Journaling 101: How to Journal for Beginners
Hi, my name is Macey and I am the creator of Oh So Kawaii Designs! Here is your quick guide to getting started with journaling (pictures of my personal journals included)!
1.) Pick your journal
2.) Pick what purpose your journal will have & the prompts you will have on the pages
3.) Gather any supplies you may need
4.) Get creative and personalize your journal
5.) Use "The Vault"
6.) My exact products I use on a daily basis, commercially & personally
More cute page ideas and journaling inspiration on our Pinterest, check it out here... https://www.pinterest.com/ohsokawaiidesigns/_saved/
1.) Pick your journal!
Whether you decide to use an old spiral, a bullet notebook, or you have one of my handmade gridded journals like I have in this blog... you want to make sure it is durable and ready to be made cute!
What journal you pick should best fit what it's intended use is for! Do you need the inner pages to come out and be rearrangeable?
What about if you want to easily add cute packs of pages?
Do you need thicker pages to withstand a lot of coloring?
With good reason... our #1 journal recommendation is obviously an OSKD journal!
Each is handcrafted by myself!
They use a disc system allowing the pages to come out and go back in the binding with ease allowing them to be fully customizable! Each journal includes multiple full pages of seriously the cutest stickers! 60 pages of gridded pages that are ready to be made cute by you and whatever your intentions with your journal are! We use a high quality 80 pound cover paper for the inner pages, they are thick and sturdy to prevent bleed-through and durable for our scrapbookers! I make our covers with a special plastic type material that is durable yet still flexible!
2.) Pick what purpose your journal will have and the prompts you will have on your pages!
You can use your journal for many things! You typically hear journaling for mental health but you can also use your journal for physical health, memory keeping, planning, business, school, etc! Honestly, I believe journaling can mean something different to everyone! You may think about having different journals for different purposes or maybe one journal filled with all sorts of things! For example I have a journal for just mental health and physical health notations! I also have one for business, another for the kiddos, another for my planner, multiple keepsake journals, and oh there is more but I won't waste your time!
Below I will go into those types of journaling more detailed! I'll give you tons of prompts that you can title journaling pages with! The prompts are self explanatory but for the few that may not be I will clarify in parentheses! Also, many of the prompts can work for multiple areas, no set guidelines here!
Mental Health Journaling:
I highly recommend journaling for mental health wellness it can seriously be so so so so so so so... soooo eye opening and beneficial. There is just something about writing down all those thoughts, feelings, emotions, stories, etc that really make you think and to really put things into perspective to self asses! Think of your journal entries being like a therapy session. Get whatever is on your mind out on the paper, whether it is good or bad, it all matters! Maybe you write down your thoughts daily, or every week, maybe by event, or when you need to vent, you get it!
- Brainstorm (use it for working through an issue or just to process anything and everything)
- Brain-dump (list all things consuming space in your mind)
- When i'm stressed
- Intentions for the year
- Things I can control
- Gratitude
- Affirmations and everyday reminders
- Vision board
- Things that make me happy
- 15 Minute tasks
- Self care menu
- Things I love about myself
- Bad habits to break
- Mental health check-ins
- Mood tracking
- Habit tracking
Physical Health Journaling:
- A Line a Day
- When i'm bored
- Exercise Log
- Challenges to try
- Symptoms tracker
- Steps tracker
- Run Distance
- Sleep Tracker
- Weight-loss/weight gain tracker
- Morning & evening routines
- Migraine tracking
- Period tracking
- Fertility tracking
Memory Keeping:
- Pages about: events, people, timeframes, etc
- All about me (who am I, interests, fav food, fav drink, style and current look, etc.)
- What I Think Is Cute
- Places i'd like to travel to
- Bucket list
- Bedtime stories
- Dream Log
- Texts
- Quotes
- Things my kids say
- Funny things
- Music playlist
- Podcast
- Books
- Movies and TV shows
- This year in pictures
- Month recap or review pages
- Food, drink, & restaurant reviews
- Concert venue schedule
- Date night ideas
- Date night stories
- Bedtime stories
- Wedding ideas
Planning & Intentions:
- Goals
- "When did I last..."
- Needs for the house
- Birthdays
- Get organized
- Cleaning routine
- My ideal day
- My 20 before 2025
- 30 before 30
- Month view
- Weekly planning view
- Daily planning view
- Trip planning
- Password tracking
Kids Journaling:
This is when I say journaling can mean whatever you want it to mean! My kids are young and haven't learned how to write, yet they still have a journal! We use theirs to draw, color, get crazy with stickers, prompt pages and questions that they answer and I write! We like to make activity pages for them to engage with! If your child or children are of age to write than my do I have some good ideas for their journal (age depending)!
- Chore organization
- Ideal routine
- Savings tracker
- Facts about me
- Acts of Kindness
- What I am thankful for
- When I am mad or sad...
