Stay at Home Activity: Fill a Notebook
One of my all-time-favorite things to do at home or elsewhere, is filling notebooks. If you are looking for something to do, together with your kids or on your own, may I suggest this; grab a journal / notebook / random stack of folded papers / old unused calendar / old text book to alter / paper pad and fill it. Putt it to good use right now. Make it your diary, glue book, art journal, scrapbook, and fill it with what ever. I’ve got a few suggestions that you could try…
In last week’s blog post from the creative bubble I linked to texts both informative and comforting (and since then I’ve added in a few more) about the corona-virus outbreak and pandemic, but also mentioned people I myself follow and admire that are trying to help out in this difficult situation. Today I thought I’d gather myself for a few miniatures to share this idea that you can do without going to the store.
Start a journal
Start a journal, fill a notebook. Right? Ingenious simple to do – and fun for all ages!
It’s the perfect single girl activity that can also be done together with a spouse, the family, your kids (any age works), with a cat or dog as company, or in any other constellation you find yourself in right now.
I myself have several books that I’m working in right now, but one of them is a journal that I call Randomosity journal. In it I document what’s going on right now. It doesn’t have to be big things like a Disneyland visit (I’ve never been) or holiday abroad (we can’t go right now), but it can be going on a walk, or simply getting happy mail, noticing a trend I’m into right now or gluing in things seen on the internet. It can be (and often is) about how I’m feeling at the moment (full of angst right now), documented in both my own journaling and cut and paste images from various sources.
Filling a notebook could be a lot of things, bring out a pack of crayons or a glue stick and see what happens…
Most recently I’ve printed out and colored in the Coronavirus Reward Stickers that I link to in my previous blog post. They’re drawn by my favorite cartoonist and illustrator Gemma Correll. She often talk about issues that is close to my own heart in her drawings, and last week she shared a printable of these reward stickers for free for everyone to download and color.
I colored mine with colored (neon) pencils and glued them all into my pre-decorated notebook. I filmed the process if you want to take a peek, it’s on instagram tv – IGTV.
I think printing? coloring pages to play with is perfect right now. It is something to keep your hands “busy” for a bit, taking you away from endless scrolling through your phones feeds… Yes, I am guilty of doing that way, way too much all through last week. It’s not at all easy to be original and creative when the world is doing a fast-forward 360-flip around us.
So this blog post is a reminder for myself, as well as you, that filling a notebook is a much much better way to spend our time than scrolling… It won’t change the world, it wont’t save any lives – but it might just give your brain a short respite from all things virus related. It might calm you a lot more than surveilling the news, and let’s not even take a peek at twitter right now… It’s a mess!
So, if you can, when you can:
Open up your notebook and write it out instead. Journal for a bit. Cut and paste. Collage it out. Color it in. Paint along. Draw something. Do mixed media. Create, just for yourself (and your family/kids if you have any). It is not wasted time – it is time well spent if you ask me.
Take a deep breath in, I’m hoping this inspiration will find its way to your house today. Then breath out; let some of that anxiety out. Repeat.
Fill a Notebook
I actually have a tag on this blog that is called “Fill a Notebook” (!) – check it out to get a lot of suggestions on ways to fill a notebook from my many years of blogging… Feel free to add your own favorite way in the comments below. Or do you have another way to fill your eons of time staying at home right now?
PS: If you don’t have a notebook at home you can always alter a book or use an unused planner and fill it with magazine image collage. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for another great post, Hanna!
As always, thank you for posting this, Hanna! You have been such an inspiration to me over the years. We’re under a “stay home, stay safe” order from our governor (Michigan, USA), which means we’re really only suppose to leave our homes for necessities like grocery shopping (most businesses have shifted to working from home Can still go for walks and such outside, but have to keep social distancing there as well). I’m thankful I have so many creative outlets to choose from – really helps take my mind off what’s going on.
Imagine being at home without all the creative outlets – that would be hell, right? Take care, and yes, stay safe! Maybe go out some… postal stamps and join the swap? tii-hi
Hanna, I can’t tell you how inspirational this post was to me … I totally adored it! I still haven’t dug around to find a notebook but am sure I have one here somewhere that I picked up from Walmart last fall.
No idea exactly WHAT I’m going to put in it but hey – I’ll figure that out once I get started on it, right? lol
It certainly won’t be anything that would win any type of an award or anything but I am going to somehow title it about something to do while we’re stuck in due to the corona virus.
Maybe I’ll journal in it a bit, copy some song lyrics in there somewhere, look online and see if I can’t find a few poems that I really like. Maybe some quotes and of course, paper … OH THE PAPER I HAVE!! I have been doing some doodling lately on index cards and chances are I’ll cut those up and staple or glue them in the book, plus I’ve also tangled on a few cards so will cut those up and use some in it. The possibilities are endless and now? I think I’m heading to the bedroom to find that elusive notebook.
Thanks so much for your wonderful articles that are such an inspiration!
(Hugs)
P.S. Stay safe!!
Love all your ideas, thanks for sharing Debi. I hope you already have a few pages filled!
xo
Art journaling is my life-saver while I’m in home isolation also… my journals have become my dear friends that got me through difficult periods many times before. I hope you are healthy my friend, stay safe! Big, virtual, hug from the Netherlands!
Notebooks, journals, creativity – soooo good right now Marit dear, am I right? And maybe… postcards? I hope you’ll want to join this year, it’s kinda special…
xo
It is strange. I should have enough time to craft, but hardly do it. Read the news online several times a day (it changes so fast). Maybe I need a restful mind & heart to be able to craft. But how do you get that? I think, maybe, just by starting. I really enjoy lately doing creative planning. Making my to do lists look nice in a journal. Adding stickers, stamps and washitape. My knitting is finished and I am out of wool. Still plenty of books on the bookshelf (why is our library closed?). Next Monday is my birthday. No celebrating but I do get nice cards in the mail every day already.
Hi Cindy, corona-anxiety is as real and as bad as the virus itself (at least before you catch that one) and I have it too. I don’t think we “should” be creating more than usual right now, instead try to focus on “can” and “want to”…
I am often catching myself just watching the time fly by, wondering how another day just went down the drain.
Take care! Also, I hope the library opens soon and that your birthday was good.
I love your Randomousity Journal, Hanna! Truly, truly love it! Love all the bright, happy colors! Love that you have somewhere to put memorabilia from life and a seemingly stress-less place to document things you love, things you do, and things you want to create with. I think I put a lot of pressure and constraints on my projects and worry that I’ll do something “wrong” or should have waited to use that memorabilia for some other grand idea I might have in the future. I want to learn to let perfection go (I acknowledge it will probably always be a daily struggle) and just enjoy documenting and playing. I don’t have to have a perfect Project Life book for every year, I don’t have to have a perfect art journal. I can create a Randomousity Journal where I am free to create what I want to, when I want to, free to add photos if I like, free to journal, and free to have fun. And I will end up with documentation of my life, which is what I want. Truly thank you for the inspiration!
Thank you for your kind words.
PS: I don’t believe anything is or can be or should be perfect, so let’s just ditch that word entirely… haha.