My Attempt At Organizing My Brain...

So, for a long time it's been driving me crazy to have all these different journals going with all different kinds of things in them and no order of any kind. I kept starting a journal and then starting another kind of journal and on and on you get the picture. Well, I finally decided I NEED A JOURNALING SYSTEM! So, after much brainstorming I came up with something which I hope will work; and I'd love to share the results with you! Keep in mind that I would never have the energy or even interest in working on all of these at the same time. It's just a way to sort out in my brain what goes where - ha.

HERE'S WHAT I CAME UP WITH...

I will have five different types of ongoing journals, along with the flexibility of adding “special” journals to the mix at any time. Each of the five different types of journals will be named and numbered, and everything will be dated.

1. MORNING PAGES:

   1. Composition notebooks with decorated covers, all lined up in a row with number stickers on the spines.

   2. Long-hand writing of whatever is on my mind. This is a place to work out ideas, vent, take notes, etc. Also can be a place for practicing writing skills. Can be totally messy, no decorating on the inside – just writing.

2. RAVENEA CHRONICLES:

   1. Each one can be different. Dry materials like patterned papers, writing papers, pockets for ephemera. Can be bound in different ways, but each one will have charms hanging off of it, one of which will be a number.

   2. This is like a travel journal of everyday life. I will record what happened just like I do in my travel journals, pasting ephemera and pictures or anything else that tells my story.

   
   

3. PROMPTED/COLLAGE JOURNALS:

   1. Altered books & handmade journals with painted and collaged pages, each one answering a prompt of some sort. These will each be numbered with those round metal tags.

   2. These books will be filled in stages.

      • Painting backgrounds

      • Collaging

      • Writing

      • Final decorative stuff like doodling, tape, etc.

      
      

4. CREATIVE ABANDON

   1. All different sizes of sketchbooks, bound & numbered with different kinds of tags.

   2. This is what I vision as an actual “art journal,” filled with all kinds of experiments, challenges, quotes, drawings, and other self-expressive type-stuff. I picture the pages all thick and rumply, with stuff sticking out all over. Anything goes in these books.

   
   

5. INSPIRATION & GOALS

   1. Decorated three-ring binder with tabs:

      • Goals (annual & quarterly goals, plus project lists, trackers, etc.)

      • Ideas/Inspiration (sketches, layouts I like, color schemes, etc.)

   2. This is in a 3-ring binder because I envision it being one book that is always evolving. As I put an idea into practice, I could take it out of the ideas binder. I could add goals at any time, along with visuals to inspire, etc. At some point, the Inspiration and Goals could be separated into separate binders.

6. SPECIAL

   1. These are special journals created for a class or a particular subject matter. They could be anything that warrants its own journal for whatever reason. These will have names but no numbers, unless there is more than one volume of the same journal.

So that's my system! Right at this moment in time I am loving it, but knowing me I could decide to start over and reorganize at any time - HA. I thought it might be fun to share each of the different types of journals, to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about...

To start with - the Ravenea Chronicles. I have seven of them so far, and lately they are the ones I've been working in most consistently. Here's a photo of all seven in order...


For me - half of the fun of having a "system" is being able to see the completed ones all lined up neatly on a shelf! Here's how they look...

Next post, I will share one of the other types.

So, am I out of my mind for having all these different kinds of journals? Obsessed? I'm not sure, but it makes me happy so I'm going with it - ha! Do any of you have your own journaling systems? I'd LOVE to hear all about them!

Oh, did you notice the "Sketchbook Challenge" badge in my sidebar? I'm so excited about it! Starting in January there's going to be a challenge all about keeping a sketchbook, and it's hosted by a whole bunch of cool artists! Something fun and different to look forward to, and I plan on following along - how about you? Click on the widget or here to find out more.

Tomorrow was supposed to be my monthly crop with my scrappy gal pals, but we decided to cancel because we have a huge winter storm coming!!! I heard it's supposed to be more than 20 inches of snow and it's already started! Yikes! But, since I have to stay home, I've decided to have a snow-day crop all by myself here in the scraproom - which means I better get it cleaned up!

Thanks for visiting and I will be back tomorrow with another update!