Here is a scrapbooking-layout-idea

Your scrapbooking-layout-idea - How to Journal for Scrapbooking Author: Karen Messitt

Well, you've done it again; made a beautiful layout. You're really happy with your design; you love the photo, and now comes the part you dread: Journaling.

Scrapbooking magazines are full of layouts where the heartfelt, poignant journaling just seems to fit perfectly with the photos...and yet when you come to do it..you have scrappers block!! I know how you feel. I have albums full of layouts with simply a title. I still feel that I prefer some of them like that, but there are lots where I wanted to write something special, and just didn't know how to start. Here is a scrapbooking-layout-idea

Well it's easy...once you know how. Forget about being cheesy, and long winded poems. Journaling is designed to say something to someone. Once you've decided who you are talking to its easy.

Who is the album for? Who will be reading it in years to come? What do you want them to feel when they look at your layouts?

Once I addressed these questions, journaling became a walk in the park. I do mainly albums for my kids, so I talk to them in my journaling, the same way I speak to them day to day. If I wrote flowery love letters to them, they wouldn't recognize it as my voice. I jot them notes; what happened, how funny it was, how wonderful these simple moments were in our lives. I speak to them in journaling as the adults they will become, about how I felt during their childhood so that when they have their children they can say "yes Mum, I feel that too" Journalling of a day at the beach may simply be " Jason, you thought you were the bees knees when you finally stood up on your little plastic surfboard..As usual Sam, you stayed close to your little brother, always protecting him. I'm so proud of the love you have for one another". See...simple!! Here is a scrapbooking-layout-idea

If you still feel too exposed by putting any personal sentiments on paper for anyone to read, why not do what I do for private messages: simply do them in the form of a letter that you can fold and put on your layout in an envelope, or under a tag. That way only the person for whom the message is intended will read it. Here is a scrapbooking-layout-idea

I still don't journal every single layout, and don't let the journaling police make you feel like you have to!! But I am especially proud of the layouts I have done where I have been able to really communicate a feeling to someone. In years to come, long after I am gone, I'll bet that these are the pages that my children will come back to again and again.!! Here is a scrapbooking-layout-idea

If you need some added inspiration you can find lots of Free Scrapbooking Ideas at the http://www.hot-scrapbooking-idea.com website.

About the author:

Karen Messitt is one of Australia's leading scrapbooking teachers and Founder of the Karen Messit Scrapbooking http://www.kmscrapbooking.com website.

Here is a scrapbooking-layout-idea