My visual journal: New Page Sept 21!

[Katxena]

I have often started keeping written journals in the past, only to put them down after a few days or weeks because it feels like a chore.  I recently started making a visual journal, and have been doing it for about a month.  I've really been enjoying it, and it's been fun instead of a chore, so I'm hopeful that I'll stick with it.

The cornerstone of my journal is my calendar pages.  Here's the one for July 2007:



It is inspired by these:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracyu/sets/72157594510652760/

I arranged post-it notes on the pages, 1 for each day, then painted over them to color the background, then removed the post-its to leave white squares.  I wrote in the dates (I plan to buy number stamps so that I can stamp them in the future).  At the end of each day, I write a bit about what I did.  My only commitment to myself with respect to this journal is that I will fill in a calendar square each day, and you can see that I've mostly kept to that. 

Around the calendar, I've added ephemera from things I've done -- fruit stickers, some dice stickers I liked, a label from a chocolate bar I ate at the end of a particularly hard day.

I'm also keeping other kinds of visual pages.  This one is very straightforward -- it's a list of books I've read.  It's hard to see in the picture, but at the top of the list it says "From: July 07 2007" and at the bottom of the space for the list it says "To:".  I'll stamp the end date when the space is full, and then make a new space for a book list.



And finally, I'm keeping journal pages with more writing.  These are very haphazard -- like I said, my only commitment is to write in my calendar square every day.  Whatever else I add to it is gravy.  Here's a journal page about a trip to a museum with my parents on one of their visits to see me (they live about 2000 miles away from where I do).



I'm really enjoying this journal -- it provides a very nice mix of structure and freedom that suits me just right.

[Kedrock]

I especially like your calendar pages.  I've done that before and it is so fun to look back on.  Very creative!

[frenchnewwave]

Such a good idea. Very free and personal.

[Kedrock]

Also, great idea with painting over post-it notes.  I would have never thought of that as a way to make a calendar.  Very cool.

[Katxena]

Thanks!

Also, great idea with painting over post-it notes.  I would have never thought of that as a way to make a calendar.  Very cool.

I can't claim credit for that idea -- I got it from the woman who's flickr set I linked to.  She uses water color paints to paint over the post-its.  I wanted to  create a similar effect with acrylics, so I mixed pink acrylic paint with gel medium to dilute it.  This was NOT a good idea.  I ended up gluing the post-its to the page!  D'oh!  I had to carefully slice the post-its off with a sharp knife.

You can see blobs where the paint got under the post-its -- I'm slowly covering those all up with fruit stickers.

[pikabean]

I love this idea!  Props to both you and the women who inspired you.  I am terrible at keeping journals, but love love love calenders because I am an organization/scheduling freak.  (Though my room is a mess ;P)
I would love to start something like this... what sort of blank notebook/journal did you use?

[Katxena]

It's a Canson 7x10 inch sketchbook that I bought a Michael's with a coupon (about $9 after the coupon, if i recall correctly).  If you got a sketchbook or journal with watercolor paper for pages, it would probably  be nicer to work with because the pages wouldn't buckle.  But I wanted something easily accessible and not expensive.

The spiral binding is convenient, but when I fill up this book, I might just make myself a ring-bound journal like this one:
http://www.atcards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3605

It would be nice to be able to remove the pages (to dry them between books, for example), and I could make nice cardstock pages that would take acrylic paint better.

[pikabean]

very cool, thank you!
Also, just out of curiosity, do you leave space for all you calender pages at the front (and have everything else follow) or do you just make them where ever they land in your journal when the 1st rolls around?  Just wondering

[Katxena]

Also, just out of curiosity, do you leave space for all you calender pages at the front (and have everything else follow) or do you just make them where ever they land in your journal when the 1st rolls around?  Just wondering

I just make them wherever throughout the journal.  If I tried to leave space in the front, I'm sure I wouldn't leave enough pages, which would irritate me and discourage me from continuing with the journal.  What you can't quite see  in the photos is that each right hand page in the journal is consecutively numbered.  On the back page, I keep an "index" that lists all the calendar pages in the book (which is only 2 so far!), all the book lists, and anything else that I think I might want to be able to refer to later.

[pikabean]

aha, an index!  Brilliant
I'll stop pestering you with questions now... I need to get a book so I can start my own!