Sunday School: The Write Way

Schools in session! So the last few weeks we have focused on the presentation of our journaling but we haven't looked at content. If you are anything like me journaling is a chore and if a template has a large text area I will be thinking to myself how can I avoid writing that much whilst I scrap my page! I know this is the wrong attitude after all we scrap to preserve our memories and I know when I look back in years to come I will want to read those stories, as will future generations. So today I am going to give you my top tips for writing meaningful journaling.

1. Look at the photo or series of photos that you are scrapping and think about the questions you would ask about these photos if you had no memory of the event.  This is the information that future generations will want to know as well so use the answers to these questions to prompt your journaling.  Remember the five W's! Who is in the photo? Where are they? What are they doing? When was it taken? Why was it taken? 

2. If you don't have any memory yourself of the photo you need to interview someone who can help you with that information before it is lost for ever. With todays technology it is easy, post a photo to your facebook or twitter feed and invite your friends or family to post their memories about it.  It is also really quick to attach a photo to an email and send it along with a quick note asking for information.  If the generations you need to interview are not up to date with technology then you need to take time to sit down with them and record their memories. Don't forget your paper and pen or a dictaphone if you have one.  My iphone has a fantastic voice recorder app on it which is perfect for this.

3. Your calendar is your friend! We are a busy family and always have lots going on. I use iCal on our Mac to keep track of all our events throughout the month. So by the end of the month we have a great record of everything we did. Just as it is it contains all the basic information I need for a layout; the date and where we were. However iCal can go one step further I can add notes to a calendar entry really quickly. So at the end of the day if something special has happened I will make a note of it to prompt my journaling. I can also attach photos to the actual calendar entry as well which makes it really easy to find the photos that go with that event too.  

4. Going one step further than using a calendar is to keep a journal. I used to do this as a teenager and I still have some of them around. They really make interesting reading and help me to remember the joy and angst of my teen years. But as adults with hectic lives how many of us actually have time to do this now? I know I certainly don't! However again technology offers a quick and convenient solution. OhLife is an online personal journal service that is quick easy and free to use. The site emails you daily prompting you to record what has happened that day. Making your diary entry is as easy as replying to an email and it can be as long or as short as you like. Your entries are archived and kept private for you to access whenever you like. Your daily email also includes a random past entry which hopefully will motivate you to keep posting entries and may even inspire what you scrap that day.

I hope that you will enjoy using some of these tips to help you find more content for your pages and preserve those precious memories for years to come.

Have a happy scrappy week!