I absolutely loved this. Very easy to follow, quick, clear instructions. It definitely helped me become creative while also allowing my personal style to shine. Definitely a great tool for any begginer.

In 2017 I randomly found Dot Journaling and was immediately hooked. I’ve always had an obsession with planners, but none of the books I found in stores ever really seemed to be geared towards what I was looking for. So finding out there were blank books and a technique of creating your own layouts and journal style as you go definitely appealed to me. That being said, I’m only slightly ashamed to say that I bought all the materials, but fizzled out as soon as I realized it was a lot more in depth and required way more actual thought and work than I had anticipated.

Welp, it’s 2019 (almost 2020) and I’m ready to take another whack at Bullet Journaling! This time in the form of a reading journal...enter Creative Journaling.

In Creative Journaling, Renee Day gives us a ton of inspiration and ideas. She includes step-by-step instructions for making beautiful layouts and journal pages, for all sorts of different journal types and using all kinds of materials and supplies. I really enjoyed that Day didn’t dive into what you should fill your journal pages with. She shows the reader how to make amazing, professional and colorful looking templates and offered suggestions, but really left the creativity and content up to the reader. It made it seem like she was teaching us instead of telling us what to do!

While reading, I found a bunch of different layout set-ups that I can’t wait to try incorporating into my new bullet journal. If the idea of journaling appeals to you, or if you’re already a journal keeper, but running low on inspiration, Creative Journaling is the book for you!

This book provides several creative ways to journal as well as guides with how to carry out the ideas. It is not excessively detailed and the presentation is certainly appealing from the guides to the journal ideas themselves. I especially loved that it covered mixed media journaling and junk journaling, though it seemed the ideas on junk journaling were sort of lacking and basically, "Take things that you might throw away and put them in a journal. Make it unique." It's not a bad idea, but I would have loved more examples, especially compared to the other types of journaling. Also, be prepared for washi tape on everything, including how to make your own. I loved all the DIY ideas that are also included. The travel journaling section is also cute and vintage looking. The mixed media journaling was the most impressive and interesting and gave me several ideas that I want to implement. I think this would be excellent for anyone interested in stepping up their journals, but my teenage self would have loved to have had this book for ideas.

Great book with tonnes of ideas. Fab for fans on washy tape. I especially like the mixed media ideas. I have serious handwriting envy though!

I absolutely loved this book! The author covers dot grid journaling (bullet journaling), junk journaling, mixed-media journaling, travel journaling and even shows a few DIY accessories and papers at the end.
I am not a complete beginner in bullet or travel journaling but this book has so many ideas I want to test right away! I did try junk and mixed-media journaling a couple of years ago but was a bit lost about all the techniques and materials (what do I really need? Do I need a craft room full of stuff to be able to start?). Renee Day gives many tips and tricks, she shows beautiful layouts and explains how to recreate them. I feel so inspired and motivated!
The layout of the book itself is very clean and appealing, the pictures are gorgeous, the directions are easy to follow and short. I really recommend this book to beginners in any of the journaling types showed as well as to anyone who needs inspiration and wants to look at beautiful pictures.

Thank you to the publisher who provided me with an e-copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love this! I bought a really nice planner to keep for this year (2020) and this gives me some great ideas for it. It also helped me find the confidence to just do it and stop letting my journals collect dust because I'm guilty of that too. I'm so ready.

This book is fantastic. I am honestly more of a doodler and drawing to express my feelings kind of girl so this book was perfect fro me. It has tons of very inspirational ideas on how to make your journal or day planner creative and meaningful for you. It gives a broad overview into multiple concepts to add pizazz to whatever you use to either keep your daily thoughts or organize your tasks. I have found tons of fun ideas to incorporate into the things i use daily. It is also fantastic stress relief to just sit and make it fun. I loved it an i highly recommend it to any doodles crafter or serious journal writer that also likes to just be creative. I have incorporated ideas into my daily planner, personal journal and just a doodle book that I carry around to just draw in. So I literally found a ton of ways to use this book. I received t from NetGalley for an honest review and I not only recommend i i plan to get it as a gift for several people that ai know will love it as a gift.