- Journaling with a parent (Maybe your child can find it easier to express their questions, concerns, feelings, etc. on paper directed towards you! You can respond in writing and let them read it in private)
- Stories and dreams
- Coloring pages
- Busy book
More uses for your journal...
Do you love art?
Create a sketch book! Keep your doodles and drawings all in one place! This would be a great gift option for your artists in your life!
Do you enjoy cooking?
Write down all your recipes you would like to try and of course your favorites! You can even attach a picture of the finished food along with the directions and ingredients needed of course!
Budgeting!
Bill tracking, expense tracking, color-in progress trackers for goals and debts! This sounds too much like our budget planner that will be releasing in the future, so keep tuned!
Big events, like a baby shower or wedding, often have a check in book! Why not let yourself and your guest completely customize a journal with all sorts of clever ideas! An idea I love is you can have all your guests take a photo and decorate a page!
Baby keepsake book!
Write down anything and everything in regards to your munchkin! Try these prompts out... "Love at first sight" (ultrasound pics and comments), "Firsts and milestones", "Growing up" (pictures, emotions, etc), "Stories", "Favs" (shows, songs, toys), "All about me, at age ___ ", etc!
Are you a student or a teacher?
Whether you are a student, teacher, or learning enthusiast... a journal is a great place to keep you on track! Class schedule, exam dates, lecture notes, study notes, grade tracking, etc!
Friendship journaling!
Think of this as your modern day pen pals! Instead of sending letters... you are writing or drawing in a journal that is shared between the friend group!
3.) Gather any supplies you may need!
Supply recommendations here...
Writing tools:
Pens, markers, colored pencils, and gel pens. This is completely your preference. You may want to do a test page if using markers to make sure they don't bleed through your pages! A test page for any coloring would be great because the colors can be very different than expected once on paper!
Printer:
We use a Canon Pixma Pro 100 to print all of our stickers, journals, and inserts to sell commercially! The print quality is amazing but the printer is pricey unless you get it used! If I was using a printer for personal use only, I would highly recommend an Epson Eco Tank! The print quality is less impressive compared to the Pixma but the printer itself is more user friendly and the ink as well as the printer itself is much more cost effective!
Things to look out for when buying a printer you may not have thought about are: How much are replacement parts? Size of the printer compared to your space, the speed of which it prints, what is the thickness of paper it can feed, the cost of ink and ink consumption?
Paper:
Above is my absolute favorite insert paper when I want something more light weight! Very bright white and extremely smooth! Perfect for pages that wont wont have heavy ink because you will have show through on this paper.
For our journals we use Mohawk 80 pound paper. This paper is very thick making it perfect for preventing bleed-through and holds up very well to memory keeping shenanigans! It has a more rough feel than the HP paper and is so great if you want quality thick inserts!
Other supplies:
Scissors, paper cutter, and if you are using your OSKD journal... a mushroom shaped arc punch like the one we use shown below!
Are you printing pictures to put into your journals?
You can do this by just using your printer to print pictures on paper or adhesive paper! Or you can use something like a mini photo printer that prints on sticker paper... this is the one I use for my keepsaking and journaling. Even though I could print our photos on sticker paper I find myself reaching for the Sprocket every time! The reason being is that it is so easy and convenient because it connects to your phone so you can print the pictures you take right away!
4.) Get creative and personalize your journal!
Get creative, try some of these ideas to make your journal OH SO CUTE!
Stickers: Of course I will say "look at our stickers"! We have tons and are consistently adding to the collection!
Accessories: Try a jelly cover for some added personalization!
Cut outs: Grab those scissors and get cleaver with all sorts of ways you can cut pages! This is when the pages being removable from the binding comes in such handy!
Inserts: Add decorative pages like the ones shown in our inspo pictures throughout this post! Just click the "Inserts" tab at the top of this page to see what is available!
*All sorts of goodies in The Vault! Read on for more info!
5.) USE THE VAULT!
The Vault: Our completely free library of printable inserts for your OSKD journal! Access "The Vault" by signing up for our e-newsletter below...
If you have entered your email on the bottom of this screen then you have received your Vault access email! We are consistently going to be adding more free printable journal pages so make sure to check those newsletters for alerts!
Just look at how cute these are... AND THEY ARE FREE!
6.) Product Links:
"#1 BEST JOURNAL" - Zai (My 4 year old told me so!)
https://ohsokawaiidesigns.com/collections/all-things-journal-related
Mini photo sticker printer https://amzn.to/49MLKSB
Mini photo sticker paper https://amzn.to/3OXYf5T
Favorite light paper https://amzn.to/42UpCU6
Favorite heavier paper https://amzn.to/3Ijtl3T
Commercial printer https://amzn.to/3VEXBN8