Blog: Use Your Stash to Make Travel Diaries

Use Your Stash to Make Travel Diaries | Natalie Elphinstone

My girls love crafting at home so I knew it would be an activity they would enjoy on the road as well. I just had to figure out how I could pack some supplies that would keep them busy and not prove to be too messy.

Step One was to fill a small case with some basic supplies. Supplies that would spark their imagination, that have unlimited possibilities and (most importantly) won’t run out half way through our trip! Scissors, double sided tape and pens are essential. To this I added:

Step Two was to whip up a travel diary for each of them before I left home. This is where they’ll do all their writing, drawing, painting and memorabilia-keeping as we go. It really was a simple affair to put these together, let me show you what I did.

Chose a pretty patterned paper and cut it the height you want your diary to be. I’m being slightly frugal and making two diaries out of the one piece of Abstract Spring paper from the Cirque Scrapbook Kit, so I simply cut it in half. The 6x12” piece will be folded in half to create the front and back cover which will leave me with a 6x6” diary. But you can make yours as tall as you would like.

I punched two holes in the folded cover, and to strengthen them I added some hole reinforcers that you can get at any stationary shop. If you don’t have these you could also use washi tape before punching the holes. Next I trimmed down a bunch of plain paper to fit inside the cover. I’m just using plain old copy paper and cutting it to 5.75 x 5.75”. I punched holes through these as well. Then I simply tied it all together with some twine. No fancy book binding skills necessary for this one!

To finish them off I added their names and stuck on some embellishments so they would be quickly identifiable to each girl. They packed their diaries in their backpack which went everywhere with them. Whenever the threat of boredom was announced I would suggest they get them out and fill a page. For Moriah my 5 year-old this mainly consisted of drawing pictures and painting with the watercolo

But Bethany, who’s 8 first decided she was going to write a diary. Then she saw the fun Moriah was having with the paints and got inspired to illustrate her journaling as well. She also used it for keeping the ephemera from the trip such as tucking in tour brochures, and sticking in small shells and leaves.

Ultimately these travel diaries kept them busy for hours and have become a treasured piece of holiday memoriabilia that I can pop into my Project Life album for safekeeping. Win – win I’d say!
If you’re interested in seeing the section in my Handbook I dedicated to this holiday you can check it out here: http://www.studiocalico.com/galleries/165642-a-ha...