This book is so full of wonderful ideas! There are beautiful photos and well written directions. There is so much inspiration that it is hard to explain. The ideas of using simple things like cans to make circles, glue to make a raised design, using washi tape, markers, watercolors and many everyday things which appeals to my sense of recycle, reuse and renew.

The author covers different types of creative journaling. There is Dot Journaling, Grid Journaling, Junk Journaling, Mixed Media, and Travel Journaling. If you have any inclination to start/learning journaling this would be a terrific book.

I would like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been a few years since I stumbled across the concept of Bullet Journaling, and it grabbed me from the start: a mix of organisation and creativity sounds absolutely my thing! However, I’ve fallen into a bit of a rut with my ‘spreads’ (page designs) over the past year, never really got as creative with it all as I wanted, and am actually taking a bit of a break right now. My intention is to start a new journal with new enthusiasm for the new year.

So, when I spotted this book on NetGalley, it felt like a bit of a sign! 😉

Renee Day is behind the instagram account @theDIYday, and if you’re familiar with it you might know what to expect from this book. It covers four different kinds of journalling – dot grid (what I’d call bullet journaling), junk (aka altered book), mixed media, and travel. There are also section at the start and end on choosing materials and supplies, types of lettering, and making your own ‘extras’.

The first section was of most interest to me. If you’re a long-time ‘BuJo’er’ then you might find this a bit basic, or like me you might be glad of the different ideas – all fairly simple and ‘doable’, thank goodness! In fact, the idea of a reusable layout page struck me as genius! There are different styles, different techniques or embellishments, all presented in a step-by-step form with added hints and tips.

The ideas do get progressively more complex, so as a beginner you could follow each in turn and build your confidence – and your craft stash, if you want to try them all! I’d never thought about using my card-making kit (stamps, punches, etc) for my journal, but what a great way to try stuff out.

Up to this point, Ms Day is on the side of stamps and tapes rather than a lot of artistic skill, which is something of a relief. She gets a bit more crafty with the ‘junk journaling’, something new to me but which is quite intriguing, and more again with the mixed media. This feels aspirational for me right now – maybe after some confidence building with my bujo I’ll feel more capable of creating a ‘hot glue layout’, or something as pretty as the 'stitched galaxy layout'.

After the fairly self-explanatory travel journalling section, I really loved the section on ‘DIY accessories’ – make your own tabs looks fab, and I would never have thought of making my own washi tape or decorated paperclips.

Overall, this is a lovely book full of ideas for beginners and more experienced journallers alike. The step-by-step instructions makes it a lot more accessible than the equivalent blog/social-media offering, too. Recommended – and might just spark a good New Year’s Resolution for me :)

This fun book has many different examples of dot journaling, junk journaling, mixed media journaling and travel journaling. You also can mix up each of the techniques she mentions and the best part is that most of them are simple and relatively easy to recreate. Sometimes books like these have the potential to be eye candy where they are super stunning but impossible to recreate (which is also fine if that's all you're looking for.) whereas in this book, I felt there were layouts that were really pretty and also really doable. For me, that's my happy place. If you're into any of these types of journaling, I'd recommend you give this book a try.

with gratitude to netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book has some wonderful and creative ideas for journaling. The author gives step-by-step easy to follow instructions to create new and fun pages for your journal. Very beautiful and Inspirational book. I will be adding this to my library.


Thank you to publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

Creative Journaling was a great deal of fun and full of wonderful ideas on how to take your journal to the next level. Completely accessible, fully-illustrated (for those of us who don't want to destroy a perfectly nice blank page). The sections on junk journaling, travel journaling and mixed media journaling opened up further possibilities to explore. And you can work with whatever you have lying around the house. We all have pretty scraps of paper and hoards of stationary to work from.

This eARC was courtesy of NetGalley.

