Hey Everyone!

Welcome back to day three of my series of journaling tips.  So far we have covered using what you have and journaling with one little word.  Today we are going to expound One Little Word further and talk about lists of words.

I love a good list which you would know if you could see my work surface.  It is full of notebooks open to different to do lists, design ideas or things I need to pick up at the store.  On top of that there are yellow post it notes stuck every where for my lists that need to go with me.  Frankly it is a mess, but without it I’d be a mess, so I consider it an even trade.

Just like a list can help you stay organized, it can also help you tell a story.  List journaling is a super easy way to journal things you like, things you don’t like, things you did or are planning to do and anything else that can be broken down into single words or ideas that, when combined together, tell a cohesive tale.

Take a look at this page by Sharon.  She used a premade card, remember lesson one, Use What You Have, to create a favorites list.

I think List Journaling lends itself especially well to Project Life pages as they allow you to break down the layout by into manageable sections like favorites or days of the week.

List journaling is simple, but it doesn’t have to look simple.  Don’t be afraid to use numbers or bullet points or to mix fonts or colors, like I did in this next example, when creating a list.  The more fun you have with it, the more fun it will be!

As you can see from all our samples, while lists are capable of standing alone, like one little word, they are also a good starting point for some more indepth journaling.  Tomorrow, we are going to discuss how helpful one little word or a list of words can be to your creative process by narrowing things down and helping you stay on track while you write.

I  am also going to be sharing a special project I did for my son almost ten years ago that is still his favorite scrapbook ever.  And considering how many he has, that is saying something.  🙂

Finally, as a closing thought, I have some journaling advice from my CT member Sharon:

“I approach my journaling just like I do when I want to tell someone something in a conversation so I write just like I speak with all the warts, slang and valley girl talk, like… you know?

I often will write to both of my children almost like I am talking to them. It is very important to me to be very real and authentic in any journaling I do. As far as writing structure goes I guess after so many years in school where my writing had to be perfect for teachers, I could really care less about my punctuation and sentence structure. I figure it’s my scrapbook and I will write however I please!  Of course I do want the spelling to be correct and for it to make basic sense but that is about all I worry about.

I love any kind of journaling that is exciting to read and evokes emotion & provokes thought, rather than the typical paragraph of “today we did ______ and we had lots of fun etc.” I hope to incorporate more poetry and utilize unique types of writing prompts on my pages moving forward.

Ultimately, what is the most important to me is that anyone looking at my scrapbooks will come away with a sense of who I am as a person & what is important to me or who my family members are as people & what is important to them.   If I am making a page about a loved one I want to convey how much they mean to me and how much I love them and I have found sometimes just a few sentences will suffice or a brief statement of how I truly feel without a bunch of extra details. Keeping things simple is a good rule of thumb for me.”

Thanks Sharon.  I agree that keeping it simple is a good rule of thumb for most of us as is just being yourself, warts and all.  🙂

Until tomorrow… Live the moment.  Scrap the memory.