By Guest Author: Joanna Campbell Slan
Visit her website at Scrapbook Storytelling!

More of this Feature • Part 1: Doing the Splits • Part 3: Pre-Writing-A Key to Faster and More Satisfying Journaling - Next Week!

Join the Discussion Come discuss journaling techniques with us in the Forum Take Me to the Forum

Related Resources • Quick and Easy Pages: Book Review of New Book by Joanna Campbell Slan • Journaling and Lettering • How To Get Started Journaling in Your Album: Beginner How To

From Other Guides • Journaling for Scrapbooks

Elsewhere on the Web • Scrapbook Storytelling

1) Plan for SOFJ, Sites of Future Journaling, on pages that start with visual ideas. Typically, you'll want to allow space equivalent to one photo per scrapbook page. You can plan for the space by:

• Using Greeking. If you go to my web site www.scrapbookstorytelling.com, you can download this nonsense writing. "Greeking" has been used by designers for years as a way to save space on a page while maintaining the look of type. You'll notice as you look at pages with lots of journaling that journaling has a visual weight. Solid papers have more visual weight than patterns, dark has more weight than light, and blocks of type have a medium weight unless the type is very bold (dark) or condensed. Cut your Greeking into the size photo you most often use and attach it temporarily to your page to give you the visual "feel" of how your journaling box will look.
  
• Leaving a matted journaling box. Since my journaling is every bit as important as my photos, I like to mat my journaling boxes. When I add my journaling later, I already have the look I wanted, and I don't have to hunt for matching paper.
  
• Keeping a part of your pages blank. Simply leaving space where your journaling will go is one way to plan ahead.
  
• Adding journaling lines but no verbiage. Draw the lines on your page with a pencil, if you choose, or stamp the lines on with a journaling stamp. For a new look, try using pressure embossing to add lines. These methods work particularly well if you like to journal by hand.
  
• Temporarily sticking down an SOFJ sign. Yesterday while visiting my friend Pam Landolt at All About Memories, a scrapbook store in O'Fallon, MO, I noticed a sign she'd made on her table that announced: Page in Progress. This fun notice gave her permission to leave out a page she was working on and gave me permission to sneak a peek and plan to check the page out at a later date.

Materials Used In Layout Sample Above:
WHAT A CROC -- You can go ahead and mat your journaling box and label it S.O.F.J. to save your space for that time when you sit down and get your writing done. On this page, punch art of snow flakes show from behind vellum by Colorbok. The paper is by KMA, and the swirl stamp is (c in circle) Stampin' Up! White ink is from ColorBox, pencils by Berol, and font is from Graceful Bee.
Created by Joanna Campbell Slan