Journals and Scrapbooking

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Scrap booking is a great way to past the time. You don’t want to lose the sight of your main goal. You will want to make sure that you try to use the time to produce a book of memories to mark past landmarks with quality so that you can show your friends and family all the memories that they messed or couldn’t share with you. Most people forget to journalize their scrapbook and it is one of the most commonly forgotten steps. The reason why journalizing is important is so that you can remember what was going on so that you can reflect years and years later and remember exactly what it is.

I like to begin by creating a title for each page. You can be plain with the way that you create the journaling for each page like what the party was for or you can get funny or think about something heartfelt to write. Think of your page as a story and then name it. Use big bold letters for the title to draw attention to it, but make sure it does not overwhelm the most important elements of the page—the pictures.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Each picture on your page should have a few words as a caption. You will want to name the people in the pictures or the places that can be seen in the background. This is because you may not be able to remember where the pictures came from or who certain people are years and years down the road. Others who do not know all of your friends will also benefit from these labels. You also want to think about captions as a small element on a page and you may only want to use a caption occasionally and not put a caption on every picture.

You will also want to include text into your page design. I like to keep this text around the same size as the smallest photograph, but of course this depends on the page layout. Many pre-made layouts will already include a space for text. Use this element of the design to record the “story” behind the pictures. Think about it in a way like you would when you look back with a friend. Like what would you say to the friend or what would the friend say to you? All of this information is readily forgotten, so it is important to jot down a few words on a piece of notebook paper and save it with your photographs if you think that you won’t get the chance to create your pages right away. Time just seems to blend the years together. Very few people can remember everything they did by date, but if you include a date or time you will be able to preserve the memories.

Image via Wikipedia

Occasionally you may forget your camera at an important event, lose your pictures, or not be allowed to use a camera in the space. Even if you went somewhere and you didn’t take pictures, you can still document that part of your life by using the scrapbook to document. These pages will be mostly journaling. Use descriptive words to take the place of the photographs.

For those who have a fear of using their handwriting to journalize, you don’t have to worry because you can use letter stickers and cutouts to help you to journalize. However, when you use your own handwriting, even if it is bad, you can use the handwriting to give it some character. However, you can also use your computer to print out some journalizing elements on each page. You will want to choose some way of journalizing that will allow you to scrapbook in a dramatic way and help create a wonderful album.