Tips and Tricks: Journaling

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Morning all! Trish here to bring you this week’s Tips and Tricks :)

Now, I’m not necessarily going to show you how to do something this week, but more help you in doing something many scrappers have a difficult time with… journaling. I know many digi scrappers who sort of cringe on the inside when faced with the task of journaling. It’s always been easy for me - but I love to talk, and I see journaling as just that – talking! It’s telling the story that goes along with the memories connected to the picture that you’re documenting. True, a picture can be worth a thousand words, but when you look back 10 years later – will that picture be able to tell you all about why you chose to keep that picture? Will it tell you why you felt it was important enough to scrap? Maybe, but then again, maybe not.  For me, I scrap so that when my children look back at my pages when they are older – they will know WHY, not just where and when. It’s a way for me to preserve a piece of them and me.

Here are a few of my tips when it comes to journaling:

Record it as you think it or as it happens. If you’re anything like me, you carry your camera with you almost everywhere. You probably have a handbag, too. What you do is just keep a small notepad and pen in there, and when you get the chance, you write down what’s going on when you took the picture. Even jotting down a few short words such as “August 8 – Zach, met teacher, shy but very excited.” or “May 20 – Belly, stared out backdoor, watched boys play, very sad could not go out.” This will give you the building blocks for your journaling later.

• Before you start setting up your page, look at the pictures you want to use. Open a word document, or get a piece of paper, or even create text on a blank canvas. Then, really look at your picture. Write down the date, location, and the main thing you want your journaling to be about. After that write down 2-3 things that cover your main thought that have to do with that memory.
• Think about the tone you want to use. Do you want to sound correct and proper, or do you want to sound like you? Do you want your journaling to come off as humorous, or sad, or serious, or happy? Use adjectives and phrasing to help build that. Make up words, Google words, look them up in your dictionary, write them the way your children say them.
• Use your fonts to help tell your story. (You might end up obsessing over fonts… I do. lol) There are millions of fonts out there… and a lot you can get free. Find a font similar to your own handwriting, or pay someone to convert your actual handwriting to a font. It’ll give your page a nice personal look. Look for fun, funky fonts, romantic swirly fonts, serious typewritten fonts. I can go on and on. What you use will not only help convey the tone of your journaling, but it can also add to the design of your page. And never be scared of mixing fonts together in your journaling – a great way to document a conversation between people.

The most important thing to remember is that this is for you and whoever else you scrap for. It’s not for anyone else, so you shouldn’t let that encumber what you have to say. Once you get past that, you will find it just comes so much easier to you. I know this isn’t the Tips and Tricks…but I hope that this helps you the next time you feel stuck on your journaling. Remember, if you can talk to relate a story – you can journal!

Here are some of my journaled pages:

I hope that this information will help to inspire you the next time you work on a layout where journaling is key :)

Join us tomorrow as Karen brings us a new THURSDAY THIEVERY post!

TrishInspiration, Uncategorized 3 Comments