Painted Ladies Journal: #travelersnotebook

Hello and welcome to my blog and to the Team Stamp It blog hop! I’m glad you’ve joined me here from Pam Nichols blog. The theme this month is Summer – and I don't know about you but for me summer is all about vacations!! I laugh with people at work and tell them the only reason I am there is so that I can pay for my vacations (and new Stampin' Up goodies!). Before I became a true card maker, I was (and still am) a scrapbooker! I know that I love to document my travels most of all – and I was excited to create my own scrapbook with the beautiful new goodies in the Annual Catalog.

One of my new favorite ways is documenting in a Traveler’s Notebook – it’s a 4” X 8 ¼” portable notebook that can be used to write notes, add photos (if you want..) and add little bits of ephemera that we all collect on our travels. In fact you can use these little notebooks for anything – a pretty to do list, grocery lists – whatever you need! Who doesn’t need a pretty notebook to brighten their day!!

I was able to create a special one of these Traveler’s Notebook for my dear friend Linda (sorry I am letting the cat out of the bag early..) but I was so excited to share this with everyone! You see my friend Linda is SO excited to be going on the Greece trip for Stampin’ Up!! Yes you heard me – an all expense paid trip to Greece!! That is so amazing – and such a great added benefit to being a Stampin’ Up demonstrator. I am striving to be there one day, and I can’t wait!

Before I go too far let’s get started on the project! I took a soft suede sheet of 8 ½” x 11” and scored at 4 ¼”. Once I folded a sharp crease with my bone folder – I trimmed that 4 ¼” x 11” to 4” x 8 ¼”. Its better to trim after folding so that you get a true edge on all sides. I then laid out the new letter dies from the Prose Alphabet to create a cut out on the cover. One trick I learned way back – is to lay them out crocked on purpose so that there is no need to have them perfect! I wrapped the back cover over the plastic plate so that it only cuts the front cover. I stamped the Capture the Good camera image in Tuxedo Memento black and the heart on a piece of scrap Soft Suede. I stamped the sentiment in Gray Granite also directly on the cover.

I "borrowed" some of the blue painters tape from the hubby's tool stash to hold the dies in place while I ran it through the big shot. Make sure its not too sticky - just stick it on your hands to have it loose some stickiness.

I cut 2 pieces of the See a Silhouette DSP to 4” x 8” and glued them to the inside of the “cover”. Make sure you decide which part of the pattern you want to see through the cut-out letters before you cut your DSP.

After the outside was completed, I tackled the inside of my TN with 2 sheets of Whisper White cardstock (don’t use the Thick) cut to the same dimensions as the soft suede. Again, make sure you trim after its folded! I cut various strips ¾” wide of the hexagon pattern DSP from the same See a Silhouette pack to create an edge for the pages – here you could use washi ( the crushed curry from It Starts with Art bundle would work well) or any pattern paper just to give it some interest and create cohesion. I stamped various sentiments from the Silhouette Scenes stamp set in Gray Granite and Blueberry Bushel on a few pages. One the cover I also added the word “Greece” and some images from the Make a Difference stamp set which also has individual letters. They are a bit fiddly but I still like the personalization they add. You just need to add a ribbon wrapped in Crushed Curry from the same suite. You could also staple it with a long reach stapler which I might do before I send off this gift!

Love the personalization you can add with these letter stamps!

Now that you have some new ideas hopefully – its time to share last month’s luck winner: Congrats to Barbara Patsch!

Make sure to get your chance to enter this month's prize drawing by following along on the hop and commenting on everyone's projects #stampitcontest