We’re over a month into twenty-seventeen, but what can I say? I’m still filling in some gaps for the previous year. I’ve been documenting the last year and our time living in Europe using one to two pocket page layouts per month, so I have plenty of room to continue on documenting this next year in the same album.

I recently put together a layout which documents both the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, and one of my favorite things about it is the written memories nestled among the photos.

As with any layout I put together, I start by thinking about what stories I’m trying to tell with the layout. Our pocket page album is just a snapshot of our memories. so I don’t feel pressured to include every photo.

I started with our Christmas morning at home, which we celebrated on December 30, since we were traveling over the holiday.

On the right side, I documented our New Year’s Eve with just three photos and some journaling.

I used my usual combination of Paislee Press products to complete the layout: photo templates, word art, and patterned papers.

One thing I’ve really tried to include more of in our albums and photobooks is journaling. I like the single pops of brush scripted word art, but I also like using these layouts as a place to tell some of the stories from our memories.

On the Christmas page, I included some written details about the story of the day – why we were celebrating five days after Christmas, what the day was like, whether it mattered that we celebrated later (it didn’t!).

I also included captions that had a little more detail in them, like the kids’ favorite gifts that year.

On the facing page, I documented our New Year’s Eve with just three photos (well, technically four). I used a template to put two photos of our group on one 4×6 and printed a shot of Nick and me from that night and Ben playing with sparklers at midnight. This is pretty minimal documenting, but I love it!

I also included a card with some of our favorite memories from the previous year. I asked Nick and Ben for their input and transcribed their responses (along with mine) on a piece of white cardstock. A little word art adds a cool design element and makes the card stand out when you’re flipping through the album.

I loved reading back over all of our memories from the year. A couple things stood out: Ben loves anything related to fun transportation (roller coasters, ferris wheels, double-decker buses, sleds). And Nick and I love food. Ha!

I plan to continue pushing myself to include more written memories among our photos. Pictures definitely tell stories, but I know when I look back, I’ll love hearing our voices speak out from these pages, capturing our memories in a more detailed and personal way.

Whether you’re documenting digitally or hybrid, do you include writing among your photos?

You can stay in touch with me over on my blog or see more of what I’m creating over on Instagram (please say hi!).

xo, Catherine

Products used: photo templates are from 4×6 photo templates vol. 3 and vol. 6, twenty-seventeen word art, “love” word art is from Smitten, word art from pictures + words no. 11, “Merry Christmas” word art from december you are my fave no. 5 journal cards, Project Life Everyday Edition patterned cards.