I'm really thrilled to join the Scrapbooking.com Editorial Team, and each month I will try to give you hints and tips to develop your journaling. This month we will look at giving others a greater understanding of who we are as people. Much of the time we include journaling on our layouts, and concentrate on information about who is in the photos, what they were doing, why they were doing and it and maybe where they were at the time. Having this information is fantastic as it will avoid those boxes full photos that nobody knows anything about.
I've used this approach a lot since I began scrapbooking in mid 2000 because it's so easy; just five simple questions and the job is done! I've grabbed two layouts from over the years to give you a couple of examples of what I mean. I did the layout Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show back in 2001, while Sunday Walks are the Best is more recent.
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However, I wonder how much people will know about me and my family-what makes us laugh, the things that are important to us and maybe even the things that influence us-if my journaling only talks about the event rather than us.
I agree this would be ambitious if it meant having to be deep and meaningful on every layout, but that's not the case. I think the easiest place to start is to look beyond an event and to concentrate on what is important; my children, family, and scrapbooking are at the top of my list. I usually start by asking questions such as how did I feel when I was doing something or what did I observe about others, did anything happen that stands out in my mind, or was someone there who was special to me.
This is a versatile approach, and a great way to become more comfortable with reflecting personality in your layouts. I have made a layout I call Scrapbook Resume to show one way that this can be done. A resume is a great way to list the highlights of a professional career, and it can work in exactly the same way for scrapbooking. The way I compiled my resume was to ask myself simple questions about what was important to me: why did I start scrapbooking, what are my aims, how long have I been scrapbooking, etc. After that, I wrote a simple sentence for each of those questions, and now I have a layout for that All About Me album I've only just started! 
I have also included one of my favourite layouts because it's about a special friend of mine from the US. We are both scrapbookers and without scrapbooking would never have met. This layout dates back to when we first met in January 2002, and the Melbourne Zoo was the very first place we visited together.
This idea can also be taken a little further, and I love to go down this path! There are so many parts of our lives that are important to us: our relationships with people, people's habits and their sayings. My list is long and I add to it each day, and I have been doing my best to tick items of that list before I forget them.
I've included two of my layouts entitled It's the SIMPLE things that matter and Fingers and Thumbs to show how I use this technique. Both of these layouts show how I recorded two different parts of my children's lives. The photos and journaling help me to recall the days when my daughters (now teenagers at 17 and 14) were little and to recapture the emotions I felt at that time. But I think they also give others an insight into me and my family that recording the event wouldn't achieve.
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I hope you try these simple tips, but remember-nothing you write can ever be wrong if it helps others to learn more about you.
I have a huge list of interesting topics that I will be covering during the coming months. But if you have any topics or suggestions for things you would like to read about, please email the Publisher, Bonny Nagle on bangle@shopa-z.com
