How can I figure out the date a picture that was taken years ago?

This question was posed to me by one of our readers.

Here are some of the different tricks to keep the information straight.

1. Look at your pictures, many of them have dates on them. Now if you print off your own pictures you might not have that.
2. Look for signs or other objects in your pictures that will tell you where they were taken and perhaps that will give you a date line. Like a vacation, family reunion etc.
3. The age of the people in the photos will help to date them. Such as a school function, sports activity etc.
4. If they are really old photos that are people who are long since gone, you might want to seek the help of elderly people in your family or try this website, it had some interesting help to give you an approximate date: http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/date.htm
5. Unfortunately if you don't have the exact date somewhere on the photo, and you can't remember the time line, you will only be able to approximate the date. Nothing wrong with putting on your layout August of 2007 or just 2007 etc. It at least gives it a time line.

Remember to journal about the surrounding in your back ground. Look it over and perhaps there is something you can tell about the day the photo was taken, even if you can't remember the exact date. Remember we love the story.

If you are in a hurry and scrapbooking. A tip that I use a lot for keeping the date, is to write up a quick post it note about the page with the date and then slap it on the page until I have the time to get to journaling about it. At least this way its not lost and I don't have to rely on my memory to keep the date handy.

Hopefully these tips will help out a little bit of trying to get these photos dates or at least in a sequence.

Remember a little journaling is definately better than none!

Article by:

Debbie Ruggles

Handwritten Journaling

Handwriting is one of the most difficult things to do in your scrapbooks, but you should. You should always try and give a copy of your writing somewhere in them. Below are a few pointers for those of you who are trying to do it, but it just doesn't work out the way you intended. Hopefully we can help you out just a tiny bit with it.

*Use a journaling block that is not attached to your layout at first. This way if it doesn't work out then you have lost nothing on your layout.

*Keep pencil marks light. A heavy line will leave imprints on your page and be more difficult to erase.

*If you make a mistake, erase it, but be gentle. Remember you don't want to tear your paper.
Small, evenly placed characters look clean and precise, no matter how talented the letterer.

*If you want to use a ruler for straight lines, go ahead! You can draw your lines, but draw them lightly. I mean lightly, almost invisible! Next write just above the lines so that you have room to erase them. Remember you are using them as a guide and nothing else! You do not want them to remain on your journaling

*If you are journaling, then do just that! Walking away and coming back does not work. You want your lettering to look good, so take the time to do it right.

*Find a style that suits you. Are you someone who loves cursive? Do you write in all caps, all lowers, or a mixture of both? Make sure that your style shows off your best handwriting!
Sometimes the faster you go, the better it looks! Did I catch you there? Just making sure that you're concentrating. If you're trying for a carefree look, make your guides, pencil in your text for correct spacing, and then go for it!

*Use a straight edge for your verticals. If you're doing large letters for a title, or even for your journaling, use a ruler to make your verticals. This is a trick architects use to make their printing look prefect every time.

*Use shadowing for a great effect. It softens the subtle imperfections in your writing, making your letters look better. Grab a Black and Platinum Zig Writer and create letters that jump off your page.
*Last but not least! Its your handwriting, it should not be perfect! So don't give up, just keep practicing

Ok here is another way to get your handwriting for all you computer journaling people. You can get your own handwriting turned into a font! For $9.00 this company will turn your handwriting into your very own font. Here is the web address to go and check it out. http://www.fontifier.com/

Since scrapbooking has become such a great craft, perhaps handwriting can come back to be a intricate part of this craft. Good handwriting is a craft in itself. So practice, practice and more practice. I myself find it easier to just get on the computer and print them off, but I am making an attempt to try and do a little bit more of journaling in my own handwriting. Maybe if I practice hard enough I might even find myself with a handwriting like one of the above! Who knows?

Winter Page Titles

My good friend Mary gave me this list of winter titles for my pages. I have kept it and opened it many times to grab one out of. I would like to share it with the rest of the Scrapbooking world as it has worked for me many times to find a titles to go with one of my layouts.


All Bundled Up.....Artic Blast......Baby its cold outside.....Brrrrrr It’s Cold.....Bundle Up!.....Cuddlin’ with Cocoa.....Dashing Through the Snow.....Digging Out.....Even when it’s cold outside, our memories keep us warm.....First Snow.....First Snowball of the Season....Freeze Frame.....Frosty and Friends.....Frosty the Snowman.....Fun in the snow Hitting the Slopes.....Hug a Snowman.....In a Meadow, We Can Build a Snowman......In the Frosty Air.....It’s Cold Out.....Jack Frost nippin’ at your nose.....Just add Snow.....Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!.....Making a New Friend (Snowman Pictures).....Our Snow Day.....Romping in the snow..... Scarves and Mittens and Hats – Oh My!.....Ski Bum.....Slip and Slide.....Snow Adventure.....Snow- one nicer than you.....Snow Angels.....Snow Prince (Princess).....Snow-one else like you.....Snowbaby.....Snowball Fight.....Snowflakes are Angel Kisses.....Snowflakes Keep Falling On My Head.....Snowmen melt your heart.....Snowmen Fall From Heaven, Some Assembly Required.....Solstice is Here.....Some of my best friends are flakes.....South for the Winter.....The Abominable Snowman.....The Big Chill.....The Big Freeze.....The Fire is so Delightful.....There’s no time like SNOW time.....There’s no Business like Snow Business.....There’s Snow Place Like Home.....Think Snow.....Walkin’ In a Winter Wonderland.....Winter Play.....Winter Fun.....Winter is Snow Much Fun.

