How to make your own Traveler’s Notebook inserts

Hi everyone! I’m here to show you how I make my own Traveler’s Notebook inserts. Maybe you have seen my hybrid pages in the gallery, I love making hybrid projects but they tend to be a bit bulky. And since they are so bulky, I like my inserts to have fewer pages in it. I make my inserts with a maximum of 12-14 pages, after that it’s hard to create on the last pages. That’s the main reason why I make my own inserts, another reason is that it’s so much cheaper.

I use two different thickness on the papers for my inserts, one thicker, 200 gsm for the cover and one thinner, 100 gsm for the pages. Both are smoother than regular printing paper. I often print the background paper for each page spread and tape it to the pages in the book, which means the pages will be thicker when it’s finished.

I start with printing the cover and the embellishments I want to use. I used the new Vibrant collection by Rachel Etrog Designs for my cover. I like to make my inserts the same height as a A4 paper is width (21 cm), that way it’s easy to print my pages later and know it will fit. The width of the pages is 11 cm, that means that the cover needs to be a bit wider. I make my covers 23 cm width, that way they are 11,5 cm when finished.





I fold the cover in half and after that I cut down the papers that will be the pages in the insert to 21x23 cm.



After I fold them in half, I stack them inside each other. They won’t have an even edge since they are stacked inside each other, If you want the edges to be even you can trim down the edges with a ruler and a knife.





Now it’s time to assemble the insert. Put the pages in the cover and make sure they are even on the top and bottom and push the pages into the spine. I have a stapler with an extended arm, which allows me to staple a wider format. If you don’t have that, you can take a needle and punch holes in the spine and manually put a staple in the holes. You could also punch holes and sew them together.





Now it’s time to embellish the insert (if you want) and start filling it with memories!
Front:

Back:


Thanks for reading and I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions!