was my compromise. (Please excuse my somewhat large mistake in writing "2022" instead of "2021." Oops.) **I did edit out where I wrote who each card was from, for privacy's sake.**

I've noticed that journaling with many layers of paper or other randomness quite poofs out the journal. The pages were quite compact to start with, as you can see, and the section that's now all wonky is such a small percent of pages. We'll see how long it holds together.

Again, very simplistic. Words and a border of gold foil that I snatched before it was thrown into the trash. (If anyone is wondering why I put soap on my list, no, I'm not a hygiene freak. XD I sell soap on my Etsy shop.)

This page is a nice break from the other ones. Just a Scripture passage from the sermon in church that week. Not the easiest of passages, for sure, but Scripture none the less. :)

I do love the color theme on this one that I made back in August. I often put washi tape borders on my pages--partially because they add a nice color pop, and partially because my standard scrapbook pages don't often reach across a journaling spread page. :P

This is another favorite of mine, that again falls into more of a junk journaling category. On our summer vacation last summer, I picked up odds and ends, and managed to shove them into one busy but aesthetic page. :) If you flip up the envelope, my journaling of that weekend's adventures falls out. I like when I can make the pages interactive, though I haven't found too many creative ways to do that so far. The crinkled white background makes it fun, too.

Last, but not least, one of my oldest pages. The top is a seal from a letter my friend Natalie sent to me, which goes well with the purple pen I used for the lyrics (the song Waymaker). I can't cite the exact source where I've seen this lettering technique before (possibly the blog I mentioned at the beginning of the post?) but I like it, and it worked well for what I needed here. Though if, unlike me, you would like to be smart with your letter spacing, you may want to use a pencil first...I may have just gone for it and the results were very lucky. XD

which is your favorite page? what style of journaling do you like? would you like to see more journaling posts?

Toodeloo, friends!

~Lily May