TN spreads – Keeping it creative

(N.B. image heavy post this time)

Last month, we spent a lovely week in Faro, the capital of the Algarve region of Portugal. Whilst I usually do a double page traveler’s notebook spread each month, documenting the main highlights, when we go on holiday somewhere new, I will dedicate a whole notebook to the trip which includes journalling, lots of photographs, ephemera and general momentoes which can be stuck in. Today, I’m sharing how I prepare for my journal before I go and whilst away and I’m also including examples of double page spreads showing the different creative ways I document my holiday.

What I do prior to and whilst I’m away

So, let’s start with my preparations so that working on and completing my journal is much easier when I get back home. These are key to ensuring I have all the information and need and key details that I might otherwise have forgotten.

Before I head off on my holiday

Before I go, I make the journal itself. I create a TN wide size insert choosing colours, patterns or images on the scrapbooking paper which suit my coming trip. So, for example, this time, I opted for a bright and cheerful flamingo, flower and leaf themed paper from the Paradise Crush collection of 12×12 papers (200gsm heavyweight cardstock even though referred to as paper). This was because I had read that there are flamingoes to be seen in the lagoon (Ria Formosa). I love selecting the cover paper myself and then hand-stitching blank white paper for the inside. I choose quite thin white paper so the journal doesn’t get so thick that it won’t close properly when I add to my pages.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Shortly before travel, I add a small notebook to my handbag and make sure I have a pen too. This is useful for writing details during my holiday so I don’t forget things when I return. Just a word of warning if you’re going on a flight though – be sure to select your pen carefully as the liquid ink in my V5 Pilot Hi-Tecpoint pen must have expanded whilst in the air and when I got it out to write with on arrival the pen came apart and I got covered in ink! Luckily, it was just my hands that got ink all over them, not my clothes.

The final thing I take with me is something to store ephemera (collectable bits and pieces) in. This time, I took a popper wallet and it came in very useful for keeping papers flat. I do wish I’d opted for a slightly bigger folder though as I had some bigger things that I had to fold up to ensure they fit.

During my holiday

Notetaking Throughout the holiday, I make notes and reflect on my day. This is easy to do in the little notebook I mentioned earlier which comes with me wherever I go. This could include the name of a place we visited, my menu choices in a restaurant or cafe, timings of events during the day, a funny anecdote or how I felt in a particular place.

Taking photographs I take lots and lots of photographs whilst we’re away – better to have too many than not enough, right? However, for me, it’s not just about taking photos of each other and things my husband and I see or do, it’s also very much an aide memoire of various elements of our trip too. For example, when in Faro and on our day trips, I took photos of menus from the various eateries we went to, a screenshot of the weather for the week, close up shots of cocktail descriptions, shop fronts where I made my souvenir purchases and screenshots of locations of places we planned to go later on in the week. Also, talking of photos, I took my selfie stick so that we could take shots of the pair of us together rather than having to ask other tourists to take them for us.

Collecting ephemera In the traditional sense of memory keeping journalling, ephemera usually refers to stickers and die cut paper and card images which can be glue or stuck into the journal pages. However, for me, it means anything and everything which could be stuck in as a memory of our holiday. On our trip to Portugal, I collected and saved business cards for cafes and restaurants, maps picked up at the Tourist Information places, leaflets such as the one advertising our boat trip so I could cut out letters for titles, small images or bits of information, receipts from shops and eateries, paper tickets (e.g. entry to the cathedral and for our train ride to Albufeira), samples from paper bags we were given to house our souvenirs in and even the cup cover for our glasses in our hotel room. Some of the things I didn’t end up using but at least I was well prepared with paper goodies I did want to add. I also only used parts of my items sometimes, so, for example, I trimmed a large map down to fit on a double page spread and I cut the logo from a business card of a place called Veganbox we ate in a few times.

Creating my travel journal

It’s up to you how you do your journalling and the elements you include within the pages but here’s some ideas:

travel information including modes of transport and tickets
the weather whilst you’re away
places of special interest you visited
photos of the accommodation you stayed in
maps of the place you stayed and other areas that you visited
meals, snacks and drinks enjoyed plus related ephemera
photos of scenes, selfies, family, food and drinks enjoyed etc
souvenirs and why you chose them
information about any traditions of the place / country you went to
an explanation of something new that you learned whilst you were there
activities you did and what you did to relax

Supplies that I find useful and you might too:

roller glue – I use tonnes of this stuff and have two rollers – permanent (to ensure things stick really well and removeable (for when I might want to reposition elements on a page)
stickers – from a variety of larger and small businesses online (purchased from Amazon or businesses such as Papermaze, or Etsy to support small UK sellers), or made myself in Cricut Design Space and printed and cut
We R Memory Keepers 1,2,3 punch board – for making the mini envelopes I included
Washi tapes – I have collected so many of these over the years and use them in my memory keeping as well as my bullet journal planner
Die cuts – I didn’t use any this time but small ones of these are useful as decor on pages
Pens – biros or gel ink and possibly coloured pens for writing straight into the journal

I’ll let the photos of my pages do the talking now but if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.

