Dear Journal,

I have been keeping a journal on and off for three years now. It helps me clear my head and let everything out. Seriously, full-on middle school for my eyes only! I would never be brave enough to do Mortified!.

Unfortunately, it’s a really difficult hobby for me. When life gets busy it’s the first thing to go. I’ve fallen off the journaling wagon on (way) more than one occasion. The more I keep at it, the more engrained in my routine it becomes. So I try to write three times a week…these days I make that goal most of the time.

Sometimes, when I am writing I add inspiring quotes or doodle. I love stumbling upon these pages when I look back through my old journals. I think they speak loudly of who I was the in the moments I wrote them.

So in order to keep myself motivated and inspired for my writing I decided to Spice Up my life by finding some of my favorite quotes and placing them randomly throughout the fresh journal I’m about to start. A little pep talk or writing prompt for the future!

What I love about this easy project is the freedom; the ability to do as many different techniques and as many quotes as you want (I went with ten)^{I love the idea of an entire journal filled quotes! Alas, that’s a book project for another day. I seem to be super into book projects right now (Exhibit A: my hollowed-out book project).}. Another plus is the time limit for this project: as much time as you want to put in. You could quickly handwrite your quotes and call it a day, or you can spend a little or a lot of time on each one. I went with the former and kept it pretty simple, since I was doing the dip dye afterwards. A uniform design/style for the quote pages could be cool. I bet that’s what Martha would do. I just went with whatever I was feeling in the moment. The sky is the limit! Go wild, it’s your journal.

MaterialsStamped letters and handwritten pen and ink.

Here are a few of my favorites pages:

Dip Dye

I was inspired by these dip dye projects from Martha Stewart.

Materialsdip dye. I used Rit Sunshine Orange.

• Fill your basin with at least 6 inches hot water and stir in the dye a little bit at a time. Dip a sample of paper towel to test color. Feel free to dilute with more water or add more dye. Let the dye cool and settle (no bubbles on the top).
• It’s dippin’ time! Hold the journal steady, straight up and down. Keep it in dye until it turns the color you want. Remember, it will dry a little lighter in tone.You can save the dye for later use or go dip dye crazy on some other things around your house.
• Let dry – I left mine propped on top of a plastic back overnight.
• Get to writing!

Speaking of journals, here is a picture from one of my 1st grade school journal. Apparently, I had a really rough day.