DIY star

If you are like me, you’d much rather type than write. I have never really liked my handwriting and I’m not fond of my printing either.

However our handwriting is a part of us. And if we are creating a scrapbook either for ourselves or for someone else, it’s nice to include something written by us, sharing that part of ourselves with the recipient of our scrapbook.

I have discovered a few ways to write and/or journal without pages of writing we don’t care for.

The first technique is called “hidden journaling”. This involves writing but then “hiding” what you write. Most craft stores sell small inserts for scrapbooks. These inserts resemble a page protector, but are usually half the size. You can write to your hearts content and then tuck it away inside the insert. This way, the journaling/writing is included, but it’s not what our eyes focus on when looking at a page.

The next technique for including your writing is to write in the front of the book either the theme for the book, or who the book is to, or even the date/year the book was created. This again, shows your writing style for that time in your life without having your writing all over the scrapbook pages.

The final technique for including your bad handwriting” is to be very selective and only add a letter or number here or there. For example, if you are making an album in chronological order, consider writing the year on some of the pages. Or if your album is of various people, consider writing just one letter, the first letter of the persons name on that page.

Try these techniques to incorporate your handwriting into your scrapbook albums.

Many people like to add words to their scrapbooks. Words help to tell the story behind the picture. There are several ways to add words to your scrapbook pages.

One way to journal is through premade words and phrases. You can find stickers, diecuts and word cutouts, all with different phrases. You can also use alphabet sets to create words on your pages. One page I did has my daughter’s four high school pictures, one from each year. Down the middle of the page I put the letters DPHS. In 50 years, when she looks at the page, she’ll know those 4 pictures were her four high school pictures.

Other folks enjoy writing in their albums. If you are going to write on the pages, choose an ink color that matches the color theme of your page. You can write directly on the pages, or you can write on paper and then attach the paper right to your scrapbook page.

How much, or how little you journal is completely up to you. In some cases, I just wanted a year attached to my pages, so that my kids would have a general idea of how old they were at the time. In other cases I wanted a city name or building name to remind me of where I took the picture. In yet other instances I wanted to put people’s names and a little bit about the people in the pictures.

I know some folks who included song lyrics or poems with their photos. They believe the song lyrics or poem truly tell the story of the photos on that particular page.

I have several photos of my own grandmother. On page one, I have just one photo of her, and then a lot of journaling, speaking of where she was born, what year she was born, where she grew up etc. On other pages, I put many photos of her, with very little journaling. It really depends on why you are making the album, who the album is for and what information you want to add with your photos that will determine how much journaling you’ll do.

If your children are young, or your grandchildren are young, it’s fun to ask them to write something each year and include that in the album so they can see their writing as they grow up.

Sometimes, if I have a lot to say, I’ll type it on acid free paper and then cut out what I’ve typed and add it to the page. Typed words will allow me to say a lot more than if I write the words.

Often, we want to include a photo or article from a newspaper on our scrapbook pages. My suggestion is to copy the article onto acid free paper, as the newspaper will yellow and crack with time. One friend has a son who was on the high school football game during his 4 years in high school. He was often written up in the newspaper. She copied every picture and story written about him and he now shares those stories with his own son.

Another technique I use with journaling to cut shapes; ovals, hearts etc. and then journal on those pieces of paper and then attach to my scrapbook page.

If you are making a scrapbook for a friend, it can be fun to share your thoughts, versus just telling a story. For example, maybe you and a friend had a girl’s night out and took some photos. You can share “I remember how much we laughed and laughed this night. My stomach hurt from us laughing so much”. This shares not only photos but you are also sharing yourself with your friend.

Acid free index cards are great for journaling. They are just the right size to write on and then attach to your scrapbooking pages.

There is no right or wrong way to journal. The key is to have something in words to help tell the story of your photo.

Scrapbooking is so much fun, that it’s very easy to rack up quite a bill when shopping. I know when my daughter and I visited the craft store last week, she was just mesmerized in the scrapbook aisle. She truly wanted one of everything. Today, there is so much you can add to a page, stickers, embellishments, ribbons and stamps.

So, how can you get all of the goodies without breaking the bank? I have two suggestions. The first is scrapbook kits. We belong to a monthly scrapbook club. So, every month we receive an assortment of papers, an assortment of stickers and an assortment of embellishments all in one kit. We mix and match our kits all of the time. If we never bought anything but the kits, we’d have enough materials to make many great pages. The manufacturers of scrapbook kits almost always offer a lower price on the kit versus what you would pay if you purchased each item individually. You’ll find kits available for themes, such as weddings, birthdays and summer vacations, and you’ll also find kits available for seasons, summer, winter, autumn and fall. Having two daughters, I’ve also purchased several “girl” kits. While I don’t have boys, I’ve seen baby boy kits, sports kits and car kits.

My second suggestion is clearance sales. If you are a scrapbooker, you know that you’ll be scrapbooking in a years’ time. I buy scrapbook supplies, the same way I buy clothes, after the season. Once summer is over, all of the scrapbook companies make room for their fall inventory by lowering the prices on all remaining summer products. This is the best time to buy those summer colors. The same is true in reverse. If you want the darker autumn tones of paper, wait until summer is here and then stock up. We buy a lot of discontinued products. They work great, but we get them for a fraction of the cost.

We actually combine the two ideas and buy scrapbook kits on sale, after the season. It really is possible to enjoy the hobby of scrapbooking while saving money on the supplies.