When I started scrapping six years ago, I made the mistake of showing my sister and brother-in-law my first pages I had created. After reading some of the journaling, I overheard him tell my sister that my pages were "cheesy".
CHEESY?!
Had I not been holding my baby girl, I think I would've kicked him in the groin. And I am not a violent person by any means. After the initial hurt wore off, it made me realize two things:
1. My journaling was a bit on the cheesy side and 2. it helped me find my voice.
Back then, I wasn't writing from my heart (or my completely warped mind). I was writing for my eighth grade English teacher. And that, my fellow scrappers, did not work.
So I ask you these questions: what are your strengths when it comes to journaling? What is your voice? What does it sound like? Is it sentimental or sarcastic? Is it eloquent or succinct? Is it sweet or dry? Is it all of the above? Whatever it is, as long as you write for yourself, you can't go wrong.
And hopefully these journaling prompts will help get your creative juices flowing.
Conversations:
This was a real conversation but who's to say you can't make it up too?
and then inside of the card:
Remember photo tip #3 from yesterday and how you shouldn't delete any photos? These were in my "Never going to proof file" and now look. :)
The great thing about babies other than the fact they're squishy is that they don't talk. So I made stuff up all the time when Charlie was a baby.
Double Duty: if any of you twitter or make status updates to your Facebook wall then the hard parts are already done for you.
At the end of the year, Facebook has an application where you can print off all your status updates you've made throughout the year. So easy...
Tell a story in a fairytale fashion:
I know this has been covered in journaling books in the past but I just wanted you all to see this layout. It's one of my favorites. I especially like the "The wife was right" part. :D
Observations: kids do some wonky things.
Your occupation: I am a SAHM to three. It's a job I can never quit or retire from. It's a job where you get no sick days or vacations. And don't even get me started on the pay...
Use art instead of words:
You could also cut up your children's artworks and make a collage out of them.
Milestones: and I don't mean just the big ones like the examples I'm going to show you. I'm talking about the ones like, when will my children be old enough to do their own laundry? When did they start bathing themselves? When did they stop holding my hand? When will the magical healing powers of kisses stop working? I could think about this topic for days. It's a big one for me.
Your dreams and prayers:
Well, I hope these journaling prompts gets some of you scrapping. Like today.
:)
