Creating a journal or diary that combines scrapbooking and journaling, is a journal that you can share. Writing about experiences and feelings, and including photos, ticket stubs, magazine or newspaper clippings, fortune cookie fortunes, drawings, and more, enhances and further explains those experiences and feelings, becoming a treasured keepsake for you and for your family and friends to share for years to come.

You can create a Sharing Journal for just yourself, for your family, friends, for work, and groups. You can even pass the journal around to friends and family, and have them contribute pages, with their own ideas, feelings, pictures, experiences, and more.

Materials needed:
Blank book, photo album, or a scrapbook
Colored pens, pencils, crayons, erasers, etc.
Glue
Scissors
Photo corners
Photos, ticket stubs, drawings, magazines, etc.

Decide if your book has a theme or not. Is it a family shared journal, a book about your friends, a book about your birthday or anniversary, an everyday "what is happening in my world today" book, or is it a book about "my dreams"?

To start your Sharing Journal -- Using a blank book or a scrapbook, you can glue and write throughout the whole book. Glue your item, say a movie ticket stub, (photo, fortune cookie fortune, articles or scenes from magazines, etc.) anywhere on the page in your book. Then write about what you felt and experienced, who you were with, what dreams and ideas were stimulated. Write above the ticket, to the side, at the bottom, all around. Be creative with both the placement of your ticket and the writing. Use pens, pencils, crayons, of different colors on one page to give the "feel" of your experience. Write in upper and lower case, write large and small, slant your words on the page. Glue letters or phrases from magazines on the page. Whatever you do, whatever it looks like, is absolutely perfect. Have fun with your book. Be proud of what you are creating. There is no right or wrong way to create your journal, it is your book, do what feels right for you. Then, share your journal.

Using a photo album - The same ideas can be incorporated using a photo album that has plastic sleeves. Insert a photo into a plastic sleeve. Then, in as many other sleeves as you want you can use colored paper, index cards, anything you want to write on, and tell the story of the picture. You can include a card that you have cut to size, and that says just what the photo means to you. You can write in detail about the vacation spot the photo shows. Writing about the photo of a family member, friend, favorite pet, favorite pet, your spouse, can be a wonderful way to record and share what each photo meant to you.

Children can also create their own Sharing Journals. Purchase a large book that is blank, or create your own from copy paper and a stapler. Get out the crayons and colored pencils and have the kids draw their day, their favorite experience with their pet, or any idea they want to draw. After they are done drawing sit with them and ask about what their drawing means to them. If there is a cat in the picture ask them to write the word cat and anything else they want to add in writing about their drawing.

Your experiences are treasured keepsakes. Combining the visual elements with your words creates an extended experience that you can view through the years to come. Your Sharing Journal.

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