Within the spectrum of Journaling 101 there are many issues. The first I wanted to talk about are the possible hand writing issue's. Now I'm not a "set in stone" kind of creator but at times I have to set some rules for myself. These rules force me outside my comfort zone. I don't believe all your lasting legacy books (Scrapbooks) have to have journaling but there is something to be said about the STORY behind the images...these stories are what creates the "mortar" within our books of lasting legacy, setting the flow of the story being told.
Writing in our scrapbooks isn't always an issues for everyone. Some people, like myself, struggle with it while others find it natural. Although I've been told my handwriting is nice, it always seems to look horrid to me and I even took a hand-lettering course in college. When I want it to look exceptionally nice for a layout it seems to go south, and I don't mean Arizona south I'm talking deep Mexico city south.
So here are my top three tips for hand-lettering issues. Either you have to become friends with your own flourishes and make nice nice with what you have, invest some time and possibly some money and take a hand-lettering class or find a hand writing alternative.
Here are six of my favorite alternatives to my own "scratch" issues.
1.) Use your computer and print out your journaling blocks. You can print onto vellum or other surfaces and get some really nice results.
2.) Use a FREE app or online software that enables you to generate some nice looking text with or without images. Either print them as photos, cut and mount them or print them on alternative surfaces direct from your own printer. I prefer picmonkey.com. They have several FREE options. There are many apps on phones like photocollage etc. that will do nearly the same thing but directly onto the photo you want to have printed.
3.) I've seen some wonderfully artistic and creative things done with word stickers. You could compile your words for your journaling from different resources of stickers leaving you with a mismatch of funky word texture. The proverbial "ransom note" effect, if you will.
4.) Use quotes for journaling from purchased quote pack's. By using a quote relative to the event your scrapbooking then simply adding the date below in your own hand writing. This can leave lots of room for doodling (which I have a huge fondness for) this of course is a minimalist approach to the hand writing avoidance issue.
5.)Find someone who's hand-lettering you like and get them to write out your journaling block for you. Or have multiple people as a "go to" source. Whats even more fun is to find multiple people who have vastly different writing styles and ask them to each contribute and mix match.
and of course when all else fails
6.) Cut out multiple pieces of cardstock for your journaling block to leave yourself mistake room. Try pre-writing it in pencil then going over it with a journaling pen. Sometimes this can help in eliminating the need for the additional pieces of cardstock.
I would like to interject here that for the future viewer of your books of lasting legacy, it is interesting for them (especially your children) to see what your hand-lettering has looked like over the years. So while you more than likely dislike "going there" you need to...They Need to see it! So maybe bargain with yourself and use your own hand lettering at least once every 10 layouts. wink wink ok every 20!
