NYC Trip: Journal Overview

This is the project that almost wasn't.... but I'm so excited that I decided to do it and I actually finished it!  

This time I started with a Simple Stories Sn@p album...

I actually just decided to order it a couple days before we left... that's how close this project was to not happening.  I liked the Creative Chaos journal I used last time, but I wanted to try something different this time.  I've been obsessed with Sn@p albums lately, so I decided to go for it.  One thing I really liked about the Creative Chaos album, was that because I was doing the book smash book style, it was easy to work with on the trip.  I wasn't quite sure how to do that with a Sn@p album.  This trip was a quick trip that was jam packed full of activities, I didn't figure I would have time to work on the journal itself on the trip.  BUT... my plan was to take all of my printed journal cards with me to fill out during any downtime we might have.  

Well... at 10:00pm the night before we had to leave for the airport at 5:45am, I could NOT find my stack of cards ANYwhere.  I nearly cried.  I figured that was it for my journal.  I gave up looking for it and decided that I would find a cute little notebook at the airport to jot down stories in and sketch out my pages.

Read the journaling below and you'll see why that didn't happen....

I couldn't let it die completely though... I kept all of the little paper bits - tickets, brochures, playbills, etc. and had them fairly organized.  The one thing I didn't do this time was buy anything to add to my album.  I do regret that, I just wasn't confident that I was going to follow through with completing the album once I got home.  The only thing I really, really miss is that I had fully intended on buying an I *heart* New York sticker for the front of my album.  But since I didn't think I was going to do the album, I didn't even look for one.

Once I was back though, I did one last sweep of my supplies to see if I could find my cards and I found them!!  I had put them away in the bag I had bought to carry our supplies last year.  My cards were very simple cards.  I pulled up a blank 4x6 in photoshop, used the guide to divide it in half and dropped in word art and elements from Just Jaimee's Storyteller collections.  So fast and addicting to make.  I printed them on 4x6 card stock and cut them in half.  Super easy!  The only thing I did other than Storyteller word art, was the calendar on the first page of my journal.  That's also by Just Jaimee,  Storyteller 2015 Month 3x4 Calendar Cards.

I really liked working with the photo slots, but I still occasionally just punched holes in brochures (the flat, one page kind) and added them directly to my binder...

Just for fun, I printed a few cards that were just patterned paper to use as background for tickets and such...

I wasn't sure I would use them so I only did a few.  I loved them and wished I had printed a bunch more!

On most pages, I just printed single photos (or two 3x4's on a 4x6 to be cut in two)... but on the page above, I used a template to add more photos.... since the whole point of the wax museum was to take LOTS of photos (FYI - I thought it would be so cheesy in there (and it was) but the kids had a BLAST posing for photos with the figures).  I was going to link to the template I used (Designs by Lili), but it looks like it is no longer available.

Another type of card I wish I would have made more of was this...

I didn't make enough filler cards.  I will definitely make more next time.  I made the 50/50 cards thinking I would buy stickers or something to put in the middle.  But since I didn't buy anything, I used them as journal cards.  I will make more next time and try out the sticker idea.

I used 6x8 page protectors to hold larger brochures and playbills...

Just an example of how great the word art cards turned out... simple with lots of room for journaling...

For this trip I picked a color palette and stuck with it throughout the book.  All of my cards were basically black, red and yellow and I mainly used my black and white washi...

I liked this, and will do this again for other trips.

Most of my journaling is front and center for anyone to read, but I wanted my thoughts on our visit to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum to be private...

It's there on the card with the washi tape pull tab on the top right.  

I am beyond thrilled with how this book turned out!  I can't stop paging through it!  This was a great test project for our upcoming road trip.  It will take some more planning with how to turn this into an "on the road" journal, but I'm gathering ideas.  Clara and I really liked working on our journals at the hotel at night on our road trip last year and would like to continue that this year.  I just need to figure out the photo thing since I'll wait to print until after we're back.

I'm not sure if it's documenting overkill or not, but this is one of three different ways this trip will be documented.  I will include an overview of the trip in my project life book and then I will do a separate photo book for the trip.  I justify this book, because it's personally mine, the journaling is 100% me and my view of the trip.  I'm not totally comfortable with everyone reading my journaling in front of me... makes me crazy for some reason.  So the trip photo book will be more generic, more labeling, less journaling.  And, this journal will be used as a reference book for when I go back and do my other pages/project.  My travel journal from last year was so helpful for when I went back and did my album.  I basically went page by page through it to make sure I had everything labeled properly.  

