Hello friends! Elizabeth here from @thejoyfulsojourn on YouTube and Instagram!

Have you heard of the heavy ‘mental load’ many women carry? As a toddler mom over 40, a wife, keeper of all the information, and manager of the house, and someone who also works on the side, I have countless moments of overwhelm and exhaustion. And in this season, which holds a few holidays, less daycare, out-of-town guests, and lots of familial expectations, we’re entering the thick of it! And now – yes, now – is when we need to make space for play. Even if it’s just 10 minutes a day or 10 minutes a week, our spirits need rest, and creative play on paper is a really wonderful tool for peace. The Snow Day Society Deluxe Journaling Kit has everything you need to make simple and pretty reflection pages that give you respite amidst the hustle and bustle.

 

 

This is a very basic 2-page spread that took me about 10 minutes to make. Creative journaling doesn’t have to take a lot of time, it doesn't have to be Instagram-worthy, and it doesn’t require paragraphs of writing and a re-activation of your pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel (I see you, mamas)! So let’s get into the details of how I used my 10 minutes to play and find some rest.

 

 

There are really nice papers in the journaling kit, and one of them is a full-print of a kitchen with large windows at the top. I was feeling inspired by the window, and thought it’d make a cute ‘peek-a-boo’ for a quote. So I cut out the window to fit a full sheet in my notebook, then cut the top, right, and bottom of the window, then glued the frame down to the page. I used a bone to fold the window back on the left ‘hinge’, creating a window into the dot grid page underneath.

 

This was the most ‘work’, and it only took a couple of minutes to make my very simple journaling layout look fancy.

 

On the right side, I used washi from the journaling kit to frame out the page, and added a day and date from the Snow Day Society Journaling Kit.

 

I then grabbed two stamps from the stamp subscription, adding one alongside the window, “secret ingredient= love”, and the sleeping mouse nestled in the lower right corner of the washi-framed page. The sleeping mouse is line art, so I colored him in with a light brown pen. Just for fun, I added washi strip stickers along the bottom of the pages, and some snowflake stickers as well.

 

 

Flipping open the window, I wrote a C.S. Lewis quote about winter and the hope of what’s to come, from his book “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, one that brings me warmth and comfort in seasons when I feel lost. On the right page, I added a decorative quote sticker about hibernation and rest, and then wrote a few sentences about how I’ve been feeling in this season.

 

There’s always a temptation to do the most when it comes to creative journaling – everything has to be fancy and clever, and if it’s not Instagram-worthy or innovative, it’s not worthy at all. But I’m here to say that it is! The act of putting something on paper is where the value lies. If you’re overwhelmed by life in this season of joy, wonder, and sometimes grief, you’re not alone. I hope you’ll use the tools you have in the Snow Day Society Deluxe Journaling Kit to simply play, even if it’s just for 10 minutes, one sticker, one scrap of paper, or one word.

  

Share with us by tagging @cocoa_daisy on social media or posting to the Cocoa Daisy Fan Page. Make sure to visit our Pinterest page and the Cocoa Daisy YouTube Channel for more inspiration.