I love to record conversations. They make for excellent scrapbooking material!

How could you not want to remember moments like the one above?

There is no “one way” to scrap a conversation. Here are a few of the ways I’ve captured some conversations. I hope you find some inspiration to record a conversation of your own!

A Quote within a Story

On this page, my daughter said something sweet, but it needed a bit of back story for it all to make sense.

The journaling reads:

One day Maddy came home from school and told us about how she learned about feelings. She said that we all have invisible buckets of feelings and that it is important to fill up other people’s buckets with nice words because we have to carry our feelings around with us. A few days later, she came home from school, sobbing. I asked her what was wrong. All she could stammer out was, “I forgot my bucket on the bus!” It took me a moment to put two and two together. But then I realized that she had “forgotten” her “invisible feelings bucket”! Oh my! It took all my strength not to laugh. I explained that it’s impossible to forgot your feelings bucket and she eventually came around. Her innocence was so sweet.

Funny Things Said

My daughter and I had a short conversation that cracked me up so I had to record it. These aren’t “big” moments in our lives, like weddings or births, but I think the funny little moments are worth recording and remembering.

The journaling reads:

So, I went to wake up Maddy this morning as I always do. I said, “Good morning sweetie. It’s a brand new day. Time to wake up.” She said, “No thank you. Turn out the light. I’m going back to bed.” I laughed so much! I expected sleepy mornings in the teen years, not at 5 years old!”

As a side note, the photo used on the page above was actually my daughter playing her Leap Frog Explorer in bed. I cropped out the handheld game and now it looks like she’s sleeping. Shhh, it will be our little secret.

He Said, She Said

On this page, I recorded a conversation between my husband and I, word for word.

The journaling reads:

Jon: This was a good dinner. We should put it on the menu rotation. Heddy: It was good. It was vegan, too. Jon: Why’d you have to tell me that? Now I can’t enjoy the rest of it!

(He was kidding around, by the way. We’ve enjoyed that dinner many times since!)

A Part of a Conversation

On this page, I only included my daughter’s response to my question because it’s all that’s needed to understand why I had to record this!

Remembering Those Conversations

I think the key for me to remember a conversation is to write it down as soon as possible. I use my computer for this, but you could record them in your phone or in your notepad or agenda. Whatever works for you!

I am also a huge fan of Katie’s method of keeping a running list of scrapbook topics, which could of course include conversations.

These conversations are the sort of thing you’ll bring up with your spouse or kids many years from now and remember fondly. I’m scrapbooking them now so that we’ll remember as many of them as possible in the future. I encourage you to scrap your special conversations, too.

I’ve always loved to read and I’m a big fan of scrapbook journaling so I guess it’s no surprise to find out that when I surf the galleries, I spend a lot of time reading the journaling! A stunning page design or beautiful photos will grab my attention to get me to look at a page, but it’s the journaling that captures my interest. I feel like I’m on a treasure hunt to find the meaning of the story shared. Even just small tidbits of writing bring the layout to life and make it more memorable.

In the spirit of one of my favorite blogs Gallery Standouts, I thought it would be fun to share some favorite layouts with exceptional journaling that have jumped into my favorites folder.

When I Grow Up by Jacinda

This page is such a fabulous example of why it’s worth doing no-photo layouts! I love the boxes of journaling illustrated with fun doodles. This page is just asking to be read and I was fascinated to hear her likes and dislikes concerning many different career paths.

Delight in Life by Julia DeGuia

The sweet simplicity of this layout makes it so easy to focus on that darling girl and the journaling that details her cute personality and unique traits. Reading about her favorite things just made me smile!

Coronado Beach by HappyLittleWonders

Not only is this a gorgeous layout (check out the texture on the large photo), but the journaling is integrated into the page design in a very inviting way. I loved reading about the joy that the beach brings to this boy and his Mama!

