Road Trip 2014: Day 6

Okay... here's where I got a little behind.  Up until day 6, Clara and I had been spreading out all of our supplies on the bed and doing our page for the day that night at the hotel.  Day 6 started a string of several late-ish nights in a row.  So, needless to say, we didn't feel much like dragging everything out, we just wanted to go to bed.  These pages were done on day 9 instead.

Nights 8 and 9 were spent at the same hotel and by that hotel was a Wal-Mart.  I decided to take advantage of that and print photos through their one hour photo vs. using my Instax.  I used one of my photo editing apps that had a collage feature to put four photos on one 4x6 print.  I did this for two reasons... 1) it was cheaper that way and 2) this made them a size similar to the instax prints I had been using and I really liked that size.  Clara and I have the same photos in our books, because we picked out some photos together and just printed doubles.

My mom was on the lookout for stuff for our journals too by this point in the trip.  She found these little cards for us at the ranger station in Yellowstone, They were on wolves, bears and bear safety.

I really love all of the photos on these pages!

 It does make me a little torn on what to do on future travel journals.  I would love to have more photos for every day of the trip... but I think staying current on the trip with whatever is at hand is better.  I would like to think that with fewer photos, I might be inclined to write more.

Speaking of writing, you can't really see mine on this page...

 ... but it's there!  And the bonus of it being hard to see here is that my spelling mistake isn't so obvious! :-)  I corrected it, but it actually just made it more obvious in my book.  :-/

And finally, here's my PL page...

Road Trip 2014: Day 5

Funny how quickly you forget things!  When putting together yesterday's post, I had added all of the photos of my journal up until the day five divider.  When I was writing my post, I kept looking at the page below.  I couldn't make sense of it.  We went to Grand Teton National Park on the afternoon of day 4 and the morning of day 5, so it could have gone with day 4.  BUT, I knew we did the scenic drive and saw the moose in the morning... so that must have been day 5.  I'm still not sure why I decided to start day 5 before the divider, but I did.  It's the only day I did that way, and I'm not sure I like it.  Oh well... it's done!  I may have to go back and write day 5 on that page so I don't confuse myself again later!

The store we went into in Grand Teton on day 5 had LOTS of stickers.  Well... not tons, but more than we usually saw.  I got the shield sticker for myself, plus an animals of Grand Teton and Yellowstone set for Clara and I to share...

And a fun, very graphic page of Grand Teton stickers for Clara and to share too...

This was my first time (and maybe my only time in this book) that I had a story that I wrote down.  I wish I would have done more journaling and stories in my book.  I'm not much of a writer, but I'd like to change that.

I added the postcard right to the page again here.  I really loved the set of postcards that they had there with vintage designs.

Not a huge fan of this page.  I really need to work on my handwriting so it's prettier for projects like this!

 At the Old Faithful Inn, the gift shop had a scrapbooking section, so Clara and I picked up some more sticker sets.

Here's my project life page for that day...

Minimal design again... just letting the beauty in the photographs be what speaks on these pages!

Road Trip 2014: Day 4

Day four started out with a half day of driving...

Then we made it to Jackson Hole.  If the instax prints weren't so expensive, these pages would be filled with photos... the scenery was just gorgeous!!

We took the tram to the top of the mountain.  I included our "ticket" (the plastic card) on my page.  We also bought stickers and a postcard each.

After Jackson Hole, we drove into Grand Teton National Park...

I added my Grand Teton postcard directly to one of the pages versus hole punching it this time.

Here is my project life page for the day...

The views were just absolutely amazing and photos just can't do it justice!  I'm sure now you're beginning to understand when I mentioned earlier how hard it would have been to edit the trip down to just one two page project life spread!

Road Trip 2014: Day 3

Well... to contrast with yesterdays very long post, this is a very short one.  Day three wasn't a very big day.  Our only plan that day was to shop around in downtown Cheyenne, but it didn't end up having as many shops as we thought.  So, it was a quick morning of sightseeing, lunch and then on to our next hotel.

