15 Ways to Journal 2

Hi, Jessica from BrownPaperBunny here to show you 15 ways to journal. Journalling is such a relaxing pastime and a great way to record your thoughts, feelings, or activities. Since there are so many different ways to journal, you’re bound to find something in this list that works for you. Here are some supplies you might like to have on hand before you start.

Supplies:

• Notebook
• Tombow MONO Drawing Pens
• Tombow Dual Brush Pens
• Scissors
• Tombow Water Brush (Medium)
• Tombow MONO Edge Highlighters
• Printed photos
• Tombow MONO Adhesive Dots

Note: If you’re planning to use any wet media or blend your Dual Brush Pens with water, you’ll want to look for a notebook or sketchbook with watercolor or multimedia paper.

Journalling Ideas:

Feel free to use one, all, or combine some of these ideas to find a way to journal that suits you.

1. A Color a Day

Are words not your thing? No problem! Each day, choose a Dual Brush Pen color that speaks to you or that you feel represents your day and add a swatch in your journal. You can leave the ink as is or use your Water Brush to blend the ink for a watercolor look.

2. Answer a Question Each Day

You could either choose to answer the same question each day or come up with a variety of them, write them on little strips of paper, pop them in a jar and draw one out to answer in your journal.

3. Art Journal

Art journaling is a way of visually recording your thoughts, feelings, events, etc. It can be a mix of images and words if you’d like it to be. It can also be as straightforward or as abstract as you’d like it to be. Check out this blog post on Mixed Media Art Journaling for more ideas.

4. A Photo a Day

This is part photo album and part journal. You can print photos any way you’d like and then add them to your journal and write a little bit about that particular memory or day. Add fun decorative elements and photo frames with your Dual Brush Pens. This sort of journal is particularly fun to look back through years later, the photos really help jog your memory about things that happened (little and big).

5. A Poem a Day

If poems are your thing, this is a really fun way to journal. You could write a poem every day to suit your mood or even a short haiku.

If coming up with something from scratch seems too daunting, grab a magazine or take a photocopy of a favorite book page and combine the blackout poetry style with a haiku. In the example below, the words for the haiku are highlighted using a MONO Edge Highlighter and then a black Dual Brush Pen was used to block out all the words that were no longer needed. Be warned, this activity is extremely addictive!

6. Dream Diary

Keep a journal and pen by your bed and write in it the moment you wake up. Try to capture whatever you can remember from dreams during the night. As you do this more often, you’ll find you can remember more and more of your dreams.

7. Travel Journaling

Going on a trip? Whether big or small, document it in a small travel journal. You can bring a handful of Dual Brush Pens and a MONO Drawing Pens and you’re ready to go! You can sketch, doodle, write, add photographs or mementos from your trip—anything that will jog your memory later when you look back at it.

8. Morning Pages

Morning pages can help you get all the thoughts out of your head and into your journal so you can start the day fresh without them swimming around and taking up space in your brain. This sort of activity can also help kick-start your creative juices first thing.

9. Record Your Achievements and Wins

So often we gloss over the achievements we have in life and move on to the next thing. Stopping to record them in a journal can be a truly magical thing, especially when you look back at them and have the benefit of seeing them all added together in one place. A definite confidence booster when you need it!

10. Gratitude Journaling

Gratitude journaling is another type of journaling that can help reframe your state of mind and get you set up for a good day.

Use your Dual Brush Pens to decorate the page or write each item in a new and fun color.

11. Sketch Journaling

Sketch journaling is where instead of writing down things you did that day, you draw little doodles of them instead. It doesn’t have to be fancy and you can choose to do it all in black and white with your MONO Drawing Pens or add color with your Dual Brush Pens. It can be just the highlights of the day or you could draw pictures of what you ate for meals, where you went, who you saw, how you felt etc.

12. List Journaling

List journaling is one of my favorite ways to journal. You can complete a whole list in one sitting or set up a bunch of lists and just add to them as you have new experiences. For example, you might have a list of your favorite books/movies/songs and add to it over several months. Perhaps you create a list of things that make you happy or people you’ve sent letters to. There are lots of list suggestions in this blog post.

13. Record Happy Moments

You don’t have to just journal the big moments. Capture the little and everyday things too. For example, did you try a great new recipe, visit a new bookstore or maybe you watched something hilarious on TV. Put it in your journal! Use some simple decorative elements with your Dual Brush Pens to add some extra fun!

14. One Line a Day

If journaling pages and pages feels like more than you have time for right now, just commit to writing down one line a day. A super brief summary of each day or a highlight reel. Keep your journal by your bed and it can be the last thing you do each day.

15. Collage Journaling

Use pictures you cut out of magazines to represent how you’re feeling or to make mini mood-boards in your journal. You can choose to add words over the top or just let the pictures speak for you. This is where your MONO Adhesive Dots will come in handy because they works beautifully even on the thinnest of papers.

What are some other ways you can think of to journal? Drop them in the comments!