Each theme has it’s own flip-through video, below which I list the stationery used and my inspiration for the theme.
Make sure you check out my review of the Koko & Lynn journal that has 100% recycled paper.
2025 – New journal setup
Stickers printed from photos
Sticker set
Tombow dual brush pens
Pigma micron pens
Fudenosuke brush marker
As I was turning 50 in 2025, I decided to create a journal for the first half of the year that would cover a decade of my life each month, including my favourite photos from those periods. The setup for the journal had a few photos from my entire life. I had to work out how to include my pictures into the theme in a cohesive way. I decided I wanted to use my bird stickers, and ended up realising that I could get the birds to carry or move in other ways the photos I was adding.
January – 1970s vibe
Stickers printed from photos
Pentel energel pen
Tombow dual brush pens
My first decade from 1975 to 1984 received a 1970s hippy-type theme, as in my house at least, we took a while to shrug off the 1970s vibe in both our decorating and our clothes! It was really difficult to work out how to incorporate the photos into the spreads, but ended up finding a way, adding two or three photos per spread with flowers drawn in and around them.
February – 1980s cartoons
Stickers printed from photos
Prismacolor coloured pencils
Fudenosuke brush marker
Pigma micron pens
Washi tape
Archer & Olive pastel notepad paper
Kraft paper
My next decade was 1985 to 1994. I went with the earlier end of the decade again, and drew my favourite cartoon characters from when I was little, in memory of my brother and I sneaking in to watch cartoons on Saturday morning with headphones on so mum and dad couldn’t hear us. The photos didn’t work well with the theme spreads so I decided to include some gallery pages instead, with the photos framed by adding a larger piece of Kraft paper behind them.
March – Sheep
Stickers printed from photos
Stickers printed from purchased graphics
Fudenosuke brush marker
Pigma micron pens
In March I covered 1995 to 2004. I spent a lot of this decade studying agriculture and living on sheep and wool properties, so it seemed appropriate to make my theme sheep. I was really short of time, so I bought an AI generated graphic set from Etsy for only a few dollars, discarded all the ones that had weird features like missing legs, and simply added them to washi tapes.
I don’t think I’ll use AI art again. It looks strange and I feel bad for using it because it’s been created by taking advantage of a real artist’s work. I think this set has been based on the Wallace and Gromit type sheep.