Here's the divider for day three...

I really loved using the "day" cards from Little Butterfly Wings and I loved the map too (sadly the designer retired and it is no longer available).

Decided to do something different with the postcard this time...

I got a vintage looking one.  And since I didn't have much to fill that blank page, I just attached the postcard directly to it.  One of my favorite brochures of the the whole trip is this one from the Cheyenne Depot Museum.  It's beginning to get a little beat up from sticking up like that, but I don't mind.

 And here is the project life page for the day...

Again, I just kept it very simple and used elements from Stolen Moments Designs' Little Mister Bossy Face kit.

Road Trip 2014: Days 1 and 2

Okay... this post is going to be a bit on the large side.  I wasn't sure how to break it up though, so it is what it is.  :-)

My plan is to post the travel journal photos for each day and the corresponding project life page that goes with it.  But... since I had so little for day one for PL and so much for day two, I combined all of one and a bit of two on one page.  And then I remembered that I had made a "cover page" for the trip for my PL album... so instead of sharing one PL page I now have three to share, plus two days worth of journal pages (oh... and a pre-trip page as well!).

Starting out with the pre-trip page...

I did this one because I wanted to use the backside as an intro page (still on my to do list) and then wanted to add my day one page to start the trip.  I needed something on the backside of the future intro page, so I did a quick page about our trip down to MO to start the trip.

Day one...

We were in the car ALL day, so there wasn't much to do in the journal.  We did stop at a fabulous BBQ place for lunch, so I put that on the back of the divider.

In desperation to add things to our books, we also purchased Iowa postcards when we stopped at a truck stop to get gas.  We were in Iowa less than an hour, but it's documented!  To be honest, the journaling on the back has to do with the heated toilet seats in the women's rest rooms.  Not a fan of warm public toilet seats myself... there's just something disturbing about that.

We weren't good at grabbing "smash-able" items yet, so for our lunch stop I had to rely on a photo and my questionable handwriting.  They had really cool napkins too... we just didn't think to grab one.

Day two...

We did a LOT on day two... some on purpose, some by accident.

First up was Pioneer Village in Minden, NE...

My parents took me there when I was a baby, so they thought it would be a cool stop to make.  It was really amazing... so much to see.  Overwhelming actually.  For our books we bought postcards and sticker sets and picked up a brochure.

I wasn't sure how to include the brochure in the book, but Clara had this bright idea and we used it over and over again...

You glue the back of the brochure to the page and add some washi for extra hold.

This allows you to still be able to open up the brochure.  Here it is with the sides opened up...

And here it is fully unfolded...

I thought her idea was just brilliant!  The only thing we're missing is the info on the back.  But on most brochures that's just the address, hours, admission costs, etc.  Things I could give up.  I did have one later on in the trip, that I didn't want to give up the back information... I'll show you that when I get to that day.

A quick stop at a Pony Express station and an even quicker stop at Buffalo Bill Ranch...

At the Pony Express station we picked up a brochure.  It didn't have it's own, just one about the town, so I cut out the section about the station.  They also had a free newspaper you could take... I took the rider oath from there.  We stopped at Buffalo Bill Ranch, because we happened upon it when we got hopelessly lost trying to find the Golden Spike Tower.

The Gold Spike Tower (once we found it), was really cool.  So many trains!!  They also had super cool tickets that you got when you paid your admission.  Perfect for a travel journal... they had the time stamped on it and the woman there punched each one for us with the correct info.

We also bought a postcard each...

Now that I've posted all of the journal pages, on to the project life ones...

Here is the intro page I did...

I did it for two reasons:  1) Our trip was 11 days, so I needed to add a page somewhere to even it out and 2) As soon as we were back, I quickly edited photos and dropped them onto templates so they would be ready to go.  When I did that, I didn't leave enough room for an intro to the trip, calendars or week numbers.  Week numbers and calendars are things that I have been consistent with this year, I didn't want to mess that up.

