Tell Your Story... outside of the lines!

I'll admit it. I like to color "outside of the lines".
Scrapbooking, like art, should have no boundaries.
Now I'll admit it-when I started this blog as a journaling challenge blog, it was because I thought scrapbooking without journaling was kinda pointless... at LEAST the "who, where, when"... and I am ALL in for the story behind it all.

I get it. Sometimes designers are focusing on the product, are not interested in documenting these things. But I really hope they write these important facts on the back, because in even 10 years, no one will care about the design. But anyone that would be looking at the layout will care who it is, when it happened, or what the story was or how people FELT. Or why it was important to scrapbook in the first place.

When I first came back to scrapbooking (I took many long breaks for life after my start in 1995ish) I was thrown by all the layouts with kids with random expressions, and NO writing at all... sometimes there wasn't even a title! It's gotten better... most of the time. But if we aren't leaving a legacy, maybe we should rethink the "why's"... art might be enough of a reason, but then I will still encourage the facts to be stated. And I am reminded every time I look at vintage pictures I have acquired with no notation of who is it.

OK, so you wondering what the challenge is-well of course it is journaling, but I wanted to point out layouts we have done that weren't restricted to a journaling card, or symmetrical lines on a page! "Journal outside the lines" (or use the lines outside of the standard.)

Megan does one of the best jobs I have seen journaling "wherever" on a page! (Bias I have for her fabulous work aside, I promise!) She journals in little spaces here and there, and makes it work regardless!

You may remember this from a couple of days ago! (Various kits)
Or there might be lines, but she makes them were she needs them. (January Kit)
(January kit plus her own stash)
And even though there ARE journaling cards, doesn't mean you have to ONLY journal in/on them! Whatever it takes to get the story told! (January Kit)
And if the paper on your layout HAS lines, you don't have to use ALL that space either!
(August Kit)
And here are some other examples of journaling "outside the lines"!
{Mandy (December Kit)
{Kim (January Kit)
{Penny (don't forget your white pen on dark papers!) (January Kit)And who needs lines, where there are dots! :)
{Michelle (January Kit)
Also, I wanted to show this layout again... tags have commonly been used to journal, but I especially liked Mandy's use of the tags to journal, but then they're just kinda are hangin' out! :)
(December Kit)
So journal where ever you want! And share your stories with us this week! Let's see how creative we can get!