A Spot of Journalling

I know everyone scrapbooks for different reasons. Maybe it's to preserve memories, because you like having crafty time, because you want to record stories... Whatever. Mainly I do it for me. Because I enjoy it, I like jotting down anecdotes and then making them pretty and being crafty.

When it comes to journalling I don't think of it as recording memories. That part for me is taken care of by the date, place, people's names. I think of journalling as telling an anecdote. So when I make a page, the most important thing to me is getting that down and preferably, as a camera geek, getting a good photo to go with.

And journalling takes up space. Partly because I am truly fascinating, especially when I go on at length. Partly because, to be honest, I'm not that bothered about exactly where I was or exactly when it was, but I do want to remember what it was like, what I was like, how I saw the world and what it meant to me and the people with me. So I write a lot.

This is why I scrapbook. It's my pretty, crafty diary. And it makes me happy. Plus, I am fascinating. But I already mentioned that.

When I make a page, my first question is: how much space do I need to journal? And I go from there. And I know there's no right way to scrapbook. Just go with whatever floats your boat and rocks your mittens. But I recommend giving it a shot. Journal first, then worry about the photo and the pretty.

"There are many things wrong with punting in Cambridge. First of all, you have to stand on a little platform at the wrong end of the boat; inferior in every way to Oxford, naturally. Then there are all the standard punting issues: the presence of other river users, the potential of falling in etc. Then you're off: you stick the pole in, shove with all your might and end up veering wildly to the right. It costs so much effort to get facing the right way again that your net movement forwards is zero, or even negative is the current and wind are against you. And yet, despite all this, we three had a lovely time punting on the Cam, admiring the admittedly rather beautiful second-best university. We caught the first of the April sunshine, revelling in pleasant nostalgia of our halcyon days at university. Oh, and the ducklings were cute and fluffy too."

Posted on UKScrappers as part of Scrapfactor

xxx

P.S. I've been listening to some back episodes of the PaperClipping roundtable recently. If you've never listened to their free podcasts before, I say give it a shot. Basically, a panel sit around and discuss scrapbooking for an hour or so, sharing tips, ideas and inspiration. This may sound weird. It sounded utterly ridiculous to me as scrapbooking is so visual. But I like to listen to it while I mark papers and books, or for 15 mins on my iPod before bed. It's just kind of relaxing. But they'd been discussing journalling and I figured I'd share my take on this whole thing.

P.P.S. Happy Easter everyone :D