Circle Journals and Tag Books - what are they?

I have been in discussion with my new team on UKScrappers about Circle Journals (CJs). I thought I would post basically what I have explained to them here, as I am often asked about them and what they are.

So here is a link to a set of photos of a circle journal which I did with my ladies at the Scrapbuddies January crop.Normally a CJ is started by one person and then posted to the next and the next and so on, but instead of sending it around everywhere, we made the pages there and then (at the crop) and I put them into the book (just stuck the pages back to back). The way we share the book is that I posted these pictures on the website and they can borrow the book if they wish - to show family and friends etc.However, for those of you who don’t know what it’s all about…

The person starting the journal makes the basic blank book/album. That person then makes the covers and inside DPS (double page spread) explaining the content of the book (ie, the theme of the book. In this case it was “Likes and Dislikes about Christmas”).

That person also needs to provide a "sign in" page for each participant to place their identification (photo/words/whatever). And of course make a DPS of their own. It is then sent on to the next person who makes their DPS on the next available pages and also "signs in" on the designated pages.CJs can be any size, but are quite often 6x6 ish!UKScrappers have CJs on all the time in groups of 10 people and so if you are in one of the official CJ groups, you start one off and so do the other 9 people.

On a set date you all have to have finished your contribution and post the CJ on to the next person on the list (to your left as it were!!) each time.

It can take the best part of a year to complete and the reason for that is that if there are 10 of you and you move the journals around every 3-4 weeks - that's 30-40 weeks before you get your completed journals back!

If there is a group of you, a crop group or just a few friends who want to do this, it is great fun. But if the reason to do one is to create a book about all of you (so you can get to know each other a little better) then perhaps a better alternative is to make a tag book.

Each make up a tag about yourselves including some specific info like name, place where you live, who you live with, pets, age, some favourite things maybe, and you made 10 identical ones, you could all end up with an identical tag book each ! As long as you are all working with the same tag template (size especially!!!!) then it should be a breeze!