Final words…

Times are certainly changing with creative journalling and memory keeping. A few years ago (maybe a few more!), everything used to be paper based, but now, many things that I would usually stick in to my journal, such as flight information, boarding passes, entry tickets to places and for excursions and so on are often completely digital. To make sure I can still include at least some of these, my husband has to screenshot the e-tickets on his phone and then forward the images to me in WhatsApp so I can print them off. It’s not the same, but at least it provides some sort of record and adds to the memories stored within my travel journals.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my travel journalling process and seeing photos of my actual pages. There’s quite a lot of work involved in the journals I produce, but you could cut down the time involved by just adding photos and short captions. You could also choose to draw elements of what you see and do on your travels and this would be another lovely way to make the process both creative and therapeutic too.

Thanks for reading and I hope I’ve inspired you to create your own travel journal to document holidays (A.K.A. vacations),

Spring officially starts on Saturday 20th March but there are already so many signs that the season is on its way. It’s a pretty chilly 3 degrees here in Sunderland today (warm coat and scarf weather), but last weekend, the temperatures rose to highs of 13 and it felt like Summer had arrived (never mind Spring) when my husband and I took a coastal walk in the bright sunshine and under cloudless blue skies! The warmer conditions have meant that lots of things are starting to pop up in the garden including early flowerers such as daffodils and tulips. One of our regular hedgehog visitors has even been tempted out of hibernation which is pretty early in comparison to previous years. There might still be lots of worries with regard to Covid around at the moment, but I think its super important to celebrate the small stuff and remind ourselves that there’s still lots to be grateful for right now and plenty to look forward to in the not too distant future. With that in mind, today I’m sharing some practical and pretty journal spreads, for your BuJo or your TN inserts, that I’ve created this week and really encourage you to try.

Spring flowers collage spread

This bright and colourful collage spread was created using pictures printed from Google images following a search for early Spring blooming flowers. They depict shrubs and bulbs which we actually have in our garden but most of which are not yet out. I copied the text in the left hand corner of page one of the double spread from an article which I found on the Woodland Trust website as I thought it was particularly fitting for the theme. The stickers are some I had left over from the Blooming Lovely collection and I discovered I had matching washi tape in my stash too. Both of these pages make me feel happy every time I look at them and I revisit it most days.

A pretty quote page

This was a free printable from https://www.bluemountain.com/blog/ I’ve printed it twice and put one copy in my bullet journal and a slightly larger version on the wall in my craft room. I found the quote by typing ‘spring quotes and sayings’. There’s lots to choose from and as long as you’re just printing them for personal rather than commercial use, you can add them to any of your journals or a prominent place in your home!

Garden jobs for Spring

This spread is purely practical, although I did add a few cute stickers! My husband and I sat down and listed some garden jobs that we would like to get done this month as a useful reference to see what needs doing and to see how much we’ve achieved. There’s not much on it yet, but by the end of the month, I reckon the list will be much longer (hopefully with lots crossed off!).

Time spent in nature

I love to document days out which my husband and I enjoy and, even though we’re limited to the local area at the moment, due to lockdown, we still go out for a walk each day. Last weekend, as I said earlier, it was really warm so we headed to our local coast. It was really busy there but as we’d had lots of sunshine, the grass was dry enough to walk on and it was easy to keep socially distant from others. I took a screenshot of the temperature on my phone as we couldn’t believe how warm it was for the end of February!

Shoots and leaves

There’s lots starting to emerge in the garden and so I took my phone out there and snapped a few signs of growth. It’s exciting to see things popping up even if some of them are weeds! The photos aren’t wonderful as I wanted them to just be quick pics but it will be good to compare how things look now with how they look in a few month’s time.

Plant and flower factfiles

This is something I started doing as part of last year’s garden related spreads. Basically, it’s just info from the plastic card you get stuck in the pots when you buy a plant or details which are included on the seeds or bulbs packet. It’s handy to know the exact variety you have and what they will look like when they come into bloom. Also, doing a little sketch of them is quite relaxing and therapeutic too! I messed up the lettering on the page so have stuck a piece on I cut from a page at the back of my journal. IRL, you can’t see it as badly as you can at the bottom of the header as you can in the photo.

Final words…

I hope you are tempted to have a go at at least one of these spreads – I guarantee they will make you smile when you look back over them if you do. I would love it if you would take the time to add your thoughts or your own ideas in the comments below. And, as always, if you’ve created any Spring spreads and shared them online, leave the link and I’ll be sure to check them out.

Tag: TN spreads

How I journal about my holidays: creative ways to record travel adventures

Spring is coming! Pretty, practical and creative journal spreads you must try