Marcy's vacation Handbook

We are embarking on our annual trip south... and what better way to document it then with a Studio Calico Handbook.

In this first post I'll explain a bit about my plan for capturing this time with my family.

WHY NOT PROJECT LIFE? WHY A HANDBOOK?

I am an avid Project Lifer. No doubt about it. Ever since I've been doing Project Life I've documented our trip my 12x12 spreads. But I really wanted to try a Handbook and felt that a trip was a perfect platform for that. Yes, my Project Life album will be missing a few weeks this year. I'm not going to bother duplicating our holiday in there.

I love the small size of the handbook and can't wait to fill it with trip photos.

THE PLAN :

I will not be using this Handbook on the go. That is I will NOT be taking it with me. I've promised my family that I will be present during our holiday. Spending time with them and photographing our days. The last thing they want is for me to be playing with paper while we're trying to make memories. So, the next best thing is for me to do some prep work and have everything ready to put together when we get back. This means gathering supplies and prepping some planning tools to use while I'm away so that when we come back I can tackle this mini book.

THE SUPPLIES :

I'm using a Here + There Handbook. I've also gathered some supplies that I know for sure I'll use... lots of Here + There products mixed with a little Sundrifter and Snippets.

I gathered these items together and put them in a basket near my Project Life supplies. This will make it easy for me to just grab this basket and take it to the dining room table or wherever I feel like working on it.

THE ALBUM :

I decided to paint the album with a light blue acrylic paint.

I taped off the label holder with washi and painted on three coats with a foam brush. Once that was dry I trimmed a piece of white paper for inside the label. The FL (for Florida) fit in there perfectly. A little wooden geotag and I was done.

I had debated about decorating the cover in addition to the spine but decided against it. I imagine this album being pulled out of the shelf quite a bit and didn't want to risk damaging anything on the front.

The little Here There badge fit perfectly in the center of the geotag on the front though. ;)

Here's everything in it's basket, ready to go.

(SOMEWHAT) PLANNED PAGES :

I didn't plan out my pages a lot. I didn't want the assembly process to be boring... I will want to play. But I did plan it out a little bit so that I had an idea of what I was going to be getting myself into.

I'm using an assortment of the pages from all three of the new lines. I pulled out pages with each of the four numbers die-cut into it... a 1, a 2, a 3 and a 4. These will be the dividers for my holiday.

Section 1 will hold photos from our drive down (3 days worth)

Section 2 will hold photos during our first week there (7 days worth)

Section 3 will hold photos during our second week there (7 days worth)

Section 4 will hold photos from our drive home (3 days worth)

I'm picturing each day being one to two pages. I temporarily added as many page protectors as there were days in each section... just so I could get a feel for the album. Obviously I'll have to be very selective when I'm picking photos to print for this project.

When I get back from my holiday and go through my photos I'll decide on which style of page protectors I want to use and swap those out.

I also added a page protector for a cover page.

Right now the inside of the album looks like this.

KEEPING TRACK OF MEMORABILIA :

In the basket I also have 4 large manilla envelopes. One for each section of my Handbook.

I'll be bringing these along on my trip to hold the memorabilia that I'll be gathering.... ticket stubs, brochures, maps, etc. Once we get back I'll keep them in the basket with my supplies so that I don't forget to add any of that stuff in.

Having them in numbered envelopes will ensure I put them in the right sections and with the right photos and save me time when I'm putting stuff together.

MEMORY KEEPING :

Along with the envelopes, the other thing I'll be bringing with me is my planner. Normally I use an 8.5x11 binder and my planning pages when keeping track of my days for Project Life. And since this will basically be a mini Project Life for three weeks the same method of memory keeping makes perfect sense to me. But I did not want to bring a large binder along.

My solution was to tweak my planning pages to fit into my Filofax. They have a section everyday for notes which I'll surely fill up on a daily basis.

My pages have a template after every week, and obviously since I'm doing a spread per day for this handbook those won't be needed. Once I get home I'll plan out my spreads and use templates as I go.

So, that's my plan. It's a plan to make post-vacation assembly easier. To allow me to enjoy my holiday with my family. To let me spend more time putting my Handbook together and not searching for missing tickets and notes. It's all about the prep work.

I'll be back next month with more from my vacation Handbook.