Open Road

Stacey Michaud

Who Says?

Don’t you all create scrapbook pages as a means to document your family history?  What better way to do that than to ask for each family member’s point of view.  Take it a step further by handing the pen or keyboard over to another peson.  Let’s relate this to photography for a moment.  When looking through that lens, each photographer’s eye sees something different.  Someone may choose to snap all close-up shots, while another may want to capture all the important background details.  If you passed your camera around at a party, you would end up with a variety of very cool shots.  They would document the same day, but would show many different perspectives. 

Think about scrapbooking again.  Imagine you are doing a layout or mini-album about your family vacation.  Instead of doing all of the writing, ask each member to provide you with his/her favorite memory from the trip.  The result would be interesting journaling that would surely engage your reader! 

For my layout, I asked my sister-in-law to write down all the reasons why she loves my son. Initially, she froze and worried about it sounding good enough to be included on a scrapbooking page.  I encouraged her to just be natural and write from her heart because, in the end, it is the sentiment and content of the words that matter most.  When she handed the paper back to me, I learned some things I didn’t know.  Years from now, my son will read this and know exactly why they have such a special bond.

On her layout, Alicia not only asked for her daughter’s point of view, but she had her daughter do all of the actual handwriting.  When her daughter made a spelling error, Alicia didn’t remove it or make her daughter start again, but kept it as a part of the final product.  It adds a special touch.  Imagine them giggling about this one day when they are both grown women. 

Nothing brings back childhood memories more than a young person’s large, immature writing.  Font designers know how much people love this style, and will often develop alphabets to mirror this handwriting.  For her layout, Arleigh went right to the source by asking her son to do the journaling.  She allowed him to write in his own words, and chose not to edit his work, which is developmentally appropriate.  Wisely so, because he will cherish this page one day as it gives a glimpse into whom he was as a young child.  The finished layout is truly unique!

Create attention-grabbing pages by putting the focus on the journaling.  A sure-fire way to make your journaling unique is to include the point of view of someone other than you.  Don’t go it alone!  Ask for the help, insight and the perspective of others.  Take it one step further and ask that person to write in her/her own handwriting.  No doubt your page will then have just the right amount of pizzazz! 

Because my sister-in-law was uncomfortable using her own handwriting, I typed what she had communicated to me, creating journaling strips.  I threaded twine through the felt heart and under the chipboard to make the ribbon tie.  I drew the red border that is all around the page.

I had my daughter write out her own journaling on the October Afternoon journaling card with 10 things that make her happy.

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