Scraps Of Mind

Do you make Scrapbook Layouts without Photos?

Scrapbooking tends to revolve a lot around our photos.

Most scrapbook layouts start with the photo or photos and then build from there. Our inspiration is often drawn from our photos.

But have you ever tried making a scrapbook layout with no photos?

I must say that when I have done it, it feels a little bit strange: trying to compose a layout design that doesn’t have a photo as its focal point. But sometimes there just isn’t a photo for the layout. And you really want or need to tell the story. This is often true of heritage layouts, where you have stories from your childhood or your parents’ childhoods but no accompanying photos. The stories are crying out to be told. And you want them to be a part of your scrapbooking legacy so you need to make a non-photo layout.

The Christmas Memory layout here was quite challenging for me as the focal point was the journaling and I had no photo. I created a strong ‘journaling box’ to compensate. The book on which I wrote my text was created from elements out of Erica Hite’s Bookworm kit (as was most of the layout)and I must admit I’m quite chuffed with how it turned out. The picture is not a photo but is actually a background paper called Christmas Vintage Shoppe by Dianne Rooney.

For those who are interested, the journaling reads:

“One of my earliest memories is from when I would have been about three or four years old.

It was Christmas Eve and Mum and Dad brought us by train and ferry from England back to Kildare in Ireland for Christmas. We arrived after midnight and the rest of the family were just returning from Midnight Mass. Granny prepared plates of ham and eggs as everyone was hungry from fasting before Mass. I thought it was really exciting to be eating a meal after midnight.

It was a wonderful Christmas; all the rest of the family were there and the tiny house was literally bursting. People were sleeping on the floor in the parlour and even in the kitchen. I have no idea how everyone managed to fit in for Christmas Dinner but they all did, as well as friends of the family who had no family of their own to go to.

Father Christmas brought me a walking, talking bride doll. It was as tall as me and was a pretty fantastic doll back then. I had that doll for many years, even after my little sister broke the mechanism that made her walk. Somewhere along the line, in one of our many moves, the doll disappeared from my life.

But not from my memories.”

Even though this can sometimes feel weird and strange, I would urge all of you who haven’t tried one of these layouts to give it a go.

One reason is because you’ll find it a bit of a creative stretch. And we all need that every now and again. But more importantly you’ll capture those stories and moments where there were no photos and they won’t just disappear into the mists of time and memory.

As we start to move into the Christmas Season I tend to get a bit sentimental, and I look back to Christmases past, especially those when I was a child. So many of those memories are becoming blurred and mixed up with other memories. And I have no ‘older generation’ left that I can refer to any more. My siblings are all younger that me and they tend to look to me for the family memory.

So don’t let these memories get washed away on the river of time. Create some journal based scrapbook layouts and preserve them for your children, and also for you in future times.

And if nothing else, you’ll also be creating pages with added variety and interest for your family scrapbook albums.

So what’s your view on scrapbook layouts with no photos? Do you include them in your scrapbook albums? Have you tried any and how did you find the experience?

Other articles you might enjoy:

Have you ever done a Scrapbook Layout Makeover?
Why Journaling is Important on your Scrapbook Layouts
Hybrid Scrapbooking – What’s it all about?
How to Digital Scrapbook