Recently, a new trend has been becoming apparent in scrapbooking. I’ve been in denial, thinking it wouldn’t take hold, hoping it wouldn’t become widespread. Perhaps it would remain just a fad and not graduate to a trend, I hoped. But I can no longer hide from the mounting evidence. It’s time to haul out the pen collection again. Handwriting is back.
Back when I first started scrapbooking, about 7 years ago, almost all of my pages had handwritten journaling on them. I had a collection of colored pens and guide templates to make straight lines. But despite my best efforts I never liked the results very much. I just hate my handwriting and have since I was very young. And as a consequence, my early pages never had much journaling on them because I hated to “ruin” my pretty pages with my ugly handwriting.
Then I discovered the wonders of computer journaling and could journal away to my heart’s content without worrying about spoiling the look of my page! A simple click or two could adjust my journaling to make the size and style work perfectly on my page. No more laborious rewriting of a whole paragraph because of one misspelling or pen smudge. And the results were beautiful every time! There were even fonts that were made to look handwritten! I could have the style without the agony and the imperfection! The pens were retired to gather dust in a drawer and all was happy and harmonious in the journaling department of my scrapping.
But alas, it looks like the pens must come out of retirement. Heidi Swapp has written a new book about improving your handwriting, and anything she touches is an instant trend. I am also seeing discussion of pens and doodling on internet message boards, and more and more pages posted online and published in magazines that have handwritten journaling. The snowball has started…I can’t avoid it now.
I used some of my old pens – and a recently acquired new one – to create an example for you all of why I hate my handwriting. The dark pink is textured paper and the lighter pink is smooth paper. It definitely looked better on the smooth paper, and my favorite by far of all the pens was the new American Crafts Pigment Pro. It is the bottom two lines on the dark pink and the top two lines on the light pink. It was smooth and I love the 03 size tip. I guess I had better get in some practice and resign myself to using it. And I hope Santa brings me Heidi Swapp’s book! If she can help me, she can help anyone.
So tell me readers, what are your favorite pens? When you hand journal do you use smooth or textured cardstock? Throw me a lifeline here before I drown in a sea of ugly ink!
But before you think I am totally surrendering and giving up my fonts, stay tuned to Inside Scrapbooking for my next entry: a list of my current favorite fonts!
You really think this is a trend? It’s nice… but so are fonts…
I seem to have good luck in general with my handwriting when I stand at my kitchen counter (good height), rather than sitting. Writing on textured CS is a bit challenging for me.
LOL at you Nancy – this, too, is MY worst nightmare come back to haunt me!!! Do we actually have to play this game again!?!?
Well, okay, I have been writing on a few of my layouts lately and it isn’t so bad. I have gone so far as to draw straight lines with a pencil that I can later erase with a Xyron eraser – otherwise every thing goes straight up hill!
I’m still sold on my Sakura pens – I never quite gave up on those. I will just replenish them as needed.
In all honesty, though, I have found a font that looks exactly like my own handwriting (Beth’s Hand) and I am cheating as often as possible!!
I’m with you, Nancy. I would much prefer to stick with fonts. But I try to hand-journal occasionally. I use Stampin’ Up’s markers (they are great, but the ones I have are not pigment ink) They do have a line of pigment journalers now, too. I’ll probably end up getting those too…I love how their markers write.
Maybe it’s because I don’t mind my handwriting, but I love the idea of handwritten journaling…maybe because I’m not a professional-grade scrapper?? I just know that when I looked at my mom’s scrapbooks she kept of her high school accomplishment, I loved seeing her handwriting and how it had matured since then.
I do albums for both my daughters and in the back of my mind I always think if something happens to me, they would have that added, personal link to me via my own handwriting.
Try not to give yourself a hard time! It’s YOU and an expression of yourself whether it’s handwritten or computer journaled.
I used to use fonts exclusively when I first started until my printer died almost a year ago. I started handwriting my journaling and haven’t gone back to the fonts even with a new printer.
I think the more you practice your writing the more comfortable you get with it. Or at least that is how it is for me.
In the end you have to do what is most comfortable for you not what the trend is.
I love my computer journaling too because I can fix things before I put it to the paper.
It’s not that I don’t like my handwriting, but I’m so prone to make mistakes that way.
My favorite pen right now is ZIG I have the black one and several in colors, as well.
Maybe I can find a nice, obscure handwriting font, print it out lightly and then trace over it. After 30 years of correcting English papers and writing down (or up) hill on a blackboard, my handwriting is the worst. My only other solution is to hand write and then have a translation printed for those who care! lol
I’m so with you on this! I HATE my writing too and on the very few LOs that I’ve done it on..I consider them ruined..however there is a part of me that also thinks (and knows) that my children would love to have it there??!! I LOVE my mothers handwriting..I might write to Santa as well LOL. I use a Zig black pen too…the few times that I’ve tried to hand journal that is!
I have good handwriting…believe me when I say that it’s not always a blessing. That being said, I really like the Pilot G2 pens. (Gasp!) They aren’t made especially for scrapbookers…they are just a really good pen made by Pilot. Love them…
A broken-in Zig is good too.
One of the best things I ever did was to print out a bunch of words in my favorite handwriting font (one that’s similar to my own hand) and trace it a bunch. It’s a good exercise for changing some of your bad habits…like inconsistancy or misalignment.
Good luck.
The silver lining is that your grandchildren will loooove seeing your handwriting on your pages. I love anything with my grandmothers chicken scratch writing on it and that’s what I always think about when I writing in my handwriting even though I don’t like my handwriting.
The pressure of scrapbooking
Nancy over at Inside Scrapbooking is living her worst nightmare – the trend of handwriting coming back into style in scrapbooking. She much prefers to use her computer to journal, but because Heidi Swapp has a new book out about loving your handwritin…
You are killing me with this entry. I’m in denial. And even after reading this, I’m still in denial. I will use the pens for doodling – love to do that. I will use them for phrasing – that’s just fine. But I will NEVER use them for journaling. Nope, not gonna happen!
Ok I have to admit I hated seeing this trend rear its head I hate my writing so much that everything including notes to self are done on the computer so I succumbed to the heidi swapp book and although I am not even halfway through it yet I am making progress after changing to sakura micron pens that is
I love the handwriting trend becaue I am too lazy to use computer fonts…I bought the HS book to help my handwriting out…my problem is that I can’t write on Bazzil paper because it is bumby, but I love bazzil texture…hence the problem!
J
It was interesting to me because I started handwriting more and more recently as my dh was hogging the computer all the time for school. I don’t mind my handwriting, and can usually change it’s look on a whim, so that part doesn’t bother me, and it is faster. But sometimes you still need the polished look of the computer.
I journal on textured or smooth cs…and I love the Zig Memory Writer. The Zig milennium is nice too but not for textured cardstock.
Your handwriting wasn’t as bad as you think!! I see so much potential in there!! Used to teach this class a lot when handwriting was “in” the first time around. Definitely don’t write on textured paper–to bumpy–like driving on a gravel road. Use the pen that feels good to YOU…in your hand. Moves at your speed. You had several good looking letters in your examples–just be consistent in their direction and their size. Some slant one way and some slant the another way. And lastly, slow down. that’s always the hardest part for me!
Journaling
I have to concur with Nancy on this one. I hate my handwriting and any trend involving it will just have to pass me by. Link: Inside Scrapbooking: The Trend That Is My Worst Nightmare.
Handwriting is Back
We use Typepad for our Fun Expressions™ Blog for a variety of reasons, but one of them is for the community. Exploring some of the other Typepad-powered scrapper sites is exciting! Nancy over at Inside Scrapbooking reports on the return