circle journals

Right now I'm in two different circle journal groups. One is our CKU-Chicago dorm, and the other one is a group of childfree scrappers from twopeas.

An explanation of circle journals: A certain amount of people form a circle journal group. Each person picks a theme for their album then decorates their book, creates a sign in page(s), and their own layout that goes with their theme. At the end of the month, you mail your journal to the next person on a predetermined mailing list. You will receive the next person's album and create a layout for their book on the theme they chose. When it's all over, you have an album back that's filled with different types of layouts from around the country, all based on the theme you chose.

I've been spending my scrappin' time on cj's, so I thought I'd share.

These two are from my childfree scrappers cj group. I forgot to take pictures of my own cj before mailing out, so these are the first two childfree albums I received that I worked on.

The first childfree cj I received had the theme of "imperfection." Hmm... That was really tough for me. All the themes I had worked with before were more like answering a question, and "imperfection" isn't really answerable. I found some quotes about imperfection that I liked, so I figured I would print them on transparencies and include them somehow. Then one night, ok, morning around 1:30, when I still hadn't fallen asleep, some words popped into my head. Like a whole litany. So I decided to get up and write it down. I guess being tired helps my creativity! ;D



I wouldn't exactly call it a poem; but perhaps my prose:

Nothing is perfect.
This is my new mantra.
Nothing is perfect.

And yes I understand that
art is the process of creating,
not necessarily the end result.

Yet I still strive for perfection,
for balance, for flow, for exact
color matches, for embellishments
that exactly fit my theme, for the
best words to describe my thoughts.

But bit by bit,
over the course of time,
I try to remember
and try to believe...

Nothing is perfect.
And that's ok.

My LO (layout) itself is rather simple. I used acrylic paints on the back of the transparency, clipped the transparency on the page using Rob & Bob clips and some glue dots, and I used a few rub-ons to complete the right page. Even tho it's simple - I like it anyway!

I really like the concept, the "rules," of the next cj - it was a format I hadn't seen before. It was a pretty small album, so instead of doing a two page LO as is typical, the owner requested that we all do six pages. :-o At first glance it seemed overwhelming, but she broke it down into 6 different concepts by page:

1) a picture of ourself, 2) "the stats,"



3) "collector of," 4) "I love" (or heart),



5) "not so good at" and 6) "totally rule at."

Altho the owner of this cj gave us the concept for all six pages, how we accomplished this was up to us. For some reason, the resume look for the stats page seemed to fit for me. The title block for the collector of page is glossy photo paper and alcohol inks (have I mentioned recently that I love Tim Holtz?! LOL) The I love page is interactive - the little orange square is actually a magnetic mini-album. Inside are approx 30 things I love and it includes 6 photos!

I used rub-ons in two ways I hadn't before - on the magnetic mini and on the ribbon for my totally rule at title. I used chalk ink on a metal embellishment on the not so good at page - and I didn't even have to sand first!!

Anyway, I did these pages quickly (for me) and I think they ROCK! I think working on the "imperfection" cj first gave my mind the freedom to not worry the details, just let the creativity flow. WAY COOL