Why is journaling on your layouts important to you? Journaling to me is just as important, if not more so, than the photos. The journaling provides context to the photos and tells quite a bit more than a photo alone. Journaling on my layouts is also important to me because there are things I want my kids to know, things I want to write to them both as a record of their experience and of how I feel about them. Another reason journaling is important to me is because I feel I have gotten to know myself better through expressing myself more often through the words I include on my projects.
What is the most important thing about capturing the story? I think the most important thing is actually doing it. For me one of the most important things is writing often – actually taking the time to jot down story ideas or the details of a story when they come to me rather than just when I sit down to scrapbook. I keep a document on my computer for storing away story ideas I don’t want to lose.
Do you try to include all the details in your journaling? I’m not overly concerned with trying to include every little detail in my journaling. One of the things I really like to do is include a balance between specific facts (where we were, what was happening) and the feelings that are evoked from remembering the event or moments. Having both facts and feelings combined in my journaling is important to me.
How do you decide how much or little of the story to tell? Sometimes I tell a really long story and other times a story can be told in just a few sentences. Recently I’ve been finding myself telling longer stories – the less pages I create the longer my journaling becomes on the pages I do make.
Does every layout you create contain journaling? These days, yes. When I first started scrapbooking back in 2002 I had some pages with just a quote or very few words. Last year I went back through all the layouts I had created up to that point and found that the ones I loved best and cherished the most were the ones that told the most complete stories. That’s what I am striving for today.
Supply List: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Journaling Tags: Elle’s Studio; Embellishments: American Crafts; Circle Punch: Marvy Uchida; Pen: American Crafts
ABOUT ALI: Ali Edwards is an internationally recognized scrapbook blogger, author, product designer and instructor. Her passions are words + photos and bringing the two together to tell the meaningful stories of our lives. Learn more about Ali at http://www.aliedwards.com. You can also find her on twitter and facebook.
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