Trying something new: Traveler's notebooks

Hi! Today I am sharing my homemade traveler's notebook and some layouts.

I had been looking for a TN insert when I popped into Hobby Lobby or Michael's for the last few weeks, but for some reason there weren't any in my area. So I found a process video here by dearly dee (if you haven't watched all of her videos, they're great! I highly recommend her channel!) and tried my hand at making my own. I grabbed some white cardstock and old patterned paper I would never use for a layout and made my own. It's not very tidy because I borrowed my husband's exacto knife that we use for home improvement projects. I don't think it was sharp enough so the pages are a little ragged, but I'm no perfectionist, so I'm fine with it.

I sewed some thickers on a tag and stuck in on the front. Voila! Since my patterned paper had printing on the back, I glued my first and last pages down so the first page when you open the book is ready for a layout.

I am having a lot of fun making these little pages. I get to use lots of stamps, paper scraps, and tell little tiny stories. I know that when I'm done, I will treasure this cute little chunky notebook. Here are a few layouts.

This first one is about choosing a paint color for our guest room redo. Our house was built in the 60s and we are the second (!) owners! The previous owners didn't do much upkeep, but luckily, they had the good sense to cover up their beautiful wood floors with carpet to keep them nice for us! :P I pulled up the carpet (yes, all by myself!!) and revealed these gorgeous floors. We are painting the room and choosing a color can be so hard!

For this page, I used some Felicity Jane paper scraps and stuck in the blue theme to go with the paint swatches in the photo. I made my own little tag and layered some papers. I stamped with Kelly Purkey Dalton and Walter stamps in different blues. I added a few stamps to the photo and the tag and then wrote in my journaling. I just added a few puffy dot stickers to finish it off in a color that I thought complemented the honey oak floors. The stamping took a bit of time, but overall, it is shocking how quickly these come together!

This is a layout about a day I spent at the pool with my mother-in-law (whom I adore!). I have an ombre ink pad in the aqua to blue family that I thought would be perfect for this page. I used Kellie Stamps summer set for this one. I layered on some Felicity Jane papers in colors that match the photo and some green enamel dots to bring in the green from the photo. I added my journaling and a date stamp and it was done!

This is a photo of a day where I couldn't take te dog for our daily walk because it rained all day! I started with the journaling card on the right with the rain drops on it. Then I found matching 6x6 papers in those colors and cut out raindrops, gluing them all on the left side. I matted my photo on some of the leftover papers and glued it on top. Then I matted the journaling card and stamped the title using Kelly Purkey Bleeker and Moby alphas in gray. I love how it's bright but definitely still gives a dreary rainy day impression.

So that's all I have so far but I am so excited to keep working in my traveler's notebook!