Conclusion: Balance

After I struggled through an entire A4 notebook trying to keep it all neat, I started to miss my usual mess so very badly. But it's not like I can keep up the mess entirely either, so the conclusion must be that I need a little bit of both worlds to get the best out of myself.

Here's a video of the attempt of sticking with 'neat'.
The video is shaky and grainy, but hopefully my videos will get better along the way. I'm such a noob at this!

Thanks for stopping by and I wish everyone a wonderful day!

Filling Up The Journal... Eventually!

There are very few notebooks that I have filled up completely. Most are almost completely filled, a few is only half filled. And then there's the small pile in between...

To my knowledge, there's a general idea that either you leave them partly empty forever or you fill them up, regardless if you feel like it or not. In my opinion, it's not good. This is supposed to be fun and exciting (most of the time anyway) and applying that kind of force will ruin your experience. 

Now, we are all different, so this method or idea will not apply to everyone, but at least feel free to be inspired. 

Several times throughout especially the past year, I didn't feel like starting a new journal or sketchbook. I just needed a break and get away from the one I was currently working in. Here the partly filled notebooks come in handy as I can just take a few pages vacation and return to the one I was supposed to fill. This applies especially to the ones where I accidentally got myself involved in a sort of 'design and layout theme' that I'd like to keep through the entire notebook. 

Another reason is that I address several topics where I suspect either my opinion or circumstances will change, so a few pages in the back for later updates in the same notebook is something I really like the idea of. Otherwise the updates to a specific topic would spread to several notebooks. 

To some organization and order is a high priority and this would give them a month worth of stress. But to a chaotic person like me, this is the preferred way to work, and most likely also what I'd like to see when I look back at them in 10 years. 

Here's a group photo of all the notebooks that are either filled or are WIP's. Most do however only have a maximum of 10 sheets left for future comments to a topic addressed in the notebook. 

My First Notebook Video!

I have spent ages watching notebook and sketchbook videos on Youtube. If you have uploaded one, there's a huge chance I have probably watched it and enjoyed it.

Even though the video recording went horribly wrong, I did manage to piece together a slideshow instead. Hopefully I will be able to do a proper flip through in the future, but it is certain that more videos will be made as I keep filling up notebooks and sketchbooks.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and feel free to connect on Youtube as well. If you have some videos too, please don't hesitate to send me a link in the comments, I'd love to see them :)

DIY Borders For Journal Pages

My country doesn't have fancy spiral bound notebooks with colored page-borders as subject dividers, so I thought 'hey I just make it myself then!' Not only can I now make regular borders, I can also add decorative elements to it. The acrylic paint puffs the pages a lot though. This medium probably wouldn't work that well in a hardcovered notebook as I can see the spine crack as multiple layers of paint get applied. Here I think I'd personally choose (not too soft) colored pencils for the project.

Painting borders on the pages is something I really got into in my current personal journal (which is just a plain spiral bound notebook). So far I like it, and I will definitely repeat it in future notebooks. 

This is how some of the borders looked like before I started writing on the page. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog. 

My Notebooks

I have loved notebooks for as long as I remember. Ironically, most of my life it was a struggle to use them and if I did they were mostly thrown out. That was until 3½ years ago. Let's just say my notebooks were all I had left after a failed attempt at turning my life in a positive direction. It wasn't until I stood with a massive pile of bound empty pages that I realized how worthless they are without content. But most of all it hit me with a gut crushing blow how I had treated these books as if they were more precious than the people and pets I love but now have lost. Memories of them could have been on these pages, but instead there's only emptiness. I can only change it to limited extend by writing down the memories my mind allows me access to. 

Never leave a notebook unused because you are afraid it will get ruined by your writing or drawings. What matters is that you will have a place to pull out otherwise forgotten memories of what you have loved, smile at the crazy idea you had ages ago, and maybe even look back at how many things you have achieved even though they in that moment seemed impossible!

My notebooks also serve as a playground for art and storytelling as well as documenting random things I appreciate. One has been dedicated entirely to my favorite song lyrics, another is now a quote journal because it's so difficult to properly write in, there's 3 sketchbooks of various sizes, a small movie-journal, and I have two for story ideas and writing prompts. All of the notebooks mentioned here are in the WIP-pile, but I'll show them another day.  

I don't have a brand or type preference, except I like them cheap and simple so it's not the end of the world if I drop a notebook into my acrylic paint palette and ruin its cover. Since I'm very interested in bookbinding there are also several handmade notebooks in my collection. 

To end this intro post, I'll show you a picture of the notebooks that are either filled or put on hold indefinitely. More entries containing images and hopefully also videos will be posted asap.

Thanks for visiting my blog.