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feeohnah
Style Maven (611)
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# Posted: 5 Jun 2008 15:28
Hi girls,
i'm thinking of hosting a circle journal swap for some of the girls back here, have any of you done them before?? pls do share your experiences with me, e.g how it really works, things to rem, cool ideas etc... thanks for the help!
have a great day!
Fiona
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TxAllieGrl
Fashion Plate (264)
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# Posted: 5 Jun 2008 16:08
The "traditional" or most common CJ I've seen is that you pick a book, get a group, and then mail the books to each other in a specified order. Everyone does a page, then the book gets mailed to the next person.
The challenge I've seen with this sort is that someone always takes longer to do the page, is late mailing them out, loses one - something happens. Good intentions and all that - I don't think anyone joins INTENDING to blow it, but hey, life happens.
The "pro" to this way is that you can do an unusual shaped book b/c you have the shape when it is sent to you. An oval, a star, a cupcake - whatever.
The best one I've done - we called it the "unCJ-CJ". We had a theme, everyone selected a certain word, and then we all did a page for that person based on the word (similar to OLW). Rather then mail books around, we sent all of our completed pages into the hostess, and she sorted and mailed each person their unCJ-CJ pages back to them. We did 6x12 LOs, and you could do 1 or 2 - it was your choice. Some had pictures, some didn't - it was up to you. When you got your pages, you could decide how to put them together.
What I love about CJ's is that everyone is so unique, so your pages are entirely different. And you get a little piece of art from your friends!
HTH!
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feeohnah
Style Maven (611)
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# Posted: 7 Jun 2008 10:39
great! thanks for the advice :)
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Krista
Haute SISter (876)
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# Posted: 7 Jun 2008 11:30
i've only done a few cj's and i really enjoyed them
depending on how many people are in them, they can take a long time to complete
but that was one of the things I liked about it
the second way to do them above, sounds as if it would be faster and less likely for someone to get burned
would also cost less postage wise as you are mailing out 1 package rather than many over a period of time
either way sounds like it could be fun
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ScrappyAmy
Model SISter (2426)
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# Posted: 7 Jun 2008 11:33
I have done 9. 4 of my books never got returned, and the people that had them stopped answering emails. I will NEVER again put so much work into something that I wont know if it will ever come back. I suggest making sure you have tons of contact info for each participant before letting them in.
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Krista
Haute SISter (876)
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# Posted: 7 Jun 2008 11:51
Amy,
so sorry to hear so many of your books were kept
makes me so sad and angry to hear things like this
your participating in this with other crafters
they KNOW what kind of emotion, time and money is invested in these
how can they possibly do this?
karma though, she'll get them
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mandycollins
Style Maven (716)
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# Posted: 14 Jun 2008 01:53
Ditto the frustration and disappointment of loosing books.
Working only with folks you already know or are highly vouched for by someone you trust is a good starting point. We have found that working locally also cuts down on the loss, because if you can walk to their house and workplace, there are few places to hide.
Never ever put anything priceless or unreplaceable in a CJ group.
But have fun because it is a great way of meeting new people and getting to see other people's styles up close
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doulanana
Stylin' SIS (233)
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# Posted: 15 Jun 2008 12:37
I've done about 6 and I love, love, love them!!! Can I join it too???
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feeohnah
Style Maven (611)
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# Posted: 19 Jun 2008 12:39
i totally understand that its really disappointing not to get your book back at the end of the day.
hopefully it'll be better for me cos singapore's a really small country and i have all their addresses so if they don't give my book back i can go knockin' on their door lol lol :p
i'm really looking forward to this though, and keep on going with the circle journal girls, i feel its a real keepsake :)
fiona
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feeohnah
Style Maven (611)
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# Posted: 19 Jun 2008 12:42
on another note though, i wish i was in the United states of A cos all of you really like doing challenges, cjs etc...it's kinda hard getting ppl to sign up as quickly as you do here hee hee
i need to move to the states ASAp muaahhahha
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Courtney DeLaura
Vogue SISter (3192)
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# Posted: 20 Jun 2008 11:36
YES MOVE TO THE STATES :)
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staceyF
Fashion Plate (361)
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# Posted: 30 Jun 2008 21:44
I've done two, both are the same ones scrappyamy is in too. The first onen is literally a year past due and five of us may never get our books back. The second one is in progress but already behind schedule. In our myspace group I started a mail-in cj to eliminate flakes from being able to destroy the cj. I would host one here but not many people have signed up for the two swaps I already posted here.
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amytangerine
Vogue SISter (3242)
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# Posted: 30 Jun 2008 22:13
I have done 9. 4 of my books never got returned, and the people that had them stopped answering emails. I will NEVER again put so much work into something that I wont know if it will ever come back.
that stinks!!!
I did a page for one because someone stopped answering emails and kept 2 books!
2 books!!!
I would make sure you screen the peeps doing it.
obviously things come up, but why does one person need to be so selfish?!
at least if you can't participate, then send the books back.
no harm done,
that's just my opinion :)
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Thinkie
Stylin' SIS (144)
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# Posted: 3 Jul 2008 09:23
I have participated in a CJ once. Someone messed up, the first CJ she sent on without working in it, and then she got mine and kept it for a while. The woman that had organized it took the womans cj and went to her house and after doing a lot of persuading managed to exchange them, hooray for her, she saved my CJ! So that ended well, the woman that wasmessing up got trown out and the rest of the participants sometimes took a little more time but the CJ's turned out fab!
Here in the Netherlands things get lost in the mail quite frequently :-/ some people might lie a bout it and use it as an excuse but it really does happen.
part of the fun of a CJ is seeing the pages the other participants worked on in each others books irl. But I think I would prefer the method of sending all your pages in to a host; smaller chance of things getting lost in the mail or people cheating and lower costs (definately important when doing an international Cj). I would love to participate in that kind of CJ sometime if the shipping costs wouldn't be to high.
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