I Always Thought I’d Teach by AdrianaP

This journaling really resonated with me since I used to play “school” as a kid and always dreamed of teaching as well. It was great to read about how she found her own way to be a teacher and her gratitude for the experiences she has had.

NYC by neeceebee

It’s fun to read about trip details on vacation layouts and you can even get ideas for sites you want to see if you ever travel to that location.

Because I love to read journaling so much, I often include the journaling right in my layout description on Flickr or in a gallery post. Others have commented how much they enjoy being able to read what I’ve written, especially when it can be hard to see on screen. While it isn’t difficult to read the text on this layout when it’s enlarged, it is a bit tricky to see in a blog post like this one.

I just copy and paste the journaling right into the description and it can be viewed by when the layout link is shared. This is just a personal preference of mine and I also like that it’s another way to preserve the memory in case I or someone from my family wanted to use the text without the layout.

Next time you take a gallery stroll, pay attention to journaling and think about what captures your attention. It’s a great way to find inspiration to add more text to your own pages. I bet you will also be surprised at how many pages don’t include any journaling at all!

P.S. the title graphic includes a splatterfic cluster by Karah Fredericks and the Café Rojo font.

When I look through all of my past layouts, my favorite pages are ALWAYS the ones with lots of words on them! There’s something very powerful about a shared story and I believe the layouts that include our journaling will be precious treasures for us and anyone we share our creations with.

I’ve been writing about journaling here at The Daily Digi for a few years now, and I’ve become even more passionate about the importance of the written word. Our team has shared many ideas to help you get your memories documented and we love to illustrate our tips in daily blog posts, the monthly playbook, and on the layouts we create.

Today, I’m challenging you to find a way to include more words on your pages. Whether you love journaling, or dread it, I know you can find an approach that works for you! To give you a little extra incentive, I’m extending an official call for you to submit a link to a new page you create based on one of our past journaling prompts:

• Write about writing
• Make a list of stories to tell and then start telling them
• Conduct an interview to get journaling material
• Start your journaling with Dear fill-in-the-blank
• Try journaling from blog posts, emails, & status updates
• Make your words the focus of your page
• Photograph your journaling
• Try lightning round journaling
• Get help from others with your journaling
• Listen to a conversation & then write about it
• Write a short story to use as journaling
• Journal this day in history
• Answer questions to get your journaling
• Use the calendar as a journaling tool
• Gather up some journaling
• Borrow your journaling from the internet
• Use a meme or a quiz for journaling
• Exercise your journaling muscles
• Use bullet journaling
• Try a “standing over the shoulder” or “bet you didn’t know” approach
• Look through Katie’s journaling examples

Simply comment on THIS post by Saturday March 24th at 10 p.m. EST with a link to your page and let us know which prompt inspired you. I’ll randomly draw a winner for a $10 designer gift certificate and post the results on the Sunday post. I can’t wait to see what you create!

Remember, your page will mean so much more with journaling added!

P.S. The title image features a worn cluster by One Little Bird & Sahlin Studio and the font is Café Rojo.

Title graphic credits: Everyday Daily Digi exclusive member kit; fonts are MTF Base Outline and The Only Exception

There are as many ways to incorporate journaling and factual details on a page as there are scrapbookers. The way that journaling and details (like the date and photo captions) are presented on a page can form part of the artistic impact of the page. For example, a hand-printed font (perhaps even your own handwriting made into a custom font!) adds a personal touch to the page, especially when done with non-justified text and varied line spacing. A formal font, like Times New Roman or other serif font, adds importance and a timelessness to the page.

I journal (a lot) on my pages. So, I took a quick trip down memory lane and pulled up a few examples of how I have put journaling on pages.

Scrap Around the Journaling

I am a journaling-heavy scrapper. I often start with the journaling and then fit the pictures, elements and title around the it, making minor adjustments at the end to make the design work.

WORKS FOR ME! - Journal in Microsoft Word (or your preferred word processing software) first and save the file with your photos. Then, when you’re ready to scrap, the journaling and photos are in one spot, ready to use. (And the word processor will help make sure your story is spelled correctly!)

