If you’ve ever looked at layouts that have awesome journaling and wondered,
“How do they DO THAT?!!!”
you’ll be so happy you took the time to read this!
Writing isn’t a natural skill for all of us. Some of us work really hard to write in a way that feels natural. Yes… this includes me!
It can be hard to figure out what story you should be sharing on a layout.
Let’s take an example.
You have a photo of your kid on their birthday. (Well… you probably have about 72 photos, but let’s just overlook that for now. 😉)
You could…
- tell us how old your child is, or just pop a great big 7 on the page and it will be obvious without journaling.
- tell us how big they are getting, but I guarantee you did that last year when they turned 6 and were also getting really big, and probably when they turned 5 too.
- tell us what presents they received, or just put a little list on the side which doesn’t really require journaling.
Yup… those are boring.
What can we do instead? How can we find a REAL story to tell?
JOURNALING TIP
JOURNALING TIP: Show a friend.
I want you to show a friend your photos. You can do this in-person or online. It’s best if you’re actually talking to them while showing the photos, not just typing/texting.
Here’s what happens.
As soon as you show your friend the photos, you’ll start to tell them about all of the things that happened that ARE NOT part of the photo.
What funny thing did your kid say? What happened right before the party started? What happened that made you never want to have 12 kids in your house again?
In this layout my son is 3… not 7, and yes, it’s a birthday photo, but the funny story about the balloons only became good journaling for a layout AFTER I showed my friend the photo. I couldn’t help but tell her about the funny thing that happened when Joe saw the custom balloons with his name on them.
If you’d like more tips on adding journaling to your pages don’t miss this: 5 Tips for Journaling… So Easy it Feels like Cheating!
You can also listen to the Podcast episode and learn the 5 tips… they really are easy!
I’ll be back next week with another journaling tip.
If you create a layout using this technique I’d LOVE to see it! Please tag me on Instagram @aliceboll
Happy scrapping!
Alice.