Digi Crop University Lesson 4:

1. Digi Crop University Lesson 4: Journaling and Fun with Fonts We will begin shortly!

2. The importance of journaling in your scrapbook albums can't be overemphasized. You'll add meaning, depth, and history as you write alongside your well-preserved, treasured photographs. If YOU don’t write down your stories..who will?

3. Journaling is important! Have fun with text fonts to make your journaling more appealing to the eye Without names, dates, and other identifying details, your pictures will be meaningless to future generations who will want to know the stories behind the photo’s!

4. In Each Layout there should be 4 pieces of Identifying information: • Date: January 15, 2011 • Place or activity: Playing in the snow on the trampoline at our home in Severn • People involved: Logan, Ryler, Andin and Shayla • Meaningful events that occurred: Logan threw a snowball at Ryler which made him trip and fall into a huge snow bank.

5. I never know what to say! Journaling can be as simple as captions to each photo used in the layout

6. Make a list. List journaling, such as "10 Things I Love About You" or "Logan's 5 Favorite Toys" is easy for anyone to write. Other ideas for coming up with journaling Make a timeline. Creating a timeline of events is an easy way to provide important information in a vacation album or family heritage book. Make a questionnaire.Ask your subject a series of questions and put the answers directly on your layout. Make a list. List journaling, such as "10 Things I Love About You" or "Logan's 5 Favorite Toys" is easy for anyone to write.

7. Make a list. List journaling, such as "10 Things I Love About You" or "Logan's 5 Favorite Toys" is easy for anyone to write. Say it With a Quote. When you're feeling completed uninspired, a quote can say it all or be a great starting point for scrapbook journaling. Create your own dictionary definition. To add a lighthearted touch to your pages, make a faux dictionary definition. Possibilities include "The Definition of a Big Sister" or "Defining a Miller Family Christmas." Show the steps in a process. Many family activities, such as cooking Thanksgiving dinner, require extensive preparation. Describe the steps involved. Practice your ABCs. Making an ABC book works well for many different themes. For example, an ABC book of your baby's first year could use the words angel, bottle, and crib to start the layout.

8. Journaling Styles Reflective.“writing from the heart” In reflective writing, journal your feelings and thoughts about a person, subject, place, event, date, etc. It is very informal and the emphasis isn’t on grammar and spelling as much as a summary and reflection on the subject. This style often employs the first-person point of view.

9. Factual. In factual writing, the key questions of every news story (who, what, where, when, why and how) form the basis of the text. As you write, ask each of these questions and form your text based on those answers.

10. Reporting. In reporting, the most important and newsworthy facts are placed at the top of the story. Then, additional facts and interesting information are added as space allows. The reporting style is often more business-like and usually employs the third-person point of view. When using the reporting style immediately start your journaling with the most important information. Facts that are interesting but not crucial to the story should be saved for the end.

11. Sarah: I just ate a snowcone Mom! Me: What snow cone? Sarah: The yellow snow over there Me: Sarah, that wasn’t a snowcone! That was pee! Storytelling. In storytelling, the writer tells a story using dialogue, action, and/or description. The text reads like a fictional novel. The account, although in a fictionalized form, can be true. The storytelling style is especially good for dialogue, humorous incidents and stories.

12. Bringing your words to life be descriptive. We can bring our memories to life by being descriptive. It allows us to give a clean and clear picture of a mory. It takes our journaling from ordinary to engaging. Verbs Instead of “We walked,” write “We skipped” or “We stepped.” Instead of “I saw,” write “I watched,” “I noticed” or “I stared.” Instead of “It was Christmas,” write “Christmas arrived.” Adjective and Adverbs Instead of “He put on a hat,” write “He slipped on the wooly red hat.” Instead of “She loved the tree,” write “She loved the tall tree, covered with pine needles.”

