When people ask if I am an event scrapper or a moments scrapper, I can easily answer I am the latter. I don’t make pages full of birthday, Christmas, or holiday photos. For me it is the everyday moments, the everyday thoughts that I want to capture. It’s the things that happen to us as a family, how we handle them, or don’t handle them, the things that make us who we are, that I want in my albums. And I think I am doing a pretty good job of that, although I need to work on taking more photos every day so I can document some of these things and writing ideas down as they come to me so I don’t forget. This year has been much easier since Log Your Memory. I have a calendar/journal to put everything down so I can find it all later. Even the prompts each week sometimes bring back another memory or idea I want to scrap that has no relation to the actual prompt … they just get my mind wondering.

I didn’t really get into scrapbooking until my daughter was in her teens and even then I didn’t truly get any pages done until I started digi scrapping, so I have a lot of stuff I want to get down. So a lot of times I will combine things as they come to me. Like how every time I want to say or write down caterpillar I have to stop and think about it. Why? Because when my daughter was little, she always said callapitter. And that has stuck, so my first thought is callapitter, not caterpillar. So the page I create for that will tell not only the funny word she said when she was small, but also about how it has affected me to this day.

And I will scrap about anything that happens in our lives, whether it is something that happens every year or something that changes in our lives. It may not be an ordinary, everyday thing, but it’s something I felt the need to document. I also use photos from any time to get the story across or even pages without photos, because it is the feelings that go along with whatever is happening that is important to me. So journaling is a big part of my pages, but I want photos more times than not, so I search and scan photos if needed.

I also do not edit my photos until I go to use them. I know some of you are probably cringing at that thought, but that is just how I roll. I also don’t delete very many of the photos I take either. Because really, you never know when one will be just perfect for something you want to record. Take this one I did from a prompt that asked you to look deeper at the photo.

"Looking Deeper" by winkasheart

The photo is not one I would normally use and if I had deleted it because it wasn’t perfect, I would have lost all the little tidbits I put down on the page that I got from really looking at everything there, or thinking of the reason I took it in the first place. You just never know when one of those not-so-great photos will work for something entirely different. And those blurry ones? Sometimes that is the only photo you have, like the time I used blurry pictures because that was all I had from when my daughter returned home from her first tour in Iraq. But that was a monumental moment and needed to be scrapped, so I used the not-so-great pictures.

OK, so scrapping the everyday, funny and not-so-funny things of life sometimes calls for making an effort to take specific photos, and I do that too and so does my family now that I have trained them, lol. Take this one about my Mom’s toilet paper stash.

"PaperSpotting" by winkasheart

She was moving, and my family knew I would love having photos of all the tp my Mom has, and believe me, I did, lol. So while this page is about the tp, it is also a page that will enlighten future generations as to why they might have a propensity to purchase more of something than is really needed, hehehe. Because I find myself starting to do the same thing now that I have room, and I see it in my other family members too.

Then there are the pages I see in the galleries that show a tiny slice of life that will show how things were at this time, but also leads me to think of something I want to expound on for my own page. And this page by Britgirl is one of those.

"3 Hours" by Britgirl

I love how this shows and talks about something that probably happens to many of us as we go through life, and she chose to document it. And it has quite a few things besides just the 3 hours it tells about, an error message in the car (not something that was around on old cars), the iPhone and the apps, the free coffee, and what it takes now to keep a little one occupied. So different from even when my daughter was that age. And while I may not have a moment like that to scrap, it did make me think…all those things that are so different now compared to just 20 years ago. Will people looking at my pages in the future even know what an app is or how it was such a big thing? I need to put that down and that is the page I am getting done from this one.

Then there is this page by wyowomanKristin that just made me smile, and I am sure it will be treasured forever. Such an ordinary thing in the life, but tells so much more.

"{This} Is My Favorite" by wyowomanKristin

She lists her favorites at the moment which is always something of interest to others. But she also shows that her little guy likes to wear his costume and rather than argue with him to change before leaving…she lets him wear it out. It also shows that this guy is loving this super hero at this time in his life. So much to learn from the simple everyday photos and pages.