This book has some great ideas for journaling as I was hoping it would. I enjoy journaling using a dot grid book where I keep a calendar with events, appointments, special occasions, and important notes along with general ideas and happenings. I also use it for keeping up with my Goodreads book challenge. I wanted some ideas to spruce it up. It is a fun thing just for me, a way to create. Creative Journaling has some ideas for creating calendars, special events pages with dates including birthdays and anniversaries, etc. Renee Day has given not only ideas but step by step instructions to achieve your own special creation. She gives a list of different supplies to use, including a lot of ideas for on hand materials. She has included sections for creating junk, mixed media books, and travel pages using old books or other options of materials. While I mainly focused on the ideas for dot grid journaling, there are lots of great ideas that can be used for different projects. I am considering buying this book so that I will have it on hand for future creations.
I received a complimentary ARC from Rock Point and Quarto Publishing Group through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine only.

I loved this book so much! The pictures were so gorgeous and eye-catching and most importantly, very inspirational and informative. Filled with great and creative ideas, and very clear instructions, I will definitely be suggesting this for my library to purchase and I can not wait to share this with my customers.

This was a very fun book. I'm really into bullet journaling so when I saw a copy of this book I decided to give it a go. This book is full of ideas but not only it focuses on the dot grid notebook but it also includes different spreads for different types of journals. I believe this is a great book for people looking to create new pages in their journals or that want to try creating a junk journal, travel journal, etc. The ideas are presented step by step with full explanations and they are really easy to follow.
I would totally recommend this book for anyone looking to be more creative in their journey of journalin

This is a great book bursting with inspiration and great ideas for spicing up your journal. It is full of wonderful pictures and will have you reaching for your supplies so you can get going. There are a lot of instructions for designing your page layout, and for different types of lettering and borders. It is definitely one to keep on your shelf and to keep referring back to.

This books is amazing! I have read other journaling how to books and so far this is the best! Its clear, gives a lot of examples, break down the basics, but then how to make journals!
If you want to or are into journals you really should get this book!
The pictures are also clear and the directions seem easy to follow.
I really liked the meal planing one!

What a great little book, so inspiring. The book starts with chapters on materials and techniques, then goes through four different styles of journaling - Dot grid; junk; mixed-media and travel. Throughout the book there are tips and suggestions. There are ideas for layouts, cover pages, styles and constructions. It doesn't go into in-depth detail but does act as a starting point for your own ideas.
A fun book that makes you want to reach for your art supplies and get started.

This book is filled with so many wonderful resources for lettering! I love how the author goes down to the basics and starts with simple vocabulary. Her projects shown go step by step and are easy to follow. This is a great resource for anyone looking to get into bullet journaling!

As someone who loves bullet journaling and making altered books, I really enjoyed this book of creative journaling ideas. The first half are all bullet journal ideas, with some wonderfully creative spreads that are fairly simple with a nice impact. For each one, Day goes into step by step directions on how to do them yourself. Most require only simple tools, though she does use quite a few stencils (you can also freehand those, but they won't be as precise). You can easily replicate most of her bullet journal designs with a ruler, stencils, a pencil and some colorful pens, washi tape and a brief amount of time. I would have liked even more of these, as my favorite part of any bullet journal book is seeing as many examples of creative spreads as possible. I tend to do all of my drawing freehand and would have loved some examples of simple freehand spreads to try, too. That said, stencils do make it easy to do great spreads with any artistic level.

The second half of the book is what she calls junk journaling but she also calls altered books. I've been doing altered books for about 14 years and her version is far more fiddly than mine. She has you remove all the pages and just use the hardcover spine as a sort of holder, and then glue in inserted pages that you've bound. I have always just used unloved/ruined old hardcover books as the materials themselves and done designs right over the pages (usually removing some of the pages since the added things glued in and such add a lot of thickness to the book). I like doing it this way as it reminds me of my favorite Native American art style, ledger art, where people on the reservations would use old pages from ledgers that they bartered for as canvas since they had no access to paper or any other type of canvas. The ledger pages underneath become part of the finished work, just as with altered books you can use the text, photos or other elements of the original page to create the finished page.

In any case, her junk journal ideas were mostly very complicated with a lot of supplies and time needed. Some were quite nice, but I prefer doing a simpler, cheaper, faster kind of art for altered books. I didn't end up caring much for that half of the book.

Despite that, I still highly recommend the book for those who love creative journaling. If you like making your journals artistic, this will give you some great inspiration.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.