On Tuesday, you got to look at my grandmother's photo album and I told you why I think journaling is so important. Today, I want to tell you a little bit about how to journal. First, each person has his/her own style and keeping to your style and honoring who you are is important. I don't want to tell you what you HAVE to do. Scrapbooking is very personal and IMO, there is no wrong way to do it. I just hope to give you a few tips to help you do a better job.
If you've ever taken a journalism class, you learned about the who, what, when, where, why and how that is important in news writing. I think that these things are just as important in our scrapbooking. No, you don't have to include all of this on every scrapbook pages but you should include at least, the who, where and when, whenever possible. Does that mean that you have to write out a whole story for each one. No, you put the information that you consider important and that fits in with the layout that you are doing. If you are doing a theme album, such as a special vacation or event, then much of the info will be on other pages but you can still include info on what each picture is or who is that strange person there.
Some people do write out a whole story for their layouts and that's ok, if that's how they want to do it. Sometimes you have so much to tell that it's really hard to get it all on the page. That's when you can consider doing more than one layout to tell the story. Then you put just a small amount on each page.
Another way is to do computer journaling. If you type your story on the computer and print it out, it will take up a lot less room than with your regular handwriting.
This is the title page that I did for my album for my dh & my wedding anniversary. Our kids took us out to eat & did some special things for us. You can see where I typed out the major part of the story and printed it out on vellum to put here.
We renewed our wedding vows so I told about that on this double page spread. I also had a second layout for the vows.
In this closer look at the lo, you can see that I did some non-traditional journaling. It helped that the pictures all had the date printed on them so it was not necessary to include this again. On the left page, I used some word stickers for some of the journaling. I don't usually do this but these did say the sentiment of love that I felt went with this. On the right page, I used my very best "teacher" cursive to do some more journaling telling what is happening and where we are.
If you've ever taken a journalism class, you learned about the who, what, when, where, why and how that is important in news writing. I think that these things are just as important in our scrapbooking. No, you don't have to include all of this on every scrapbook pages but you should include at least, the who, where and when, whenever possible. Does that mean that you have to write out a whole story for each one. No, you put the information that you consider important and that fits in with the layout that you are doing. If you are doing a theme album, such as a special vacation or event, then much of the info will be on other pages but you can still include info on what each picture is or who is that strange person there.
Some people do write out a whole story for their layouts and that's ok, if that's how they want to do it. Sometimes you have so much to tell that it's really hard to get it all on the page. That's when you can consider doing more than one layout to tell the story. Then you put just a small amount on each page.
Another way is to do computer journaling. If you type your story on the computer and print it out, it will take up a lot less room than with your regular handwriting.
In this closer look at the lo, you can see that I did some non-traditional journaling. It helped that the pictures all had the date printed on them so it was not necessary to include this again. On the left page, I used some word stickers for some of the journaling. I don't usually do this but these did say the sentiment of love that I felt went with this. On the right page, I used my very best "teacher" cursive to do some more journaling telling what is happening and where we are.
On this layout, I did a journaling block to tell the story. It says "When Mary Jane gave up her driver's license, we decided a 3 wheeler or adult tricycle would be perfect for her. she only lives 3 blocks from HEB in Gatesville. She can now get groceries and exercise at the same time." In this brief journaling, you can see the who (Mary Jane), the what (adult tricycle), the where (Gatesville), and the why(gave up her driver's license). If you will look at the bottom right corner of the layout, you can also see the date(the when). The title also tells some of the what. Sometimes you can tell the important parts of a story in not too many words.
I don't usually write how I feel about what is happening but many scrapbookers do. You can certainly include that, if you wish.
Titles can also add to the journaling. As you look at these layouts, you can see the titles, "40th Anniversary," "Renewal,""The New Trike," and "Friends for a Lifetime" all give you a little bit more information about the event.
Journaling is important! Some things in your life you think that you will never forget but, believe me, after a few months, you become uncertain as to who exactly did what. If you can do your journaling as you do your layout, and not put it off, you can get more accurate information for your future generations.
Happy journaling and happy crafting!
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