Okay... why did I do a page a day for project life instead of a weekly or trip summary since I'm (eventually) doing a separate travel album?  I meant to do just that... I really did.  But we did so many cool things that trying to narrow down the photos THAT much just shut me down.  I couldn't do it, I just couldn't move forward.  So, I went back to one of my mantras this year in regards to PL... whatever it takes to get it done and the story told.  In this case, it was MUCH easier for me to pick a handful of photos to represent each day for 11 pages than it was to only do one or two spreads.  I kept them very simple, mainly photos and 1 or 2 journaling card spots.  Since I have so many details in my journal, I will use that to tell a more in depth story when I do my trip album.

Here is the day 1 and 2 combo page...

And the continuation of day 2...

See...super simple and super quick to put together!

See you for day 3 next!

Road Trip 2014: Travel Journal Overview

Okay... I finally have it (mostly) finished and photographed!  I have to tell you that I absolutely LOVED doing a travel journal / smashbook while we were on our trip.  So much so, that I have found myself planning more road trips so I can do another travel journal!  Once I get my craft space organized, I do think I might like to try "smashing" everyday life stuff... but I need a space where I can leave it out before I'll attempt that.

So, here we go....

This is my unfinished cover :-)  I held off on decorating it, since it was going to take some abuse on the trip with being unpacked and packed a bazillion times.  As you may remember from my prep post, we decided on using the Creative Chaos journals from Michael's Recollections line.  I was very pleased with this decision.  The cover is sturdy, the pages are super thick and durable and I love that it is a three ring binder.  That gave us lots of options for including the stuff we accumulated along the way.

In prep post number two, I talked about the things I made and had printed.  I really liked having the daily dividers for multiple reasons.  I liked having a clear beginning and end to each day of the trip, I loved the map and the dividers just made the journal feel more "me" since I put them together based on my style.  What I didn't like was 1) they were a much thinner card stock and my writing (especially my route map) always bled through to the other side and 2) I wasn't a big fan of the blank white page staring at me when I went to decorate the other side.  Some I like better than others, but they always seemed so plain compared to the other pages in the book.

Below I've posted a few random pages from my book to give an overview of what it looks like.  Now that my journal and my project life pages for the trip are done, I'm going to do a day by day detailed post with my journal pages and project life pages.  So keep checking back if you would like to see a more in depth look at my journal.

Here's one from day two...

This was our first touristy stop of the trip and we were just getting in the habit of collecting stuff to "smash".  At this stop, we bought stickers and a postcard, plus picked up a brochure to include.  The three ring binder was already coming in handy... I just punched holes and added the post card.  We journaled on the back of most of the postcards we included.  Oh... and the "we" I'm talking about is me and my 12 year old daughter, Clara.  She had her own travel journal, although she prefers that I not share hers on here.  We had so much fun working on them together each night at the hotels.  We used so much of the same materials, but it's so amazing to see how different our books are!

As you can see below, I used my instax printer a LOT...

It was so convenient!  It didn't take up much room at all in my suitcase and was super easy to use.

In the photo above and the one below, you can see that we were getting better at finding random things to include in our books.  Above is our tram ride ticket and below, we picked up some animal information cards in Yellowstone...

One time on our trip we actually spent two nights at the same hotel, and by that hotel was a Wal-Mart.  I decided to save my instax film (which ends up being around $1 per photo) and have photos printed at the one hour photo in Wal-Mart instead.  I used an app to put four photos on a 4x6 print.  Just an FYI if you plan on doing this... I don't normally print at Wal-Mart, so I don't know if this is typical or not, but the only way I could print with them was to set up an account online, upload to their website and pick the print at store option.  I tried walking in and doing it all there, but they had no way to download photos from your phone in store.  It was a little frustrating trying to figure it out, but once I did, it was smooth sailing.

