2025 Journal Setup Guide Pt.2

This month I’m back with the promised Part 2 of the 2025 Journal Setup Guide! If you haven’t checked out part 1 yet, here is the link:

Now that we have the prep done, it’s time to actually jump into your journal with all the fun stuff. It’s time to focus on the decoration and aesthetic elements!

Step 1: Decorations/Color Palette/Themes

A lot of people have themed journal setups and there are countless inspiration images out there for the different types of themes you can use. I personally don’t have a specific theme for my year setup (though I will do themed monthly setups).

However, I do have a defined color palette, which is basically my “theme.” My color palette is based on the stickers and washi tape I bought. But you can choose your color palette based on your theme, or other decoration items you have. 

You don’t need to be super fancy with your decoration. Just choose one thing that will be at the center of your color story. 

Then based on that one thing (theme or sticker or decoration idea) choose 3-4 colors to be your main color palette. 

Preferably you should have 2 dark colors and 2 light colors so your headers and boxes can be the darker colors and you can use the lighter colors as second line highlights or background decoration that can be written on top of.

Let me share some examples to illustrate what I mean.

Example: My Theme is 90s school notebook

• black, blue, red pens 

• doodle type decorations in the margins (hearts, stars, smiley faces)

• highlighter/bright pink and blue 

Example: I have night sky related washi tape and star stickers

• dark blue, light blue, yellow/gold colored markers

• washi tape and sticker decorations

• draw moons/stars for bigger spaces

Example: I’m great at drawing cats 

• orange, brown, and cream colors (for different types of cats)

• main decoration is hand drawn art

• light colors to create patterns on cats in the background (splotches in a light gray color)

Each of these examples chooses one thing that will be the center of the color story/other decorations. 

In my case, I got the Sunlight Mystery washi tape and stickers which have a gold and maroon color scheme. So my color palette was deep orange, marron, light pink and light beige. 

I used the Tombow dual-brush pens (Cottage pack) to outline my boxes and for the headers. It was my first time using them but they are worth the hype the journaling community has about them. The light colors were perfect for second-line highlights and since the ink is water based you can layer the colors to get different shades.

The pens I use for journaling are the Papermate Inkjoy Gel Pens. I’ve been using them for about two years now and they are my favorite to write with.  (I will say that with the Notebook Therapy 160gsm notebook paper they take longer to dry than on normal printer paper.)

But you really don’t need to buy fancy things. My first journals were set up with colored pens from the dollar store. As long as you have a few colored pens or markers (can just be the Crayola thin tips) you are set!

Step 2: Outlining

Once you have your decorations and color palette decided then it’s time to crack open your journal and get into it.

Now, if you’re confident, feel free to skip this step and just start with your markers and pens. I, however, do not have that courage so I started with pencil.

Penciling everything in first allows me to visually see the layouts I’ve designed on the actual page and gives me a sense of how much space I have to add decorations.

You can also pencil in any elements you plan to draw before you lock it in with color. 

Here are some of the spreads I have penciled out to give you an idea of what I mean:

Step 3: Pen to Paper!

It’s finally time, after all the preparations, to go in and start adding color to your spreads! 

Grab your pens and markers and start decorating your page. 

I don’t fill everything out right away, I just create the spreads first and then fill them out later. 

Below are all the spreads I have in my start of year journal setup (in order):

Step 4: Journaling

With your journal ready, you can actually start journaling now! Which means writing in your goals and trackers and finally start using all the spreads you have in your journal. 

I plan on doing that next week, going through all my spreads and filling them out before the start of the year. I also need to do my monthly setup (maybe I’ll include that in a different blog post!)

-.-

I hope this helped with your journal setup process and thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to share any tips or tricks you might have for doing a journal setup too!

As we close out 2024, I am so happy that I managed to successfully post once a month for this whole year! It’s been a great goal to reach and I can’t wait to keep the momentum going for next year.

Thank you again and see you in 2025!