Inspiration for Journaling!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Hello!! Beckie here bringing you a little inspiration for putting some pizazz into your journaling!  I’ve been wanting to do a post on journaling for quite some time.  I believe journaling is such an important part of the work we do as scrapbookers!  I wanted to share with you today a few ideas that may make journaling a bit more fun – maybe even something you look forward to on your pages!

:::Starter Strips:::

Sometimes a simple starter prompt is all you need!  Getting that first sentence out of the way “anchors” your journaling and sets the perspective for everything else you’ll write.  Using a simple “starter strip” is not only a great way to start off your writing, but also to add a small design element to your page as well!  Making a starter strip is super simple, too!

• Select a font.  I like to use a traditional “type” font because of the way it really stands out from the handwritten fonts I prefer for the body of my journaling.
• Type out a starter phrase (see ideas below!).
• Select a neutral paper and “cut” a strip of paper to fit your phrase!  Be sure to leave space for a fastener if you intend to use one.

That’s it!  The best part about starter phrases is that they can be completely generic or they can be customized for your page!  Here are a few more examples:

• I knew it was hopeless when…
• It’s all fun and games until…
• I love it when you…
• My favorite days are spent…
• From the mouths of babes…
• This was a moment to celebrate because…
• Your favorite part of the day was…
• I’ll never forget…

:::Really Big Titles:::

I know – seems like cheating, doesn’t it?   :)  But seriously, why write out yet another paragraph about how cute/funny/loved this child is when the whole point is that he said something really funny about the balls from the sweet gum tree?  Journaling doesn’t mean you have to write paragraphs of perfect prose; it just means that you’ve written down the important stuff before you forget it!

The really big title technique works well for funny quotes, but it also works for strong declarative statements, too!  I made a page last summer that had the huge title “I really, really, really hate summer”. I did it in cool, dramatic alphas, too :)  Because I really, really, really hate summer.  I’m not a hot weather girl and it regularly gets over 100F where I live!  Other examples include: “The best day ever”, “Never Again”, “Another year older”, etc.

:::Highlight Key Words:::

What better page to illustrate highlighting in journaling than one about my daughter learning to read.  This was a technique that I used all-the-time as a paper scrapper.  I loved to get out my watercolor crayons and pencils and to paint and doodle over important words!  I love the extra splash of color and the way your eye is drawn to the words that are highlighted.

Want to achieve this effect?  Simple!  Create your page and journal as usual.  Then create a new layer and place it below your text layer.  Use the brush tool to brush over key words.  You might need to adjust the opacity of the brush layer – in my layout above, I used the eyedropper tool to set the color to the bright goldenrod color in the paper, but I reduced opacity to 65%.

Be sure to check out this post for more ideas and techniques for “watercolor” brushing on your layouts! Oh, and the little bookworm sticker was created from a font I purchased online using this technique.

I hope these examples today have given you a few more ideas for turning the task of journaling into something fun!

Thanks for stopping by – we’ll see you back here on Monday for LOTW!  Have a great weekend!

BeckieInspiration, Uncategorized 9 Comments