Hi everyone! I’m very excited to be a Guest Polly this month and I am also very excited about our family trip we have planned to Paris and London later this month! One of my favorite things I like to do when we travel is to make my version of a travel journal. My first goal for this journal is to be a place to capture stories and the paper bits we collect during our trip, which will then serve as my reference book when I scrap my album later. My second goal for this travel journal is for it to be easy and quick to put together. This post is part of a three part series. This first post is about what I do before we leave, the second is what I do while on the trip and the third will be a peek at my finished travel journal. So, let’s get started and take a look at what I do before the trip…
I’ll start by outlining my basic list of supplies. Here’s what I gather beforehand…
Moving clockwise from the top left. The first thing is my album. I use Sn@p albums because I have been using them for a while and have quite a variety of inserts lying around the house. I like using a binder for my travel journals, because I will hole punch items and add them directly to my journal. The binder will stay at home, but I like having it picked out beforehand so I am ready to go as soon as I get home. Next is my handy dandy expanding file. This will go with me on the trip (more on it below). Next is a notebook I picked up to make notes in throughout the trip. And the last thing, is a stack of 4×6 blank index cards. I will print my journal cards on these. I know this paper might be a bit controversial as it’s not acid free or anything… but it fits my needs (more on this below also).
I love this thing! This is how I stay organized while traveling. I label a tab for each day and add tickets and brochures to the correct slot each day. This trip I tried something a little different, I have two slots per day. One slot will be for the items we collect, the second will hold cards that I printed specifically for that day. With most trips, I do not not have time to work on the actual travel journal until we get home, but with our train ride mid-trip and long flight home, I figure I will have some time to work during the trip.
Next are my cards. These I like to have printed up in advance so I can either work on the trip or be ready for when we get home. This is a reason why I like to use the notecards. I print a TON of cards in advance and I don’t always use them all. I just open a 4×6 canvas in Photoshop, drag a guide to the split the middle and just start adding journaling cards to each side. I also love to add single elements or word art pieces to make my own cards as well. It’s a little addicting and very hard to stop! On the left you see the new cards I printed up specifically for this trip (still waiting to be cut). The cards in the middle are actually leftover from a previous trip. This highlights one of the reasons I like using the inexpensive note cards. I had printed a bunch of cards for a Disneyland travel journal… but we found that we collected very few paper items while in the parks. And since organizing paper items is the main purpose of my travel journals, I did not use many cards. The final category is the real life category (and there are a few more of these buried in the stack on the left). These cards have word art that can work with all kinds of stories. They’re great for those trials that come up when you travel and for funny stories too. I also like to print some general food related journal cards as well. All of these cards will go on the trip, and will be stored in the expanding file above.
One more note on why I like to use notecards… this travel journal is not my final album for this trip, this is a way to store brochures, maps, tickets, etc. and those are generally not acid free. So I try not to stress about it and use what works for me.
The last thing I’m bringing on this trip, is something new for me… a notebook. I wanted something small that I could carry with me all day to jot notes in. This is a once in a lifetime trip for us before our son graduates from high school in the spring. I feel a strong need to document every single detail. I found this one at Walgreens while waiting for a prescription to be filled. It’s nothing fancy but it fit my requirements… inexpensive and small with a elastic band closure. My plan is to also use this to sketch out my pages on the trip home.
I think that pretty much covers everything I do pre-trip for my travel journal. I’ll be following up with the last two posts in this series the last week of the month, after we’re back from our trip!
Products used on cards in photo:
Various Project Mouse Cards
Travelogue Sketchbook 6 by Lynne-Marie
Traveling Around the World #7 by Paula Kesselring
Scenic Route Journal Cards by Paislee Press
Let’s Be Real Pocket Cards by Amber LaBau Designs
“Not Fun” is a word art piece by Just Jaimee
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