On this page, A Day At the Zoo, I used a premade photo collage as the outer portion of the page and clipped my many photos to it. Next I created the title with some favourite alphas. Then I created a text path that fit into the large centre area, going around the photos and title work. Lastly, I pasted my journaling (previously typed in Microsoft Word). I adjusted the font size, character spacing and line spacing to fit all the journaling evenly in the text box.

Credits

To capture the details about my son’s second month, I used a similar technique as in A Day At the Zoo, but with a very different result.

Credits

Use Journal Strips

Journal strips are my go-to when I have a medium to large amount of journaling for a particular page. I used to avoid them because I didn’t like fiddling around with the type size and spacing, trying to get it to fit on predetermined journaling strip shapes. Happily, I figured out that I could type the journaling first (in one, two or three line blocks), then create a journaling strip shape behind it and lastly clip paper to the shape.

Credits

Tag It

Sometimes a tag is perfect for small amounts of targeted journaling. A small tag can capture the key facts, if you’re succinct.

Credits

WORKS FOR ME! – When I purchase a kit and it has great neutral elements like plain tags, brads, buttons, et cetera, I tag those items for use on future pages. I think of them as my go-to stash of basics. I use the program ACDSee Photo Manager to tag and maintain my digital scrapbooking supplies. If you don’t have ACDSee, you could also copy those elements into a “Basics Stash” folder.

Write In the Negative

Negative space that is! If you have a photo with a large area that is blank (like sky or water) or solid surface or filled with bokeh (that beautiful photographic blur), try placing your journaling on it.

Credits

Justify It

A simple block of text is simple and the reader takes it in as one design element. On this page, the background has a big pattern, so I used justified text to give it more “visual weight” and help it stand out.

Credits

Sprinkle the Journaling

Putting small portions of journaling around the page adds fun and movement. It is also less intimidating to read than a large block of text.

Credits

Those are just some of my favourite ways to get journaling on a page. I hope you found some ideas that will work for you! (PS – If you love journaling pages, please share your layouts on The Daily Digi’s Flickr group. I’d love to see your designs!)

Just my type by Mari Koegelenberg. The typewriter font by Heather Hess.

When I was younger, I had dreams of being a writer. I was sure that I would live in the English countryside (don’t know how I was going to get there from Utah?) where I would plunk away on my typewriter for hours every day. It was a ridiculously romanticized image of what the life of a writer would be and I’ve come to understand that is not likely to ever be what my life looks like. The best part is that I’ve since realized I don’t want that type of existence. Sure, the English countryside part still sounds wonderful, but I definitely want more out of my world than just a one on one relationship with words and paper. I want to live life each day and experience it. That means that I have to squeeze in bits and pieces of writing when I can.

Sometimes, when I discuss my love of scrapbook journaling with others, they seem to have an idealized notion of what it must be like to be one of “those people” who write a lot on their layouts. They act as if I have more time or talent than they do because I’ve put a few paragraphs on a page. What they might not realize it that it comes out word by little word, and it often takes many tries to simply jot down a few sentences.

I’ll open a word document and type a few thoughts, then I need to drive my daughter somewhere. That document stays open in the background of my computer while I answer emails, teach my children in homeschool, and balance our checkbook. I play around with the layout. It’s much more fun to arrange flowers than it is to extract words from my busy brain.

I remind myself that the page will not be complete without the story, so I go back to my word document. I switch back and forth between photos and thoughts. I stare at the pictures and try to remember what I want to say. I type a few words. I look at the clock and realize that dinner time is right around the corner. I forget about the journaling. Hours later, the kids are finally in bed, and I have a few minutes. But, I’m exhausted and I have other things that need to get done before morning. Those tasks come first, but I type a few more lines to explain the memories.

