Scrapbooking Ideas for Visual Storytelling with the Reflective Story Style

Your best scrapbook pages reflect a storytelling style–your preference for certain kinds of stories and your way of telling them both visually and with words. We defined and illustrated 10 different story styles in the Story Styles LookBook that’s a part of the Get It Scrapped membership.

One of those styles is the Reflective Story Style. The reflective storyteller tells a story that looks back, perhaps many years or perhaps just to yesterday. The reflective story is one of an examined life, often incorporating extensive and detail-packed journaling. See examples of this style from our team.

 

[hr]

Sian Fair says, “This page came out of a conversation I had with my husband after a visit to my Mum, still living in my hometown. We talked about how we saw the little country towns we lived in when we were teenagers, and how we felt then about small places; and then we talked about how we see those same teenage years through the lens of adults bringing up a family in the city. What seemed stifling then feels like a perfect place for a child now. I was able to use a photo of some tree roots in my Mum’s garden to give me a title to tie it all together.”

[hr]

Summer Christiansen says, “This story is about the evolution of my relationship with my older brother. I used a photo of my son and daughter because it reminded me of my relationship with my brother and how we all show our love to one another in different ways. To get a nostalgic feeling, I lowered the photo’s opacity and added an “antiqued” filter as well as texture to it. I overlapped the text to represent that beauty is imperfect.”

[hr]

Christy Strickler says, “In this layout, I reflect on my feelings about my son being born prematurely. I wanted to tell my younger self–and any other moms with preemies–that it will be OK.”

[hr]

Stefanie Semple says, “When my children were young, I relied heavily on hearing what they were up to. Now that they are older, the house is silent and feels lonely and empty for most of the day. The peace and quiet that I longed for when they were small is a reality and yet still not what I want.”

[hr]

Jett Hampton says, “On my drive to work recently, the topic of discussion on the radio was what would you tell your former self?  This page captures short messages I would love to send to myself at different ages to help navigate through life’s experiences.”

[hr]

Amy Kingsford says, “This page captures a shared moment between my boys. They are at that age when they seem to always be fighting, so I cherish any small piece of common ground the find. Right now that common ground is Wild Kratts. This is a photo I snapped of them sharing a tablet while watching their favorite show. It’s the little moments like these that make me so happy and I love to reflect on them in my scrapbook pages.”

Debbie Hodge says, “I used photos 14 years apart but with the same subjects in the same setting to tell a reflective story of Easter in our home and of traditions and those who pass those traditions to us. We do not practice any religion specifically in our home, but my husband is Jewish, and long ago we foudn that we love celebrating with a Passover Seder. This takes lots and lots of time for me to put together and so I’m not attentive to the creation of Easter Baskets — also, it feels out-of-sync with the emphasis on Passover in our home. In 2001, a much-loved next-door neighbor made baskets for the boys and, since then, those are the baskets I fill (when I think to fill them).”

“The neighbor has moved back to New Mexico for many years now, but when I share this year’s baskets filled with a few items, she found a photo from 2001 of my sons and their baskets. I then asked the boys to restage that photo with the same baskets and they did so happily. The resulting photos gave me a chance to reflect on how we celebrate and of our neighbor’s impact on that tradition.”