More Notes on Journaling

Here is more good information regarding journaling.

60. Photo-less journaling - Don't let a lack of photographs from a certain event keep you from recording it in your scrapbook. In addition to telling the story, describe the setting of the place, add quotes from those present and record the personalities of people to make the story complete without photos.

This is a good idea! One whole page of just journaling. I think I'll try that.

61. Send postcards - For more interesting travel pages, send a postcard to yourself while on vacation. When you receive it, add the postcard to your pages for instant travel journaling.

How about this idea...Start a travel album. 6X6 or 8X8 with just postcards you have sent yourself from where ever you have traveled and journaling about the trips.

62. Show, don't tell - A basic rule of writing that translates well to scrapbooking is using your words to show something and not just tell about it. Instead of saying a garden is beautiful, describe the colors, shapes and types of flowers that made it beautiful. Instead of saying the day was cold, say you could feel the chill of the air in your bones and describe the type of wind or precipitation.

This is a great idea and a thesaurus would come in real handy.

63. Use your five senses - Record aspects fromall five senses - touch, taste, hearing, seeing and smelling - All these things affect how we appreciate life. In your journaling, others can appreciate what you experienced too.

To me, 62 & 63 are the same thing.

64. Interviewing - Utilize the living history you have by interviewing older relatives for heritage albums. Ask them about old photos you've acquired and tape record the conversations. Use what they say for heritage scrapbook journaling.

Another use for this suggestion is interview a small child. Ask deep questions of relatives your age. Ask fun questions like - If you could have a super power what would it be?

65. Labeling - Try to include dates and names on every page of your album in some way. If pages of your album are separated in future years, these names and dates will be helpful to put the page in context.

This is usually fairly easy to do and a good idea.

66. Bigger isn't better - Large, fancy words do not make for more interesting journaling - they usually just make journaling harder to read and understand. Write in conversational manner, using words you'd say if talking.

Duh! Most folks would have to look up fancy words to add to journaling.