This process can last for days at times. It all depends on what interrupts me. I have a real life. I’m needed by actual people. I don’t give up. I write when I can. I take any little chunk of time that falls into my lap and I use it. That’s what writers do.

My new image of a writer is not someone who sits alone for hours in a quiet room, but it is someone who makes notes on her smartphone, works on ideas when she has a few minutes, types captions into her photo uploads, shares thoughts on social media, and post pictures and thoughts in blog posts. She can type memories while her son plays rock band in the other room, or in a quick dash as she fits in some time before a friend drops by.

When the time comes to pull it all together, a writer gathers the breadcrumbs she’s been leaving behind and gives them a home. In my case, the finished product is not a novel, but a scrapbook page. Bits and pieces at a time. Line by line, I’m writing the story of my life and I call it scrapbooking. Not in a cottage overlooking an English garden, but in a house full of people, cooking dinner, teaching school, wearing sweatpants, at 11 p.m. at night, or on my phone at the breakfast table.

I’m a writer because I stick with it. I keep going until those words are on the piece of paper. It’s not glamorous. It’s not even particularly talented. It’s persistent, and it pays off in the long run. I’m a writer because I’m a scrapbooker. I’m a writer because I keep trying to be one. The key is to just chip away at it until you have something down on paper, and when you do – put it on a layout!

Lauren Reid Hometown. Heather Hess The Typewriter font.

As I (Katie) pondered goals/projects/words etc. to guide me in this new calendar year, I kept coming back to the same almost urgent feeling… I have stories to tell. When I think about where my stories are, many of them exist on my blog or on scrapbook pages. I’m so grateful for the memories I have documented because I don’t have to worry about forgetting the details and I can share them with the people I care about. I’ve become more aware lately that so many of my stories have not been written down on my blog or on a page of any type. These are the pieces that make up the experiences of my life. They are precious, interesting, and often quite entertaining. None of these stories are about big events – they are the small everyday things that I want to remember.

I decided to make a list of all the stories I could think of that I want to share. I set a timer for 20 minutes and just started to write. When I ran out of ideas, I opened my photo files and browsed through pictures until something jogged my memory, and then I continued to write some more. This is the list I came up with:

1. Putting parmesan cheese in the dishwasher instead of soap

2. Vacuuming up the living room curtains

3. Riley decorating the cat with toothpaste

4. Coming home to sleeping kids covered with pop tarts

5. Calling the police when I thought someone was breaking in because Jeff came home early from a business trip and thought it would be fun to surprise me

