SGSG 1

Make Your Own Travel Journal

Keeping a journal while you're travelling is a great way to capture your thoughts and adventures to enjoy once you're back home. You can even leave spaces to stick in your travel photos to make the journal complete.

Finding time to write while you're on the go is a challenge. These tips will help you to journal successfully.

The Pages

Collect coloured papers, used envelopes, inspiring quotes, birthday cards, magazine clippings, and anything else that makes you happy. The pages don't even need to be the same size. 

Smaller pieces can be glued onto larger ones or be used as tabs/dividers.

Cover

You don't have to have a hard cover on your journal. It could be soft-covered like a paperback novel or magazine. Here's some ideas:

• Use cardboard from a cereal box. Then cover it with wrapping paper/contact/sheet music/a poster/painted paper/stickers... anything!
• Wrap your journal in nice fabric from an old scarf or skirt instead of a cover.
• Make a simple drawstring bag for your journal.

Contents

Your journal: Your rules. You can have anything in it you want! Photos of loved ones and pets. Pages to draw on. Pages for writing. Envelopes are always great for storing ticket stubs and other memorabilia.

The power of watercolours...

Add interest to white pages with splashes of watercolour washes. Pick two or three colours for a page and use sparingly. Let the colours run together in some places, then leave flat to dry.

Pre-filling Pages

I often struggle to get time to sit and write when travelling because I'm off trying to cram a thousand things into each day! So I make forms on some of the pages before I leave. That way I can fill out a form, so that I'm sure to capture the important details of the day whenever I can grab a short window of time.  

Here's some examples. You're welcome to download these and use in your next journal!

[Click on each image to load the full size version, then right click and save as. You can then print out at whatever size you like.]

Binding Ideas

You can be really creative here. Anything goes. It doesn't have to be uber professional, just functional. Here are some options for joining your pages together:

• Use staples (you can even get coloured ones!) or brads/split pins.
• Use a hole punch, punching a few pages at a time. Make two, three or more holes along the spine and then tie a string or ribbon through each hole.
• Borrow the heat binder from work/TAFE/Uni.
• Borrow the ring binder from work/TAFE/Uni. Or even just use it to punch the holes, then get crazy with those friendship band skills you developed in Primary School and thought you'd never use again. Weave and knot the pages together.
• Buy an awl (They're $2 from Spotlight) to poke holes through your pages and then stitch the pages together.
• Punch one hole in the top of each page and slip onto an o ring binder.