I (Steph) am so very excited to share with you these posts by Kim over the next few weeks! She is amazing and we are very lucky to have her here sharing her talents and fabulous project with us. Here’s a little more about her:
Kimberly Lund has been scrapbooking for a decade and has been exclusively a digital scrapbooker for six years. In the past, she was an Honorable Mention in Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest, and has had her layouts published in Creating Keepsakes and Memory Makers publications. She is a mom of 3 teenagers, has been married for twenty years, and spends her days teaching early childhood special education. For the past five years she has a blog committed to documenting her family’s life at www.documentlifenow.com. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, photography, and plotting ways to avoid riding “Wildfire” on her next trip to Branson.
I’m not much for making resolutions, mostly because I never complete them and I hate to consider myself a slacker, so it’s easier not to make any. I did, however, spend my New Year in a self-reflective mood. Instead of resolutions, I made a loose “projects I’d like to complete” list. At the top of the list was a travel journal. My family travels. A lot. I’ve made scrapbooks about those trips, but I’ve never really just made time to write the story of a trip. I thought I might want to include a photo here and there, but mostly, I’d want it to be about the story.
For those of you who don’t now me, I’m Kimberly Lund, and I originally started scrapbooking in 2000. My family was taking what I then thought would be a once in a lifetime trip to Walt Disney World, and I wanted some way to remember all those magical moments I knew we’d be having. It’s been a decade since that time, and things haven’t changed much. I’m still scrapbooking, although I switched from paper to digital in 2004. I made a conscious decision in late 2006 to just focus on telling stories, stepping away from my goals to be published in scrapbooking magazines (although, hey, you may have seen me in a Creating Keepsakes or Memory Makers back in the day). In 2009, I started designing digital scrapbook kits and giving them away monthly on my blog, Document Life.
Looking back at my original motivation to start scrapbooking, it wasn’t a once in a lifetime trip. We’ve been to Disney parks four times in the last decade, and to Branson, MO, dozens of times. In the last decade, vacation has changed from something that “might be fun” to something that is an essential part of our family life. We are always planning a trip.
After I booked and paid for our Spring Break accommodations, I knew I had better get serious about my travel journal project. From recent projects I have done, I knew that it would be crazy helpful if I had the “meat” of the journal done before we left on the trip. I spent a winter weekend writing up some journaling prompts to help myself focus on what I wanted to remember about our trip. I wanted the prompts to be fairly generic, so I could reuse them for future trips and trip journals. Somewhere along the way, I thought that maybe my fellow memory keepers would like to read about my project. Maybe even use my journal prompts. I was sharing my idea with my friend, Steph, (who coincidentally had emailed me with a vacation planning question), and she thought it would be a fun idea for a class here at The Daily Digi. I’ve been reading this site since the day it started, and I’m so excited to be sharing this project with you here.
The class: Come Away With Me, A Travel Journal Project
Course Objectives:
Students of this class will create a daily journal to take on upcoming vacations. Students will then use the journal daily during their trip to record specific aspects of their trips. Upon returning, students will not only be able to reflect on their journal experience, they’ll have a long lasting record of the trip for years to come.
Sound good? Are you in? Want more information first? Read on!
Supplies You’ll Need:
Journal
First, you’re going to need a journal. I personally like to use spiral bound journals so I can add ribbons to the binding. It’s pretty that way. Size doesn’t really matter, but if you’re going to include the printed prompts in your journal, they are sized to 5.5×8.5″ (with 5.5” on the top), so you may want to keep those dimensions in mind while you’re shopping. It’s not a requirement of the class to include the prompts in your journal, so if you find a journal you love, buy it. Make it yours.
For my own journal, I chose to go with an upcycled book. I just love the idea of taking a used book and turning it into a journal. I usually go with a Little Golden Book journal when I’m getting ready to journal, but due to the size of the prompts, I went with a Dr. Seuss type book. Two of my favorite etsy sellers who have upcycled journals are Overdue Industries and ThisHandmadeLife.
