November 2025 Fall Leaves Journal Design
- Simply Jelly Jam
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
Inspired by sticker sheets I bought on sale.
To save time on the design, I found inspiration in fall leaves' sticker sheets I bought on sale from a local store!
I used archival ink pens, metallic pens, gouache, paintbrushes, rulers, and pencils (for initial sketches).
NOTE: While the page layouts are like Bullet Journal (BuJo) setups you have seen online, I use this journal as a diary/memory keeper, not for productivity. The BuJo-inspired pages encourage me to make note of the good things in life, even on the worst days.
In case it's helpful, below are the main points covered in this post:
Calendar Overview Pages
If you have read some of my recent posts/stories from the past few weeks, you may have noticed that I am an emotional wreck with little motivation. After an anxiety-filled weekend, I found inspiration and motivation from a few stickers sheets I bought on sale from my local Walmart.
I started by outlining and labeling the various boxes I previously sketched on the pages. I then painted the background with "vermilion red" and "bumblebee yellow" gouache paints to match the colors on the sticker sheets.
The stickers are paper thin and tore easily when I was not careful while peeling them from the plastic backing. I chose thin stickers because I did not want to feel or see the stickers bulging on the pages. I prefer a relatively flat and smooth journal page.
I intentionally placed stickers so that they overlapped the page edges and box outlines for more visual interest. The pages still looked a tad bland to me, so I used metallic pens to add dots randomly to fill-in negative spaces.
Hobbies & Dogs' Pages
This month, I created one less mini calendar for tracking my large dog's training progress. We often work on training, but there were two things I wanted to track this month: "quiet" (which I do not believe my dog will ever learn) and "bring" (a new skill I want to teach).
Highlights and Mood Pages
This month, I opted for a simple round mood tracker design. I thought about drawing leaves that I could color-in throughout the month, but I decided that it would take longer than I wanted. Using the stickers made designing the pages quick and easy.
Detailed Info About the Pages
The calendar overview is where I note important dates I want to document in my journal. For example, I will make a short note of something that happened on different days.
I also highlight the best and worst things to happen during the month. I primarily want to document positive things on the decorated pages, but I feel it is also important to document bad things, especially if it is a lesson learned.
While many journal enthusiasts track their habits, I track my favorite hobbies as a reminder to dedicate time for fun. I also track the things I want to do for my dogs to ensure their happiness and well-being.
The hobbies I track are:
art + crafts,
writing, and
gaming.
I also track the following for my dogs:
when they go for a joy ride (their favorite thing to do),
when they go for a long walk,
when I care for their coat with a brush, leave-in shampoo, or bath,
when they receive teeth care with brush chews or teeth brushing, and
when they get to relax with a picnic in the park.
I especially wanted to track my young dog's training progress. We will focus on mastering a few skills. I would love for her to become a Canine Good Citizen one day. Unfortunately, I am horrible with training. We have a long training road ahead of us.
The BINGO game is just a goofy activity to note and track a wish list of things I would like to accomplish during the month.
Every night, I write a line of text highlighting one good thing about the day on the highlights page (left). It forces me to think on the bright side, especially on the most challenging days when my depression hits hard.
I treat my mood tracker page (right) as a coloring page of sorts. Each night, I will color-in a part of an image or shape that represented my overall mood for that day.
What's Next?
Struggling to come up with a theme for your journal design? Find some sticker sheets for inspiration and run with it!
Have you set up your journal design? Comment below to share what theme you went with and the materials you used.
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Thanks, and have a great day!
~Simply Jelly Jam
Hi! How talented you are! I came back from rehab (I am learning to walk again) and found your post. Relaxing and very creative! Thank you for being a high moment of my day! xx