Rather than viewing your handwritten journaling as an impediment to good design, include it in your overall composition. As you plan where your photos and embellishments will be placed on your page, consider where you want your journaling to go as well.
TIP: Determine the approximate shape and size of your journaling box and then write your story on a separate piece of photo mounting paper (PMP), instead of on the layout's background. Your story gains added prominence, and if you make a mistake you can simply cut a new oval or rectangle, rather than take your entire layout apart.
TIP: If you have a long story to tell, break it down into three or four smaller sections and place them throughout the layout. This will help to break up the monotony, add some visual interest to your page and encourage people to take the time to read your stories.
TIP: Consider using an entire page just for journaling. It makes a nice final page for a scrapbook. Simply write down your feelings or any extra memories from the time span the book covers. These emotions will carry even more meaning when they're written in your own hand.
Spice up your journaling a bit by trying some of the following ideas:.
*journal on a shape (photos of kite flying? journal on a kite shape).
*use stickers right in your journaling (instead of the word heart, put a heart sticker).
*break away from the straight lines (beach photos? pencil in some wavy lines and write your journaling on those).
*place a sticker or die-cut next to the journaling box to draw attention to it.
*use a different pen color to highlight certain words.
*trace the shape of your child's hand on the page and then journal inside of it.
Give yourself permission to create layouts that are solely visual, with no journaling "sometimes the photos speak for themselves! And don't forget, just as you can have some "visual only" pages, you can dedicate entire pages to just journaling.