Thank You Mary Crowe for the wonderful list you gave to me
By Debbie Ruggles

Scrap Journaling! What a Concept.

Well isn't this a challenge, why on earth would anyone want to create a scrapbook page without a picture on it. Well why not. How about the school project you and your child slaved over for hours and all you have to show for it is a piece of paper that they hand you and with a proudly displayed A adorning the front of it. Oh yes those kindergarten years with all those wonderful paper projects that you just have to keep. Remember you don't have the pictures but you sure do have the memories. This sort of Scrapbooking, well as I call it Scrap Journaling is a great and wonderful way to incorporate those art projects and those memories that are in your memories but you don't have any pictures to tell show for them. I can see this going to a whole other area of scrapbooking for us Journaling nuts!

How about that spontaneous drive to the beach where you all got out of the car and waded through the waves of the water watched your children build the big sand castle. After hours of fun trying to keep them away from the sand so there clothes would dry off before they got back into the car. Now I know that everyone has moments like these. Everyone does. Now the question is: Just because you don't have the pictures to show for it, does that mean you waste the memories? Heck NO! Let’s turn those memories into one giant layout about the day!
Let’s not forget the About Me pages we need to make about ourselves. Most of us don't have too many pictures of our childhood. I know that each of you have some memories of those days that you would love to incorporate in your books if you just had the pictures! Don't let that stop you go and write your story.

So how do you do all this? Well take a moment and think about it. Use your imagination and yes your journaling powers!

Let’s take the beach trip. How about starting with some paper that you might be about the beach, sandcastles or better yet make your self a background. Keep motivating the project. How about some die-cuts of sand castles or maybe a paper piecing or two. Don't forget the sun and then there are those cute little shovels and pails. Or beach sandles! Jolees has tons of 3-D things you can pick out! Maybe some sticker or even some cute little brads. Keep thinking!How about some ribbon! Oh now we are getting there. So I can see the layout its all about the words on the center of the page. Maybe we have torn the edges of our computer or handwritten journaling and put a little ink around the edges.

Here is an example layout that I made because I wanted to remember the first day my youngest son went to Kindergarten. Its a good example of a reason to do a journal page.
As you can see I used a chalkboard paper and then embellished the page around my journaling. It was a pretty good story and I wanted to remember it. I do have a kindergaten picture I can put on it, but I decided to just leave it like it is. It was one of those days when there was not time to think and of course mom forgot her camera, but there was no reason we needed to forget the memories. So I jotted it down and told his first day of school story!



Hopefully you can realize that scrap journaling can be a great addition to your scrapbooks. If you have a series of photos you can incorporate one page of journaling to tell the entire story and then show the pictures. No matter how you see fit to use just words, go ahead and try it. Telling the story adds so much interest in your books and you will be amazed at how others just want to sit and look and read them.

Article by
Debbie Ruggles

Lets get the story straight!

Creating the perfect story!

Journaling goes right along with making that perfect scrapbooking page. I have said it a hundred times that if you don't identify the people, place, time and event, who the heck is going to know in a hundred years? It is so important to take the moment and keep it all together witht he perfect journaling about the page.Lets look at how you can accomplish some of this.You journaling needs to correspond with the photos.

Dates can be found in the corner of your photos, so be careful when cropping them. These are always a great way to put the date into your layouts. Remember if you need to put a date somewhere you can always use a date stamp. Love those things!

Remember to tell about the people in the layout. There are many ways to do this. If you don't want to plaster the names all over your layout try putting them in a hidden journaling box tucked under a photo mat. Or how about on a tag. There are many ways to add the names without cluttering your layout.As for the journaling the event.

There are some great ways to accomplish this.you can sit in front of a computer and whip off the journaling, or perhaps you can write something about each picture around the photo mat. Use sticker or titles to display the event. Cut out letters, or use letter stickers to give one word titles for events.

However you journal doesn't matter, you just need to do some on each layout. Think about all those old pictures we see in old albums. That is exactly just what they are, pictures in a old album.

It is always great to turn one of those old photos over and see names and dates written on the back. Now think about your scrapbooks, I know I hardly ever date anything on the back of the photos. So getting mine in a scrapbook with some good journaling keeps them in date and the memories preserved in my albums. Remember how important journaling is to your layouts. To me its just not a completed project until I see some on my layouts.

Article written by:Debbie Ruggles