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Old 03-12-2022, 06:06 PM
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Default Talk to us about journaling. . .

So, I was looking through the gallery today (one of my favorite things to do--you guys are such amazing scrappers!) and it made me think about journaling on our pages. I didn't see very much of it today, and I was wondering:

Do you usually journal on your pages?
Why or why not?

I am a story teller and can't shut up, so I usually journal. If I don't, it's either because I want my photo to make a statement all by itself, or I'm in a time crunch and need to finish a page ASAP, lol.
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Old 03-12-2022, 06:21 PM
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I love journalling and my kids love to read it too. For me, journalling doesn't take that long to do. I just write what I want to say, or what I want my kids to hear. Looking back on my layouts over the years I'm glad I wrote what I did, as I'm old enough now that I'm starting to forget the smaller details, and if I didn't record it, I wouldn't have remembered it now. I don't always write journal heavy pages, but try to include some type of message as often as possible.

My younger daughter's favourite pages are the ones with the most journalling, where I share some advice, or record some funny thing she said or did. I always date my pages too.

Last edited by jacinda; 03-12-2022 at 06:27 PM.
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Old 03-12-2022, 06:41 PM
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For current pages, I always journal in as much detail as I can. For pages done of older photos that I scanned I will journal what I can remember. If I don't remember much, I at least list the people in the photos and the date (or an approximate date) on the layout with a short description of the event.

I have been scrapping a lot of photos of my cousin's grandkids that come from FB. They live in FL so I'm not actually there when the events happen. However, both grandma and mom are good about describing what the photos are about. I will take any journaling from them. For some, I've just copied what Mom has posted and credit her on the layout.

All this goes back to my days of traditional scrapping using CM supplies. They stressed how important "telling the story" behind the pictures was and I still believe that.
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Old 03-12-2022, 07:14 PM
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I am not a journaler as most of you know by looking at my pages. I also don't tend to date them.
For me, it's because I tend to ramble and most of my pages are only 1 or 2 photos. Plus I'm pretty boring so not much to say. If I'm doing a vacation album then there is journaling. . . . .which reminds me I need to get on my 2017 trip to Ireland done
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Old 03-12-2022, 07:27 PM
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I must admit that I'm not very good about journaling on my pages.
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Old 03-12-2022, 07:38 PM
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I love to journal and usually have the problem that I run out of space for my journaling. Lol. I've found old pages that I read my journaling and can't believe I've forgotten about something I journaled about on that page. I love that! If I've done a page without journaling it's usually because I made it for a challenge that didn't allow journaling and then I go back and add my journaling after I post it online. Lol!
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Old 03-12-2022, 07:41 PM
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The reason I'm scrapbooking is to tell the story behind the photo... so I do have journaling, but usually not a lot... I don't have much to say. Just main points to get the idea across.
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Old 03-12-2022, 08:36 PM
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I'm in the middle. As a writer and storyteller, I do love to journal but I don't feel all pages need a "full" story/journaling. Some might just need a date, or place, or a few sentences.
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Old 03-12-2022, 10:13 PM
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I do a lot of journaling. For almost 10 years I've been using a diary app on my phone to record things as they happen, and I base my journaling on those entries. If I waited until I went to scrap the page (often 18 months later) I wouldn't remember enough to make it interesting. Some of my layouts have half a page of text, and others just have a short paragraph. I also have some without journaling--in some cases it was just a nice picture or I scrapped multiple layouts about the same event and journaled on only the first one. In other cases the journaling is on my personal copy but not my gallery copy. I'll also say that even though I still journal a good amount, I journaled a lot more when my kids were younger. They told me all their thoughts, and they weren't that personal--I could use their thoughts and feelings (or my guess about what they were) in a scrapbook without worrying if they'd want that. Now that they're all teens, I'm a lot more careful about what I record. My journaling is a lot more limited and factual than it used to be.
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Old 03-12-2022, 11:51 PM
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I do journal on some of my pages, when there is a reason to tell the story. I mostly journal on my weekly pages. It's usually a line or two about what was going on. I started writing directly on the photos as a way to save space because I take too many photos! LOL It's been a great way to fill in the "empty" spots of a photo and get in as many pictures as I can. It's turned into a sort of diary keeping for me and I'm so happy that I started those pages. I also keep a paper planner, which I write everything down in and that helps a lot when I'm doing the old catch-up weekly pages.
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Old 03-12-2022, 11:56 PM
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Yes, I almost always journal. I always say that I am a storyteller who happens to scrap so people will be more inclined to read her stories vs. an artist who happens to scrap so people will be more inclined to look at her art.

