I do believe it's time for an Adventure.....

As promised I'm back today to share with you my Travel Journal preparations. I have gone ahead an decorated the first few pages ready for my jottings at the airport and during the flight.  I used a Kaisercraft film strip edge stamp for the borders of my pages. By the way, the pages look a little bubbly because I've glued every second page together, firstly because there were too many pages in this spiral bound book plus I wanted my pages to be a bit stronger to support anything heavy that I may glue into it.

I found a pack of lovely envelopes that fit perfectly (sideways) into the Journal. I cut one end off it ready to slip some mementos into it without having to untie the string closure. I decorated this one with stamps, tags etc.

I borrowed this little photo from the internet, decorated it and printed with my new "whizz-bang" HP Sprocket (more about this little wonder at the end of this post). The aeroplane on the right page is from my well-travelled friend, Lizzy Hill.  I'll be taking a few rolls of washi tape to stick mementos onto my pages and for decoration.

I have a beautiful Postcard stamp from Stampin' Up! that I love using on my travel projects, so it goes without saying that this has made an appearance in this Journal. All ready for my journalling. If you stalk your local Post Office, you'll find the little Air Mail stamps for free. The Washi Tape at the bottom of the left page is an appropriate happy find :)  

This "Today was" card is also compliments of Lizzy Hill. She was kind enough to send me a beautiful hand-made folder full of fun travel embellishments. A lot of them will be coming with me and the remainder will await my return for our travel album.

The remainder of the Journal is decorated similar to this. I plan on filling the pages with ephemera and maybe a few of my thoughts and discoveries.

So, a little bit about the HP "Sprocket"....but first a couple of pics of the small stash that I'm taking with me. These fit perfectly into a plastic zip folder from Office Works. The only thing that doesn't fit is my small pencil case containing a couple of good pens, black and a few coloured sharpies, and a couple of tiny Kaisercraft ink pads. This folder is slightly bigger than A4 and once closed with everything in it has a width of 4cm, so it won't be taking up much space in my carry-on bag.

I wanted to share with you this fun little sticky-note pad I found at Office Works. I'm looking forward to adding some words to this little beauty!

Now onto the game-changer!  I originally was going to leave space in my Journal to stick photos in after our trip. However recently I happened upon an advert for the HP Sprocket. Very timely I must say because this wonderful little machine prints 2"x3" photos directly from a phone app using NO INK!  Yes you read it here!  I have no idea how that even works but the App also allows you to edit your photos and play around with them.  Now you're thinking why on earth I'd want to cart around a photo printer while travelling. Well here's the thing....this little printer is the same size as my iphone, maybe a tad thicker!  I know right!!

It comes with a pack of paper and I have purchased a couple more. The paper is a tad on the expensive side but I won't be using a lot of it. The photo quality isn't perfect but great for just adding a few significant pics into my Journal whilst travelling.

All that is required is to charge it up with the included cord, insert the paper (there are instructions on YouTube), download the App and it's ready to go. Oh and I forgot to mention that the photo paper has adhesive backing! So all I have to do is print off a couple of pics that I've taken that day & stick them in my Journal when I sit down to write. It fits perfectly in this hard-shell pencil case I found at Woolworths, along with my phone charger (I have stored the extra photo paper underneath the Sprocket). Again, this won't take up much space in my carry-on. As a side note, call me old-fashioned but I still use an actual camera. I can't get the best quality from photos taken on my phone when I want to enlarge them so my little trusty point & shoot will be making this trip with us again.

So there you have it, all my Travel Journalling requirements are sorted. I suppose I need to pack clothes too, but hey! priorities people!

Until next time, take care xx