The stories behind your photos while fresh in your memory today will likely fade with time, and thus journaling is a very important aspect of scrap booking. By recording the events, or at least the important details you preserve more than the photo alone can express. However, how do you draw the line, when do you stop, how much journaling is too much?

The problem with journaling is often the extremes, either you do not do it at all, or you have way too much. So, what can you do to help you determine when enough is enough?

Memorabilia is just as important as journaling, from your ticket stubs, to programs, these little details are fun to add, but too many of these can take the focus from the photos.

So how much is too much?

The general rule of thumb is that you should go with what you feel. If you love journaling then putting tons of journaling on your pages is very important. If you have a lot of memorabilia and you like including lots of it, go for it. However, remember to consider the fact that your photographs are the focus of a scrapbook, and if you put in so much that they overhaul the photos, then your scrapbook loses appeal. So, if you find that you over journal, try a different style, try bullets, captions, etc. You may want to consider keeping a separate journal that is a journal for those longer stories you want to record.

There are some ways to get more journaling onto your pages without inundating your pages with too much writing. The following are some great tips for determining how to do journaling and memorabilia in an appropriate way for your page size and taste:

1. How much memorabilia do you have for this specific event? If you have tons of items, consider taking a photograph of this overabundance. This simplifies things, helps it to take less space on the page, and still allows you to keep your child’s or your own most interesting and important memorabilia.

2. How large is the memorabilia? The above tips also works well for memorabilia that is large. If your child draws a beautiful picture, but it is on legal size paper they took from Daddy’s office, it would be difficult to fit on your scrapbook page. So, instead of leaving it off, photograph it, and include it that way.

3. With your journaling, it is important to recognize that while these little details matter, adding too much can overwhelm a page. So, if you have something you want to journal, write it all out on a spare sheet of paper. Then look at it, how large is it? How much room will it take on your page? Will it steal the focus? Ask yourself a number of questions, then using another piece of paper, condense the story. Now evaluate it. Try to condense it one more time. You will be surprised how you can tell the same story, keep rich detail, but use fewer words if you try.

4. A great way to add extra journaling if you really feel the need is through captions. These are written in a smaller font, and take little space, but are fun to enjoy later.

5. Another great idea for increasing your amount of journaling is to make pockets that hold letters, papers etc. then you can take up as much space on a paper as you want, and simply fold it and put it in a pocket.

6. You can incorporate journaling into your design. If you want to add journaling but keep your photo as your focus, consider using a photo window on a hinge. You would simply slice a decorative paper or photo in two, cut out a geometric shape as your window, mount it, and use hinges to attach it. Then you would mount a separate photo behind it that would peak through the hole created. The back of the hinged doors serves as a great place to put journaling, and when closed, you can’t even see it, so the photo still remains the focus of the page.

Posted by Don under Book Reviews on Tue 5 Jun 2007 No Comments 

I sometimes hear scrapbookers describe their scrapbooking style as “linear”. What I think they mean by this is that they tend to design with a lot of straight lines. More often than not, when a scrapper describes her style as “linear” there’s an element of apology implied, as if “linear” equates with “uncreative” or “uptight”.

Personally, I love straight lines in layouts. There’s something about the formal balance of a layout that’s comprised of several rectangular sections that I find very pleasing.

At the same time, I also enjoy the organic flow that’s possible with curves. As you can see in this layout called “Noah”, I’ve combined straight lines on the left edge with a series of curves in the “wavy” part at the bottom of the layout.

This combination of linear and curvilinear is echoed in the other elements - the straight lines of the photo treatment, where a straight-edged black and white photo is enclosed in a round mat, and the curvy lines of the heading and the foam stickers.

This layout features my niece’s oldest boy Noah. My niece and her family live in Australia, which is a long way from her family in Canada. The handwritten journalling on this layout says “Even though you live far away, you are in our hearts everyday”. (I got lucky with that rhyme! Sometimes the best love sayings are the simple ones that come straight from your heart.)

This scrapbook layout is part of an entire album that I am making for my niece. But shhh…it’s a surprise!

Posted by Don under Book Reviews on Thu 8 Mar 2007 No Comments