A New CJ!!

I got a new circle journal in the mail this week! It was Michelle's "Hold Dear" album. I've had a plan for many of the journals - what I wanted to do my LO on, which pictures I would use, etc. But I didn't know what I would do for this one.

For those of you who don't read our family blog or haven't heard yet, last week we discovered an ectopic pregnancy and went through the miscarriage and surgery that accompanied it. I had a few days of reflection, and some of what I realized inspired this LO.

We were supposed to do a LO about what we hold dear. I chose LIFE. The block journaling on the bottom of the second page reads "Each day is a gift; Use it well - you are not guaranteed another." There are two journaling tags under the photo that read... "This week I was reminded of just how precious life is. It is a gift from God and not my own. In the wake of a miscarriage I am more thankful for the daughter I have and the life she has been given. I hold dear my own life, for I am but a steward of it while I am on this earth. My life is HIS and I cherish this gift."

Ideas...

It's been weeks now since I've had a CJ to work on. I hope they didn't just get lost in the mail... I still have those same two LO done that I've had done for forever and no books yet to put them in. *sigh*

In the meantime, I've got an idea for a mini book I'd like to do for Ellie. I'd love to create an album for her of my favorite songs to sing to her. It'd be like a little lullaby songbook and scrapbook in one. I've got so many great pictures of her that remind me of songs (when you wish upon a star, you are my sunshine, twinkle twinkle little star, etc.) that I want to do this. I don't know what size to do it yet... still working on that.

I'd also like to do an "abc" album/storybook. Both of these are ones that I'd like to make "Ellie proof" so she can actually look at/ play with them. I don't know if it will happen, at least with the "abc" one, though. My ideas so far are not babyproof, LOL! =)

I got a mini album and a half finished in Texas, though, so that was good. And I did a LO today of Ellie with some pictures from way back when. (Can you say that about someone who hasn't even had her first birthday yet?) So at least I'm doing a little scrapbooking in my spare time. And just now, in the middle of posting this, I got distracted and did two more two-page layouts. I guess I'd better publish this post and get back to my craft room while the juices are flowing. Happy crafting!

CJ Progress

I've been missing seeing how the progress is coming on my 5 senses CJ, but now Andrea has posted pictures of her LO on her blog! Woohoo! I just have to say that I cannot WAIT to get this back in a few weeks! It's so exciting and after taking a week off to catch up, I'm looking forward to getting the next few in the mail so I can work on more LO! I think my next one to do is "Quotes". I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do for that so that it's original, but at the same time, I'm really looking forward to the challenge. I've got a couple ideas, so we'll see what I end up with. In the meantime, though, I'm here, in Texas, having fun away from home. Yippee! So the CJing will just have to wait until I go back home.

CJ Entry: Music **SPOILER ALERT**

We took a little break from the CJ rotation to let people catch up, but I am going to be out of town, so I worked on the next LO anyway. Andrea's theme is MUSIC and I did something VERY different from what I normally do, but I LOVE how it turned out!

The explanation/journaling is behind the CD (which, btw, does have a song on it, though it might have to be played on a computer and not a CD player... didn't check on that one.) and basically explains the connection I have between the song "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and Picasso's Guernica, which is pictured on the right page. I had a ton of fun doing this LO and, again, wish I were keeping this one for myself. I think I'm going to print out color copies of all of the LO I did for these journals and put them in a book for myself. It won't be as cool as the real LO, but it will help me remember some of my favorite LO. Things I like best about this LO:
Picasso's Guernica and U2 "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" theme - it's like a trip in a time machine for me.

• The real CD integrated into the LO.
• Hambly
• Purple Onion (the Art and Music stamps were ones I got in a random "grab bag" a while back - PERFECT for this LO!)
• The quotes.
• The sheet music paper - comes from a book my dear friend Jodi Mae got me back when we were in college... A few of the songs I've written are in this book and I absolutely LOVE the way it's set up. So I cannibalized a sheet for this project.

I hope you like it, Andrea - I had a ton of fun working on this one! My next CJ entry will be "Quotes" - I'd like to get that done before I leave, too, but this week will be busy, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

CJ Entry **Love Is...**

**SPOILER ALERT**

I think this is my favorite LO so far for these CJs. I'm not sure I want to send it on. *sigh* But I will. This one goes to Jenna. I titled it "So this is Love..."

CJ Recipes

I finally got the next CJs in the mail today! Yippee!! I'm so excited about getting them and sending them on. Anyway- as requested, here are the recipes from my Comfort Food LO.