Pen
You’ll also need a good pen. Personally, I’m a blue Bic pen girl. Get something that will make you happy when you’re writing.
Printing
Finally, you may want a color printer, or a good online developer if you decide to print the prompts.
If you’re a totally digital scrapbooker, you may decide you want to do this project on your computer. That is just fine. You can make it work however you’d like. I’m a much faster typist, and sometimes I’ll type my journal entries late at night or first thing in the morning, then later grab my pen and transfer my entry to my journal. That’s OK. It’s also OK to save your journaling now, and make a layout using it later. You could even just type your journal entries in a word processing program, and print later. It’s your journal, so it can take whatever form best fits you. It’s most important to get that travel story captured.
Syllabus:
Week 1 (this week): Introduction to Come Away With Me, a travel journal project. Supply list.
Week 2 (April 16th): Before You Go (Planning Is My Favorite Part). Printable cover, prompts 1 and 2.
Week 3 (April 21st): Before You Go (Planning Is My Favorite Part), part 2. Prompts 3 and 4.
Week 4 (April 27th): Come Away With Me, part 1. Days 1, 2 and 3.
Week 5 (May 5th): Come Away with Me, part 2. Days 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Week 6 (May 12th): Footnote.
Each week, the prompts will be available as a .pdf file and as layered templates in case you want to use your own digital supplies to personalize them. You may want to start thinking about how you’ll use these prompts, and in what form you want them for your trip.
There will be no final, although I would love to see your finished journals at the end of the summer (you can always upload them to The Daily Digi Flickr group with the tag: “vacation journal” -be sure to use the quotes in the tag or Flickr will see it as two tags, not one). In the meantime, let this idea sit in your mind. I promise, this won’t be a huge commitment on your part. A few minutes spent preparing the journal, no more than 15 minutes each day while you’re on your trip. A trip souvenir that will be treasured for a lifetime. I’d love to have you come on this journey with me.
If you’re in, leave a comment and let us know. You can grab a blinkie or a button to post in your message board signatures or on your blog (please upload to your favorite image hosting site). For the next five weeks, I’ll talk you through the process of creating your physical journal, and the prompts you’ll need to put your story on paper. See you next week!
P.S. Our winner in the random drawing from the comments in yesterday’s post is, Tamara who said: I like More Than Words and Mixed Emotions. Thanks! Tamara, you just won $10 in product from Dunia’s store, check your inbox!
P.S.S If you have been wondering where our Basic Design Principles posts went, they will back this Friday with another guest that I am super excited to introduce to you!
Share This Using…
Think I might give this a go & give it to mum before they head off overseas in May.
I’m in! Just moved to a new place that’s close to everything, so plenty of trips to document. Thanks for doing this!
We love to travel and I really do need to start journaling in a serious way to help with the memories. I need structure!
This sounds fun for our next family vacation this summer.
Count me in. I have started to journal during travel so that when I do scrap the trip I remember all the detail big and small. Thanks.
Perfect timing! We’re going on a cruise in July and this is exactly what I need to capture the stories and the memories.
I’m in! thank you.
This is great! We are going overseas for a month and I’ll be following these posts to plan my album!
Great idea, I will be watching for more. I love to document trips & would love to make them more meaningful rather than just pretty.
I’m in! I don’t even know if I’m taking vacation this year (the joys of a new job and accumulating vacation days), but I have so many trips I want to scrapbook, this seems perfect!
Sounds great, I love the upcycled journal, what a fabulous idea.
Sounds fun! My son loves to journal and I was looking for a creative way to help him journal our trips this summer. This will be a perfect project for the two of us to do together!
I’ve been working on a travel journal for my partner who is going back to England with his father in July and August. Its my partners first trip back since they emigrated to New Zealand in 1974, though his father has been back many times. It will be a very special trip – and I would love to help him remember all the important moments and memories, and the significant little details and stories of his childhood and his family history that I hope this trip unearths. Your travel journal would be ideal!
I’m in and I’m so excited! My husband and I are actually going on a trip to Branson for our 10th wedding anniversary the week of May 12th!! How perfect is that!? YEA!
SO IN!!! Headed to Boston for DH to run in the Boston Marathon! AND I’m so happy to read about someone else who LOVES blue BIC pens! YAY! I LOVE them! I’m always willing to try other pens, but I’ve never found a pen I love as much as a blue BIC.
Coincidentally I am going on holiday to Thailand in about 6 weeks and I have been thinking about a travel journal, particularly as on my last big trip my two girlfriends religiously kept journals and I took along a blank book and lots of broad concepts for a scrapbooked journal that I have never realised. I still have that darned journal so maybe it is time to get it out and try again. Looking forward to more instructions on creating my travel journal. Thanks
This sounds so great! I’ve been looking for ways to become a better journaler, and this seems like the perfect opportunity.
Sounds like fun! I’m in.
This sounds great! We leave for a cruise May 16th and I would love to create a journal to help me document the trip!!
I’m in. My dear hubbie and I are planning our 30th anniversary with a month long trip out west. We leave Sept 18, 2010. First stop is Road to the Sun. After that, we have no idea. It will be an adventure. I wanted some organized way to capture the memories. This sounds perfect. Thank you.
This is great. I won a Digital Art Journaling class at Git It Scrapped and we are going with our son and his family to the ocean just before Memorial Day. What perfect timing this is. It will be ready for the trip. Thanks.
This sounds like a great way to document our trip to Michigan this summer. One of my goals this year is to make journaling more of a priority in my scrapbooking.
sounds like fun! I will try to keep up. thanks
PERFECT – in 5 weeks I leave on a once in a lifetime trip to South Africa (I’m in the States) – this is just what I need!
Oh, I love the idea of travel journal project! It is my dream to make at last a travel album. I am in
)
sounds great – don’t really have a trip in mind but I will definitely follow along so that the next time we go somewhere I will be ready!
This is perfect timing since we’ll be leaving for Hawaii on May 25th. I’m definitely in!
This sounds like great fun. I am playing.
I’m in!
Oh I’d love to play along. I never write enough on holiday. I think I’ll remember it all but I never do!!!
Sounds like fun!! I’ll give it a try!
FUN!!!!!
I’m in! Sounds like fun and I love that upcycled book, think I will create my own from the scraps I have around the house!
We love travel and do as much of it as time will allow each year so this one is right up my alley. I have tried the trip journaling each day on my own. I always start out well but by trips end am pretty spotty. I can honestly say it really helps come vacation album making time. I really like the journaling prompts idea…Might be just what I need to stick with it through to the end. Looking forward to following along.. Thanks TDD and Kim for another great one.
Sounds like fun. Count me in.
SOunds like something fun. I am in
please count me in… sounds like fun
am just back from our latest holiday and don’t know where to start!!! sooo many pics and so many memories…..
So cool…huge fan of Kim…I’ve been following her blog in Google Reader and love her kits. So excited about this project…should be fun!
will this class work if you have already gone on your trip? we just got back from a fantastic spring break and i have been pondering how to document it….
I think you can definitely use some of the prompts for an older vacation, especially if it is fresh in your mind. It is designed to be done while you are on vacation, but it can be modified to fit your own needs!
I am SO in! I always have taken a journal with me on my vacations because I have an awful memory for the little details that make a trip special. I make sure to take time to write a few minutes each day about the what, where and who type stuff. I’m not a great writer, but it gets the memory captured so when I finally have time to scrapbook, the journaling part will be accurate! I can’t wait to make the actual journal part prettier!
I have a similar story in that we have gone to WDW several times and I still have not completed an album. I came very close this last time but still not a done deal. I’m in!
PS-SharonS, I bet you could adapt it to a day trip to the zoo or aquarium or amusement park as well, “Come Away” come away with us!
Wow! My friend Kim, writing for TDD again! Yay! I’ll enjoy reading the posts, but since we never travel beyond KC, I probably won’t make the journal. Maybe someday…