13 Ways to Personalize your Page Kit #6: Journaling

Since we turn THIRTEEN this year, we're releasing 13 new kits this month and for each kit we release, I'm blogging about another way to take that page kit and make it your own. We've shown the versatility in our page kits with our first 5 releases and their revamps. They are great on their own for the scrapper who is in a time crunch, or they are a great starter kit for those who want to use their creativity to take them to the next level. We've explored embellishments, inking, pop up dots, expansion, and sewing as ways to make these kits your own. With our newest release, Bridal Shower, I've decided to incorporate journaling into my page kit to remember special moments about the day.

Personalization Option #6: Journaling

My little brother is getting married this fall and wedding planning is in full swing. My future sister-in-law, Laura, is pretty much the best. She's down to earth but stylish, she's up for adventure but grounded, and she's thoughtful and incredibly kind. We can't wait for her to officially join the family. She knows how much we love her, but we wanted to throw an extra-special bridal shower to welcome her into the fold. I want to remember all of those details for years to come, so journaling was a great way to keep those memories alive! 

Journaling used to be a daunting thing to me. It was hard for me to decide what I want to write about - do I want to just write key facts about the event or do I want to write a story that captures some part of it? It was hard for me to choose where to place it on the page - do I really want to take up a photo mat? How much space to I want to devote to it? Where will it look most natural? I even wondered if I should hand-write it or if I should type it so it looked perfect. 

Those questions and my indecisiveness held me back from putting words to paper. Then, about a year ago, I was going through some of my great grandmother's old things and I found a box of photos. Some of those photos had names on them, but the majority of them did not. There were many people in the photos that I did not recognize and it was really sad for me to realize that these people's stories - people she valued enough to hold on to - were lost. We may never know their stories. That's when I decided that journaling was going to be regularly incorporated into my memory keeping. 

There are MANY ways to journal. The simplest way is to post facts. If you remember the 5 Ws from English class, that'll get you started - Who? What? Where? When? Why? Even answering these basic questions will give enough of the story to jog your memory and to pass down to future generations. You can use simple bullet points or write a short paragraph about the event or the person you're celebrating on the page. There is no wrong way to do it - that's the beauty of it! 

If you're still kind of intimidated, take a look at what other people have done and find a style that works for you. I have found this blog post - 20 Lessons on Scrapbook Page Journaling by Debbie Hodge from Get it Scrapped - to have a bunch of wonderful suggestions and ideas. You can check them out and try some yourself!

Before we get to my journaling, let's take a quick look at the page kit before I made changes:

Original Bridal Shower Layout

Isn't it the cutest? All those awesome gifts! I really love how this layout is set up - especially the right side with the presents and the photo mats alternating, so I decided to set up my layout exactly like this and use the bottom photo mat on the right side as my target for journaling space.

First, I needed to decide what information I wanted to incorporate. I decided to do a little mixture of facts and a story. I wanted to remember some details from the day: the food served, the people who attended, the gifts she received, and the games we played. That's a lot of information to fit into a small space, so I made a little flip-up book to attach to the page kit. 

I started by cutting 4 x 6 pieces of cardstock to write on. I then wrote on each of those pieces leaving about a 1/4 - 1/2 inch margin at the top so I could bind the pages. 

The first page was a short detailing of the party highlights. I like writing paragraphs because it gets some of my voice and my style into the writing. I made sure to add a date and location and some other details into the page.

It was important to me to list those who were in attendance and how they were related to the bride and groom.  

I thought it might be interesting to future generations to see the kinds of things we gave as shower gifts!

Food and games make the party what it is! I wanted to make sure I listed them as well.

Once I had written out all of my information, I bound the cards together, with a cover page, by punching two holes through the top and running bakers twine through the holes and tying it to bind the pages together.  I then wrote the couple's name on the front and the dates of the shower and their upcoming wedding. 

To be honest, I don't love my handwriting. It's a point of self-consciousness and there are times when I'd much rather print everything to make it look nicer, but I always try to hand-write - as long as it's legible - because it's a piece of me to carry forward. I love looking at my great-grandmother's script. It's so much more meaningful to me than the typed descriptions. So I try to get over my insecurity and continue to hand-write.

And there you have it! A simple little book of journaling to add context to the photos and give a little more of the story from my perspective. It's such a simple way to pass down even more of the memories to your loved ones!

That's all for our 6th installment! I'd love to hear how you incorporate journaling into your pagekits! Let me know in the comments. And stay tuned this week for even more ways to personalize your kits with two new releases this week. As always, check out our facebook page for those great birthday deals going on all month long!