Even though it’s really warm here in Perth, Western Australia, I know a lot of you live in the other hemisphere. It’s cold or at least heaps chillier than it is here for you at this time of the year. Journal writing courses are a great way to fill in those longer winter evenings, so take a look at a couple that are coming up soon:

Sheila Bender’s list of journal writing & related courses
Sue Meyen’s Journal Magic classes
Elizabeth Bezant’s courses – the popular Writing from the Heart course is almost full
Ok, those are just a few I know. If you …read more

While searching online for journal writing news and information I came across an excellent article on how to make your own book leash. There are actually two methods there, so choose the one you like best.
If you’re not sure what a book leash is the article makes things very clear and has excellent photos to follow so you’ll know exactly what to do to make your own book leash.
Although the book leash is good for holding your place in the books you’re reading you might like to make one just for your journal. The leash will keep the pages …read more

Many people have heard of websites such as the Fly Lady, She’s In Touch and Messies. If you enjoy a cleaner, less cluttered home now because of such websites, perhaps you’d be interested in the Yahoo group Control Journal.
Although the Control Journal group does not advocate either of these websites, the control journal works with any of their programmes.
If you join their group you can download a free PDF file of their control journal to help you get organised about the house. There are also other pages you can download and print to add. All you need to …read more

Don’t you just love these? But I don’t think it would take too much imagination to create your very own journal necklace.
Bellaonline has clear instructions for making mini-books from found objects that’s worth a look.
Red Castle has this software programme to download for printing mini-books in many shapes and sizes.
Scrapjazz has these instructions for making mini scrapbook albums.
These instructions are for making a mini-book using one sheet of paper. I’ve made this one myself, but it needed some tweaking, as Australian standard photocopy paper, as used in my printer, is a slightly different size to US standards. This …read more

There are 17 journal writing articles on the Journalforyou.com website. It’s a shame no more have been added since October 2003. They were onto a good thing. The links page no longer works and it appears the Yahoo Group is not around anymore, either.
Still, those articles should keep you reading for a while and should lead to some inspired journal writing.

If you ever wanted to write your biography and leave it for your family to read and share together posterity.com just made it easier. You will need to pay an annual fee of £7.50, but they claim they’ll look after your stories forever. They take you step by step through the process, so even non-writers can record a family or personal history that matters.
Take a tour or check out some of the example biographers to see if posterity.com is all you expect.
Even if you don’t decide to sign up, the tour takes you through the templates and there …read more

Fontgod.com is an excellent tool for creating a computer font from your own handwriting. Being able to print out your own handwriting would be useful for journal writing. If you’ve injured your writing hand or have another ongoing problems that prevent you from writing clearly you might be particularly interested. Of course it will cost you, but then it’s probably worth the money.

If you’re at all interested in journal writing, art, visual journals and mail art then you must have heard of the 1000 Journals Project. If you haven’t, take a moment to check it out. The link takes you to the splash page where you can see for yourself pages from some of the 1000 journals currently in circulation.
The project has been going for several years and a quick glance at the FAQs page should answer any questions you might have. You can register and join waiting lists to receive one of the journals, or you can just spend time …read more