| |
Melissashim
PeaAddict
PeaNut 547,027
March 2012
Posts: 1,069
Layouts: 14
Loc: Vancouver, BC - Canada
 |  Posted: 1/4/2013 1:28:14 AM
Dear Glitter Girl,
I need some tips for journaling.
I really dislike journaling and will finish a LO without journaling - my intention is to finish the journaling sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Any tips on how to make journaling a little easier and not so time consuming?
A factor of why I dislike journaling is because of journaling mistakes. I often do pre-write my journaling but sometimes I spell a word wrong or my cursive just looks crazy. How do you fix journaling mistakes!
Thanks! |
|
|
pcrfn
Jeepers PEApers
PeaNut 36,328
April 2002
Posts: 2,978
Layouts: 7
Loc: southern IN
 |  Posted: 1/4/2013 7:33:49 AM
Great question Melissa. I struggle with this too. Sometimes after I do my journaling, I'll read it and realize that it's really not what I wanted to say, or the "feeling" that I wanted to come across just isn't there.
And I love that Glitter Girl journals quite a bit and right on her l/o! I guess superheroes have to be brave. I want to be able to do that too.
Maria | |
|
lil_kim_003
PeaNut
PeaNut 426,306
June 2009
Posts: 67
Layouts: 14
Loc: Nova Scotia
 | Posted: 1/4/2013 10:48:13 AM
Oh gosh, the mistakes! I usually try to do my journaling in a place where it can be covered up if I mess up bad enough. If it's just a typo, I leave it. If I ignore it, it's not there. | |
|
biochemipea
likes shiny things
PeaNut 114,614
November 2003
Posts: 19,365
Layouts: 444
Loc: Ontario, Canada
 | Posted: 1/4/2013 11:01:17 AM
Journalling is really important to me! I think I'm really more of a story-teller than a scrapbooker, so I always try to tell the story of the photo.
I always pre-draft journalling. Which is strange, because I often didn't re-write or pre-read my papers for grad school before turning them in! Sometimes getting started is difficult. Just jumping in with a train of reckless thought often works well. Look at the pictures, think about that moment/event/person, and start writing what comes to mind.
One of my major getting-stuck points is when I have TOO much to say. That cute photo of my baby in one of my favourite pairs of her walking shoes that her grandma gave to her, that she would bring me to me in the morning and say "on on on" and then when I put them on she'd always check the soles to see if there were any ducks because her first pair of shoes had ducks on the bottom? Wow. That's too much to say in one page! So I try to choose ONE thing to write about. (I went with the ducks? no ducks. route). Save the rest for another layout.
For writing directly on a layout, I ALWAYS do light ruled pencil lines, and then write first in pencil. Go over in pen. Let dry. Then gently and lightly erase the pencil. Sometimes I don't even erase the pencil because I like the way the double line looks.
|
|
|
ScrapnAnita
PeaNut
PeaNut 543,365
February 2012
Posts: 97
Layouts: 0
Loc: East Texas
| Posted: 1/4/2013 12:21:43 PM
Glitter Girl's journaling on her pages look so effortless and natural. I wish I could do that!!
Is there an episode where it actually shows her writing and explaining why/where she journals on the page? I have only seen where it cuts to the finished product with the page complete and journaling complete!! | |
|
txanstolte
PeaNut
PeaNut 521,093
September 2011
Posts: 96
Layouts: 14
Loc: Texas
| Posted: 1/4/2013 1:44:50 PM
Great post, journaling can be difficult for me too. I have all the different issues other peas have posted at one point or another in my journaling. My biggest issue is spelling and leaving out words. I try to pre-journal on scrap then transfer to LO. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. If there are mistakes, I don't make big deal out on LO because I'm my worst critic. All those issues I had in school with my writing arise as I am journaling. I try to tell myself I'm not perfect, it's okay if there is mistakes. It makes it look homemade with love  |
-Crystal
crystalsscraps.blogspot.com
YouTube.com/user/txanstolte | |
|
|
Thumper1148
PeaNut
PeaNut 444,117
November 2009
Posts: 35
Layouts: 0
Loc: Novi, MI
| Posted: 1/4/2013 3:58:57 PM
I would love to see/hear the process on how Glitter Girl does her journaling. I have so many projects that I leave the journaling till the very end, cause I am not sure how to get what I want to say on paper! |
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
| |
|
|
shimelle
Garden Girl
PeaNut 2,356
January 2000
Posts: 3,584
Layouts: 351
Loc: london, england
 | Posted: 1/4/2013 4:19:59 PM
I will definitely pass this on to Glitter Girl, but just wanted to point out there's a similar discussion here with a lengthy illustrated response that might be a little useful in the meantime!
