Details of a Teen Scrapbook Workshop (Part 2)

Finally here… the second installation of teaching teens to scrapbook.  Part One discussed the importance of creating a theme album and focussing the girls by determining in advance the pics to be used, which materials and all the layout designs.  It’s a bit time consuming at first, but WELL WORTH it when workshop day comes.

Today, I want to talk a little bit about journalling. 

As we all know, journalling is one of the most difficult aspects of scrapbooking.  Yet, without it, the story is incomplete.  Anyone looking at a beautiful scrapbook will see loads of individual pictures but will be missing the BIG picture… the personal story behind every snapshot and the entire page.

When I put together a whole week of Scrapbook Camp this summer, I scheduled specific times just for journalling.  I’d be lying if I said the girls couldn’t wait.  The truth is, they hated it.  Some just sat and pretended to write something. 

What I discovered is that motivating teens to tell their story can be more of a challenge than the actual writing.

Here are the various things I asked the girls to write about.  Keep in mind that the theme for our album was an All About Me album.  So, feel free to use these writing starters for your own albums.

• What I remember as a child
• What makes my family unique
• Home is…
• 5 words that describe me
• Why my mom loves me
• The coolest places on earth because…
• Defining me/Who am I?
• What I love/hate about birthdays
• Why am I special?
• What I like most about myself

Try some of these out when running a workshop.  Let the girls know that whatever they write is not necessarily what they’ll be putting in their albums.  In fact, they should be free-style writing.  Tell them to write at least a whole page of whatever comes to mind in response to the given “journalling starter” and then as they design a page, they can use all or some of the words they’ve written.

Again, the motivation is the real daunting task… but if they’re eager, the words will flow and their albums will take on a whole new feel.  (And they’ll thank you when they’re all grown up with teens of their own.)

Happy Scrappin’!