Throughout my career, I was always surrounded with business minded people such as accountants and bankers. I never imagined that I could do anything related to art or crafting at all!
I am not a professional artisan, in fact I am a financial planner, working in the banking and insurance industry. By chance, I discovered craft on Instagram and instantly fell in love with it. There was something mystical about it that attracted me. Although I am not a stationery addict, nor a coffee and journal lover, the vintage vibe somehow captured my heart and so began my journey of craft and hobby and creating journal pages.
In the past few years, I often thought about my direction in life when I eventually retire. Will I be reminiscent with my old photos whilst having a cup of coffee in the morning? Will I still have good eyesight to use the computer? Will I enjoy gardening? So many “if”s.
The digital world is fast and changing. It’s a great leap forward for mankind. There are times where I prefer analog, back to the basic, it feels more humane. Most days I still prefer reading magazines or flipping through a photo album instead of a digital album. Sometimes I wonder if everyone thinks the same way as me. This dilemma of liking the old and new juxtaposes the very essence of our society.
I started my journal-writing hobby back in May 2018. By chance, I was looking through Instagram one day, there were some “suggested posts” that popped up. There were lots of people making beautiful journal pages, recording their day like a diary. I saw drawings, paper crafts, rubber stamps, masking taping and so on. It was awesome. I thought to myself, what an eye opening! I asked myself, how do they manage to be so creative? It really inspired me and opened my heart; inspired me to do the same. I was hesitant for a moment, clueless as how to start, but I felt that it was something I desperately want to try.
Diligently, I researched online journal writing and craft, self-learning how to create a journal page. Instead of watching TV after a hectic workday, I sat at my desk and started writing about my day; this reflection is actually quite therapeutic.
The inner self-reflection is so empowering that it just took off. From then on, it was a daily ritual, good day, bad day, bad hair day, journaling is my best friend.
When I first started journal writing, I didn’t know how to design the page, the lack of structure and theme, seemed like an absolute disaster to me. I said to myself, practice makes perfect, eventually I will find my writing style. After months of relentless trying, I did it. It now takes about 30 minutes for me to compose a journal page if inspiration comes. On sluggish days, I will just prepare some paper craft materials, stamping rubber stamps and cut up different craft paper for future use.
I would say my journal style is that of vintage, déjà vu of old world charm.
Other than creating vintage inspired journal pages, I also DIY paper craft, design gift wrapping paper and book-marks. My friends are always overwhelmed when they receive my creations. The sense of pride that I get is worth its weight in gold.
Besides writing daily journals, I also write traveler’s journals. Whenever I travel, I keep air tickets, bus tickets, theme park tickets and even restaurants and shopping receipts, these are the ingredients of my travel page. Then unknowingly later, I found out that these items are called “ephemera”. In the eyes of others, such action denotes as being a rubbish collector, keeping old receipts, labels, stickers. I also collect all sorts of paper materials, greeting cards and so on.
Since I started to share my journal hobby on social media, I made a lot of new friendships. We all have common interests of creating beautiful journal pages.
I try to meet some of them in person whenever it is possible for me to travel to their resident country. In 2019, I was very fortunate to have met my journal friends in Malaysia. I was able to journal jam with them and share our journal writing ideas together.
Besides journal writing, I also make DIY paper craft materials, sending them as gifts to pen pals all over the world. These are unique paper material gifts, and each one is different in design. Careful thought is taken before I hand make them individually. My pen pals then use these materials as part of their journal page ingredients.
Personally, having a craft hobby as a hobby is extremely important especially during the pandemic. For the most of 2020, many hours were spent at home due to social distancing and lock down, hence working from home. I was able to keep my sanity by writing journals and doing hobby craft. It was great also to be able to do virtual journal jams with friends around the world. In such times, supporting each other and yet having fun at the same time made us feel even closer.
My dream forth coming is to go travelling again after COVID-19. Travelling to Europe, to find and discover more interesting vintage stationeries, collectibles and the like. It would be great also to have the opportunity to meet more journal friends at that part of the world.
If you ask me, what would I want to do when I retire? I will tell you my retirement dream is to open a café with a corner dedicated to journal page writing so that people can come in and write their journal in a relaxing environment over a cup of coffee. The café interior will display most of the vintage finds which I have collected over the years. There is nothing more happier than sharing your passion with people with the same passion. It would be a place for the busy city people to find solitude, to reflect, to share their laughter and inspiration.
Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my husband Moson, always supportive of my craft hobby. I thank him for the relentless patience sometimes having to queue up hours to get that special craft rubber stamp for me, not to mention the lack of space at home due to the overwhelming stationery collection.
One final note, I wish to share with all the people reading this article, don’t be afraid to let your imagination go wild, if I can do it, so can you.
