A
Picture may be worth 1,000 words, but it is the caption which completes
the story.
Photos
and journaling should go hand-in-hand, but for most of us it is the cropping,
matting, and decorating which we enjoy. Adding in the writing can sometimes
prove difficult. It may be hard to think of what to say, or we may want
our words to add to the photos but aren't quite sure how to do this.
One
interesting solution is to use a few lines of verse or poetry for captions.
For example, our "Family
Zoo" page is hopefully humorous and cute, but if we only had the artwork,
it might leave the person looking at the page wondering why the family
members are depicted as animals. It's the verse which gives the explanation:
our different personalities are what makes our family unique.
(Click
pictures to enlarge.)
Using
Poetry In Your Layouts Has Several Benefits
Pulling
your page together. A cute explaining verse can tie your photos
to each other. Our "Camera
Shy" layout has three photos all taken at different times, each of
children with crying or pouting expressions. Individually these pictures
might be hard to place, but as a group they take on a theme. The journaling
adds the final touch-it's the humorous explanation about why everyone
looks unhappy.
Giving
added meaning. Each page we put together holds its own mood,
and a succinct verse can be used to enhance the feeling you want your
page to have. For example, a love poem adds immensely to a wedding page,
a verse about a baby combines with a picture to give a tender perspective,
and a humorous piece of poetry may explain why your children just did
what they did. This form of journaling can definitely bring more meaning
to your page.
In this
next example, our individual family photos of children, parents, and grandparents
are given more meaning because they are centered around a poem
about family heritage.
Used
as filler. Sometimes we only have one or two pictures that simply
go with no others. Poetic verse may combine with your photo and artwork
to make a complete page. For example, here is a layout with a single photo
of father and baby at the hospital. It has too small a picture to be alone
on a page, despite the pretty paper; however, with a poem
cut in the shape of a cloud and decorated with star punch-outs, it
was easy to fill up the page.
Poetry
Ideas:
From
William Shakespeare to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, many poets have elegant
sonnet verses that would go well on a wedding page. Or try adding in a
scriptural verse, such as a psalm. Want something on the lighter side?
Think about the many books of children's poetry available at your local
library. Do you have some snapshots of a crabby child refusing to eat?
Take a few lines from Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham.
There
are several sites on the Internet that have poetry collections, though
many of the poems are quite long. An option when using a longer poem is
to choose one or two of the stanzas that would go well on your page and
omit the rest.
One
product line which might prove helpful is Scrapbook Poetry by Scrapoetry.com
which has free packets, poetry, and contests. They offer poetry packets
with verses arranged on topic pages for easy use. For instance, if you
have a photo of your children playing in the sprinklers, you could look
on the "Water Fun" page in their A Little Bit of Everything (Part I) packet.
These products are reasonably priced, are downloaded to your computer,
and can be found on their web site at: www.Scrapoetry.com
This
Halloween page
uses one of Scrapoetry's poems about costumes to tie the photos together
and give the page an overall feeling of trick-or-treat at its best. It
helps set the playful, colorful mood of the page and also encourage us
to look more closely at the snapshots.
Once
you start using poetry as a journaling tool, you will find that it adds
to your pages by combining creative verse with creative picture layouts.
Poetry can give either a subtle or an overt written explanation of what
we are seeing, and can complete the tone of what you want your pages to
say.
-Kate
Myers
Scrapoetry.com
