Travel Journal
So the pictures have finally been imported (I was relieved that there were only 2,000 and not 4,000 like I feared) and still going through them. In the meantime, I thought I’d post a few pages from my journal. For the first time ever, I think I found the perfect balance (for me) of creating a journal that’s useful, I actually want to look at and captures my experience. This time I started with a un-lined moleskine (the thin kind because as soon as you start pasting things in, it gets thick real fast), a roll of double-stick tape and went to town. Usually I come home with gobs of paper and things I collected along my way, but this new system forced me to edit as I went. I took business cards wherever we ate/bought something, collected stubs, cool packaging, things I found on the street. Even peeling beer labels became a source of inspiration. Creating the cover became a fun task- inspired by my beloved “tuk-tuks” (an icon of our travels) as I went back to the post office to have her stamp directly on the cover (what it says, I don’t know). I think some of my creative juices got lost in translation as I would have loved [rubber] stampings all over, but still, it ended up as a one of a kind cover for this trip.
Inside I didn’t feel like I had to write a novel. Notes, arrows and comments covered the bases quite well. It even left me time to write 45 postcards!!!
For more ideas that inspired my travel journal check out Marieke’s Treats & Treasures, Felice’s “words” or Troy M. Litten’s China “blank book and a gluestick” journal. How do you journal?
Xander
June 2, 2008 at 3:14 pm //
Wow, that looks awesome! And I love seeing the label from the Vanilla drinking water pasted in there. -X
Here, There, Elsewhere... and more
June 2, 2008 at 3:40 pm //
Beautiful post !
I love Tuk Tuks too..:)
Kelly Anne
June 2, 2008 at 4:18 pm //
Gorgeous! I am majorly impressed, both with your dedication and organization and with the result!
michelle
June 2, 2008 at 5:58 pm //
Boy am I envious! Now faced with a daunting stack of little bits of random papers and business cards, I find my motivation waning. I highly recommend Anne’s strategy of putting these things together while on the trip (and not after).
kathy
June 2, 2008 at 6:22 pm //
I love your journal. I really struggle finding a good balance when journaling travel. I either try to do too much or don’t do enough, but yours seems perfect. Love it!!!
Kathy
Susie of Arabia
June 3, 2008 at 5:06 am //
Hi Anne –
You have a beautiful blog! Love these journal pages, your photos and your designs.
Congrats on a lovely blog – I’ve added your link to mine.
Best wishes!
Anonymous
June 3, 2008 at 6:51 pm //
I brought double sided tape to India with me. Its such a good thing to have cause, like you said, you otherwise just end up with a pile of scraps of paper. – Sarah
laradunston
June 4, 2008 at 10:42 am //
I have loved catching up on you travel preps and journal-keeping. I’ve been on the road in Calabria and accessing the internet has been tricky so I’m enjoying catching up now that we’re ensconced in an apartment in Milan.
I used to use Moleskins but each type I tried fell apart. I’d be keen to know how yours survives. But then I’m using them for more practical purposes, stuffing them with business cards mainly and more practical notes and descriptions for our books, and then I need to keep referring to them for months, and sometimes years later, and they just don’t hold up. Now I use Arbos ring-bound recycled leather notebooks with recycled paper, which I stock up on whenever I’m in Italy and I find them far superior. You must test them out – you’d love them. http://www.arbos.it
Looking forward to reading more about your travels!
Diane
June 10, 2008 at 8:48 am //
wow – this is absolutely amazing. who needs a cool shirt memento from your trip when you have a treasure chest of memories in the palm of your hand! amazing..
Christy
June 11, 2008 at 3:40 pm //
Why didn’t I think about doing this?? Man! All the cool stuff I could have done.
just4jess
June 18, 2008 at 7:16 pm //
just found your blog…
wow. why don’t i have the dedication to do this? i’ve finally got the disciplne for actually writing anything down while travelling. but i tend to end up with the scraps of paper at the end that everyone’s mentioning!
lovely scrapbook and great blog.
alex t
July 22, 2008 at 6:50 am //
my husband and i just returned from a 10 month trip and our journals became our travel website – http://www.ewers.biz
thank you for your journal inspiration…i’m still working on my design inspirations from our trip.
Cheap India Tours
August 16, 2010 at 1:06 pm //
Bonjour and thank you for your superb Journal.. Great post.. in all