Review : Journalling Solutions For Scrapbooks

I bought a book from Creating Keepsakes entitled as above.  This book is published by Leisure Arts in Arkansas.  This product is manufactured under license for Creative Crafts Group, LLC., Creative Crafts Group Company, publisher of Creating Keepsakes® scrapbook magazine.  This detail might be useful if you want to get one copy for yourself and also to clear any confusion occurred about this book.  Some of us might known the Creating Keepsake stuffs and all.  Love them!

I bought in at the last Big Bad Wolf event and I was excited that I managed to buy such book.  This is one out of other big box of books I bought.  I bought it for the sake of both enhancing my journalling skill and also for the assignment I have to finish on.  

This book tells you that if you are ever feel puzzled when it comes to make a journalling behind every photos, you are not alone & that is why you have to own this book.  I think it is a great helper for the beginners especially, and to whoever wants to try some new approaches we will find the answers in the book.  The writers gathered together anything we need to know from the very basic things to journalling.  It is easy to follow and inspiring.

The book is filled with coloured pages and inspiring scrapbook pages of different owners.  Not only we can refer to journalling tips but we can also refer to the layout pages and inspired by them and make some of your own.  I love the layout of the whole presentation of this book. It is a 287 pages thick and paperback cover.  It consists of four chapters and one section of 'printable quotes for scrapbooks'. 

Whenever I try to write something I will make sure to refer to this book.  What fonts should I use, how big should I make, how to make it simpler but compact with info and etc.  Useful and fun tips and tricks as well as other advises.

Front cover page

Colored pages

Tips and tricks

Lists

I would recommend this to anybody who wants to up grade their journalling skill.  It is so inspiring and helpful!  I hope they produce more books from time to time.  I bet they are because this book was published in 2011.

How : Write the perfect travel journal

Follow these simple tips from the travellers behind award-winning Wanderlustmagazine for a travel journal that will keep your memories alive for years to come.

Ask yourself Who’s the diary for? Is it just for you to read – or to share with your friends? This could influence what you put in or leave out! It will also influence the tone and style in the way you write.

A journal is a wonderful memoir When writing your notes think about what you’ll want to remember from the trip in ten, 20, or even 30 years time.

The beginning and the end Use the beginning and end of the journal to set the scene, as a reference.

Things you might want to include are: your itinerary; your route plotted on a map; a ‘cast list’ of people you meet en route (include brief descriptions or even photos to job your memory); contact details of the people you would like to keep in touch with (and do keep in touch with them!); lists of ‘top moments’ or ‘best bits’ from your trip – best sunset, view, meal, restaurant etc.

Bring your journal to life

Entries don’t have to be chronological 

Write whatever catches your imagination, whenever it occurs to you.

You don’t have to record everything 

What you leave out is as important as what you put in.

Use dialogue 

Funny things you’ve overheard, or as conversation with a camel driver, for example.

Use ALL your senses 

Write about the sounds, smells, tastes and even textures.

Avoid listing your activities/descriptions/surroundings '

And then I did this... and then I did that’, it’s a captivating story not a repetitive list.

Illustrate it The act of drawing a building, termite mound or character will help etch them in your memory.

Scrap it!Stick in tickets, bottle labels, snippets from local newspapers, receipts etc –use the pocket in the back of the journal to hold them or stick them in next to the day they refer to – leaving you with a thick, full memory to look back on.

The practicalities

Give a day and date for each new memory – or you’ll forget what happened when.

Leave gaps here and there – you’ll be able to add things in as/when you remember them.

Get it down on paper while it’s fresh – it will be much more vivid. If there’s not enough time for a full description, jot down a few key words, which will jog your memory and fill in the gaps later.

It’s your journal so stick to what interests YOU. If you want to record distance in miles covered, units of wine drunk, funny road signs, tacky souvenirs, or cute cats then great – that’s your prerogative.

Enjoy yourself! Your travels and trips are fun – and your journal should be too! For you – the writer – and for those who will later read it.

this is written by Lyn Hughes and taken from Wanderlust!

Notebook: Midori Traveler's

Yeah, Notebook time~  I have been keeping this entry for a quite long time because the internet connection from the place I live right now, it is pretty messed up ==.  

Ok!  Midori traveler's notebook is from Japan & if you are interested with the Japan's site, click me.  And yeah the 'Traveler' name is the company it's from.  The midori is green in Japanese.  

The MIDORI brand creates paper products, including letters, greetings cards, colored papers and stickers, and creative design stationery with sophisticated designs.  Since its establishment in 1950, the Midori brand has been popular with many customers and has produced many hit products and long sellers.  In addition to sophisticated designs, we manufacture goods that combine both beauty and functionality by paying special attention to beauty and materials used.

We can use this to jot down any important & precious moments when travelling.  But you may also use it for another purpose too; for instance, list books, planner & etc.  Just rely on your creativity!  

Below are some photos of the cute and classy notebook I found randomly!  They are not mine~

Another product set from the company
Woa this is so classy and awesome!

A short video on Midori Art Journal

for more visit here

From these to those #1

These are what we get if we type 'diary' in Google search engine.  Obviously these brilliant photos are not mine.  I would love to get any of these and read them!  It is not always the content that attract me but in this case, the fully filled page of words that amazed me!  And also the fact that they are classic and vintage.  As you can see, to me, diary is all about writing.  There are a lot paragraphs of words.  Date and day are two most important and you don't want to lose it again in your record of writing!  And then write anything on any events that occurred on that day.  

And then we have these.  A lot of writing but with a little bit of drawings and photos are included too.  It gets more fun from here.  The top right photo is a garden diary and I guess so is the bottom right.  Wow that is new to me.  See, people can get anything to look cool and fun.  It can be all about you or diary of your cats.  Some are not fond with writing lengthy story and if you are one of them, you can always draw or doodle.  Be fun and let your creativity flows into your pages.  

Next are these pages!  We will get these result when we type 'journal' in the Google.  They are filled with colourful and I believe these were made with watercoloring?  There are drawings and these are taken from the same source.   It's a travel journal.  Inspire yet?  

These are more to visual art journal.  Mostly coloured and less writing.  I bet the people behind these are more expressive through visual.  They tell stories through drawings and paintings and they do it in books!  I love these ideas.  Whenever we look back at these even though sometimes they didn't come out the way we want them to be, they always have this eccentric values.  So, if you don't like what you see, don't throw them just yet, wait a few more years and you will be glad.  A nice feeling indeed.

I think that's it for now even though I have a lot more to write!  We will see more of other types of journal, well I think at least they started with a basic journal up until what we have right now.  Any way is great!  So are you inspire yet? =D

I guess they evolved? 

We will get to scrapbook!

Why Keep a Journal?

source

Journaling grants you immortality. Think of the billions of people who have and will perish from the earth without leaving a trace of themselves behind. They vanish into the ether, completely forgotten in the annals of history. A journal helps make you immortal. It is an tangible piece of evidence to leave behind that you were here! That you lived and loved! That there was such a person as Jared Matthews who lived in Austin, Texas who thought and breathed and died.

- Brett & Kate McKay

This excerpt gives most of it on why we should keep a journal and this is only one out of many reasons on why we should keep a journal.  Maybe one journal at a time and that'll do.  Click the writers' name for more.  They'll inspire you and me.  I agree with the above saying.  We all naturally want to be remembered and always hoping that we could leave something that is worth for others to keep and perish.  Our stories are always inspiring to others just like how others' inspired us this whole time.  Well, another man's trash is another man's treasure.  As written by the same writers, they also mentioned in the same entry how our children and grandchildren will want to read it.  It's true!  Whenever I stayed over in my relatives' house, I wonder if there anything I can read and flip through.  So far, I just found some old photo albums!  

Speaking of the photo albums, now that we all love to take numerous photos, be it selfies and have them uploaded in the social media medium for everyone to see, that is one of activity of journalling.  I dare say that.  You can have your journal in your own way, be it as longest as you want or as short as you want.  Yes, that might be a good start for us newbies.  "A sentence a day" or "A line a day".  And yeah there are such books/diary/journal out there.  They even make it for commercial sales.

What is a Journal?

Hello everybody~

According to Google:

jour·nal

ˈjərnl/

noun

noun: journal; plural noun: journals

1. 1.

   a newspaper or magazine that deals with a particular subject or professional activity.

   "medical journals"

   synonyms:

   periodical, magazine, gazette, digest, review, newsletter, bulletin; More newspaper, paper, tabloid, broadsheet; daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly "a medical journal"

2. 2.

   a daily record of news and events of a personal nature; a diary.

   synonyms:

   diary, daily record, daybook, log, logbook, chronicle; More

 A journal is a series of writings done by a person in response to daily life. It contains descriptions of events and reflections about the events.  I make a distinction between a journal and a diary.  I consider a diary to contain a description of the events of the day.  A journal may contain these descriptions, but it also contains your reflections on the events, and your feelings about them.  It doesn't matter what you call your writing, either a diary or journal, as long as you understand the distinction between these two ways of writing.  When a person becomes aware that their life is a spiritual journey, their journal becomes the travelogue of their personal experiences along their journey. Even people who travel along the same organized religious path have unique and individual spiritual paths because each person's spiritual path is based upon their own experience.

- Source 

So I would like to encourage both of you and myself to start a journal on anything that you like.  For the first timers and to those who wants to get started again, try art journalling!  No, wait!  Oh dear what about altered book?  Smashbook?  Scrapbook? and counting!  (This will take forever if I ever to finish listing the possible type of things that related to this journal/art/photos/etc.)  I personally can't decide on which to pick.  They all related in most aspects!  I've been doing a lot of surveying, researching, windows shopping, reading on these for years.  But back then I was much younger and I can't afford some tools and stuffs and was't encouraged enough or I didn't even think or know anything about it.  All I did was drawing a lot on papers. To make things easier, generally speaking, I'll start with journal.  To me, a journal is a compilation of your own personal work of art.  So put anything in it.

...to be continued...