Journal Card Techniques - Summer School Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of our six week Summer School series! This week we are looking at creative ways to use Journal Cards. I have a few ideas to get those Journal Cards on your pages, outside of using them in pocket style scrapping or as simply a place on which to write your journaling. I hope you can find some inspiration from these ideas … or use them as a jumping off point to generate your own ideas.

And remember ... all Journal Cards (found here in the store’s Journal Card category) are on sale this week at 25% off.

1. JCs as borders

The first idea I had for using Journal Cards in a new way was to use them as a full edge border on a page. I made them really small. Some are 3x4 and some are 4x6. A few I sized down to a square to fill in and complete the border around my 12 x 12 page.



All of the JCs used here are are Memory Pockets Monthly Bold Main kit and Amber Labau’s "I am" Add-on. There is very little in the way of elements, aside from the JCs, on this page and yet the page is full of bold color, pattern and inspirational words.

Another example of using JCs as borders, but not lining all the edges is to simply make them super tiny and line them up, almost like a long word art strip border. The same MPM Bold and "I am" Add-on kit were used for this page.



2. JCs as the main design/composition

This next idea is to create a page where the shapes of the 3x4 and 4x6 JCs actually create the main design and the flow of the page. The photo is also created in a 4x6 size for a seamless look. This page uses Valorie Wibben’s Lets Get Lost JCs, MPM Chapter Main Kit, and MPM Create Main kit.



3. DIY banner

Another fun idea is to make a homemade banner out of all those JCs. You can take a piece of baker’s twine, string, ribbon, or even simply use stitches to tack them down and secure them to your page. A straight piece of string is the easiest to work with, but I tried my hand at creating a curved banner with a curvy piece of baker’s twine. The JCs used are primarily from Valorie Wibben's Freckles JC pack. I have Photoshop CC and used Puppet Warp to tweak the string so the curve would fit under the JCs nicely. I used the Dodge and Burn tools to create highlights and shadows where the string lies underneath the top edges of the JCs to help it look more realistic. A few clothes pin clips from Pink Reptile Design’s Posh Polaroids and little extras from Valorie Wibben’s Sprinkles V35 and the banner was done! I think it’s a charming way to use your JCs on your pages, but this one does take a little bit of work. The plus side is you will have a banner that no-one else in digi-land will have!!!



I also have a video showing how I created this banner on my page using Puppet Warp and Dodge & Burn Tool techniques in Photoshop CC.


(You can view the video small scale here within the forum ... or if you want to see it full screen, please click on the Vimeo icon above, bottom right corner. This will take you to the Vimeo website.)

4. JCs to tell a story

Journal Cards can also help you tell a story in a creative way. Sara Gleason's Pocket Maps No. 2 are such a sweet way to get the details of an event or a special day on your page. The story starters provided by Sara are so perfect and there was a title caption for every detail I needed to tell ... in fact, I had a hard time settling on which caption to use for each bit of my story. She really thought of everything when she created this Journal Card pack! I popped in a photo, added some text and then mixed in some colorful Journal Cards with cute patterns, images and quotes to complement my theme and story. I love the final outcome of my page.



Here's a close up of the bottom left, so you can see the awesome Pocket Maps No. 2 JCs in action:



5. JCs in your Digi or Hybrid Planner

A final idea is to use those Journal Cards in your planners. It doesn't matter whether you create your planner 100% digital or if you print them out to use in your hybrid planner. Journal Cards are nearly the perfect size (when reduced) to fill in those spaces. I use full color ones to fill in a day that is slow and not much going on and I've used JCs with more "white space" to write on, but still pretty up the weekly spread with some color, pattern or cute designs & quotes. Here are a few of my older hybrid weekly spreads showing some JCs sized down and used in my Mambi Happy Planner.

Tip: For hybrid planner users: measure your spaces in your specific planner and then make a template with boxes (shapes) to fit that exact size. When you want to print out a new sheet of tiny JCs to use in your planner, you can then just drop them onto the template, size them down and clip them to the boxes ... and then print! Easy peasy if you simply create that template once and re-use it again and again.

Click on the images for a list of credits/products used.




Now it's your turn. Let's see you creative ideas for using JCs on your pages!

 

I had to take my daughter somewhere this AM ... I'm working on getting the images linkable to the gallery now. Hang tight ...

 

they should all be good now ... let me know if not! thanks!

 

oh that is awesome Christa ... i love the marching ants tip for the string - bended idea! looks so good! you rocked this!