Working in my Archer and Olive Blackout Journal has been an absolute blast. One thing I decided to try this month was collage bullet journaling. The only other time I have done collage in my bullet journal is when I would create an occasional memory spread.
With only a few pages left for planning, I decided that a good way to finish off my Blackout journal would be through experimentation in collage. Before the month started, I spent plenty of time scrolling through Pinterest finding pictures that inspired me and motivated me.
Now looking at the end of the month, I have observed a few things about bullet journal collaging that I wanted to share with everyone that would be helpful to keep in mind down the road when filling up those beautiful notebooks of yours.
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Collaging is a great way to fill up a journal, fast.
If you’re like me, you probably have about six or seven journals that have yet to be broken in yet. They are probably stored out of sight so you don’t feel bad looking at them. One easy way to get through any journal is through collage.
When I put down two photos layered on top of each other in my journal, I found that the rest of the space I had to work with would decreased immensely because the photos would take up a good amount of a A5 single page. The more washi tapes, stickers and other miscellaneous paper goods I added, the less room on the page I had to work with.
When I started my collaging in April, I thought I had plenty of pages to last me the whole month, but now being half way into the month with plenty of photos still cut out, I realized that I am actually running out of pages for the month of April. This to me is a good problem to have.
2. Collaging helps overcome the empty page.
Being apart of the journal community you hear the fears of the “empty, blank page.” The feeling of not knowing where to start or where the page is going to go. The hope of an artistic touch, but the fear of disappointment.
A great way to get over this theory is collage. I tend to start with the largest piece of whatever I am collaging and work down in size. This way, the less and less things I have to glue down, the less and less notebook paper I see.
When starting a page by gluing something down, the brain slowly but surly starts its creative flow. You tend to see things that you didn’t before when something is already stuck to the page. You start to build off this one picture and soon enough, you find yourself with a lovely spread that makes you feel accomplished.
3. Collaging uses up your collection.
Many people that use collage as their main style of bullet journaling often have a large range of supplies like sticky notes, stickers and washi tape. This stationary is useful when putting together some incredible spreads, but can be overwhelming when seeing everything in its glory.
Even if collaging is not your go to style in bullet journaling, you probably have a collection of stationary building up somewhere just in case you were ever to need anything. In my bullet journal collaging, I was extremely satisfied when I was able to use up some of the paper goods I had been collecting for so long. I had this feeling of accomplishment because my brain felt like it was cleaning out part of my collection and it was. I was finally using things that had just sat there for so long.
4. Collaging is not rocket science.
People often see these elaborate collages on social media and become discouraged because they don’t think they could accomplish something so complex. I am here to tell you, collage is not rocket science. You will never have an exact spread as someone else and that is a good thing. Just go with what you think is best. It always works out in the end.
When working with collage, your brain can go into this mindless mode. Cut, glue, repeat. Cut, glue and repeat. Soon enough, there will be no room for for you to continue this process and during that time, you could have a finished spread.
Don’t ever feel like you can’t conquer collage! Collage is a style that can be practiced and perfected if you are willing to put the work into it.
Thank you for reading my experiences with collage! Please make sure to follow me on social media for more content. Leave any comments with questions or concerns and I will be sure to get back to you in a timely manner.
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