9 Journaling Ideas -Finding the Words

Sometimes it’s really tough to figure out a title or come up with ideas about what you should write on your scrapbooking layouts. For me, I find journaling one of the hardest parts of scrapbooking. I leave it all to the end of the project and even then I struggle with what to write about. Being a perfectionist – it just makes it even worse. I hate making a mistake and I often think long and hard before I even start my journaling. I have many projects to finish and I started to think about how I could actually get them finished. After making a few notes I realised that I do have techniques I use for journaling, I just hadn't realised it. So I started to document these in the post below, which has been a work in progress for a while. I hope you can find some of these tips useful.

Give it a title:

Finding a title for your scrapbook page is a good way to start the journaling on your page. A page title makes it easier to centre your page and journaling around a phrase and style that you want to convey. Once you have decided on a title - jot down a few notes as you are creating, little ideas pop into your mind at the most unexpected times. So grab them while you can!!

     

Just be yourself

When journaling, try to authentic. what I mean by this is to just be yourself. You don’t have to sound formal, cool, funny or smart. Just sound like you! Don’t stress over grammar and punctuation either. I don’t know how many times I have typed journaling out and realised later there is a mistake. As long as your journaling is in your own words, then you’re being true to yourself.

Cover the basics

The (who, what, where, when, and why) are probably one of the most important ways you can start your journaling. What is going on? Where was this picture taken? When was it taken? Who is in this photo? Why is this photo important to you?

Think outside the box 

For example, use phrases or words (instead of complete sentences), use quotes or he said / she said dialogue, use step-by-step procedures to describe how something was done, or use Q&A or recipe styles for your journaling on occasion. 

Hidden Journaling 

You don't need to write much - but just the fact of writing a few dot points acts and then rolling the note up, not only adds dimension to your page, but makes it look like there is journaling. The other aspect of journaling on this page is using the paper itself to tell the story with the highlighted pirate sentiments. Most paper collections includes paper which has various sentiments - so take advantage of them and use them..

Make lists 

The best part about using lists when journaling is you don’t have to worry about writing long, detailed sentences. During one of our holidays, I had each of us write at least four things we loved the best about our holiday. The list you see here was from Kikki K and I used my husband's list to scrap this layout. Journaling done!

We all enjoy different part of trips and holidays and it's an awesome way of capturing holiday memories. I also think that it's a fun idea for the kids (the ones that aren't interested in keeping a travel journal).

Journa

Print on your photos

There are many apps that allow quick and easy journaling to be incorporated onto your photo. I googled a little bit of information on the Blackfoot Indian girl (which is a post card I bought) and then printed it on the photo itself. It also made use of the blue sky - I wanted to capture the landscape and the history in this layout.

Use your ephemera 

This layout used some ephemera picked up during one of our days trips while we were on holiday. The information on the coaster tells it all. It’s a bit like adding journaling without having to write anything. When it’s a bright and interesting piece it adds to the overall theme of the layout.


Adding the fruit wine bottle also adds to the overall story. No journaling required on this layout, with the exception of the date which I have not yet added... whoops! This is one of my fav layouts I think, I just love the colours. And of course I'm a flamingo lover !!

Look for creative phrases and ideas

You can find creative phrases and ideas to incorporate into your scrapbook pages in magazines, newspapers, newsletters, brochures, and other scrapbooking websites. Song lyrics are another great place to find fun phrases! And everyone knows that kids say the funniest things, so be on the lookout for fun phrases coming from out the mouths of babes.

Keep it simple 

Every layout is different and sometimes using a title from paper or Project Life card is enough to tell the story.

I hope you enjoyed these tips on journaling. Leave a friendly comment below: