You’ve seen how I used other people’s words to create a page when I did not have any appropriate photos. Now let’s check out some of the other ways I mentioned to create a photo-less page.

Sometimes you have memorabilia, but no photos. (In my case, I had taken some photos during a trip to Jamaica, but the camera died, and I lost the data disc.) Your mementos can take the place of photos to illustrate your journaling. Invites, business cards, tickets, maps, hotel notepads and room keycards, receipts, newspaper clippings are just some of the things from your life that you can use on a page.

You can even create your memorabilia. This is especially easy to do with music, now that you can burn your own discs. Quick tip for you: when making pages without photos, make sure the paper and embellishments you use work to further your theme, as I did on these two pages.

Sometimes, you don’t even have memorabilia. Instead of using photos or memorabilia, use words. Describe the pictures you have in your mind of the story you want to tell. With my example, I know my mother has photos from the numerous family Fourth of July picnics and flag-raisings my grandparents and their neighbors had each year. However, getting her to share them with me is like pulling teeth. I didn’t let that stop me from telling the story I wanted to tell. I used words to describe the events, and even designed the page as if the words were pictures.

Sometimes, photos are completely unnecessary. This page was inspired by the product. No photos, but none are needed, since the point of the page was to both celebrate and poke fun at my love of scrapbooking.

Feeling inspired yet? Good.

Now go tell that story you’ve been putting off because you have no photos. Don’t let anything stop you! (And show me what you made! I’d love to see!)

Sometimes, we have stories we want to tell, and we can’t find a photo that goes with the story. Either we can’t find the photo, because it’s mixed in with other photos (a photo organization problem we’ll tackle another time), or we just don’t have a photo of the event in question.

That’s no reason not to tell the story you want to tell, however. There are lots of ways to get your story told without a photo.

If you have memorabilia, but no photo, you can let that be the focus of the page. Postcards, pieces of maps, event tickets, hotel room cards, receipts, are all great ways to illustrate your story, even if you have no photos.

If you’ve got no photo and no memorabilia, you can still make a page. You can describe the photos you would use, if you had them. You can tell the story, and use stickers, stamps, and paper to embellish the story. You can use other people’s words.

Do you remember this page, from when I was talking about patterned paper?

Using that lovely, huge design

Did you notice that it had no photos, but still told the story I wanted it to tell? By quoting my mother and grandmother, their presence and personality are definitely showcased on this page, even without photos of them.

You can make a photo-less page. Grab some paper, and write down a story you’ve been dying to tell, but haven’t found the photos for. Tell your story!

I’ll show you more examples of pages without photos later this week. You’ll have lots of inspiration to help you create a photo-less page.