Do More With Less: 10 ways to journal on your layout.

I think that journaling is one of the most important aspects of scrapbooking. Even when the perfect photo seems to tell the entire story, somehow, the addition of words makes it even better.

I am not the sort to plan my pages…just like to go with the flow and see where my creativity takes me. This does pose problems for journaling…especially when I get overzealous with embellishing and *gasp* leave no space for journaling! Here are 10 ways to journal on your layout.

1. Handwrite on the background of your photo.

This is my fave way to journal. And works very well on distracting backgrounds that you are too lazy to edit before you print out your photos. When the background is dark, I use a white pen and vice versa.

2. Use a journal tag.

A coordinated journal tag blends in with the overall design and is an unobtrusive way to add your journaling. [Actually the journaling tag was added to hide a boo boo on the photo *LOL*]

S and his little sister layout.

3. Write on your photo mat.

The texture paste on the background meant an uneven surface for writing so I created larger photo mats which I could journal on.

4. Utilize the space along the perimeter.

I love to journal along the perimeter because it usually blends in with the overall design of the page. Just pick a colour that already appears on your layout.

Whatzup layout.

This one’s a total time saver. 🙂

Grandpa’s birthday cake layout.

6. Keep the journaling close to the title of the page.

Because it’s a pretty busy layout and I wanted to journal directly on the patterned paper, I kept it in close proximity to the title of the page for a cohesive look.

7. Use journaling strips.

The upside to this method is that you can “test” how it looks before fully committing it to the page.

Everybody loves leftovers.

8. Blend it in with your embellishments.

I wanted the photo and the titlework to be the focal point of this piece so I blended my journaling with my embellishment cluster….[can you spot it?]

Hooray for goodie bags layout.

9. Create a journal mat that blends in with the design of the page.

Here I was working a grid format so I just created a journal mat that blended in with the overall design of the page.

Fresh clean day layout.

10. Print journaling on transparency.This allows you to seamlessly incorporate the journaling as part of your design. [Actually I don’t own a light blue journaling pen …*LOL*]There you have it. 10 ways to journal on your layout. Which is your fave way to journal? P/s: Not big on journaling? Check out 4 sneaky ways to tell your story without actually journaling.