Printing the photos worked out really well, since one of the previous days was spent on a private ranch.  It was probably one of our best days of the whole trip, but since it was a private ranch, there were no brochures to pick up or no postcards to buy.  It would have been a pretty bleak set of pages for such an amazing day.  With printing at Wal-Mart, I got to include a ton of photos to document our time there.

Another use of the three ring binder...

Sometimes I would add brochures this way... especially if they were those thick one pagers.

Nothing new here, just liked how bright and busy it is!  :-)

But this is an example of that blank white page on the back of the day dividers I made.  This is one of the ones I'm happier with... some of the others, not so much.

Something we figured out a little too late...

We got really good at tracking down things to add to our books by the end of the trip.  This one we didn't put together until near the end.  The national parks have a passport program and they have stamp stations set up at each one for you to stamp your passports.  We have passports, but we NEVER remember to bring them with us!  Some parks will have little slips of paper for you to stamp so you can add them to your passport later.  We got a stamp at one park that had them, but had skipped getting them at those that did not.  Well... at our LAST national park stop, we got the bright idea to stamp the back of the postcard we had just bought!

And finally, the last photo for this overview...

Another feature of the Creative Chaos books that I really like is the pocket in the back (there's one in the front too, but mine is empty).  During the trip, I used it to hold my day divider pages and now after the trip, I use it to hold the brochures that were too big and bulky to add to the journal pages.


Let's see, what are my final thoughts about my first travel journal...

1. I really truly enjoyed it and I especially enjoyed that my daughter was doing one too. 
2. Three ring binder is the way to go for me.  I really don't think I could do it any other way.
3. I didn't need as much "stuff" as I thought... scissors, glue stick, hole punch and washi... lots and lots of washi.  I really wish I would have packed more so I would have had more variety throughout the book.  I used a few stickers and journal cards, but a very small fraction of what I brought.  I think I would have used more if I was doing it after the fact, but since we did it on the go (staying current), we kept things simple.
4. Having a travel journal kept souvenir shopping fun and inexpensive.  This was big for me with having Clara along.  She's a shopper and a total sucker for things like t-shirts and stuffed animals (which she only really enjoys while on the trip).  With the journals, we were first and foremost on the hunt for free things to include... brochures, info cards, stamps, etc.  Then we scoured the gift shops for just the right post card and then looked to see if they had any sticker packs.  We spent quite a bit on stickers over the course of the trip... but that amount was probably about the same as one t-shirt/stuffed animal souvenir from just one of the many places we stopped.  She was always thrilled with her smash book bounty when leaving each stop, even if we hadn't purchase anything more than a 50 cent post card.
5. Having a way to add photos along the way was another big thing.  I really liked having each day done at the end of the day and not having to wait until we were back to print and fill in the gaps.

Hmmmm... I think that's it for now.  There may be more revelations as I go through each day, but that's it for now!

I'll add links to the other pages related to the journal as I post the pages:
Journal Prep Part 1 - What we bought
Journal Prep Part 2 - What we made
Journal Prep Part 3 - How we packed
Days 1 and 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11

Project Life 2014: Week 30

This is from our last week at home before we left.  Well... actually, we left for Missouri on Friday of this week, but the road trip didn't start until the next week.  The green and yellow color scheme just kind of happened, but I really liked it once it was done.

Here's week 30...

Supplies:

Project Life 2014: Week 29

Well... we're finally back home from all of our traveling!  I can't believe school starts tomorrow... this summer has just flown by!

I'm not caught up yet with my pages, but I am at a spot that I'm pretty comfortable with.  I just started working on week 34.  This is the start of week 36, so that's not too bad.  Add in there that the kids start back to school tomorrow so I'll have more time during the day, and I should be caught up in no time.  The travel journals Clara and I did turned out amazing and I can't wait to share those!  They were a big help in me putting together my PL pages for the trip and will be an even bigger help when making my separate trip album.  Plus they were so much fun to do!

So, back to some pre-trip pages I never got posted.  Here's week 29....

Supplies: