Stationery Self-Care

Self-care is a topic that I preach all the time. It’s so important for your wellbeing to make time for yourself. However, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve neglected my own self-care in the past few months. I have spent most of my time wallowing in self-pity, for sure, at the problems I was going through. My self-care game has been pretty lacking. In all honesty, I actually only noticed this because a friend made me promise him to look after myself when he’s not around. And on reflection, I realised that he may be onto something… So, in order to keep this promise, I’ve decided to make the rest of September the time where I try to reinforce the habit. And stationery makes me happy… Thus, Stationery Self-Care!

Since stationery makes me happy (I’m an addict, okay?!), a lot of my self-care ideas actually revolve around it. There’s plenty of ideas that don’t involve stationery but… eh! I thought it might be nice to create a list of stationery related self-care ideas that I can practice in the next few weeks. I figured, if I list them all now then I can use it as inspiration on the lethargic days. Since this is a long term game, I’ll definitely be putting non-stationery self-care on the list afterwards too. For now, this is a fun way to get started!

Stationery Self-Care Ideas:

• Treat yourself to new stationery! Retail therapy is perhaps too satisfying. Even if you can’t afford to spend a lot, occasionally treating yourself to a small thing can mean a lot.
• Practice lettering or calligraphy can be therapeutic whilst improving your talent.
• Make handmade cards such as thank you cards or special occasion cards.
• Write a letter to someone and post it to them or hand deliver it.
• Leave little notes for people, if you don’t fancy writing a whole letter. Like a thank you note when paying your restaurant bill or put a sticky note with a message on your housemate’s door or your colleague’s computer screen.
• Colouring in with an adult colouring book. Just mindlessly colouring can help your mental health.
• Draw, sketch or doodle. Whether you’re a professional or a beginner, it can be a lot of fun.
• Play with watercolours or paints. Just mixing colours together and creating a background can be fun. You don’t even have to be good at it to enjoy it!
• Journal or keep a diary. Sometimes writing can help clarify your thoughts and feelings.
• Sketch out designs. Often drawing designs for flyers or posters by hand can help me in the graphic process. It’s also just a bit more fun to design things by hand.
• Decorate your planner with stickers, washi tape, stamps, patterned paper. You can make dashboards or bookmarks!
• Scrapbook or use a memory keeping book and get some memories saved with photos to look back on!
• Create letter writing paper or envelopes, with stamps or washi tape or doodles!
• Read stationery/papercraft magazines, which can inspire you to try something new. Stationery blogs also work!
• Try a new or make time for papercrafts, like origami or papercutting or anything else you’re into. Whether you’re making time to craft and do something you love or you’re trying out a new art, dedicate time to doing it.
• Play with new stationery products, because who doesn’t love to play around with products they haven’t played with before?
• Sign up to a stationery box. I like the surprise element that comes with boxes. You often get something you might not have brought yourself, which gives you the chance to try something new.
• Make your own stickers. This is something I enjoy so I thought I’d throw it in there! It doesn’t have to be stickers, you could make anything you like.
• Experiment with your supplies. Challenge yourself to use the same product in 3 different ways, like fountain pen ink could be used in a pen, to draw with or to make a card.
• Host a craft day with friends. Sometimes having people around you can be a lot more fun than being alone. Find some crafters and do it together – you don’t even have to do the same projects! Just having company can be nice. You could all just work on your own projects and chat.
• Organise your stationery supplies. I don’t know why but there’s some satisfying about having a well organised collection. Like having all of your notebooks sorted by height and brand or colours.

Some of these ideas overlap, for example you could create your own letter writing paper and then write a letter with it. For me, it’s mostly about having fun. A number of these ideas are things I enjoy doing on my own, which gives me some quality alone time. Whereas for some, you could invite your friends and family to join you! Sometimes, I watch TV with my family whilst curled up on the sofa with my colouring book. This allows me to spend time with my family but also be able to do my own thing. What I like most is that a number of these ideas also create something useful – such as a handmade card that I can later send to others. Gifting things to others makes it doubly special!

Join me in this challenge!

I know this is all about self-care but sometimes, it’s nice to have other people doing it along with you. I’ll be sharing some of the things I do on my social media channels. Follow along with what I do or share your own things too! Follow me on Twitter or Instagram and use #StationerySelfCare to share your posts with me. If you do get involved, please tag me as I’d love to see what you do.