So that's it!  My travel journal for our NYC trip... now on to planning for the next one!

To see the pages from each day, click the links below....

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

NYC Trip: Journal Day Three

 Warning - these posts will seem out of order and lacking in detail.  It's my plan to post each day individually and then follow up with an overview post which will include more details about the products I used and the process I used to put the pages together.

Last day of the disclaimer since this is the last day of our trip.

We started our day at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum...

I'm annoyed that this photo is not sharp... but I'm too lazy to go back and reshoot the photo (sorry!).

We all loved the Intrepid museum... especially Alex.  We ran out of steam before we had seen it all.

Next up... we caught the water taxi to Battery Park...

Lunch and One World Trade Center...

After lunch, we went to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum...

I wasn't prepared for how emotional I would be when going through the museum.  I journaled about it for my book, but since it's a little personal, I did it as a hidden journal card.  It's on a card attached to the little black washi tape tab in the top right space.

After that, we went back to Battery Park to catch the water taxi again...

We cruised past the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty...

Once we were back in our neighborhood, we grabbed dinner and then ventured over to the NHL store for new Blackhawks gear...

And then ended our day with Ice Cream Sodas at Junior's.

The last page in my journal is about our New York Passes and our flight home...

At the very back is another 6x8 page protector...

... I included the rest of our brochures in it.

So... that's our trip!  Stay tuned for my next post with an overview and more details about the supplies I used!

NYC Trip: Journal Day Two

Warning - these posts will seem out of order and lacking in detail.  It's my plan to post each day individually and then follow up with an overview post which will include more details about the products I used and the process I used to put the pages together.

Same disclaimer as yesterday in case you missed it.  I can't believe it!  My travel journal is finished!  It feels so good to have one project done... and since it's my journal, I'll have all of my info in one place for when I'm ready to do my project life pages and my trip photo album.

So, here's day two...

On the backside of Chicago playbill that was in the 6x8 page protector, I put the brochure from our first stop of the day... The Empire State Building.

Then on to Rockefeller Center...

Next was our less than successful trip into Central Park....

Here I added another 6x8 page protector for our Central Park map....

and the guide to our next stop, the American Museum of Natural History...

Dinner...

And dessert...

And finally, our night time adventure...

NYC Trip: Journal Day One

Warning - these posts will seem out of order and lacking in detail.  It's my plan to post each day individually and then follow up with an overview post which will include more details about the products I used and the process I used to put the pages together.

 First up, our flight...

I fully intended on there being photos of our trip to NYC... you know, eating breakfast at the airport, boarding the plane, skyline shots from the window.  Yeah, no.... none of that happened, we are so lucky that we (and our luggage) actually made it on the plane.

I also intended on filling out my journaling cards while on our trip.  But that only works if you don't lose your entire stack of cards the night before you leave.  Apparently I was overly efficient and had put them away with all of my travel journal supplies versus leaving them on the coffee table like I thought.

So, as soon as we were back, I started filling out cards.  This book is more about the journaling (something I'm still not good at, but working on) and the paper bits from our trip.  I tried to keep photos down to a minimum and let the writing and paper stuff tell more of the story.

I cut the map they gave us at the hotel into pieces based on the areas we covered.  You'll see them pop up through these posts.  I did find that my 3x4 guide from Simple Stories seems to be a little off from my 3x4 cards.  Like I said before, I'll provide more details later, but the cards I made up and printed myself using word art by Just Jaimee.

More "stuff".... I included my agent card from the Avengers exhibit, a ticket and a trimmed copy of the brochure...

For the Madame Tussauds brochure, I just punched holes in it and put it directly into the binder...

I know I said that I didn't include many photos in here, but I did this time.  The whole point of the wax museum was posing for photos, so I put a bunch on a collage template...

Another ticket...

And just journaling cards and photos...

For my playbill from the Broadway show we went to, I just slid it into a 6x8 page protector.

I am keeping this journal super simple and it is coming together super fast.  I hope to be done by the end of the day today!