Throughout my career, I was always surrounded with business minded people such as accountants and bankers. I never imagined that I could do anything related to art or crafting at all!
I am not a professional artisan, in fact I am a financial planner, working in the banking and insurance industry. By chance, I discovered craft on Instagram and instantly fell in love with it. There was something mystical about it that attracted me. Although I am not a stationery addict, nor a coffee and journal lover, the vintage vibe somehow captured my heart and so began my journey of craft and hobby and creating journal pages.
In the past few years, I often thought about my direction in life when I eventually retire. Will I be reminiscent with my old photos whilst having a cup of coffee in the morning? Will I still have good eyesight to use the computer? Will I enjoy gardening? So many “if”s.
The digital world is fast and changing. It’s a great leap forward for mankind. There are times where I prefer analog, back to the basic, it feels more humane. Most days I still prefer reading magazines or flipping through a photo album instead of a digital album. Sometimes I wonder if everyone thinks the same way as me. This dilemma of liking the old and new juxtaposes the very essence of our society.
I started my journal-writing hobby back in May 2018. By chance, I was looking through Instagram one day, there were some “suggested posts” that popped up. There were lots of people making beautiful journal pages, recording their day like a diary. I saw drawings, paper crafts, rubber stamps, masking taping and so on. It was awesome. I thought to myself, what an eye opening! I asked myself, how do they manage to be so creative? It really inspired me and opened my heart; inspired me to do the same. I was hesitant for a moment, clueless as how to start, but I felt that it was something I desperately want to try.
Diligently, I researched online journal writing and craft, self-learning how to create a journal page. Instead of watching TV after a hectic workday, I sat at my desk and started writing about my day; this reflection is actually quite therapeutic.
The inner self-reflection is so empowering that it just took off. From then on, it was a daily ritual, good day, bad day, bad hair day, journaling is my best friend.
When I first started journal writing, I didn’t know how to design the page, the lack of structure and theme, seemed like an absolute disaster to me. I said to myself, practice makes perfect, eventually I will find my writing style. After months of relentless trying, I did it. It now takes about 30 minutes for me to compose a journal page if inspiration comes. On sluggish days, I will just prepare some paper craft materials, stamping rubber stamps and cut up different craft paper for future use.
I would say my journal style is that of vintage, déjà vu of old world charm.
Other than creating vintage inspired journal pages, I also DIY paper craft, design gift wrapping paper and book-marks. My friends are always overwhelmed when they receive my creations. The sense of pride that I get is worth its weight in gold.
Besides writing daily journals, I also write traveler’s journals. Whenever I travel, I keep air tickets, bus tickets, theme park tickets and even restaurants and shopping receipts, these are the ingredients of my travel page. Then unknowingly later, I found out that these items are called “ephemera”. In the eyes of others, such action denotes as being a rubbish collector, keeping old receipts, labels, stickers. I also collect all sorts of paper materials, greeting cards and so on.
Since I started to share my journal hobby on social media, I made a lot of new friendships. We all have common interests of creating beautiful journal pages.
I try to meet some of them in person whenever it is possible for me to travel to their resident country. In 2019, I was very fortunate to have met my journal friends in Malaysia. I was able to journal jam with them and share our journal writing ideas together.
Besides journal writing, I also make DIY paper craft materials, sending them as gifts to pen pals all over the world. These are unique paper material gifts, and each one is different in design. Careful thought is taken before I hand make them individually. My pen pals then use these materials as part of their journal page ingredients.
Personally, having a craft hobby as a hobby is extremely important especially during the pandemic. For the most of 2020, many hours were spent at home due to social distancing and lock down, hence working from home. I was able to keep my sanity by writing journals and doing hobby craft. It was great also to be able to do virtual journal jams with friends around the world. In such times, supporting each other and yet having fun at the same time made us feel even closer.
My dream forth coming is to go travelling again after COVID-19. Travelling to Europe, to find and discover more interesting vintage stationeries, collectibles and the like. It would be great also to have the opportunity to meet more journal friends at that part of the world.
If you ask me, what would I want to do when I retire? I will tell you my retirement dream is to open a café with a corner dedicated to journal page writing so that people can come in and write their journal in a relaxing environment over a cup of coffee. The café interior will display most of the vintage finds which I have collected over the years. There is nothing more happier than sharing your passion with people with the same passion. It would be a place for the busy city people to find solitude, to reflect, to share their laughter and inspiration.
Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my husband Moson, always supportive of my craft hobby. I thank him for the relentless patience sometimes having to queue up hours to get that special craft rubber stamp for me, not to mention the lack of space at home due to the overwhelming stationery collection.
One final note, I wish to share with all the people reading this article, don’t be afraid to let your imagination go wild, if I can do it, so can you.
