A Journaling Design Technique – Paperclipping 173

Do you ever have stories that require lots of journaling, but your idea for a page doesn’t leave you enough room?

This happens to me all the time. I’m a journaler. And I love the artistic part of scrapbooking, too.

It suddenly occurred to me one day that we can mix the two more easily with one simple solution: Combine a 12×12 page with a 6×12 page, which is what you see above.

The 12×12 is for the design idea swimming in my head
The 6×12 is for the journaling.

I feel so free now! I no longer have to expand my layout to a full two-page 24×12 inch spreads whenever I have a few pictures, a fun idea, and too much to say!

It all started with this layout…

I wanted to compare my childhood swing sets with current ones. I had four photos and the story. Plus I wanted to give an explanation for each photo.

I really didn’t need two 12×12 pages, but a single just wasn’t going to cut it, even with the simple clean design.

Suddenly it became my easy fix, even for more artistic and free layouts…

Two-Way Design

I decided to design this first as a single page that could stand alone.

And then I designed the journaling portion to work with it. The balance of the design works either way! I get to share it as a single page or a double, depending on the situation. And, in fact, I’ve already shared it both ways for various reasons.

Supplies

All you need are 6×12 page protectors. I use American Crafts.

Journaled Tag Page

Here is a closeup of the front and back of my journaled page for the top layout:

In this week’s episode for the members I show how to make this journaled tag page, along with my tips for easier journal strips.

You can watch this episode and many, many more videos right now when you sign up for your Paperclipping Membership! Click here to learn more!

Tags: Design, ideas, journal, Journaling, scrapbook

This entry was written by Noell Hyman and is filed under Scrapbooking Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Benteg

I love this technique. Very nice and funny story you are telling us about your anniversary, very funny;) LOL
S Loughran06

Great ideas as always
http://papercuts.dw.co.za/ Tanya

Hi Noel – actually can’t wait to watch your new video as I think this idea is just brilliant – it’s funny ‘cos I’m about to embark on a huge project (my family and I just returned from a 3 week trip to the US – was amazing) and I’ve just bought the 6×12 page protectors with an idea of using them in the album – and now I know just how to. Thanks!
KikiK

Love this technique Noell. First time I came across 6×12 page protectors was in Ali’s class Y&T. And it was love at first sight lol! Since then I use this technique for my journaling quiet often but… what do you do with the back side of the 6×12? I usually put an introductory photo for the story that follows but…I’d like to hear your ideas! Thank you!!!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Perfect!

So glad you enjoyed your trip out here! :)
Mzbarton

Hi Noel,
Awesome journaling technique! This technique reminded me about a question I’ve had for a while about your scrapbook shown at the begining of the paperclipping videos. I’m curious about the way album is setup. I noticed some pages a little shorter than others and love that look, it also appears that they may not be in sheet protectors. Did you use a combination of sheet protectors for the 12×12 pages and punch holes in odd shaped layouts to place them in the album?
Love how that scrapbook looks! Thanks!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

You know, I think it was Ali’s class that inspired me, too. We did that 6×12
journal-only page, and I think that’s why it occurred to me to add a 6×12
journal page to a decorated one.

As for the dealing with other side -

Pretty soon I want to share how I flesh out an album as it gets close to
being full. One of the things I do is look for the awkward backsides of
pages, like these, and then think about any stories or photos I still have
that would work to make it all flow. Your idea of a is a great one.

You could also do other stories that are only semi-related, but transition
well into that one.

I’m working on possibly doing a member tutorial on tying up these types of
loose ends in albums, though it may end up being an article instead. I’ll
have to make sure I remember to include these 6×12 backside pages!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Are you talking about the scrapbook that flips and flies during the intro?

If so, my answer my disappoint you! That’s a digital effect that our intro
designer made. He turned pictures of my individual layouts into fake book
pages and he made that book digitally.

You can make books like that by ordering them through companies like
shutterfly, though. A lot of digital scrapbookers make bound books like that
instead of putting them into into albums. The pages are all the same size
that way, though.

I put my pages into d-ring albums and I use different sized page protectors.
Some companies like American Crafts and We R Memory Keepers make plastic
page protectors of varying sizes that all fit into a standard d-ring so you
can mix and match like that.

Please let me know if I misunderstood and you were talking about a
completely different album! :)
Mzbarton

You got it, that’s the one I was talking about. I am bummed that it is just a digital effect, but I think I can still use the inspiration and make something similar in a postbound album, using 12×12 page protectors for normal layouts and then add different sized layouts or journaling by punching my own holes in the paper to hold it in the binding and not putting them in a page protector. I will however have to grab some of those 6×12 page protectors for another 12×12 album I have, such a great idea, thank you Noell!
Cindy Wick

This was the perfect post for a layout I was working on! I was finally able to finish it. You can see it here http://wickworks.blogspot.com/2011/07/toris-move.html Thanks so much for your help! Cindy :)
Gab

Love this idea - thanks Noell. And I love the look of how you journaled on the tags too
Beckster014

Love this idea! I have been wondering what it actually looks like in your album?
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

This layout is awesome!! I love how you such a variety of visual sights that will trigger so many more memories of this event than if you’d just done one photo. And your story moved me! Can I share this on my blog with the Paperclipping audience, please?
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

I’m not positive, but I think my next episode will show the insides of one or more of my albums and I’ll try to include one of these types of pages!
Cindy Wick

No problem! I’d be honored. :D