13. Here’s a sample of text with basic journaling: We went to Supercuts to get Jenny’s hair cut. Afterwards, they gave Jenny a balloon. She had lots of fun with the balloon. She threw it in the air and caught it over and over again. It was fun to watch Jenny because she had so much fun. It reminded me of how she has fun in whatever she does. Revised Text: Supercuts gave Jenny a balloon when she got her haircut. Jenny grabbed the balloon and threw it into the air. She caught it with two hands and spun around on her toes. Jenny danced with the balloon. She twisted, turned, leaped and walked on tiptoe around the room. Jenny’s joy with a simple toy like a balloon reminds me to have joy in small things.

14. Do you need to use highly descriptive text all the time? Of course not. Just like a scrapbook page, you need balance. Some pages don’t need any text. Some pages need just a few words to tell the story. Others need more.

15. Using Tone in Scrapbook Journaling Attitude. Consider your attitude toward the subject of your scrapbook page. Is your attitude serious, light-hearted or sweet? Is it something new, scary or fun? Each of these attitudes will influence your vocabulary choices and, thus, the tone. While writing a page about my relationship with my father, I felt I needed to express some of my more serious thoughts. As a consequence I used a serious tone with a strong vocabulary. Vocabulary. Your word choices will heavily influence your tone. Will you use an eloquent vocabulary or slang words? A serious tone will use a stronger vocabulary than a flippant telling of an event. Slang and colloquialisms would be more appropriate for a light-hearted tone.

16. Subject Matter. Your subject matter may lend itself to a certain tone. What is the subject of your page? Does it provide a tone by its very nature? A scrapbook page about graduation will have a more serious tone than a page about Disneyland. Use the subject matter to dictate your tone. In my daughter's class they hosted a party. I used the fun and energy of the party in my choice of a casual tone in my journaling. I let the writing flow casually, using phrases, incomplete sentences and a light-hearted question to end the journaling. Audience. Consider your audience for the scrapbook page. How much does your audience know about the subject? What do you want to emphasize? If you care about the audience for the scrapbook page take that into consideration as well.

17. Finding inspiration Keep your eyes open to words, written and spoken, all around you. There is inspiration everywhere! Advertising. Look around you. The sales pitch for an advertisement can spark an idea for journaling on a layout. For example, I noticed a clever tag line on a Whole Foods grocery bag. With a few changes in the wording I adapted it for a layout. Books. Do you enjoy reading? Be inspired by the book jacket, the tone of your favorite author or the plot of a story. These concepts lead to interesting journaling. Children's writing. Don't throw away those papers your child brings home. Instead, add them to your scrapbook. While you may want to preserve the exact handwriting and paper, don't always feel the need to scrapbook those elements exactly as your child created them. In my layout "Metamorphosis" I used my daughter's words from a school assignment but typed them in blocks and arranged them around the photograph of her.

18. Clustering. Create a clustered layout where a special word is placed in the middle. Now, surround the word with other words or stories related to the special word. Conversations. Use conversations with other people to create journaling. Jot down your conversations as quickly as possible and keep them for a future layout. When searching for a journaling idea, use one of them. In my layout "The Push" I recorded a conservation I had with my daughter about her gymnastics class.

19. Letters. Look at some of your letters and find inspiration. Maybe it's the letter topic, the sender of the letter, the stamp on the letter, or someone's handwriting. All these things can inspire a journaling topic. Greeting Cards. Standing in the greeting card aisle, you can find inspiration. Read the cards. Consider the topics, sentiments and tone. Use those things to create your own greeting card journaling. Lists. Grocery lists, to-do lists, etc. can all be journaling inspiration. Reference your blog or Facebook page. It’s easier to find the time to do a quick blog or facebook post than sit down and design a layout so chances are you already talked about the events in your photo’s! These are great resources for things that happened on a specific day. Keep a journal! Usually time has gone by before we sit down and “scrap” a layout for your pictures! A great way to remember the events of each day is to keep a journal! Then when you sit down to design your layout, you can reference the events of the day!

20. Journaling:Heritage Makers Story MapsFonts:Google “word art”