Creative journaling: writing is creating too

Discover different ways to journal and turn memories, travels, colours and little everyday ideas into pages that tell your story.

What if a journal didn’t have to be made up solely of page after page of text? A museum ticket, the label from that café you discovered while travelling, a photograph, a dried flower, a wonky sketch, a sentence written in your favourite ink… anything can tell a story. That is precisely the magic of creative journaling: turning a notebook into a space that is completely your own, where writing is only the beginning.

You don’t need to know how to draw, master lettering or have perfect handwriting. There are no “badly made” pages here. There are memories, colours, textures and ideas that, when combined, gradually create something no app can make for you: a physical archive of your world.

What is creative journaling?

Creative journaling combines traditional writing with elements such as photographs, cut-outs, stickers, stamps, watercolours, different ink colours and small keepsakes. Some people write a lot; others add only a few words. Some carefully plan every page, while others simply stick in whatever they happen to find in their pocket when they get home.

And that is exactly what makes it so interesting: there is no single way to journal. It can become a space for preserving memories, organising your day, recording your travels, experimenting with colour or simply enjoying some screen-free time. You just need to find the style that makes you want to open your notebook again and again.

Junk journaling: keeping things is encouraged

If you’re the kind of person who comes home with tickets, pretty wrappers, labels, postcards, scraps of paper or any little object that feels “too nice to throw away”, then junk journaling might be for you.

Its philosophy starts right there: giving a second life to seemingly insignificant things and turning them into part of a story. Materials are layered through collage and combined with words, drawings, stamps, stickers or splashes of ink. The aim is not to create a perfect page, but to capture a feeling and let each element preserve a tiny piece of that moment.

A page might begin with a sweet wrapper, continue with a handwritten sentence and end with a cinema ticket. Even the colour of the ink can help create the mood: a sepia shade such as the Esterbrook The Coffee Monsterz.Co ink works particularly well in vintage-inspired compositions, while Esterbrook x Sakura Dragon stickers add small graphic elements and pops of colour.

If you love collecting beautiful papers, mixing textures and finding beauty in things other people would throw away, this could be your kind of journaling.

Travel journaling: your trips beyond the camera roll

We have hundreds of travel photos on our phones, but how many of them do we actually go back and look at? Travel journaling offers something different: turning every getaway into a story you can touch, reread and continue adding to over time.

There is room for photographs, train tickets, maps, restaurant cards, flowers, receipts, museum tickets and small illustrations. But there is also room for everything a photograph cannot capture: what you ate that evening, an unexpected conversation, the name of a street you stumbled upon by chance or how you felt when you arrived.

Its aim is to document the journey from a much more personal point of view. Not just where you went, but how you experienced it. You can fill it in as you travel or collect little keepsakes and sit down to create once you are back home.

Esterbrook has turned this very philosophy into its Travel Journal Workshop, a set designed to combine writing, collage and decoration, bringing together a journal, stamps, watercolours, a brush, stickers, washi tape, labels and a variety of creative tools.

If you come back from every trip with a suitcase full of tickets, postcards and little keepsakes you simply cannot throw away, you may have just found your place.

Scrapbooking journal: when every page tells a story

If you enjoy thinking about the composition of a page just as much as its content, scrapbooking journaling lets you take the visual side one step further. Photographs, papers, labels, headings, stickers and short pieces of text are arranged like pieces of a composition built around a particular moment.

Birthdays, holidays, concerts, a wedding, an afternoon with friends or simply a Sunday worth remembering. You can choose a colour palette for the whole page, combine different papers or use stickers to create small focal points. Esterbrook x Sakura Dragon stickers, for example, let you add illustrated motifs directly connected to the world of writing.

The goal here is to tell a visual story. Words are still important, but they share the spotlight with photographs, colours and composition. A short sentence can carry just as much weight as an image depending on how and where you place it.

If you’re the kind of person who loves combining colours, searching for the perfect paper and moving a sticker five times until it finally finds “its place”, scrapbooking journaling has every chance of winning you over.

Art journal: a little creative studio between the pages

Here, almost all the rules disappear. Art journaling turns your notebook into a kind of miniature creative studio where you can mix ink, watercolour, collage, drawing, lettering, splashes of colour and writing without having to follow any particular structure.

