Ways to Make Your Journal Pretty

If you’ve been looking for ways to make your journal pretty, you may have found your way into the crafty side of the internet or platforms like YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram, and seen some great ideas for decorating your journal. Blogs, videos, and uploaded images show journals that are decorated in so many creative ways.

You may have seen some that you like, but may not know how to go about decorating your own journal so that it reflects your personality and creativity, and yet still stay functional. Here are a few ways that may work for you and your journal.

Ways to Make Your Journal Pretty

Washi Tape

Washi tape is a paper-based tape you can find in most dollar stores, craft stores, and Amazon. There’s a style to fit any personality, interest, or niche: cartoon characters, glitter, solid colors, or designs.

You can use washi tape to:

• decorate the sides of your journal pages
• separate entries
• mark off goals
• make a border or frame
• or decorate for certain times of the year

 

Stickers

Stickers are an easy and fun way to pretty up your journal. And you are not limited to kids’ stickers either. There is a huge assortment of stickers available now that allows you to express yourself through motivational wording, inspirational quotes, vintage, a fandom you may belong to, or even nature-themed.

 

My personal favorite is nature-themed packages from Amazon. Birds, mushrooms, plants, flowers, animals, and sea life are ones that I use frequently.

Place your stickers on the cover, the interior, and throughout your journal to inspire you to come back to the page to write every day.

 

 

Photo Frame Inserts

If you like to print out pictures and want to insert them into your journal to make it pretty, consider photo frame inserts. These are sticky frames or sticker like frames that can house the picture and keep it in place within your journal. These are ideal if you want to take pictures of your goals (new car, house) for manifesting them into your life.

 

Markers, Highlighters, Coloring Pencils, and Crayons

Markers and highlighters can help you color everything from the date of your entry to goals and pages as a whole. No matter what you want to color or draw, you can do them with markers and highlighters. Keep in mind these are better for journals made of cardstock or heavy pages rather than composition notebook style journals with traditional paper pages because of bleed through.

Another option is coloring pencils and crayons. I’ve used both in my journals and love the smoothness of the color on the page. I’ve used coloring pencils to make borders for dates and crayons to just scribble. I’ve even used up whole black crayons for when I was angry about something and colored over the words I wrote until the whole page was blackened and the crayon was worn down to a nub. There’s no wrong way to use these tools if it helps you journal.

Scrapbooking Accessories

There are many scrapbooking accessories that can dress up and make your journal pretty. Everything from stickers to embellishments and even decorative papers or kits to get you started.

Take a look at the scrapbooking section of any store that carries the supplies and get creative. You can make your own journal just from the things you find in scrapbooking stores.

These are just a few of the ways you can use to decorate your journal and make it pretty. These will give you some ideas for how to make journaling more personal and fun.