I want to leave you with this…take photos, save them, and create pages from the heart that tell about your life and what it is like right now. And look deeper into your photos, find something besides the ordinary to document with them. You family will treasure them and future generations will gain so much from each and every page.

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I’m very excited but feeling shameful about my efforts to scrap real life of late. Throughout the craziness of iNSD weekend, and getting a bit sick, I scrapped some pages – some were really fast ones for challenges over iNSD. Some of them are really pretty and I love them. But now I’m looking at them thinking, “That would be so much better if I had told the story!”

My best friend, who has just started scrapping digi and who is putting her toe into the online community water, is looking at pages in my gallery and very politely asking, “Why?”

If I’m honest, looking at some of my latest pages, I’m having trouble answering her question! I pride myself as a real-life scrapper, recording the intricacies of my family life. But right now, my pages aren’t telling that story. Don’t get me wrong, I love working with amazing products from talented designers, but looking back on an album I had printed a couple of years ago, in my pre-real-life-scrap era, only about half the pages have journaling. I wish I could go back and change them now.

So, I need your help. I need a boost of motivation to journal on my layouts and some handy hints on making it easy. Here is a thread in the forum where I’d love you to share your ideas with the community (as in, me) so that everyone (me) can benefit from the collective wisdom!

Here are some tips so far and some gorgeous layouts from LYM members that show how it’s done:

1. Journaling can be short and sweet and still be meaningful.

I love how Jackie (tettletop20) used song lyrics to make short, punchy journalling on her We Are Family page. I get a sense of the retro era as well as the closeness of the sisters!

"We Are Family" by tettletop20

I had a go at short and sweet journaling with my {special} bond layout. I could have written for weeks about my bubby’s and mine breastfeeding journey, but short and simple did the trick!

"{special} bond" by sascedar

2. You can journal first, then find pictures to reflect your journaling.

Jacinda gave a great example about beginning with a journaling prompt, then finding pictures to reflect what she had written, in her A Note About Your Dad layout. I love this idea, because so often I’m struck by thoughts and things I want to record and reflect on, but rarely take pictures at that exact moment!

"A Note About Your Dad" by jacinda

3. Recording snippets of conversation is an easy way to journal effectively.

Jacinda did this so well in her Stinky layout, which reminded me how much I adore my layouts where my son’s words are recorded.

"Stinky" by jacinda

My {build} layout records my son’s commentary about how he goes about building with Legos. I always try to include exactly what he says -  grammatical mistakes and all – ‘cuz it’s real.

"{build}" by sascedar

So I’d love you to join us in the forum and offer me lots of helpful advice! I’ll be scouring the gallery for journaling ideas to inspire me, and I’ll be highlighting them in the thread linked above. Can’t wait to see you there!

Sarah

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Advertise with Log Your Memory – We offer a variety of economical sponsorship opportunities. Click HERE for more information.

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Darcy Baldwin is not only a talented scrapbooker, product designer and fontographer at Sweet Shoppe Designs, she also shares a deep appreciation for the role of storytelling in scrapbooking. I find her philosophies toward journaling and the importance of finding and displaying your voice in your scrapbooks extremely inspiring. I hope you will too…

What Do You Sound Like?

The word or the thought of the act of journaling seems to bring fear to so many. I think so many folks feel like journaling has to be the heart-felt, sticky-sweet, ooey-gooey words that cover a page. For some, that comes very easily. But for the rest of us, journaling can be a chore.

Journaling doesn’t have to be about the greatest love ever..it can be about how you and your husband fought over the silly candy bar (yes, we’re pathetic that way), or how you and your daughter found the perfect pair of shoes to go with her dress for the Daddy-Daughter ball. It’s the act of telling the story of what happened to you and your family. The act of passing on stories from our life now, to our life in the future.

For me, journaling is a memory aid. I always was fascinated by the stories my parents and grandparents and family used to tell around the dinner table once a meal was over. I never wanted to be out with the kids playing – I wanted to hear about my grandfather baptizing people in the river, or my great-great-great-grandfather who committed a crime in Georgia and made a run to Oklahoma to escape justice, which is why that part of my family is from there. I love hearing stories of how my grandparents communicated during WW2, or how my grandmother crocheted for her community, and how my Dad used to hunt and raise doves and squirrels for a local restaurant. I know my boys love sitting down with our scrapbooks and listening to the stories behind the photos. They want to know what was happening, over and over and over again.