|
|
|
Just me in MI
Jeepers PEApers
PeaNut 178,994
November 2004
Posts: 2,432
Layouts: 0
Loc: MICHIGAN
 | Posted: 1/4/2013 5:20:38 PM
UGH! I hate journaling...but I know if I leave it for later it won't get done. Off to watch Shimelle's video. |
|
|
Just me in MI
Jeepers PEApers
PeaNut 178,994
November 2004
Posts: 2,432
Layouts: 0
Loc: MICHIGAN
| Posted: 1/4/2013 5:28:27 PM
It wasn't a video but Shimelle's response & the topic was great and unlike the OP I like my handwriting unless I am trying to be neat and write out my journaling. Practice makes perfect, I guess. I used to work at a school and was always writing now not so much. Better get writing  |
|
|
stwa
BucketHead
PeaNut 426,757
June 2009
Posts: 611
Layouts: 46
Loc: Geelong, Victoria, Australia
| Posted: 1/24/2013 10:37:18 PM
I like to write my journalling as if I am explaining the photo to someone who is there. If I have a heap of photos from the same event (like a wedding) I'll write about the people in them and about stories I have of them that don't have photos |
|
|
cmpeter
PEAceful Pea
PeaNut 14,521
April 2001
Posts: 34,355
Layouts: 31
Loc: Washington State
 | Posted: 1/24/2013 10:47:22 PM
I am the same way and will often journal on the back of a layout. Then I can write to my heart's content and not worry about how it looks, fitting it in, etc. |
|
|
PaperTulip
PeaNut
PeaNut 567,278
September 2012
Posts: 159
Layouts: 2
| Posted: 1/24/2013 11:43:03 PM
I hate journaling, but mainly because I like to sit with whoever is looking at my albums and tell them the stories myself. | |
|
stwa
BucketHead
PeaNut 426,757
June 2009
Posts: 611
Layouts: 46
Loc: Geelong, Victoria, Australia
| Posted: 1/25/2013 1:03:07 AM
I like the idea of journalling on the back of layouts. If there was a heap I wanted to write or things that I don't want everyone to read. Then you can make as many mistakes as you want! |
|
|
shimelle
Garden Girl
PeaNut 2,356
January 2000
Posts: 3,584
Layouts: 351
Loc: london, england
| Posted: 1/25/2013 3:28:37 AM
If anyone missed it, Glitter Girl answered this question in her video this week. You can find it here. It's 30 minutes long, so you might want to schedule it in later if you're short of time now!
I hate journaling, but mainly because I like to sit with whoever is looking at my albums and tell them the stories myself.
For anyone who falls in this camp and would like their albums to continue to exist and make sense once you are gone (which I fully appreciate is not everyone, and that is totally okay), I would really encourage you to turn on a recorder of some kind while you do this. Telling our stories aloud rather than writing them is very much part of the human experience and something people have done for far more generations than writing, but stories are lost when memories fail, and that's why we find ourselves with old pictures we know must be of someone in our family tree but we don't know who or why they took that picture, etc. I suppose there is some merit in leaving gaps for the future generations to dig up with their own genealogy projects (I did a little digging about my family tree last year and definitely learned some interesting things!) but if we want to leave a fuller story rather than leaving the future to guess, recording our conversations would be another way to include those details if writing is not your thing. You can use your computer or phone or go a bit old-school and save the file to a disk or archive it online with a note of a link inside your album cover. (I think archiving it online is a longer-term option, as we could of course use a tape recorder but it's hard enough to find a tape player now - it will be harder in thirty years! But the internet has a pretty good habit of making it possible to see stuff that has been online a long time.)
To those who write on the backs of layouts: I'm all for this too. I wrote this article back in 2001 when people would look at me like I had three heads when I said I often included 'hidden journaling'. Writing on the back of the page is definitely part of that. With the years of experience between way-back-then and now, I would say this: if you want the journaling on the back of the pages to be known, include a note inside your album cover to say so. If you prefer it only be found by accident or by someone who is reallllllllly inquisitive and just happens to look, then don't leave a note. There are so many reasons you may or may not want others to read what you write, but if you do want others to read, I think it's fair to let them know so they have a fighting chance in finding it, otherwise they may be so respectful to your albums that they would never dream of taking the pages out and looking at the other side.
I've written a little more about this subject on my blog with this week's adventure (just a teensy bit) but really just wanted to say thanks for giving me the chance to make a Glitter Girl video on something that is so important to why I scrapbook at all.
 |
|
|
treyaut
PeaNut
PeaNut 427,211
June 2009
Posts: 486
Layouts: 3
Loc: in my scraproom in PA
| Posted: 2/5/2013 6:38:14 PM
I stopped fretting over this years ago when I remembered why I began Scrapbooking. It wasn't to have the perfect handwriting. It wasn't to have everything spelled perfectly (although that would be great). It wasn't even to have my journaling perfectly straight. Nope all of the above would be spectacular BUT my reason for Scrapbooking trumps all those reasons. Which is to document the life of my children, my family, my friends, my vacations, my likes and dislikes, my life. Works for me!!!!  |
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2013 - Layouts Completed - 80
2013 - Mini Albums - 5
| |
|
|
stwa
BucketHead
PeaNut 426,757
June 2009
Posts: 611
Layouts: 46
Loc: Geelong, Victoria, Australia
| Posted: 2/5/2013 7:59:04 PM
What a great attitude treyaut!
I found a layout recently of me and my best friend from when I first started scrapbooking. It had the title 'if you weren't real I would make you up' and no journalling. I think possibly I hadn't finished the layout yet but not sure.
Well a faint memory came back to me of a song and I realised that the title was lyrics from a song we used to sing! But I only just remembered and it's only 5 years on. In 5 more years I would probably look at it and think 'what was I thinking?'
I am going to go back through and write journalling on all those pages I've forgotten to finish or haven't seen the need. I do now. There are parts of the story I've forgotten already and I hate that. |
|
|
