Who Decided Journaling Needed Leveling Up?

I decided to pick up journaling again.  Shifting from the placidly-unemployed-grad-student phase to the professional-in-need-of-meaningful-and-lucrative-work-because-I-am-officially-too-old-to-live-on-Spaghettios phase is anxiety inducing.  This process of finding a teaching job is so unlike any other process I have ever gone through.  I can't adequately describe it to Wes, or even to myself.  It's difficult to talk about the things going through my head so I decided to write them down.  

I used to journal pretty regularly when I was younger.  Fifteen year old me had (read: imagined) enough drama to fill several months worth of daytime soaps.  I picked up a plain bound sketchbook for the purpose from Hobby Lobby yesterday.

Source

It looked a lot like this one, but it was a Master's Touch and only $5.99.  With a coupon it ended up being three dollars and some change.  It has blank pages and is good for pen, ink, and watercolor.  I have some watercolor pencils I bought for no reason and have since been dying to try out.

"Master's Touch?," you say.  "Well aren't you fancy."

Well, . . .  I blame Pinterest.  

Source

 Who decided journaling needed leveling up?  (One could also argue that sketches have also been leveled up here.)  Who decided there should be an advanced journaling skill that elevates the process of writing down things you don't want to keep in your head into art that people apparently want to share?

Well who wouldn't want to share this?  It's beautiful.  Everything she does is great check her out.

I am both envious and annoyed.

These are beautiful.  These are art.  These are journaling.  I want to write like that, but now I'm wondering if I should and I sadly suspect that I can't.  That won't actually stop me from trying, but oh the ENVY!

This last one links to an online course in art journaling.  I'm tempted.  I'm so, so, so, so, so tempted. 

Source

What do you think?  Will this be like scrapbooking?  An awesome idea that leads to the purchase of adorable stuff that I will never, ever, ever use?