As I get older, I’m noticing I have more trouble remembering things. We watched it happen with my Mom, and the thought of ‘losing’ those stories really scares me. Being an older mom of young boys, by the time they really want to hear those family stories, I might not be able to remember them anymore, so journaling is as much of keeping the memories alive as it is filling up a scrapbook page. This is why journaling holds such a special place in my heart. It’s so important to get those stories down…to remember…to retell…to pass along, especially in an age where we don’t grow up with our families anymore, and our children don’t get to hear those stories first hand. Digital Scrapbooking is like storytelling in the modern age.

Finding Your Voice

Your voice is how you sound in real life – not just the tonal quality, but your style, as well. Your ‘voice’, on a paper is much the same. Are you a formal speaker? Do you tend to be familiar with everyone? Are you humorous? Are you shy and reserved? Are you boisterous and whimsical? The quickest way to journal great is to know your voice. And when you begin writing in ‘your voice’ – your journaling will flow! It’s ” when you start to worry about the way you’re going to sound, you quickly lose your voice” according to Susan J. Latham of Write101.com.

I tend to be a bit sarcastic/humorous/self-deprecating and very informal in my journaling style. I also find that I just write better if I’m speaking to a 3rd party. I tell the story of the page, not to the subject, but as if I’m sharing with friends. It helps my words flow better than if I’m trying to speak directly to the subject. Here’s a sample:

"Don't Mix the Colors"

Not sure what your ‘voice’ sounds like? Try to write your journaling on your next layout a couple of different ways. Try an informal style, try something very formal, try writing to the subject and then change the person. Once you’ve written it a couple of different ways, read it back to yourself. The one you love the most is YOUR voice. Find it.

Displaying Your Voice

Another great hint for journaling is to find a font that demonstrates the tone that you want to portray. While typewriter fonts and standard formal fonts are great (and often are a wonderful design aesthetic to make your page beautiful), sometimes a handwritten, whimsical font might be a better fit for you to portray the mood of your story. Are you writing for your child? Try finding a font that is child-like. Are you writing about or for your husband? Try finding a font that better reflects a man’s voice. Are you being wistful in your dreams and hopes for your children? Try finding a font that is whimsical or girlish to share those dreams. Are you retelling a story that requires a bit of formality? This would be the perfect place for a font like Arial or Times..something typically seen in formal writing online. A font can make or break the mood of your layout, and needs to be chosen with as much care as which frame or element you’ll place on the page.

The difference in mood between these two photos tells a lot, to me. The first is a more formal matter-of-fact voice. The second, with the inclusion of my own ‘adopted’ font (I WISH I could write like this, but I use this font DJB POPPYSEED a lot as my own voice), the journaling and layout have more meaning as being something from ME.

"Lucky Us" Option 1

"Lucky Us" Option 2

One of my favorite things about journaling in my own voice is that I can actually do that in my own writing, as well. And many of the pages I do about my children, especially if the voice of the journaling is coming from them, contain journaling done in their own handwriting. It makes a layout SO much more special to have that personal touch, and in generations to come, your children and their children will appreciate having those samples!

Have you found your voice? Do you know what your journaling sounds like? I’ll challenge you, this week, to sit down and write out a story, as if you’re telling your best friend, and find your voice!

If you enjoyed Darcy’s post, you will definitely want to join us this Thursday evening at 7 Mountain/9 Eastern for our “Just My Type!” Challenge Chat! Darcy has provided a fun freebie in connection with today’s post, plus she’s giving a really cool prize to one very lucky participant. Everyone is welcome, so bring your friends! (Forum registration will be necessary to enter the chat room).

Get the inside scoop, be the first to know about new product releases & get special discounts by subscribing to our new weekly newsletter, the Log Your Memory INSIDER. Delivered directly to your INBOX every Sunday afternoon.

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