Hi friend! Elizabeth from the @thejoyfulsojourn on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok here, to encourage us all to get creative on the OUTSIDE of our journals! Today I am sharing with you a few ideas for how to customize the front cover of your Archer and Olive planner or journal! 

We all know that A&O journals are gorgeous, but there may be a time when you want to change things up! We're all about creative play around here, and making our journals work for us. So whether you want to add a title to your journal to represent what's on the inside, or you're wanting to update the icon to something new, I've got you covered! I hope the 4 customization examples below will give you the courage to paint, collage, and customize your journal covers! 

Supplies

To get you started, here are some of the supplies that are useful in customizing your cover. Use the discount code "JOYFUL10" to save you 10% at checkout at Archer and Olive!

• Notepad – One of my favorite A&O products, I can tear out different colored pages to customize my white dot grid pages and covers.
• Any sized journal! In this blog I used B5, A5, and B6 sizes! Whatever size you like, you can customize!
• Pens – the acrylograph pens are paint pens! They can be used for detailed work on your journal covers.
• Stamps – for customizing your covers
• Stickers– sky’s the limit here! Just make sure to seal with a coat of mod podge or the like.
• Mod Podge – you can get this at any craft store. My favorite is the satin finish, but they also have a gloss and matte option.

Customization 1 – A Total Makeover with Paint & Stickers

I’ve tested the linen and vegan leather covers from Archer & Olive, and can confirm that you can paint on them! So break out those acrylic paints and acrylographs, and get to creating!

The journal above was an 8x8 winter journal with silver glitter and a snow globe on the front! I really wanted to use it for pen swatches, so I transformed the look by painting the front black with acrylic paints. Then, I added paint splats with various colors to make it pop. I may add more to keep filling it in and brighten it up. Acrylics layer well and the extra texture is satisfying to the touch.

Once the paint was dry, I added clear floral stickers and alpha stickers, then used mod podge to secure them down to the cover.

Customization 2 – Simple Header with Stickers

This is one of my favorite custom journals – a B6 vegan leather journal with beautiful gold foiling. I wanted to label this as our new ‘grateful sojourn’ notebook, which we pass around the table at Thanksgiving each year.

Instead of having us say what we’re thankful for and forgetting it shortly after, everyone will write down what they’re thankful for this year, along with their hopes for the new year. And each year we can read the previous year’s entries. It will be fun to see who sat at our table each year, and follow their journey. I’m so excited to see how this one fluffs up with gratitude and joy for what’s to come (and to see the mix of handwriting)!

This was very simple to customize, I laid down alpha stickers from archer and olive, and sealed them down with a paint stroke of mod podge. There is a clip of this in my YouTube video linked below!

Customization 3 – Vegan Leather Patches

This is even more simple than the last customization, for those who received the December 2024 subscription box! The winter box included a set of 6 vegan leather sticker patches. These fit flawlessly over journals with centered icons. I hope that this is an item that A&O brings into the shop, with all kinds of different debossed designs!

Customization 4 – Notepad Paper, Ink, Stamps

The last customization is on my ink and stencil swatch book. As soon as I saw the Fox in Winter Woods journal in the B5 size, I knew exactly what I wanted it for! To watch how this came together, check out my youtube video on the archer and olive channel here:

First, I made my title on ivory paper found in the fall notepad. If you don’t have a notepad but want an easy title bar, I’ve provided a printable down below where you can print out a variety of label shapes and sizes on cardstock, then color/decorate as you wish! Once you’ve decorated the title box, simple mod podge it down to your cover.

I used a stencil and stamps for my title, then ripped the bottom edge because I love that raw paper look! I cut down the top and rounded the edges, then used satin mod podge to glue down the paper. Mod podge is such a wonderful adhesive and sealant, and I’ve used it in almost every DIY cover!

Depending on what your journal is being used for, you may want to label the spine. I used the alpha stamps on a scrap of notepad paper, and adhered it with the mod podge. I love the way it looks on my bookshelf!

Click below to download a printable of header shapes! I recommend printing on cardstock. Decorate with whatever supplies you have, and add a title for your journal. Then cut out the decorated header, and paint it down on the journal with mod podge to secure it.

Looking for more tips and inspo? Be sure to follow me over at @thejoyfulsojourn on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and if you decide to customize the front of your journal, be sure to tag me and archer & olive using: @archerandolive @thejoyfulsojourn @archerandolive.community #AOShare #archerandolive