I saved a lot of newspapers in college. We’ll get to that in a moment.
But first, a story:
When I was in college, I had to interview someone and ask them about historical events we learned about in class. It was a 1940-2000 American history class. I decided to interview my Dad. I sent him some questions to think about including one that asked for his thoughts about this specific year that was tumultuous for the U.S. When I talked to him, he told me he had to go look up the year because he didn’t remember what happened. It wasn’t that he didn’t remember the events, it’s just he didn’t remember exactly what year they happened.
I thought to myself: wow, this was a huge year, I wonder why he had to look it up?
Now I get it.
Now that I’m an adult, it makes sense that everything runs together. Except for really huge world events, it’s hard to separate things out because they happen as you go through your daily life.
Now I’m glad I saved the newspapers.
The News Layout
For each of my college scrapbooks, I made a page with a collection of headlines for the year. It’s a great way to put all of my other college experiences in perspective.
The layout is a very basic collage. I lay the clippings out and play with the arrangement, deciding which stories make the cut. The biggest headline of the year is literally the biggest thing on the page. I add other serious and fun headlines from world and campus news.
Draft layout.
It would look pretty boring without any color! I picked three colors to alternate backing on the news clippings. I decided to try something outside of my comfort zone and went with grey, yellow and this bluish green.
Picking some colors outside of my comfort zone.
I took some post-it notes and marked which clipping was getting what color to make sure I got a good distribution. Of course I don’t do anything willy-nilly. Are you surprised?
Deciding which clipping gets what color.
Again outside of my comfort zone, I decided to make the headline a bar that extended toward the edge of the page.
Trying something new with the headline.
That’s about it! This is a fun, easy layout to do. It doesn’t feature a lot of technique, but I’m glad it’s a part of my scrapbook.
As for the interview with my Dad, what ended up being the most valuable was hearing what was going on in his life when all of those things happened. I guess this is full circle.
Tips & Ideas
- Think about saving a few news headlines each year.
- A news layout doesn’t have to be complicated, it’s about putting your scrapbook into perspective.
- Even if little news stories seem insignificant, putting them together can paint an interesting picture.
1) Wish we had those gas prices. Sad to think that’s low now.
2) Loathe Kevin Smith.
3) Well done.
Thanks! I thought the gas price thing was especially interesting to include because that was huge news at the time. And I still love Kevin Smith! :)
I was just going through some bins the other day (I’m going through everything now that I’m gonna move in the near future) and I found a stack of newspapers I’ve kept. Mostly BIG stories like Princess Diana’s death, 9/11, shuttle Columbia disaster (big news in Florida), etc… I know I need to do something with them at some point. I love this idea!
I’m still sad that you have to move, but going through everything can be fun! Do you keep the entire newspaper when you save them? I did a post late last year about keeping newspapers from important events and culling out the unnecessary pages so they store better: https://almostneverclever.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/giants-win-the-pennant/
I’ll be posting later on this year about what I did with my 9/11 newspapers. It was a tremendous weight off my shoulders when I finished it.