My Heart and Soul

As some of you know, I had to take a few days away from writing so I could focus on some other things.

I am currently pouring my heart and soul into making personal journals for the upcoming Rachel’s Vineyard retreat in September. In the last three weeks I have only completed 2! The reason why it’s taking so long is that I’m praying diligently throughout this process that it would speak directly to the woman who chooses each specific journal.

The process of RV is a difficult journey that continues long after the weekend retreat. I broke down the journals into three parts: Weekend (with journal prompts), Favorites (favorite retreat moments such as meals, scriptures and activities), and Journal pages. Some will include a 7 Day Devotional written specifically for RV participants, and others will be separate (the mini journals).

I’m mostly sharing these two completed journals so one of the facilitators of the program can get a glimpse of what I’m doing, but I’m also posting them because I wanted to show some of the things I’ve done in the crafting department.

I hope you enjoy!

Each journal will have a theme:

The covers are cardboard boxes or corrugated cardboard, which I think is utterly raw and beautiful…perfect for the women who will attend the retreat.

Here’s the inside of the mini journal: trust.

Fortunately, when I went through my mother’s stuff, she had a few transparency sheets and I used those for the prompts. However, that only took me so far. So I went to Office Max, and WHOA, transparencies are incredibly expensive. So for the next journals I’ll be using clear labels my mom had, too. They worked perfectly! Don’t spend the money for transparencies!! Buy clear sticker paper, or clear labels.

 

As you can see, the mini journal used double sided paper that was cut to include a mini-insert and then sewn together. The outside ribbon is then woven into the individual pages sewn together.

The inside of the journal: hope.