Open Road  

Stacey Michaud

When I hear the phrase “with a twist”, many thoughts come to mind.  Images of movies like The Sixth Sense pop into my brain.  You know, those action-packed thrillers or scary horror films that throw a last-minute surprise at you!  I think of having a martini with a twist.  Instead of using the traditional olive, a twist of lemon can be added in.  Good authors are consistently leading the reader in one direction and then throwing them a twist, keeping them motivated to read on to the last page.  Let’s face it, there are very few original ideas these days.  In order to keep people intrigued, there needs to be a twist.  Twists add a variation to a familiar theme, making something old seem new again.  Anything that has a twist suddenly becomes more interesting. 

This same principle can apply to your scrapbooking pages.  Journaling can become stale over time as many of us write in the same voice and with the same style.  One of the most common stand-bys in the world of journaling involves the "WH" questions.  Just about everyone is comfortable writing the basic information, answering who, what, where, when, why and how.  Let’s take that familiar approach and add our own twist.  What if we decided to only focus on one of the WH prompts at a time?  Would the journaling and overall theme become more interesting?  Check out the work below and judge for yourself. 

One WH prompt that many of us are familiar with involves the “who.”  We have all identified the important people in our lives.  Add a twist by using all adjectives to describe that special someone.  Create your journaling by writing down his/her nickname and describing the story behind it.  Focus on a distant relative or a person with whom you have had a strained relationship over the years.  Or share a touching story about someone.  Audrey wrote about her daughter in a poignant way, giving insight to her personality and character.

To emphasize the strength behind the words, I've broken the journaling up into several sections and used a combination of a computer-typed journaling block and hand-written journaling strips.  Breaking long chunks of text up into smaller pieces makes the journaling easier to read, and placing your journaling in several areas calls attention to its importance through the use of repetition.

Another option involves placing the emphasis on the “what”.  Think about the things in your life from favorite foods to hobbies to the plants in your garden.  You can describe the “what” or tell what it is you love about something or someone.   Want to add a different variation?  Focus on the category something falls into and begin a list that moves from the general to the specific.  Janneke’s journaling is all about her love for her computer.  She adds great detail regarding exactly what she loves about it.

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