Journaling on Small Vellum

Here's a nifty trick for successfully printing on smaller pieces of vellum or scraps of cardstock. Print your text onto a sheet of plain letter-size paper. Now adhere a small piece of vellum or transparency over the text with removable tape, adhering only edges that will feed into the printer first. Return the paper to the printer and print the text again. You're guaranteed to have perfectly lined up text on a small piece of vellum or transparency.

Clasps

1. use a safety pin or hair barrette as a unique way to attach an element to your page
2. mini clothes pins or metal clips can be used to hold ribbon, journaling, tags or photos in place

Hinges

1. attach hinges to our design with brads or eyelets
2. use small hinges that open fully to make mini photo books or to hide journaling behing a photo mat
3. attach journaling boxes or tags to the page witha series of hinges to create an interactive page with hidden surprises

Dictionary Style Journaling

Here's a technique used to define the qualities of a person, emotion or event.

On the computer, type the description of your thoughts or emotions. Select a font that looks like a dictionary entry or expresses the words you want. Print our on regular paper.

Using removable tape to adhere mulberry paper over the typed page and onto the light box. The light box allows you to see the typed text through the mulberry paper. Trace over the text with the pen, transferring the hournaling onto the mulberry paper.
(NOTE: if you don't have a light box, a sunny window works great)

Tear coordinating cardstock to create your journaling block. Trim the mulberry paper to fit your block. To give a feathered edge to the mulberry, lightly wet the edges with water and tear along the wet edge.

Great Journaling Ideas About and By your Kids

Make a list of everything your child carries in his backpack, purse or stashes in a school locker. These items speak volumes about their personalities.

Have your child make a list of his likes and dislikes and include them on a page with extra snapshots. Include his handwritten list or other samples of their handwriting.

Ask your child to recount his perfect day, then design a page with his wishes in mind. Remember to use the same language he did to catch her personality.

Carry a small tape recorder or notebook. If you're carrying a recorder, make sure you have good batteries anda tape with room to spare.

Type or handwrite a transcript of a conversation between children. You and your children will love looking back to see what they thought at different ages.

If you've recorded our child's voice, incorporate them into a page with a Memory Button or by enclosing the actual tape in a small envelope (although for storing purposes and for time, this may not be the best option)

Create Personalized Tags and Journaling Blocks

Here's a great way to create your own personalized text boxes for tags or captions.

In MS Word, click on the Oval shape located on the lower taskbar. A big box will appear. Left click inside this box to show your image.

Another option:

In MS Word, click Insert at the top menu bar and select Picture then AutoShapes. There should be a dialog box on the screen (you can left click on it and drag it up to add it to your menu bar). Drag your mouse over the differnt shapes to view their name. Click a shape option and it will open a list of different shapes. Choose one. After choosing a shape, a big box will appear. Left click inside this box and your image will appear.

You can do several things with your shape now:
1. resize it (by clicking on the shape and dragging the corners and/or sides)
2. rotate it (by clicking on the shape to reveal a green button at the top which you click on and drag around)
3. fill it with color (by right clicking and choosing Format Auto Shape)
4. write in it (by right clicking and choosing Add Text)
5. change the font
6. center align, right align, left align the font

There are also Stars, Banners & Quote boxes to choose from as well.

Once finished, you can print this out onto plain white paper or for a great accent, print it out on cardstock. Your local office supply store will have several colors to choose from. I prefer white.

How to Print in a Circle

In MS Word, go to Word Art (the blue angled "A" in the Auto Shapes menu). Pick the solid, black curved one (on mine, it's top row, third from the left) then, type in what you want your title/lettering to say. Now Click on the "ABC" icon (still in Auto Shapes) and pick the shape you want (on my computer, I picked the 2nd row, 4th from the left - circle). To adjust the font sizes, play around with it. Click on your printed lettering and drag the corners of the boxes until you get what you want.

It's that simple

Journaling

The journaling aspect is very important when it comes to scrapbooking. What you write tells half the story. Without the writing, the photos' meaning could be lost in coming years. So what are you supposed to write? Follow these tips to get started:

• Start with what you know, the rest will follow. It doesn't have to be perfect, just begin the story by jotting down notes. Your brain will add the rest.

• You might want to leave space for future journaling. It doesn't have to be written all at once. Feel free to go through the layouts of all of your pages first and then return to the beginning to write.

• If you're stuck finding the perfect phrase or quote, check out an on-line source to give you a boost. If nothing comes out still, just move on and come back to it later.

• Never forget the 5 W's: WHO is in the photo and who took it, WHAT the occasion was, WHERE and WHEN it took place, and WHY you chose that particular photo. These can help you significantly when finding the story.

• For ideas for how to write, try thinking about your scrapbook as being written to a person. Pretend as if someone is going to pick up the book and begin reading it.

• If you don't want to miss out on the details, carry around a little notebook that you can jot stuff in. Even if it seems silly now, it will come in handy later.

• If you don't necessarily want the detailed narration all over the page, consider bulleting some information. Bullets are short, sweet, and to the point.

• Sometimes you just run out of words or can't figure out how to say things right. Try using quotes, poems, and sayings. Often times people have already expressed your exact feelings perfectly.

Not a Fan of your Handwriting?

Some people just don't like their handwriting. If you'd rather not put your handwriting where everyone else can see it, try following these tips:

• Hidden journaling is a fun, creative way to still put your own handwriting in your scrapbook without revealing it readily to others. These can be pockets, folded cards, or any assortment of methods that hide your writing effectively.

• Consider typing on the computer. The advantage to computer fonts is that they're consistent, look nice, can be formatted to fit almost anywhere, and you get the handy spell-check.

• The long way around this problem is to just improve your handwriting on your own.

Journaling Strip with Dymo

I saw this once and it really works well! You will have to use one of the hand-held Dymo Label makers (like the old fashioned ones).

Don't forget to use a sanding block to lightly sand the top of the strip so the letters pop out.

Some of these hand held Dymos have different "wheels" which can be interchanged for different fonts and characters. Walmart and Target seem to have had the best selection and best prices. You can also go to an office supply store for a wider selection.

This is also a great way to use up some of those scraps!

Have fun and enjoy!