I will often type my journaling and then select it with a feather of like 20 px and then on a new layer below I put a shape with the background color and lower the opacity until I like the look.
I rarely journal right on a busy paper, but if I do, I use paint underneath it so it stands out. I also add a journal card or tuck it on a plain piece of paper.
I avoid the background and journal on a photo:
or a journal card:
or a paper strip:
or lots of paper strips:
But if I want to go right on the busy paper, I'll find a less busy part to journal on:
or I put a glow or stroke on the text (I know it doesn't look like much, but at full-size I swear this is totally legible! I am way too anal to make it not be, ha!)
up closer:
I've also used blends, paints, and masks but I don't have any examples to show off. Maybe soon.
On this one I think I just made a white rectangle in my scrapping software (I may have used white paper not 100% certain) and then just made it a bit transparent so that the pattern shows through just a little bit.
Yes, I use paint sometimes to journal on busy backgrounds, or I work the journaling in with the background design. I also will use a slight stroke light Lorry.