Using Blogs for Personal Scrapbooking

Recently I jumped on the blog bandwagon. I had resisted for a long time, wondering how I could possibly add it to my list of things to do. I just knew it would interfere with my scrapbook time. Then, I realized that a blog could be a companion to scrapbooking. Blogs allow you to easily scrap about yourself in a personal way.

Usually a blog consists of stories, opinions and thoughts from your own life. These are snippets of you. This focus on you can be a perfect starting place for creating more scrapbook pages about yourself.

There are several ways to use blogs to accent your scrapbooking. Here are some suggestions:

• Use your blog to journal. The journaling you add to your blog can easily be translated into journaling for your own scrapbook pages. Re-use those words for your scrapbook albums. Simply cut and paste from your blog into your word-processing program and you are set to scrap! If you prefer hand journaling, then copy the text from your blog by hand.
• Pair photographs and journaling. When I write in my blog, I also choose photographs to go with my writing. Speed up your scrapbooking and save time by making those decisions while blogging and then having those photographs ready for use when you do your scrapbook page. For example, I chose to repeat a story from my blog into a layout. I used the same journaling and the same photograph in my layout. These choices allowed me to scrapbook this story faster.

• Take a Slice of Life. Blogs often contain a slice of life that a scrapbook can miss. When writing in your blog about your weekend, your list of things to do, etc. you create an opportunity for journaling in a future layout.
• Get the Details. When you're working on a layout and you can't remember the date, place or other details of an event go to your blog. If you wrote about the event in your blog, you may be able to find the missing information in your journaling.
• Use Blog "Tags" for Journaling. Sometimes a fellow blogger will "tag" you to answer a series of questions. Don't let that journaling opportunity pass. Use the answers in a scrapbook layout!
• Design Ideas. The layout design of a blog or a page of a blog can provide inspiration for a layout design. Be on the lookout for pages and designs that catch your creative eye.
• Be Inspired. Visit blogs of scrapbook artists whom you admire. There are several scrapbookers who discuss techniques and projects on their websites. Visit those sites on a regular basis for inspiration. Examples include:

• http://rhonnafarrer.typepad.com/
• http://aliedwards.typepad.com/
• http://www.tarawhitney.typepad.com/
• http://www.scrapbook.com/blog/latest/0.html

So take advantage of the world of blogs to accent and inspire your scrapbook pages.

You can pay $4.95 or more per month for a blog at a blog host like typepad, or you can get a free blog from Scrapbook.com. To get a free blog from Scrapbook.com, visit http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/.