Scrapbooking about difficult topics using hidden journaling

contributed by Shimelle Laine

I highly believe in hidden journalling. and even hidden photos. Every time
I've ever mentioned it before I've gotten big question mark faces or
rolling laughter, but I do think it has its place.

As I see it, many of us are now blurring the line between scrapbook and
journal. Most people would admit that their journals are private. There
might be a few things they share but the book on the whole is not to be
read by anyone else. Scrapbooks, on the other hand, are quite public. We
intend to leave them on the table to show or at least to leave them to our
heirs when we are gone. So when you give too much away, you're left in an
awkward situation!

Part of the mystery of all things old is finding the hidden bits you didn't
know were there. One of my favourite things in the world is getting my
winter coat out of the closet and finding I left money in the pocket! So I
use the same theory for my scrapbooks. I hide writing and photos where
they aren't obvious and in fact no one may ever find them, but I know they
are there, written and documented, and if someone does find them eventually
then they will realize that these things weren't of public record. If I
had children, I might even hide a note on the title page of the album to
explain why the hidden things are there -- part of my life yet not
something I'm particularly proud of, etc.  You could even wax philosophical explaining that you learned from your mistakes and they have helped shape the well-rounded person you are now.

Right, so how do I hide things? Here's my list:

 

put it directly on the back of a top loading page.

on the back of tags held on by fibers

on the back of photo mats, making sure to adhere the mat with dots or
other not-completely-stuck adhesive

in a pocket page that has other stuff in it, but stuck right down at the
bottom

on the back of the pocket itself

with a tiny booklet of paper mounted underneath any page element

on cardstock stored between the two pages in the page protector

Cut into bits and then put in a shaker box

My *really* weird one is something I call a time capsule page. It's
for things you don't want everyone to see today but you're not opposed to it going public in the future. So you make your page, and then cover the bit you want to hide with fabric or cardstock that is stitched down on three sides with a zipper on the fourth side. on the zipper pull, put a tag with the date that it is okay to open the time capsule (and instructions to pull around the stitching gently if you think your audience might be a little dense!). If you're really nervous, put one of those tiny locks on it! :)  This technique doesn't have to be for secret things -- it could be for predictions for a child's future or a letter written for a future wedding day, etc.


 Shimelle Laine is a scrapbook artist and secondary school teacher living in Essex, England.  She is a member of the Creating Keepsakes' Hall of Fame as well as the 2001 PaperKuts Power Team.  Selections from her album 'My Life...So Far,' were featured in the Book of Me.  Shimelle and her partner, Mark, run Britain's premiere scrapbook source, www.scraptastic.co.uk.  She is infamous for dreaming about layout design, then having the obligation to wake up and sketch out the page no matter what the time of day.