Monday, January 12, 2009

Scrapbook Journaling from 2nd Saturday

One of the most important aspects of scrapbooking is journaling. You might know what each picture represents, but those who read through your scrapbook don't and words help to enhance the pictures. You can just add the basics or you can tell a whole story.

You might be tempted to skip a journal on a particular page because you are certain that you will not forget the significance behind those pictures. But stop and think about the picture you took ten or twenty years ago. Record your thoughts and feelings while they are fresh, and the journaling will keep your scrapbooks and pictures fresh and lively for years to come.

Simply start writing. Find a book or magazine and start copying a paragraph. Get your fingers moving. It some how activates your left-brain activity and your own words on scrapbooking journaling will start arriving.

Start With What You Know
The 5 "W's"
Who- What are the names of the people present in the pictures? People change throughout the years, especially children. So helping the viewers to identify them will help trace the children's growth. And who took the pictures?

What- What's the occasion, special event or memorable moments taking place? What happened at the event?

Where- Where did the event take place? Background information will help paint a clearer picture.

When- Obviously giving dates will help place the photo in proper context. And people like to know when things happened.

Why- Why did you choose this photo and not another? Any special meaning to this photo?


You do not have to restrict yourself to complete your layout and scrapbooking journaling all at once. Creating layouts takes more of your right-brained activity while writing takes more of the left-brained. So dividing the two activities might work in your favor. You can do several layouts and come back and do all the journaling at once. A good guideline is to leave about half a photo space per page for your journaling.


Hints For Journaling
Keep a little notebook with you at all times. Write things down whenever inspiration strikes, perhaps a catchy quote, an inspiring poem, even a sentence fragment. You may not know exactly where to use it right now but it's there for the future. You could also keep this notebook with your camera, to jot down details as you take photos.

Hand write or type your journaling, keep in mind that what you say is more important than the journaling method used.

If you are serious about improving your journaling, Write's Digest offers two online workshops devoted to meeting the needs of scrapbookers.

Following are several websites that you might find helpful:

http://www.everything-about-scrapbooking.com/
http://www.scrapbooking.lovetoknow.com/
http://www.everlastingscrapbooks.blogspot.com/
http://www.scrapbooking-online.com/

1 comment:

Wii are the Nelsons said...

great ideas....I need to do better journaling with my scrapbook pages...