What To Put on the Last Page of Your Journal
You already know what to put on the�� first page of that new journal. No more staring at blank pages for you!�� Once you get past the middle, you can decide how to end your journal.
How do you�� end a journal so you don’t have to continue a thought, a project, or a story into another journal?
Create a table of contents of favorite pages.�� I like to come to the end of a project or idea flow in my journals. I don’t mind having a few blank pages in the back. Over time, I’ll fill those blank pages with dates of pages I keep looking up or those with favorite quotes or poems.�� I don’t number my journal pages, but I date each page, so sometimes I write the start and end date at the end of the journal. It becomes a useful index to the contents.
Three pages at the end of a journal, cut decoratively. Do not cut the last page that is glued onto the cover.
Decorate the end pages. If there are a few blank pages left, I also cut steps into them. I trim the last page about an inch from the end, the next one two inches, and the third one three or four inches in from the book edge. Using a craft knife, I cut a wavy line and create a three-page landscape. Remember to put a cutting mat under the page you are cutting.
Tinting the page edges gives it a nice finish. I use a water color wash to keep the color pale. You could tear the pages straight down or give them a deckled-edge look. I like the curved look better.
Use stickers or postcards. Daniel Smith, the art supply house, puts a sticker 
on small or lightweight packages in larger deliveries. The sticker is bright orange, about 4 x 6 inches and says “Don’t throw me away.” It strikes a chord, so I often use one on the final page of a journal. It seems about right. You might be done with it, but there is lots of meaning to be made.
Add a photo of yourself, your children, your pets.�� That way, when you look back over them in the years to come, you’ll have an evolving view of what you looked like. Adding a photo of your house shows how it changes over the years. A photo of the kitchen is always fun with advancing technologies changing what our appliances look like.
The last page of a journal doesn’t have to be an ending. For a powerful last page, flip back to the beginning, and read the first post or two. End the book with a recognition of how far you’ve come.
—Quinn McDonald keeps a journal and helps others do, too.
Filed under: Art in Progress, Journal Pages Tagged: deckled-edge paper, journal beginnings, journal endings, last page of the journal
