Why is journaling on your layouts important to you? Despite taking hundreds of photos every week, there are so many details in my life that can’t be captured on film: Things my kids told that made me laugh uncontrollably, the nervous energy I felt the first time my son competed in a swim meet, the way my heart broke just a bit the first day I sent my daughter to preschool. Even in the photos that seemingly tell the whole story (you know, the countless birthday party photos you shot, capturing every detail of decorations, cake and presents and guests??!) there are still details and perspectives that are missing. So I rely on journaling to fill in those missing details. I want to record the feelings behind the events, because it’s those emotions that make my life (and my scrapbooks!) meaningful and poignant.
Do you try to include all the details in your journaling? When I first started scrapbooking, I was very caught up on documenting every detail of the events in my photos – the who, what, where, when, etc. But I quickly got bored with just stating these facts on every page. I wanted my scrapbooks to be more than just a historical timeline of our life’s events. I realized that documenting the personalities, the stories, and the emotions behind the events were so much more important to me than just dates and places. Now, I don’t stress about getting all the facts down on the page. I concentrate on preserving the memories and stories surrounding the event. And if I can’t get all the details onto one page, I can always create another!
Does every layout you create contain journaling? Not always -I think it’s OK to sometimes skip the journaling and just create a page for art’s sake. If it’s relevant to my photo, sometimes I’ll include a favorite quote as both title and journaling for page.
Take us through your journaling process: I usually have a rough idea of what I want to say before I start a page, but I almost always write my journaling last, once the design of the page is complete. I’ll guesstimate how much room I need for words, and factor that into my design choices. I try to use my handwriting on about 50% of my pages, but I always write it in pencil first and then go over it in pen. I love my Tombow Mono eraser for getting rid of the pencil lines! The other half of the time, I use my computer for journaling. My favorite technique is printing the journaling on cardstock and cutting it into strips to adhere to the page. The strips are easy to fit into any space because you can cut to the size of the space you need to fill.
Any tips or techniques you’d like to share with us? (1) Don’t let the photo dictate your journaling. Just because you have a photo of your son on the first day of school doesn’t mean your journaling has to be about going back to school. You could write about how much you’ll miss spending lazy summer days with him, or how he has changed & grown in the past year, or the hopes and dreams you have for him as he embarks on a new adventure.
(2) Use list-style journaling. This is one my favorite ways to journal! It’s a quick and easy way to get information on a page without stressing about proper sentence structure.
(3) Pull text directly from your blog entries. All the hard work is already done – you can just copy and paste. Then you’re free to concentrate on the fun part of creating!
Supply List: Almost Five • 12 x 12: cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + journal cards: Birthday, Details and Granny’s Doily (Elle’s Studio) + sticker (American Crafts) + ribbon (May Arts) + pen (American Crafts) + pearls (Basic Grey) + font (Bohemian Typewriter)
ABOUT LISA: Lisa Dickinson is a graphic designer living in Colorado with her husband, Mike, and children, Hayden and Riely. Her scrapbook designs have been published in various magazines, including Creating Keepsakes; Scrapbooks, Etc.; Scrapbook Trends; and the former Simple Scrapbooks. She currently designs for KI Memories, Jenni Bowlin Studio, Creative Charms, and is a contributor at Write.Click.Scrapbook. You can catch up with Lisa at lisadickinson.typepad.com, where she blogs about scrapbooking, motherhood, running, and her deep-seated hatred for the Comic Sans font. You can also find her on twitter!
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