Hello Friends,
Today, I want to talk about journaling and why I think it should be on every page of your scrapbooks. I know the statement I just made has made some seasoned scrapbookers lift their eyebrow but hear me out! lol
The first scrapbook I started was a travel themed album of my Grandmother’s travel photos. I acquired them when she passed away in 2002. While sitting at my table I pulled all of the photos and memorabilia she had collected during her travels and spread them on the table. In the stack of booklets I found the Itinerary of one of her trips and handwritten notes on some of the photos but that was it. While I had the photos of her memories, it wasn’t complete because I didn’t have the stories behind them. It was then that I realized just how important journaling was going to be on my pages.
Writing journaling doesn’t have to be a chore. As a person who has problems with my recall memory, I find that it is important for me to write it down, even if it’s just a few notes or something the person said that I want to include. Years ago I would write everything on sticky notes and attach it to the back of the photos once I printed them. Now after they have been backed to the cloud I upload them onto FB into albums (for events or trips) or directly into a post (daily things I want to document). When it’s time to scrapbook I open my computer and log onto FB and find the album or specific post I left off at. I’m a chronological scrapper so it’s easy to keep track of where I’m at in the year this way. I’ve also become a lot more productive. Win! Win!
Did you know you can easily find a certain date on your Facebook wall? Let me show you how!
Go to your wall (click on your picture) and scroll down until you see Posts. To the right you will see Filters (highlighted in pink above)
Post Filters pop up menu will appear. Click the year drop down menu and select the year and month.
I generally hit done after just filtering the year and month leaving the other filters in their default settings. That’s it! Just scroll down until you are find what you are looking for.
What do I write about? Your journaling supports the story you are conveying about the photos you are preserving. It’s great when you remember the memory but what if you don’t? What if they are photos from your childhood and you have no clue about the details. Here are some helpful prompts that you can use to guide your story about older photos.
- Do you know the date the photo was taken? If so, create a fun layout reflective of the year it was taken. Retro, especially 80’s is in right now, use colors and patterns that were popular in the year the photo was taken. Write about what was popular in that year like movies, songs, prices of things.
- Is the photo of a location or trip? Document about the location itself and what’s in the photo. For my Grandmother’s travel album I researched the buildings in the backgrounds of the photos and talked about the history of the city she was in which was easy because I had the itinerary of where she was. Documenting the where allows the reader to become immersed in the location rather than the people’s experiences.
Portraits are about the only photos that I don’t include a “story” for journaling. I do, however, make sure to include names and the date the photo was taken. Remember you are preserving memories that will last a lifetime! It’s important to document these small details so that generations from now they know who you are. Yes, I said generations. I have photo albums and scrapbooks of my Aunt that date back to the late 1800’s. People have been preserving their families memories for centuries.
I could go on and on about journaling. I think aside from the photos it’s the second most important part of your page. Without it, it’s just a pretty composition of paper and photos. I feel so passionate about journaling that I will be creating a workshop on the very topic so please follow and like this page so you don’t miss all the details!
Thanks for stopping by!