The Great Journaling Adventure

Yes, it's the dreaded j-word in scrapbooking... journaling.  It tends to strike fear in those new to the craft, but journaling is the most important part of album making.  I, of course, love to put it off until the bitter end.  This can be a little challenging when you're working with pictures from 8 year ago... Such was the case I as I began my great journaling adventure, chronicling my year in Japan: Part I in a massive 12x12 album.

To help with motivation and to get me psyched for the task ahead, I treated myself to the new dual tip CM pens. I love the fresh new colors and the stylish case!

One of the challenges of journaling is that it can be a long process... It takes me time to not only remember and compose the basic facts from my pictures, but I also like to add interesting tidbits and fun facts.  My memory doesn't always serve me correctly, so I am constantly looking up places and people to ensure correct spelling.  My workspace will often look something like this...

A little scary, huh?  I can assure you that the finished product is always worth the effort!  Here are some of my completed pages from this album.

For most of my pages, I don't caption/journal for each photo.  I've been finding that it's faster to write a summary on a Storybox journaling box, one of the most practical items that CM makes!  So here's a peek of a journaling box up close from my "SEL HI English Camp" page...   

Hope this inspires you to start working on all of your journaling projects!  My favorite part of the album making process is slipping on the page protector after all the writing is done... Who doesn't love a finished page?  Now it's on to Japan: Part II...