6. Alex yelling “those thieves stole my blood” in the hospital parking lot

7. The $30 I loaned Jeff to pay for a marriage license

8. Zach’s electrical “experiment” at age 2

9. Finding out I was going to be an aunt

10. Mike’s scary broom face

11. Drinking a raw egg in front of my high school

12. Chasing the kids with the vacuum

13. Game dates with the Andersons

14. Quilts made by Jeff’s Grandmother

15. The 2,000 Tony the Tiger towels Alex tried to order on the internet

16. Hosting crop parties

17. Fogged in at the airport for 5 hours

18. Playing Risk with Brett and his dates

19. Drinking a raw egg at a Super Bowl party

20. Marshmallow gun fight

21. Eating lunch in the courtyard in high school

22. Alex reporting Jeff to the Oregon airport security

23. Riley drenching herself in Asian hot sauce

24. Why we joke about “minor skin irritations”

25. Riley’s warning from the go-cart operator

26. Mike’s “mild” New Mexican lasagna

27. Grandma Smith’s rolls

28. The custom Barbie Doll Alex made for Riley

29. Accidentally cutting the cable wires while doing yard work

30. Scaring my Mom with loud music in the car

31. Sleeping in a leaky tent in a rainstorm

32. Alex’s monopoly games with Kyle

33. Playing balloon volleyball in the living room

34. Lola eating our puzzle pieces

35. Alex’s Amazing Mumford tuxedo

36. The time my Mom thought she had a blog stalker

37. Winning a bet by eating octopus

38. Jeff trying to stop the New York Knicks from coming in our window

39. Riding the Matterhorn with our eyes closed

40. Riley singing “Don’t Buy the Liverwurst” in her sleep

41. Being sorted into Slytherin at Pottermore

42. Laying on my left side

I bet you would like to know more about some of these memories. Can you imagine how my family must feel? These are experiences that I want to journal about! Now that I have taken a few minutes to jot them down, I feel very motivated to put them somewhere to be enjoyed. It didn’t take me very long at all and I’m going to use this layout and list as motivation to tell my stories. I bet if you set a timer for a 20 minutes that you would find you have a lot of stories inside of you as well. Think about the little moments worth remembering. Reminisce about inside jokes, things that make you smile, and the kind of memories you swap around the kitchen table when you get together with friends and family. Make a list and keep it somewhere near your scrapping supplies. Don’t worry that the items you want to share might be small or uninteresting – I promise you that they are meaningful and worth sharing. YOU have stories to tell!

P.S. Rhadoda was the random comment chosen from those that commented on K Studios post from Monday. She won $10 in product from K Studio!

krafty title by Shawna Clingerman, font is traveling typewriter

It’s no secret that I (Katie) love this time of year. I really enjoy the slower pace of the week after Christmas and I take inventory of the year that is passing and prepare for the new one ahead. Of course, I do my monthly roundup at the end of December, and I like to use that same format to look back at the year’s events. One of my favorite things to do is to conduct year-end interviews with my family members. You can turn this into an official activity (great for family gatherings) or just sneak in a few questions here and there into your everyday conversations.  Need some ideas? Here are a bunch to get you started:

• Use a top ten list format to countdown favorite memories of the year. It would be fun to list the top ten favorites for  the year in several categories such as music, entertainment, accomplishments, etc.
• Since we are ending the year 2011 you might want to play off of the number eleven as a theme. I put together 11 lists on 11-11-11 and I’m excited to use these on some scrapbook pages!
• Act like a newspaper reporter and take notes on the big stories of the year. Get quotes to use in your “story” (even from very young children) to add eyewitness accounts.
• Use a letter-writing format and write a letter to the year 2011. Tell 2011 what you liked and didn’t like about it, or what you learned or enjoyed most because of it.
• Review your past blog posts, status updates, and email archives for 2011 to get plenty of information to use in your interviews.
• Interviews are perfect for lightning-round journaling!
• Even if you can’t talk face to face with someone, send them an email or ask them questions on the phone or via skype.
• Include historical events and pop culture in your year-end summaries. There are so many great resources to tap into!
• Browse through the past calendars from the year for some great memory-joggers and ideas.
• Use memes (rhymes with themes) and quizzes to find ready-made interviews to use.
• Don’t worry about writing huge blocks of text, use a simple bullet journaling format to record the information.

Without even realizing it, I just gave you 11 ways to document your 2011. Now go and ask someone (even yourself) some questions and have fun recording the memories of 2011.

Notebook & Pencil from Extra Credit at Digital Design Essentials (Gina Cabrera)

Quite often, the hardest part of journaling is getting started. It can be daunting to face a blank page and realize you need to fill it with words – believe me, I (Katie) go through the same thing when I write a post! Whoever invented the standard form of letter writing must have understood that it’s a lot easier for us if we have an opener to get us started. When you address a letter as “Dear Mom” you immediately establish that you are talking to your mother and you can then proceed with the message. What if we did the same thing with scrapbook pages?

Here are some fun digi layouts to illustrate this approach (all images are linked for credits):

Write directly to someone in your family and tell them what they mean to you. Just treat the page like a letter or note you would put together to describe a feeling or memory about that person.

Address someone who might not be able to hear you in person, or someone who might not appreciate all of your wisdom just quite yet. (think teenagers)

You don’t have to limit your letter writing to a person, how about “Dear Fall” as the subject of your journaling? Talk to a season, a building, a vacation, or anything that is worth a scrapbook page!

