You look upon me on a day of triumph, for I have at long last discovered the use – or at least a use – for washi paper sticker sheets.
Have you ever gotten one of those with a notebook of the ‘can’t-write-in-it-because-it’s-too-pretty’ description? In this case, it’s the Tsuki Moonflower bullet journal from Notebook Therapy. There was a sheet of washi stickers included, but those always befuddle me because there are so few stickers. You can’t distribute these throughout the entire journal evenly. You’d have to be Loki, God of Mischief to even consider using them all in the first few pages then switching to some other stickers. I will personally revoke your stationery privileges if you sticker half of the pages then don’t use any decor for the rest of the notebook.
Perhaps that’s harsh. It’s unfair for me to tell you how you should use your own stationery in a fit of bloody-minded and uncharacteristic dictatorial behaviour. Ultimately, you should do whatever makes you happy, but if you’re like me, you may want a solution to this perceived problem.
Enter – the first page.
Yes. the very first page. The page where you sign your name to take official ownership of your analogue note-taking device. The page that you visit maybe once, then ignore forever. Indeed, dear reader. The very first page.
The Tsuki Moonflower came with nine washi stickers on the sheet and this, I realised, is the perfect number for decorating a single page! I bit the bullet and stuck them all on purely to see if I’d immediately regret it. I sat back. I looked at the page. I waited.
An all-too-familiar sense of ‘Oh dear. I wrecked it. Again.’ completely failed to wash over me.
I had, as it were, entirely bypassed the perfectionist guilt complex! I didn’t want to send it to the Nice Notebook Graveyard (currently located in a desk drawer). This was either an extraordinary leap of self-development, or I’d hit on a way of using those stickers ‘properly’. It was unlikely to be the former, so I decided to share this revolutionary development post-haste with the stationery community at large.
As you can tell I’m pathetically happy about solving something that was never a meaningful problem in the first place. But I figured that if there’s anyone out there facing a similarly ridiculous dilemma, this might help them. They too can join the ‘aesthetic journal people’ (bookend with sparkle emojis, and insert spaces between each letter if you wish).
Once more, in case you didn’t hear me last time, there’s no ‘right’ use for those sticker sheets. But if you’re like me, paralysed by indecision, and you really just need someone to tell you what to do because you’ll be jiggered if you know, here’s your sign.
Be a rebel. Stick them all on that first page!
