Collaborative Journal Project

Hello!

Hope everyone's summer is going great.  It has been HOT HOT HOT here in Omaha, so it is a good time to get into the Art Room and ORGANIZE!!  Scary word I know!  And for those of you that I have allowed to see the destruction that is my Art Room, you know how much ORGANIZATION is needed.  However, improvements are being made and progress is being realized.  Photos to come someday soon I hope!

In the meantime as I was organizing, I found lots of vintage goodies and ephemera that I really just wanted to glue some place.  I wanted to bring those old tickets, receipts, green stamps, dennison labels into the light and put them somewhere I would be able to look at them and enjoy.  I also thought I needed a partner in this, someone who I would be responsible to, to actually get the journal pages done!

So I thought for a sec and decided Michelle Geller of Hold Dear, my good friend, my right-hand lady for HANDMADE U, and not to mention someone whose Art Room I'd love to dig through was the one to collaborate with!!

She said yes before I finished saying SWAP EPHEMERA Kits.

We each put together a kit of goodies from old to new papers, journaling boxes, washi tape, punched out wallpapers, all good stuff!  We used old French Blue Books that I found in this garage in the South of France two years ago, and went to work.  You can purchase one from my etsy shop HERE!

We decided this would be our Daily July Journal.  Each day we'd write a few thoughts about what we did that day, what we ate, what we saw, anything and everything that we wanted to remember about the day.  

First we had to put together the kits, one for Michelle and one for me.  I just was so excited to see even with all the same materials how different our journals would look!!

I decided I wanted to find a fun vintage box or tin to store all the goodies.  My hubby Jim and I went to Walnut IA, the antique capital of Iowa, for their big vendor weekend.

I found a couple things that would work, and decided on a cute children's chalkboard box for Michelle. I filled it with all these goodies....



I decided to use this red pail for my supplies since I wasn't shipping it anywhere!



It was like Christmas morning when Michelle's package arrived for me!  What fun!  Isn't other peoples' stuff always more fun than the stuff you already have?!?  Between the two of us we had quite a pile to use to decorate our books.



First since the pages in the French Blue Books are fairly lightweight, we decided to double them up by taping two pages together.  It made for a fun look!!  I used a variety of different washi tapes that I had on hand and prepared the journal.



I decided to spend a few evenings just decorating all the pages to have them ready to go so journaling would be quick and easy.  I loved the process, I just used a few glue sticks, and adhered all the papers to the pages.

Then the daily pages began.



You can follow me at RJMCGOUGH on Instagram to see the pages as I create them.  You can follow Michelle at HOLDDEAR on Instagram as well.

Michelle and I are planning to sell kits for future journals, but HANDMADE U prep is fully underway, and our journal kits may have to hold for a bit!  We plan on unveiling our first kits at Handmade U, still room for you to sign up and join us!  You won't be disappointed!  Check out our Facebook page HERE!

Hope you are inspired to USE some of your favorites so you can enjoy them!!

-Happy Journaling,

Rach