Talking to a certain date or point in time will give you a great way to include several events at once.

Pretend like you are opening up a journal and start off with the classic “Dear Diary”.

Here’s your chance for an open letter to anyone, even a large group of people. How about writing to the entire world?

Using the word “dear” and then filling in the blank that comes after it can lead to some incredible creative titles like “dear computer of indeterminate age” – love it!

It’s easy to tell Santa what you want if you include a “Dear Santa” greeting at the start.

Did you ever think to write to yourself? You know the reader will appreciate what you write!

Writing to your past self is a great way to reflect on your own growth and development.

I love the idea of writing a break-up letter or a “Dear John” to document the end of an era.

Can you believe how many journaling ideas come from starting off with the word “dear”? It’s a simple shortcut that will help you create many wonderful pages. Remember, your words will make the memory more meaningful!

Are you always searching for ways to make journaling easier? Chances are, you are already writing down many details that can easily be copied and pasted right onto a digital scrapbook page! I (Katie) love using words I’ve already written when it comes time to add details to a layout. You might be surprised at how many ways there are to “harvest” the journaling you’ve already done and turn it into a wonderful keepsake! Here are 3 great resources to use:

A Blog

Do you keep a blog? Even if you have only posted a few times, there’s probably something there you can use for a scrapbook page or two.  Even infrequent bloggers will find that they can use previously written entries as journaling. I’ve been keeping a personal blog for more than 6 years now so I have a huge resource of entries to pull from. Surprisingly, I don’t always think to go back through past posts when I’m looking for scrapbooking ideas. I love the pages I’ve created directly from blog posts though, so I’m setting a goal to improve in this area myself.

Here’s a page where I took the journaling from a blog post and copied it word for word on the layout. Thank you ctrl+c and ctrl+v – love those shortcuts!

Layout by Katie. Silly Socks on Flickr

Daily Digi team member Tara likes to use the same trick. She created this page using the words she had written in a previous blog post.

dandelion moments by TaraMcK, on Flickr

What if you don’t have a blog? You might want to consider starting one, it really isn’t difficult and you will be so glad to have the record it creates. Check out this post for advice on blogging.  Even if you are not a blogger, perhaps someone else in your circle of family and friends does blog. I often find great journaling on my Mom’s personal blog and I regularly save her entries to use bits of her writing on my own pages. Most friends and family members would probably be honored to know you care so much about what they write. If you aren’t sure how they would feel about you copying and pasting their words for your own personal use, it’s a good idea to double check with them.

Emails

Emails are a great resource for journaling material, and don’t forget about the emails you’ve written. I like to look through my folder of SENT emails from time to time to find my own recounts of events and ideas to use on digi pages. I also have a folder set up in my email system called “Keepsakes” where I file messages from others that I want to keep and/or document in some way.  If you aren’t interested in keeping a blog, you may want to consider sending some occasional email updates to people you care about and saving a copy for your own use. Here are some helpful links for effectively using email as a good source for journaling:

• Ask others to help you with scrapbook journaling
• Managing your email
• Scheduling email (this can be helpful if you want to send out updates to family/friends)

Even a simple email message can inspire a fun layout! Email is a part of our everyday life, so don’t forget to use it as a way to record your memories.

Social Media Updates

Social media updates on services like facebook and twitter are sometimes referred to as microblogging. By adding small bits of information to these streams, you are really journaling your life in very small segments. I’ve been on facebook for 2.5 years and when I look back at my status updates, I can see that I have an abundance of material to use for memory keeping. Here are just a few of some small moments I’ve shared on facebook that I will eventually use as scrapbook journaling:

