Journal Camp Week 5

Week 5 – scrapping when you don’t have a photo (putting it all together)

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Last week's winner at the end

Now it’s time for the scary finale!

Oh come on, it’s not THAT scary anymore, is it? Since the beginning of May, I’ve put out a pretty long post about journaling every week. We started small and got a little bigger each week This week, we’re going to talk about journaling when you have no photos at all, but there is still a big reason you want a moment or a feeling, good or bad, documented as part of your history. That’s when your layout depends completely on your journaling to make it more than, “oooh, pretty.” I’m not saying it shouldn’t be pretty! You want to take extra care to scrap those moments with the papers and elements that tell the reader what kind of journaling they’re reading.


The Madness

Some examples of times you’d want to do a journal-dependent layout include kids. You know and I do too, that every moment is special and has worth-documenting potential with kids. But you don’t have the camera handy or an opportunity to get a photo when you’re driving and conversation in the car is priceless, right? It’s times like that, the ones that are special beyond words, that you want to find the words to remind you of the feeling!

What about an engagement? Sometimes, someone knows and snaps a photo the first time the bride-to-be sees that ring, but more often that moment is captured in the pictures in your mind too. News on the phone can be scrapped with a photo of the phone, but the story is completely journal-dependent. There is the option of just scrapping the moment, with stock images and a simple title, but you have to journal it to tell the story.

Take a moment and think about something that happened that you don’t have photos for five years ago, just five. Did you scrap it? Did you document it? Do you really remember the details and the feeling? Even a short journal page can bring you back to the moment and the emotions that went with it.

There are no photos of the spontaneous “picnic in the upstairs living room” I did with Tori and Rina when they were little. I woke up thinking we were going to the park, like we often did, but the rain made us come up with a back-up plan. It was a fun day and a great lesson learned about not letting a change of plans get you down. It really does deserve a place in my scrapbooks or a keepsake book that the girls can enjoy. I had to remember the pictures in my mind from that day and caption them before any more of the memory goes away!

Here is Rainy Day Picnic:

Credits: At The Park by Nibbles Skribbles
Background paper by Nibbles Skribbles from Cock-A-Doodle Moo
Journaling style – Storyboard

The Method to The Madness

Doing a full journal layout is really just wrapping up all of the tips we’ve talked about into a bundle of journal blocks. My final project page will go in my 2009 scrapbook, right after the page from dinner with my husband to celebrate our first anniversary of our marriage. I used the Letter to a Friend style in the form of a letter to him. I used the tools we’ve worked with the past four weeks in creating that letter.

Thinking back to week one, I used a couple of helper journals. My grandparents eloped in 1944. Grandma told me about that when I asked her why I’d never seen her wedding pictures. She said about eloping, “If it’s good enough love, you don’t NEED a wedding.”

I always told my Grandma that I didn’t need to get married and I’d get married if I ever found a man that would love me as much as Papa loved her. She told me I’d never get married because they don’t make men like that anymore. I had told her that I had found a man that could love me enough and she seemed to have a sense of pride about it when we eloped too. It seems so fitting to remember that quote when I think about my marriage.

I also made a couple of lists.

Why eloping was the right thing for us
• Private
• no stress
• sneaky
• we got to surprise people

How you make me feel
• Loved
• Beautiful
• Safe
• Strong

Revisiting weeks 2 and 3., I wrote a caption for the three photos from the day we were married, although I’d already scrapped those photos in 2008 so I didn’t use the photos again. Then I added captions for the pictures n my mind too. There is the one of us holding hands in front of the judge on our :”wedding” day. The thought of me standing on the corner where he dropped me off waiting for him and watching the snow fall. The two of us standing in front of the closet a week before, deciding to wear outfits that matched and laughing, saying our wedding colors were blue and blue!

Following the tips from week 3, I used answers to the journaling question and commas to make my lists into blocks, or paragraphs. I embellished my captions and put them together.

The big finishing touch in putting it all together is from week 4. How does celebrating being married for a year make me feel? More in love than ever!




Exercise 5

This week’s exercise is a full journaled page. Remember that how large or small the text is completely up to you. Say all you want to say, but don’t feel obligated to write more than you need to tell your story.

Think of a special moment or a strong feeling that you don’t have pictures to go with and paint the pictures with words. Don’t forget to use the journaling skills you’ve worked on! Use some borrowed journaling for a word art or even for a first line in your journaling. Make a list of things you want to say and embellish the points to create journal text. Look at the pictures in your mind and write down captions for them that you can string together into a block, Answer the “Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.” Use the techniques that you are most comfortable with and construct a detailed journal, a story about an event in your life, an emotion in your heart or a tale in your family history

Use as many papers and layers for your base and embellish with elements, clusters, whatever you’d like, but this week, NO PHOTOS!

This week’s freebie is a four template set for full-page journals, although you can use them for a base for photo scrapbook pages too.

Click preview to go to download
Password is more-words


Here is my first anniversary page:

Credits: Kit – Cherish by SKrapper Digitals

Template – Journal Camp Template Finale 4 by Digitalegacies Designs

Remember to leave a link to your layout here. Everyone who leaves a link by June 7 will get the full kit Because of You by Digitalegacies Designs.

One random winner from the posted layouts will win a Journal Camp sponsor gift certificate for Flower Scraps’ store valued at $3.99, which will buy a full free kit!

Another random winner will get Makenzy's Garden by Pixel Perfect.

I hope you’ve had fun at Journal Camp and that you’re taking away some tips to make it easier to add great journaling to your layouts! I can’t wait to see your full journal pages!

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Last Week's winner of a coupon to Scrapp Cocoa's Ginger Scraps Store

#4 - Silly Saskatchewan

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