The aim is not necessarily to document what happened during your day. It is to experiment, play and express yourself visually. A page might begin simply with two colours you feel like trying and end up becoming a completely unexpected composition.

Here, a fountain pen can become another artistic tool. It is also one of the journaling styles where experimenting with ink is especially fun. Diamine Shimmering inks, for example, contain shimmer particles that leave a metallic sparkle on the paper. Shades such as Electric Pink, Frosted Orchid or Tropical Glow can turn a heading, a word or a small drawing into one of the focal points of the page.

Even the writing instrument itself can become part of that creative ritual. Designs such as the Esterbrook Estie Botanical Gardens, inspired by the natural world and filled with rich colour nuances, fit particularly well with the idea of surrounding yourself with objects that make you want to create.

If a blank sheet of paper feels intimidating but you can spend hours mixing colours, drawing, collaging or trying new materials, start here.

Bullet journal: creativity with a little structure

If you love organising just as much as creating, you have probably already heard of bullet journaling. In this case, the notebook becomes a combination of planner, diary, to-do list and creative space.

Calendars, lists, trackers, goals, habits and notes can sit alongside drawings, lettering and colour coding. The aim is to build a completely personalised organisation system: you start with a blank page and decide exactly what you need it to do for you.

That is why a dotted notebook offers so much freedom for this style. The Iguana A5 Notebook, with its dotted pages, lets you create calendars, sections, lists and layouts without the restrictions of a traditional planner. If you prefer a cleaner page for writing or drawing freely, the Oxford Signature A5 range also includes plain-page versions in different colours.

You can complete the system by using a different ink colour for each category or month. The Diamine range includes hundreds of options, from understated shades to greens, violets, turquoise tones and special-effect inks, turning organisation into yet another excuse to play with colour.

If you love lists, beautiful stationery and that strangely satisfying feeling of ticking off a completed task, this is probably your kind of journaling.

Memory journaling: turning the little things into something important

You don’t need to travel to Japan or experience something extraordinary to fill a journal. Memory journaling is all about documenting everyday life: a meal with friends, the flowers you spotted on your way to work, a recipe, the song you cannot stop listening to, a quiet afternoon at home or a sentence you want to remember.

Its aim is simple but beautiful: learning to pay attention to those little things that usually disappear from one day to the next. Over time, your notebook becomes a kind of memory capsule from a particular chapter of your life.

Writing itself becomes especially playful here. You can change ink colour depending on your mood, reserve one pen for those particular moments or even associate certain colours with certain periods of your life. Esterbrook, for example, offers inks such as Scarlet, Tangerine and Lilac, while the Diamine collection provides an enormous palette for turning colour into another way of remembering.

And if you enjoy turning writing into a little ritual, even your writing instrument can become part of the aesthetic. Colours such as Sugar Plum Purple on the Esterbrook Estie Bestie show that a pen does not have to be just a tool: it can also become part of that world of stationery and beautiful objects you love having on your desk.

If you have a folder full of photographs, screenshots and little memories because “you might want to look at them again someday”, perhaps what you need is to start giving them a place outside your phone.

Your journal doesn’t have to be perfect

And this is probably the most important rule of all: you don’t need to have every material or know exactly what kind of journaling you want to do before you begin.

A notebook and a writing instrument you enjoy using are enough. The coloured inks can come later, perhaps a Diamine Shimmering ink to experiment with, followed by stickers, stamps, blotting paper for working comfortably with your fountain pen, or the case where you eventually collect all the tools you always want close at hand. Iguana currently offers notebooks, inks, fountain pens and a wide range of accessories from brands such as Esterbrook, Diamine and Oxford, allowing you to gradually build your own little creative space.

The fun lies precisely in discovering what you like along the way. Perhaps you start by writing five lines about a trip and end up sticking in a metro ticket. Maybe you buy an ink simply because you love the colour and end up creating an entire page around it.

Because creative journaling is not really about making perfect pages. It is about creating a place you want to return to and paying a little more attention to the stories worth keeping.

Have questions? Looking for a personalised recommendation? If you need any help, contact us and we’ll be happy to assist you