Hi friend, Elizabeth here from @thejoyfulsojourn on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, with a playful way to recap your life at years-end in your notebooks and planners. Using a waterfall-style page display and coordinated washi and stickers, we’ll have the perfect set-up for reflection at the end of the year!
Supplies
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- Any journal or planner you’re using to log your life this year! I’m working in the A5 size today.
- Decorative elements like Pens, stickers, Stamps and kit club remnants you have in your collection. I’ll be using stickers and washi from the Fall 2025 Chrysanthemum collection, as well as alpha stickers from Halloween 2025.
- Tools – you’ll need scissors and a craft knife for the waterfall pages.
Creating the Waterfall
Let's jump in! With some honesty first.
The hardest part of my year-end recap pages was the creation of the waterfall look. So right off the bat I'll say that if you’re short on time and patience, skip this step! This blog post is less about the waterfall and more about documenting the year. You don’t need your pages to be staggered to have beautiful documentation of your life this year. Your writing is the most important decoration you’ll add to any page, ever.
Waterfall pages tend to be pretty ornate, but I prefer a more subtle look. My version has just the title page with fussy-cut edges. I laid floral stickers down vertically at the half-way point, and layered number stickers on top. I then used a craft knife to cut around the outer border of the floral stickers and numbers to create a half-page flap that sets the tone for the following pages.
The next step was identifying how many pages I thought I'd want for my year-end recap. You may want 1 page, you may want 10! Think about what kinds of things you want to reflect on (or use my printable linked below for ideas), and how much space it’ll take...and be certain! You’ll be cutting your pages down shorter and shorter, from the back to the front, so you’ll need to know what page will be your last at the back. It will be full-sized and un-cut.
Since I wanted a clean and minimal look, I kept each page’s cut straight, and lined it with washi tape. Every page was cut shorter by two columns, from the previous page, moving forward towards the front of the notebook.
Before cutting each page I laid down a small icon sticker and cut around it so the sticker would extend past the cut page. These aren't quite large enough to be tabs, so I consider them an 'ode to tabs'!
Setting Up Your Pages
Before you start decorating, identify what information will be on each page. My first 2-page spread is dedicated to a summary of each month of the year, and in hindsight, I wish I had put this spread further back in the grouping - the further back you go, the larger the page and the more space you have for writing.
What you value reflecting on the most, should be further back in your waterfall.
Annual Recap by-the-month
This spread will be used to recap the most important happenings in my life, by month. I used alpha stickers for the title, which I laid vertically on the left margin. I then used a Calliograph pen in 'Barely Gray' to create boxes for those reflections.
Every spread has the same washi on the left page as the right, which was laid when the pages were cut. This first spread posed a challenge due to the varying angles of the title page on the back. But with some patience and my handy slice precision cutter, it worked out!
Annual Recap of News & Headlines
This next spread is for news highlights. That is, the things that happened outside my family, in the world around me. I opted to break up the year by quarters/seasons this time.
You'll see these decorative items replicated in different arrangements on every page: the Chrysanthemum washi tape set and alpha stickers. Pro Tip: For multi-page spreads, use the same washi set and stickers for all your headers and decor, but change the way you arrange them on the page. This will create a cohesive, but never boring, waterfall.
Annual Priorities Check-in + Favorites
This next spread is a fun one because the two pages are quite different in content. The left page is where I'll write a reflection on my values from this year. These are the major buckets that I poured into, the things I hold most-dear (in mixed order): faith, home (includes marriage and child), work, health, and community. I'll summarize how I feel I invested in each over the course of the year. You may want to use this kind of set up for your goals as well.
I wanted the title at the top to be applicable for both pages, so I simply labeled it '2025', with each number getting it's own scrap of alternating washi tape. I again used a Calliograph for added structure and lines.
The right page is more playful in content, housing my favorite things from the year! I laid two washi strips down, stacked, and layered the word 'favorites' on top. Music, food, trips, outfits, etc, all things that will be fun to look back on in a couple years to see how my style and interests have changed!
Photo Collage - The Best Photo From Each Month
This least-structured page is guaranteed to be my favorite to populate! I layered stickers across the top and added the header 'my girl by the month'. On these pages I'll print out small photos of my 3-year old, one picture per month, from January to December. Our phones make photo collage pages like this convenient because our albums are in chronological order. I'll scroll through one month at a time, and print my favorite picture of her from each month.
I really want to encourage you to dedicate at least two pages to pictures from the last year. They can be of you, your family, or your favorite or most important memory from that month. These pages will bless you during the process of making the spread, and they'll bless you for years to come.
Self-Reflection Pages
There are countless ways to design year-end self-reflection pages, and I've opted for the most simple - space for open journaling.
On the left page, I'll reflect on who I am right now. That is, who I am at the end of the year, in December of 2025. It may reference things that I'm proud of, or things that I struggled with, over the course of the year. Who is Elizabeth at this moment in time.
The right page will be populated at the same time as the left: December 2025 Elizabeth will write down who she hopes to be this time next year, in December 2026. It's important to write about your future self now, when you have the clarity of mind and memory of what has just occurred. The left page will, in part, be reflected on the right page.
I used a vertical December sticker down the center of the spread, and at the bottom added '25' and '26' on each page, to give a visual representation of the split of time.
There are so many wonderful ways you can recap your year in a journal, both in what you decide to document, and how you want to do it. My pages are just the tip of the iceberg, and I hope they inspire you to document in a way that makes sense for your life.
The waterfall concept can be confusion in written form, so please head over to the Archer & Olive YouTube channel where you can see how I made these pages!
And if you're stuck on what to document, check out the printable below with a list of ideas for your year-end reflection pages!
We would love to see how you reflect on the last year in your notebooks and planners, so be sure to share your pages on social media by tagging myself and Archer & Olive with your project using: @archerandolive @thejoyfulsojourn @archerandolive.community #AOShare #archerandolive
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