Have Notebook, Will Travel!

Traveling to Italy with my husband was by far one of the greatest experiences of my whole life.  There is something about seeing the world that just lights up my soul.  This is a trip we have saved towards for a very long time and the planning that went into it was meticulous.  Being the crafty person I am, way back when we first started talking about this trip, I began thinking about how I would document it.  That’s when it hit me…I’d be able to use a traveler’s notebook as an actual traveler!  Nerdy, I know, but I can’t help it.  Paper-crafting is my love language, and I knew that capturing these memories would be very important!

I did a bunch of the documenting while on the trip.  I brought a limited number of supplies, which actually really freed me up to get creative with what I had on hand.  I collected ticket stubs, napkins, business cards, brochures, and maps and incorporated as many as possible into my traveler’s notebook spreads.  Most importantly, I did a lot of journaling, trying to capture the events, emotions, and memories on paper.  Normally I do not write as much on my layouts, but I enjoyed this approach to documenting so much that I feel like I might change my approach to other memory-keeping projects.  Documenting this trip in my TN (traveler’s notebook) helped ignite a new creative spark in me.  I shed the feeling that layouts had to look a certain way or be “Instagram” worthy and just used any materials and elements that made me happy.  Here are a few pages that I put together while traveling:

It felt great to get so much of the trip documented while still on the road, but of course I was not able to finish.  My goal is to finish the notebook (and the corresponding “Food in Italy” notebook) by the end of the month.  However, I really just want to enjoy every last memory as I document it.

Throughout our travels, I used this HP Sprocket printer to print out my on-the-go photos.  It works splendidly because the photos print on sticker paper, making it very easy to adhere them into a notebook.  Even though I know that my at-home photo printer will print a better quality photo, I decided to keep the notebook consistent and print the remainder of my photos with the sprocket.  My first step for this page  was to print out the photos that I hoped to include on the spread.  I also traveled with a limited selection of ephemera, paper, and washi tape.  I stuck with these same choices when I returned home to keep the notebook cohesive.

After I printed photos, I selected a few ephemera pieces that jumped out at me as ones that I wanted to include on the layout.  One of my favorite techniques I have been using throughout this TN is an interactive element.  Nearly every page has a tip-in, a tag, or a hidden element.  I feel like the interactive elements really pull you in, making you dig deeper as you flip through the memories.  For this page, I used a tag and some scrap paper to create a pocket for hidden pictures of me and my husband enjoying the sunset over Florence.

Going along with the same theme of the interactive element, I attached two pictures to either side of a coordinating piece of scrap paper and secured the tip-in with some simple grid washi tape.

As I worked my way around the layout, the next element I added was a quote about traveling.  Sometimes I feel a little weird documenting pictures of myself, but in this case, I really wanted to remind myself of the spark I felt in Italy.  Watching sunsets, taking in great art, and slowing down in general completely renewed my creative spirit, and I wanted to remind myself of what that felt like.  I used my neocolor II crayons and a water brush to hand letter the quote, and then adhered my pictures with another tip-in element, and a cluster of Maggie Holmes ephemera pieces.

Now that all the main elements were in place, I turned to the Maggie Holmes sticker book that I took with me to Italy to add embellishments.  I highly recommend any of these American Crafts sticker books when you are traveling and limited on supplies. They provide a HUGE variety of stickers that all coordinate nicely with each other.  This one even had alpha stickers in the back that I utilized multiple times on our trip.

I embellished with multiple floral stickers and phrase stickers across both sides of the layout.  In the upper left-hand corner of the page, I framed off an area and then used some small wooden alpha stamps from Michaels to add the name of the church that we visited on that particular day.

As I mentioned earlier, my journaling has increased exponentially with this project.  The desire to capture as many of the feelings and memories as possible led me to add much more journaling than I ever have before.  I also found creative places to journal on pages, including as a border around the page, behind tags, and on the back of tickets and pictures.  My handwriting is not particularly lovely, but in the end, I knew that didn’t matter.  This is a notebook that I will return to over and over, and I simply wanted the words on the page.

Have you ever worked on your memory-keeping project while traveling?  What worked for your memory-keeping on-the-go?  I’ve really enjoyed this process of real-time documenting, so I’d love to hear any tips or experiences that you have!  Leave me some comments below!

Keep it creative,

-The Scrappy Wife