And Then He’ll Leave Me by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Worn by One Little Bird & Sahlin Studio; Generations by One Little Bird, Traci Murphy, and Paislee Press; Also a Very Small Alpha by Allison Pennington; Stitched by Anna White by Anna Aspnes; Libris, Count Your Blessings by ViVa Designs; Flair Box 3, Flair Box 4 by Paula Kesselring; Corben, Another Typewriter fonts.
by Debbie Hodge
I love scrapbooking. I love having scrapbook pages made. And sometimes, in my rush to try a new look or use a new product or just get those new photos on the page, I neglect journaling. Yep. Even though I’ve written countless articles and lessons on how to incorporate meaningful journaling on scrapbook pages, I’ve been making a lot of pages with very little journaling lately.
There are two things that have to happen for me to get journaling onto the page: 1) I’ve got to come up with the actual content of it, and 2) I’ve got to make a good chunk of text work in my design.
Newly resolved to make the time and page space for journaling, I made “And Then He’ll Leave Me” last night — and I woke up this morning determined to get all of our Get It Scrapped articles on journaling linked up in one spot.
Getting Journaling On the Page
1. Finding Room for Journaling on Scrapbook Pages with Lots of Photos What do you do when you want to get lots of photos onto your single-page layout AND you’ve got a good bit of journaling to add? Here are 4 ideas for pulling it off –even when you think there isn’t any room.
2. 3 Journaling Treatments that add Texture and Dimension to Your Scrapbook Page When you add texture and dimension to your scrapbook page, you engage the viewer’s sense of touch — another sense in addition to sight. It’s an obvious design move to add texture with embellishments, chipboard titlework, and mixed media canvas treatments. What about the journaling, though? It’s not usually the first page element that comes to mind when thinking about texture and dimension–unless you like handwriting with puffy ink. Three ideas for adding texture and dimension to journaling follow.
3. Keep a 5 Year Journal – Daily Prompts and Steps for Getting Started A five year journal is, just as it sounds, a journal you keep for five years. You write just one line every day, one minute of your time – that’s all it takes. The fun part is that you record your one daily line in the same spot for five years
4. 5 Ways to Get Computer-Printed Journaling On Your Paper Scrapbook Pages If you’re not a big fan of your own handwriting, or if you just prefer the look of typed journaling, here are 5 ways to get computer printed journaling onto your scrapbook pages–without a wide-format printer.
5. How to use Journaling Strips to Rock your Scrapbook Page Design Art journaler and scrapbooker Dina Wakley says, “Eighty-five percent of my journaling is on strips. Strip-journaling is easy and visually cool.” Read on for 5 ways to use journaling strips to rock your scrapbook page design.
6. How to Get Computer-Printed Journaling onto Decorative Tags While it can be a little trickier to add printed journaling to decorative journaling spots and tags, it’s not impossible. Here are a few tips to get you started.
7. 10 Ideas for Placing Journaling on Your Scrapbook Pages Do you plan out where to put your scrapbook page journaling as you start a page? Or do you figure it out as you go? Or do you reach the end and say: “Yikes! I don’t have any room for my journaling?” I do all three. You’d think I’d get in a habit of some planning since I usually have a lot of journaling to include. Several scrapbook page ideas for placing your journaling follow.
8. How to Handwrite in Shapes on your Scrapbook Pages Michelle Houghton likes to write her journaling in shapes—not just in a circle but spiraling around the edge of a circle or other shape. It isn’t practical for reading—the reader always ends up upside down and backward trying to read around the loops—but it adds a fun visual punch to your page.
9. How to make Circle Journal Spots How-to for making cute circular journal spots for your scrapbook pages.
10. Journaling Justification that Strengthens Design Justification is all about how you’re going to line things up—or, rather, align them. Your journaling can be left- right- full- or center-justified.
Writing Well
11. Evoke Feelings By Writing with Concrete Details – the Merle Haggard way Even when your scrapbook page subject is something as lofty as joy or disappointment or life passions, the best journaling will include an attention to specifics and detail rather than the use of words like “joy,” or “fulfillment,” or “malaise.” These are abstractions. Don’t tell me about them — make me feel –and believe! through details.
12. Writing that Conveys Your Story and theTimes in which it Takes Place You can use the “zoom” feature of 3rd-person point of view to tell a story that captures the current moment AND the times in which it takes place.
13. How to Write with Narrative and Scene Narrative tells and summarizes while a scene puts the story of the page right on the stage, with concrete details, movements, and even dialogue. Much successful writing uses a combination of narrative and scene. A concise and relevant scene is a great way to break up narrative and keep it from getting dull.
14. 3 Ways to Include Dialog in Your Journaling Much of the journaling we do on our scrapbook pages takes the form of “narrative.” Narrative is when you recount what happened from your point of view. Once in a while, though, consider putting your story onto the stage with a bit of “scene.” One of the easiest ways to do this is with dialogue. Whether it’s an entire conversation recounted or a couple of lines worked into your narrative, there are times that dialogue delivers a lot of punch.
15. The Art of Conversation: Transform your Scrapbook Journaling through Dialog One of the simplest, yet most engaging ways to transform journaling into a colorful and vibrant story is through dialogue. Incorporating words of others, along with your own, captures the nuances in your relationships and adds richness to your stories.
16. Tips for Writing about Yourself on Scrapbook Pages “All about me” scrapbook pages are going to require some journaling—some writing about yourself. And that’s not always easy. Read on for tips that show you how to write about yourself on scrapbook pages.
Telling Stories
17. Story Forms for Scrapbook Pages: Tell a Journey Story The “journey” is the oldest story form known. Journey stories are in the bible, children’s storybooks, and Greek myths. Examples of real life incidents that are “journey” stories include pursuing a weight-loss program, getting through a year with an intimidating boss, or doing something new that’s out of your comfort zone. In journey stories, there are often unexpected meetings and events along the way that all contribute to the effect of the journey.
18. Story Forms for Scrapbook Pages: Tell an Ah-ha! Story In the “Ah-ha!” story, someone (probably you) comes to a new realization (aka epiphany). This could be a realization about other people or about self. It could be a realization about the past or a new understanding of current life.
19. Story Forms for Scrapbook pages: There’s a bear at the door! The beginning of your story is your hook, the element that you use to draw your listener in. One of the easiest kinds of stories to “hook” a reader with is the “bear-at-the-door” story. This is a story in which there’s an immediate and pressing problem — like, say, if there really were a bear at your door. Check out the steps for telling this kind of a story with the journaling from “Heroes of the Day” used to illustrate the points.
20. How to Write a “Slice-of-Life” Story Writing story journaling is different from writing journaling for scrapbook pages that address a subject like “Piano playing in my life,” “My Favorite Place,” or “On Vacation in DC.”
[lovejournaling]