CJ Entry "Happiness is..."

**SPOILER ALERT**

**SPOILER ALERT**

My CJ this week is Sheila's "Happiness is..."


I love this picture of Leif and Eliana taken this summer. I titled the LO "This is happiness" and the journaling reads: "Happiness is watching him go from husband to father." I got to use a bunch of stuff from my stash, plus my Purple Onion swirlies. One of these days I will lay off the swirlies. Maybe.

CJ LO "Let's Eat" Entry

**SPOILER WARNING** Iffen you don't be want'n to see the page, you'd best be avert'n yer eyes real quick like. **/SPOILER WARNING**

Well, I'm still waiting for the CJ to arrive in the mail, but I decided to go ahead and get the LO done now so I can get it in the mail as soon as I get the book. Actually, I went sort of crazy and have finished this AND the next two LO, so I should probably pick up some other project to work on now that I'm oodles ahead. But I've got stuff for the LSS coming up in the next couple weeks, so I wanted to make sure I worked on my CJ entries while the inspiration was there. Okay... without further ado, here is my recipe LO:

... and a detail shot of the innards of my "recipe box" on pg 2. I was pretty proud of that li'l 3D goodie. Plus it allowed me to cheat and include more than one recipe since I couldn't narrow it down to my favorite.

CJ round 2 **MY LO**

I'm the 2nd entry in Samantha's CJ. Her theme is "This Circle Journal Brought To You By The Letter C" and our entry had to do something with C. So this is my take on it...

I used DCWV pp, Li'l Davis alpha stamps, DCWV alpha rubons, Dymo label maker, and a handcarved swirly stamp.

Ready to take on the world.

Well, my circle journal is ready to head out into the great wide world. Today I finished the sign in page and did my layout. The official mail date is Monday, but I'm going to be out of town Monday (yippee!) so I will hopefully get mine in the mail tomorrow.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for....

The cover. My favorite thing about the cover is that I incorporated one of those wheels you turn for different words to appear in the window. It's been on my "someday I want to use this on a LO" list for forever, and now I've actually done it! So the title of the book is "can you {sense/see/hear/smell/taste/feel} it?" I thought it was fitting for the 5 senses theme.

I'm also loving the Hambly and Purple Onion stamps on this journal. I'm getting good mileage out of both on this project! (Oh yeah - and the ribbon looks really bad in the picture because I had it flat on the scanner, but there is brown, pink, and green ribbon tied down the spiral album edge.)


This is my intro page. It's pretty self explanatory. Again, love the Purple Onion!


My sign in page. Each spot is marked with the initial of a participant, in the order that the journal will progress. The tags are actually three tags fastened together with ribbon - one each for signature, picture, and the date. Another interactive page. =)


And this is my 5 senses layout. It's about Alloway, NJ, where I spent my summers growing up. I finally used my Hambly rubons on this LO for the first time! Also used Hambly pp and overlay, as well as Purple Onion stamps and DCWV background pp. Oh yeah - my favorite thing about this LO? After I printed the journaling on vellum, while it was still wet, I sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and set it. I love the result. Embossed, computer generated type. Yeah, I'll be doing more of this in the future. Very cool.


I'm getting very excited about this project and can't wait until I get the next book to work on! I've already got ideas for some of the themes coming my way. This is going to be a lot of fun.

CJ Route

Seriously. It's pretty cool that our little circle journals will make this trek around the U.S. Thanks for posting the route, Andrea.

eta: You'll have to click the empty picture box above to see the picture. I don't know what Blogger's issue is, but I'm going to leave it as is.

CJ Theme!

Drum roll please....

the 5 senses.

That's my theme. I worked on the cover tonight, so I should be able to post a picture of my journal in the next few days. I'm pretty excited about how my cover is coming together. I think this is going to be a lot of fun and can't wait to see what everyone else is doing.

Circle Journal

I am going to do a circle journal group this winter/spring. It's been on my list of things to do and I've never done one, so I think it will be fun. And I'll get one more thing on my "to do before I die" list checked off.

Now, for a theme. This is where you guys come in. I need some help deciding, so please add a comment to vote for the theme you think I should choose!

1) The five senses (you know - taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing)
2) Favorite games
3) My purse (what people would learn about you if they went through the contents of your purse)

OR - does anyone have any other awesome circle journal theme they wouldn't mind me stealing?

I'd like to get this nailed down asap, so vote already!