On the rare occasion that I get a GSO, it is 75% (at least) likely that it is a photoless page... which not only tells you a lot about my writing but a lot about my scrapping, too!
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Old 03-13-2022, 12:57 AM
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I usually journal but I tend to be a who/what/when journaler -- mostly just the facts. Sometimes I think I should try harder since I tend to write a lot of "we were really busy" or "we had a lot of fun" kind of statements. I'd like to do a little deeper journaling but it's my least favorite part of scrapbooking so I'm usually trying to just get it done.
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Old 03-13-2022, 03:37 AM
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I do a lot of journaling on most of my pages. I find that my favorite pages to look back on are the ones that have detailed stories. But if I don't have much of a story, I'd rather not have journaling than have it just be an explanation of the photo(s). Like if I have pictures from bowling, but there's nothing really notable to write about it, I don't want to write "we went bowling" because that's pretty obvious
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Old 03-13-2022, 06:42 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeAndra View Post
Yes, I almost always journal. I always say that I am a storyteller who happens to scrap so people will be more inclined to read her stories vs. an artist who happens to scrap so people will be more inclined to look at her art.
I identify with this statement, LeeAndra - except in my case, it's a never-ending tug-of-war between my desire to tell the whole story and my desire to have my photography front and center and BIG. I never have enough room for all the journaling I want to include.

I was fortunate enough to take a class from Angie Pedersen, the author of "The Book of Me", back in the early 2000's. She told us when we're struggling with what to write, we should imagine we're sitting down with a friend who knows absolutely nothing about this layout/photograph. What would we tell them? We'd identify who was in the photos, where the photos were taken, when they were taken, and what was going on when the photos were shot. What else would we say? Would it remind us of something that happened earlier that same day? Would we make a connection between what was happening in the photo and some other event?

She said to start writing all of that down, stream-of-consciousness style, and when you're done, that's when you go back and do your editing. You'll be amazed how much you have to say about a layout you thought you had nothing to write about. I've used this technique over and over again when I get stuck, and it works every time!
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Old 03-13-2022, 07:17 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by angiekey View Post

I was fortunate enough to take a class from Angie Pedersen, the author of "The Book of Me", back in the early 2000's. She told us when we're struggling with what to write, we should imagine we're sitting down with a friend who knows absolutely nothing about this layout/photograph. What would we tell them? We'd identify who was in the photos, where the photos were taken, when they were taken, and what was going on when the photos were shot. What else would we say? Would it remind us of something that happened earlier that same day? Would we make a connection between what was happening in the photo and some other event?

She said to start writing all of that down, stream-of-consciousness style, and when you're done, that's when you go back and do your editing. You'll be amazed how much you have to say about a layout you thought you had nothing to write about. I've used this technique over and over again when I get stuck, and it works every time!
That is amazing advice! I love that! Sometimes if the photos are from a long time ago and I don't remember, I journal my current reaction to them, or I talk about something more general than what is happening in the actual photo. I don't know, I am reluctant to print my pages that have no journaling--they are kind of hollow to me and I don't want to "waste" the spot in the photo book on them, lol!
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Old 03-13-2022, 11:07 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by allyanne View Post
That is amazing advice! I love that! Sometimes if the photos are from a long time ago and I don't remember, I journal my current reaction to them, or I talk about something more general than what is happening in the actual photo. I don't know, I am reluctant to print my pages that have no journaling--they are kind of hollow to me and I don't want to "waste" the spot in the photo book on them, lol!
CM always stressed using the 5 W's to get the journaling started which is Who, What, When, Where, and Why. And thinking about it logically, if someone picks up a book full of layouts, they should be able to look through it themselves and not have to ask questions of you. Just having at least the "who, what, when and where" can answer those questions for them.