• went out for pie with my family. Today is 3.14 – get it? March 14, 2009 at 3:54pm
• We called an April Fool’s Day “truce” in our house this year. My son has been stressed for days that everyone is going to pull pranks on him so we promised him our home would be a safe and fool-free zone! March 31, 2009 at 9:06pm
• Went to the store today. Bought silly string, gummy worms, licorice, barbecue potato chips, orange juice, soap, and a Venus Flytrap plant. All the essentials. We should be nice and stocked up now. June 22, 2009 at 5:15pm
• Alex just finished homeschool for the day (he had a lot of work!) and he said “finally, I get a break!” Then he went and got his book about the Aztecs and sat down to read it. Love that kid. December 11, 2009 at 4:22pm
• Took the kids to the orthodontist today. At one point Alex yelled out “Holy Cow! What are you doing to me?!” Everyone in the office heard it. I’m sure it helped all the people in the waiting room feel excited for their turn in the chair. LOL! January 26, 2010 at 11:07am

Besides using my own status updates as a resource, I also plan to use some of the comments that my friends left in response to what I shared, that’s what makes facebook such a fabulous resource!  I’ve seen many great layouts in the galleries with snippets from social media for the journaling.  I love this page filled with cute quotes from a silly little lady.

Next time you’re searching for something to write about, try searching your blog, email account, or social media streams. Chances are, you’ve already written something that will be perfect for your next digi page!

Use a Template Designed for Journaling

There are some awesome templates for journaling-focused pages. I look for ones that have pre-made text paths to make it simple to drop in my journaling.

Layout by Heddy. Supplies: Thankful for You kit by Zoe Pearn and Jenn Barrette, Captivated by Lynn by Captivated Visions

List It

The journaling is randomly placed on the page, but the numbered tags make it a cohesive and easy-to-follow.

Layout by andrea4376. Supplies: A Photo a day and Serendipity by Plum Dumpling Designs, Just Plain Fun, Arabian Adventure and Mouse Stitches by Britt-ish Designs, Font : SMD Wannabe Teacher by Stolen Moments

Magazine Style

This page came together easily. I created one photo box and copied it four times. This established the width of each of the columns. Then I created text boxes above and/or below each one and filled them in.

Layout by Heddy. Supplies: Love In the City Mscraps collab

Mat the Text

Matting text gives it some visual weight and provides useful start and stop points.

Layout by 1girl1boy. Supplies: Sweet Dreams by Shabby Miss Jenn

Use Paper Strips or Tags

Place a long list on individual paper strips or tags to break up the list and provide some visual interest to the text.

Layout by Heddy. Supplies: Fall In Bloom by Digi Junkie

Break It Up

This page by Peppermint actually has a lot of journaling on it, even though the overall look is uncluttered. Breaking up the journaling into two sections also reinforces the “then and now” theme of the page. Using justified text also helps to keep the design clean.

Layout by Peppermint. Supplies: Then & Now by Paislee Press and Three Paper Peonies; frame from Conversation Piece no. 1 by One Little Bird & Paislee Press; border from In The Loop by One Little Bird; photos processed using Fable by My 4 Hens Photography.

Use Text In a Path

Using text-in-a-path can help to make a statement and the shape of the text outline can visually symbolize the subject of the page.

Layout by Heddy. Supplies: Note to Self by Biograffiti

The Fill-In Technique

I use the word “technique” loosely here! I often just centre my photos and title and toss all the journaling above and below it. Sometimes when you have a big story (or an entire year to summarize), you just have to do what you have to do to fit it all in:

Layout by Heddy. Supplies: Resolutions by Scooty’s Designs

Find Some Great Storytellers and Copy What They Do

Is that really a technique? I hope so, because I do it all the time!

I’m pretty sure that no post on journaling would be complete without a Janet Phillips page. She has a gift for sharing her stories on her pages.

Layout by Janet Phillips. Supplies: Template by Janet Phillips, Crazy 4 You kit by Fee Jardin

So, there you have a few ideas to get you started telling your longer stories. Happy scrapping!

P.S. Jane in Alberta was the random winner chosen from the comments on Tiffany’s feature from yesterday. She won $10 in product from Simply Tiffany!