Journaling and Merger Layouts

Journaling

I like rereading these old Idea Books from Creative Memories 'cause I'll always find something I haven't tried yet.  The journaling is something I do, but I have to admit it takes me a while to get around to it.  This is terrible because pictures need to be journaled while it's fresh in our minds, and besides how interesting are family photos without words?

"Bullet Journaling includes the who, what, where, when, and why written either under each photo or as a paragraph detailing events on an entire page.  It is normally a list of words, descriptive phrases or sentences that capture the main details of the event.

"Quick Captions and Comments journaling lets you reflect on what is happening in a photo and may tell why you took the photo.  Often, captions or subtitles can set a mood or tone, and they may describe what the thought and feelings of the pictures are.  Examples include quotations, anecdotes or poems.

"Storytelling is writing the facts or information of the event in paragraph form.  This provides a full illustration of the event and will capture more of the details.  If you are writing from the heart and sharing special feelings, storytelling may be your best option."  (Scrapbook Page Design and Layout Ideas, Vol. VII, p. 11; Illustrations by Shelly Parks 1/94 and Adapted from article by Nancy G. Hill).

Merger Layouts

The layout photo at the top shows a type of Merger Layout where you mount miscellaneous photos from different events on a single page or two-page spread.  I did a whole album based on "themes."  It turned out really cute and interesting ("Counting Sheep," "Boo Boo Page," "Water Fun," "Smiles"...).  

I save room in my albums by arranging photos by seasons, unless it's something like Christmas which gets its own page.  That way I don't use too many duplicate photos, and only the most interesting and well-taken photos are displayed in my albums.  The rest are kept on disc or (as with my pre-cd photos) in a photo box.  

From now on, I plan on using one color of ink for photos from the same event on my 2-page season layouts.  Such as for Fall I might use deep purple, burnt orange, and sienna for the three autumn birthdays--another color for the annual campout and corresponding school colors for cheerleading and cross country.  I really like the idea of similar colored photo mounting paper for pictures from the same events.  (Inspired from Scrapbook Page Design and Layout Ideas, Vol. VII, p. 77).