Now some photos scream to be the total focus on the page and should be. In those cases I tend to use descriptive word strips but I do also at least put the date if it is known.
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Old 03-13-2022, 11:27 AM
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I journal with the idea that someday, my kids will look back and value what I have to say, things I believe in, stories about them, etc. and they will have that forever (it'll be my way of haunting them haha)
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Old 03-13-2022, 11:32 AM
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I used to love journaling. Now that I have adult kids, it's more their story to tell than mine to share, so my pages have far less journaling on them. For my own albums, it's still crucial to my scrapping process. So for me it's the phase of life and the age of the kids. I am sure than once the grands come along I will have so much more to say and share.
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Old 03-13-2022, 11:38 AM
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I did less when I first started because I didn't know where to begin, and even now I don't do a ton, but I try to explain what was going on in the photo, if needed. Even our monthly highlight pages, even if it's just a bullet.

I don't write them to my kids, just in general to anyone reading it, because I assume one day people other than my kids will read them.

I do have a book all about me where I do try to include more info, stories and those are written to the kids specifically.
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Old 03-13-2022, 11:56 AM
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I usually journal on my pages. I definitely journal on any pages I plan to get printed unless it's one side of a two page spread - I may only journal on one of the two pages. Even when I'm scrapping landscapes, I try to jot down my thoughts of that day or my thoughts as I'm scrapping the photo and the feelings it evokes.
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Old 03-14-2022, 12:57 AM
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I tend to journal a lot on pages unless they are pages that I scrap about my grandchildren. I get pictures from their parents and scrap those but I don't feel like their story is mine to tell so I tend to leave place to journal if they someday want to elaborate but if I do any journaling it is about how I feel. I prefer a page with a lot of journaling though as layouts are how I record memories.
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Old 03-14-2022, 01:50 PM
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When I scrap, I journal. For me it is more about the story than the photos.
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Old 03-14-2022, 02:28 PM
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The reason I scrapbook is to tell the story, so I journal on almost all of my layouts, even if it's just a line or two. Many times there are details other than what the photos show. I once did a layout of my son without a smile on his face, and I wanted to give the background of that and how his mood was - good thing I journaled soon thereafter because I'm sure I don't remember now! I'm quite behind in my scrapping, but I think I should go back and start making notes about things I remember; that way when I scrap the photos, I can capture the memories and details.

If I don't journal, it is probably because it was a challenge where no journaling was allowed. Those are real challenges for me!

I always date my layouts. If I don't, it's most likely because it's obvious.

On the occasion when I get comments, my favorite ones are those that comment on the story I told.
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Old 03-14-2022, 04:36 PM
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My reason for scrapping is for memories and heritage, and specifically so that my daughter knows her stories, so yeah, I journal a LOT. I'm overly verbose in my pages and when I don't have any journalling, I don't feel it's a done page.

Now Titles...
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Old 03-15-2022, 08:57 AM
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I always journal and date my pages. Like many of you said, the details get fuzzier as more time passes so I try my best to include most/all of the W's as I know my kids' memories are terrible. They've forgotten all kinds of things we did just in the last few years.
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Old 03-15-2022, 01:55 PM
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I wish I was better at journaling. I usually include the date and a brief sentence or two.

When I started scrapping, I didn't journal at all. In fact my oldest daughters baby book (back when I paper scrapped) had no journaling. When she was approx 5 years old, I went back and wrote her The Story of Her and Her Birth. As we were cleaning and organizing our photo albums and scrapbooks this week, she picked up her baby book.... she loved looking thru it, and them we she found the few handwritten pages at the end, she was shocked. She exclaimed, "I didn't know you wrote all of this!!" She plopped right down to read it all.
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Old 03-15-2022, 02:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by angiekey View Post
I identify with this statement, LeeAndra - except in my case, it's a never-ending tug-of-war between my desire to tell the whole story and my desire to have my photography front and center and BIG. I never have enough room for all the journaling I want to include.

