Incorporating Letters, Cards and E-mails

When my husband travels on business trips to foreign counties, he sends me e-mails about his sightseeing adventures. I save all the e-mails on my computer. When he comes home he has lots of photographs for me to scrap but no time to do the journaling. When I sit down to create the layouts I look for his e-mails. It's a quick and easy way to provide journaling for these layouts.

Letters, cards and e-mails can all be added to layouts for quick journaling and an attractive layout design. These items can enhance the story you are telling in your layout. Here are some tips and ways to use letters, cards and e-mails on a layout.

Letters

• Handwritten letters or notes are a great way to display and cherish someone's personal handwriting. Use them to tell about a certain person or an event that relates to that person.
  
  
• When focusing on the content of the letters use colors and embellishments in your layout that express the feelings of the letter.
  
  
• Use colors, shapes and sizes to provide contrast in your layout.
  
  
• Personal letters can be enclosed in an envelope. Use the outside of the envelope to provide a "sneak peek" into its contents.
  
  
• If your letter takes up lots of space, scan it and then reduce it in a photo editing program. You can print out the reduced size for your layout.

Cards

• Use cards on layouts to remember an event, place or occasion.
  
  
• Display cards in groups of two or three for a better visual display.
  
  
• Don't force yourself to use the entire card. Crop cards to display the important element on your layout.
  
  
• Crop your cards so they are all the same size and shape, then display them in a grid.
  
  
• Don't feel bound to use only cards you have received. Use new unused ones or ones that you created yourself.
  
  
• Use embellishments that coordinate with the images and colors on your card.

E-mails

• E-mails provide instant text for your layout. Don't be afraid to make the text of an e-mail the focal point of your page.
  
  
• Use the entire e-mail or just a portion of an e-mail in your layout. If only a portion is necessary to tell the story, keep it to that section of the e-mail. In "Strasbourg" I included my husband's e-mail as the journaling for the layout.
  
• Use several different e-mails in one layout if necessary. A series of e-mail over time can show growth or change in a person, place or relationship.
  
  
• Print your e-mail on paper, cardstock, etc. Use whatever material you want to use in your layout then attach your printed e-mail to your layout.
  
  
• Feel free to break up your e-mails into blocks on your page. Design around them as if they were the photographs in your layout.
  
  
• Use embellishments that coordinate with the subject of the e-mail.
  
  
• Pay attention to fonts and their effect on the layout. Change the fonts as necessary.

Dig through your e-mails, letters and cards. You're sure to find something inspiring to include in a layout.