Scrapbook Journaling Techniques

written by Sherry DiPaolo

Here are some great ways to add your journaling to your scrapbook pages.

Tell the whole story. Write out or type on your computer the entire story of an event that happened in the pictures you are scrapbooking. I did this with photos I had of my 2nd son after my 3rd son was born. When my 3rd son was born I got him a baby doll so he could care for his baby while I cared for mine. I thought this would be a great learning experience for him. So each time I cared for my baby he did the same for his. We bathed our babies, fed our babies and swaddled them to sleep together. This time in our lives was so precious and meaningful I had to capture it in his scrapbook. I almost always use my own handwriting so here I painted the area white and wrote away.

Interview members of your family to create an album that will be cherished by all. In this layout I asked my son Dominic why he loves his big brother and then wrote down his responses and scrapped various pics of the 2 of them together. I also did if for my oldest Primo and asked him the same question about his little brother. It's a great memory and I know they will cherish each other's responses forever.

Senses are good attribute to remember about the day. What were the sounds of the events, What did you eat? Was it a warm summer night, or a cool winter day? What's the most exciting or funny thing that happened that day?

Begin an ABC journal in which you journal about your life in ABC form. Relate each letter of the alphabet to a certain time and date in your life your child’s life.

Consider predictions for a child's future. You can create a letter written to your child on her birthday, the first day of school, middle school or high school graduation, and wedding day. Then when she has her first child they can view them together.

Let your subject know what is happening in the world around you. What are the news topics? Write a letter explaining about your child's world including:

Who the President it? * What is the cost of gas, milk, and bread? * What are their Favorite movies, TV shows, toys, songs, etc.?

Add the newspaper to your album, and use archival mist for preservation.

Add things that your subject likes to do such as pictures they loved to draw as a child.

Add poems or quotes that fit the theme of a page or the idea of a photo.

For a page with photos of someone at a particular age add info relating to that person during that time. E.g., on a baby page of 6 mths include what he was able to do such as crawl, LOL, or stand up.

Write down words to a favorite song, prayer or poem and use them in a decorative border around a page. I did this with the song "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack. I typed up all of the words and put a decorative border around it because the words are so meaningful to what I wanted my son to always think about in life.

Collect memories from friends, relatives, family members, neighbors, etc. to give more dimension to an album.

Be sure to journal everyday things from your life. They may seem ordinary but the biggest part of your life is the day-to-day activities and they should be remembered. I do this a lot. I love scrapbooking the everyday events and funny photos I have of my kids.

Create a list of favorites. Our preferences change as we grow up, so do this once a year with each family member. Use this technique on a birthday page.

Create a list of bullets of what your child was able to do during his first year. I did this with all of my boys. Their first 2 albums have a page for each month. Here is one of Gino's pages when he was 1 month old.

Create a dictionary style definition with the words used to describe the photo.

Sometimes you don't want your journaling to be the focus of your page. Use hidden journaling to provide extra room on your layout, allow your photos to be the focal point, and conceal sentiments you don’t want to share with everyone. Use pockets, mini file folders, small cards, or hinged flaps to achieve this hidden look.

Journal around your photos. This is a nice design technique to make your journaling flow with the design of your page.