I was fortunate enough to take a class from Angie Pedersen, the author of "The Book of Me", back in the early 2000's. She told us when we're struggling with what to write, we should imagine we're sitting down with a friend who knows absolutely nothing about this layout/photograph. What would we tell them? We'd identify who was in the photos, where the photos were taken, when they were taken, and what was going on when the photos were shot. What else would we say? Would it remind us of something that happened earlier that same day? Would we make a connection between what was happening in the photo and some other event?

She said to start writing all of that down, stream-of-consciousness style, and when you're done, that's when you go back and do your editing. You'll be amazed how much you have to say about a layout you thought you had nothing to write about. I've used this technique over and over again when I get stuck, and it works every time!

This is great! I'm going to try and remember this for when I go to journal!
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Old 03-15-2022, 07:58 PM
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It depends on what I have to say. Sometimes it's just, "We went on vacation. We ate good food. We swam in the ocean." Blah blah.

But I often make a layout about topics that I need to express myself about, and those pages have a lot of journaling.

But my daughter has been going through my weekly PL albums from 2012-2014, and apparently I wrote a lot of stories from our lives, things the kids said, etc, and it is kind of magical to hear!
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Old 03-15-2022, 11:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rach3975 View Post
I do a lot of journaling. For almost 10 years I've been using a diary app on my phone to record things as they happen, and I base my journaling on those entries. If I waited until I went to scrap the page (often 18 months later) I wouldn't remember enough to make it interesting. Some of my layouts have half a page of text, and others just have a short paragraph. I also have some without journaling--in some cases it was just a nice picture or I scrapped multiple layouts about the same event and journaled on only the first one. In other cases the journaling is on my personal copy but not my gallery copy. I'll also say that even though I still journal a good amount, I journaled a lot more when my kids were younger. They told me all their thoughts, and they weren't that personal--I could use their thoughts and feelings (or my guess about what they were) in a scrapbook without worrying if they'd want that. Now that they're all teens, I'm a lot more careful about what I record. My journaling is a lot more limited and factual than it used to be.
I'm big on journaling on my pages too...
I used to use an online reminder service called Oh Life. What is it that you use, because that ended and now I just have to journal from my memory. I love the year that I kept the notes.
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Old 03-17-2022, 11:52 AM
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I try to journal on every page, but some there isn't much to say, so a title and the date are all that make it onto those pages. Sometimes I have to limit what I want to say because there just isn't enough space left on my page for the full story. I figure if I have the majority of what I needed to say, I'm good. I keep notes when we go on vacations, and I keep a yearly calendar with what dates we did what or a few notes on what day was what event etc. Those help me to at least have a little information to help with my pages.
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Old 03-18-2022, 11:04 AM
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I like journaling on my pages but my memory is horrible so on the older pages I don't usually remember...if I have notes somewhere then I will add notes. Some of our travel pages I just put the location and date then save journaling for a larger group of photos.
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Old 03-18-2022, 07:42 PM
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Journaling is probably the easiest part for me 99% of the time, and I generally try to at least include a sentence in most pages, but sometimes I just go with title and date if more isn't necessarily needed.
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Old 03-18-2022, 11:00 PM
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I'm big on journaling on my pages too...
I used to use an online reminder service called Oh Life. What is it that you use, because that ended and now I just have to journal from my memory. I love the year that I kept the notes.
Mine is just literally a diary app. It's called Diaro. I can't remember for sure, but I think when I first started using it there was a small one-time charge to get premium features like online syncing. I like it because I can take all my notes on my phone as life happens, then I can export from their website (on my computer) into Word and eventually just cut and paste onto my layouts.
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Old 03-19-2022, 12:15 AM
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Writing doesn't come naturally to me but I do try to do at least a little journaling on my layouts or at least a title that will spark my memory about the photos.
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Old 03-19-2022, 05:56 AM
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I love to journal. In real life, I have kept a daily diary since January 2013. Most of my pages include journaling as well as a date and location if I know it. But I am also a fan of word art to help tell my story.
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