23 Paper Bag Journals

My youngest daughter, Rachel, and I got a bit ambitious this December!  We decided to make paper bag journals for a local drug rehab center's residents.  These are mostly young women who are working at getting their lives back from the horrible disease of addiction.  They are the happiest, sweetest, and most grateful people!  It is amazing how the smallest thing just means so much to them.  When we started this project I don't think either of us knew how much work it was going to be.  I started by doing a couple while my daughter finished up her college classes for the semester.  By the time she joined me, we realized we had a lot of work ahead of us, but I had already committed us and we take that pretty seriously.  So we worked and worked and worked and delivered them just in time for Christmas!  It was a lot of fun, but if we do it for next year we need to start now and just do one each every month.  Then we won't have any stress at the end on if we are going to finish in time or not.  It was well worth the effort though and we are sure we're going to do it again! 

Journal for a Friend

I have been busy working on some gifts lately.  So much to do, so little time!  The page here is from a book for a friend's upcoming birthday.  The background papers are just random scrapbook papers and a couple of bits from some painted pattern pages I made in one of Mary Ann Moss's classes.  The image is one of the fun freebie ones that Land of Nod gives away.  And then I just included a journal card from a Project Life set.  I am decorating half the pages pretty much in the same way, some background papers, a quirky image, and a journaling spot.  I am leaving the other half of the pages blank (except for whatever the background happens to be) in order for my friend to fill them in as she likes.  I am just hoping to get her creative juices going with what I've included and see what she comes up with on the other pages.