Gratitude Journal

 

Just a warning up front: this is going to be a long post, with lots of pictures and a lengthy explanation for how it came about...

The assignment at Heart-2-Heart Challenges this week was to create something to convey GRATITUDE.  Now, one way in which Close to My Heart supports its consultants is the provision of  business tips in the "Weekly Wisdom" column. This week's edition was particularly timely: It suggested that how we see or react to things that happen in our life is a CHOICE.

"We can wake up every morning and be angry that we ran out of coffee, or that we were stopped by every red light on our way to our daily tasks. Or we can choose joy. We can choose joy at having another day to wake up to. Joy that we have a car with working brakes to stop at the stoplights. And joy that we are a part of something rewarding in the form of Close To My Heart (our hobby!--my italics)."
It continued:
"Sit down right now and write down ten things that give you joy. Your children, your pets, your spouse, whatever. Then write down ten things that frustrate you. Look at that list and then make one last list changing those ten frustrating things into ten things that could be joyful – and then throw away the list of the frustrations. Spend a minute every morning for a week reading out loud the list of things that give you joy. When we make joy a conscious effort rather than sitting around waiting for the joy to come, we see the joy more prevalent in our lives – and so will others."
With the H2H assignment in mind, I decided to create a "Gratitude Journal" where I will complete my list of 10 things that bring me joy and for which I'm grateful (they'll become little mini-layouts with photos if possible), as well as the ten irritating things that I can CHOOSE to see positively.

I really like covering journals and notebooks to personalize them; I've made several with different themes as gifts. I usually buy a basic black hard-cover notebook, but this time I used a spiral-bound notebook. CTMH has discontinued this particular product, but now has a canvas-covered journal which you can STAMP on!.  I removed the covers by gently opening the coils, to make it easier to work with.

Love the mess on my desk!?

I pulled off the original plastic sleeve on the front cover

I used the new pigment ink pads to colour the edges of the covers--just swiped them with the ink pad--so easy!

The "Irresistibles" Houndstooth Alphabet was also very easy to colour. When I started investing in Sizzix alphabet dies (and now the Cricut), and my CTMH alphabet stamps, I swore I would never to buy another alphabet sticker! So annoying to run out of Es, Ts, Ss... But! I'll be making an exception for those Houndstooth letters. They look great!

Just added ink with a sponge dauber--the resist pattern shows up like magic.

I used a discontinued (but still beautiful) paper pack called "Dreamin." It has great autumn colours--gold, rust, brown and blue.  The copper charm is from the matching embellishment packet, but the current "Timeless Charms" would work equally well.
I used the pigment ink pads again to stamp some floral images from the"Treasure Life" stamp set, D1306. The opaque ink showed up well over patterned paper. 

A mishmash of products as I make final design decisions...

 Final product, showing both covers.

And voila...

This whole process definitely gave me joy. And contemplating gratitude today (Nov. 11th) as the jets fly overhead to commemorate Remembrance Day here in Canada, is even more fitting.

Please pop by the H2H blog to see inspiring projects by the other design team members, and please play along!
Here are the rules for participating:

1. Use mostly Close to My Hearts products, though it doesn't have to be 100%.
2. Create your project, showing us what you're grateful for!
3. Post your project to your blog or other online gallery.
4. Come back here and link directly to your blog post, not your blog home page.
5. Mention Heart 2 Heart somewhere in your blog post, indicating that you are playing along with us and link to our site.
6. Consider adding the H2H badge to your blog. We'd love to spread the word and see more crafters participating.
7. Please consider turning off word verification if you'd like to get comments (you can always enable comment moderation if you're concerned about spam).
8. Finally, remember that you have the whole month of November to join us on any of our November challenges and be eligible for our Top Ten!
   
   
   May you find joy in your crafting!
   Caroline

Supplies Used:
Pacifica, Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta and Chocolate inks and card-stock
Dreamin' paper pack (discontinued)
Harvest Charms (discontinued)
"Houndstooth" Irresistibles Alphabet
Natural hemp
Journal