P.S. I think it would be fun to have a show when the non-themey scrapbooker peeps make a themed page – for old times sake – and show & tell. I know there was a time when everything was super themed and I think most scrapbookers and the industry has moved away from that time, could be fun to go a bit retro with it and use it in a way that was funny, maybe only scrapbookers would get it; but I did actually use cute little yellow DUCKIES on a page recently! And I think of myself as evolved from the themed stuff. I just think if everyone is saying “oh I never do themed stuff anymore” that it might just be fun and funny to do it again.

Part of the problem is that I’m a perfectionist, so trying to create an on-the-road project goes against these tendencies. I found it very hard to anticipate where I should write a particular story, or leave space for a picture (or two… or three). Another problem is that I’m not a particularly fast scrapper, and so trying to squeeze in a few moments here and there whilst trekking around my homeland didn’t really work. Journaling? Now, I’m fine with that – no problemo. Having said that, I was probably more prepared than ever to gather memorabilia, and I began the mini album in earnest on my return to the US. I say began…because it’s still incomplete.

I might give this approach another shot in the future if I could work out the kinks in my process, and find an easier way to have pictures printed during the trip, but we typically take so many photos that it takes at least twice as long as the trip to sort through the gigabytes of space we’ve taken up on however many memory cards. I do think the experience of on-the-road scrapping enables a much more raw end product with vivid memories, as opposed to waiting until there has been time to process the entire event and set it more in context. There’s really a place for both.

Just a few thoughts of my own travel scrapping experiences, and I realize that my comment is almost longer than this episode. :)

Another non schmoe devotee here!

1. Scrapbooking on a Cruise: My family goes on a cruise every year. I bring the basics with me and then buy the Cruise lines scrapbook kit when I get on board. Yes it seems a bit pricey but it always has one paper with the name of each port and with my basics and some “in the moment” journalling I can turn it into a memorable day about that port. A few years back we went on a Disney Cruise and I was told to bring magnets to hang stuff on our door. With my basics, the Disney Kit, and purchasing photos on the ship, I had a unique “page” of our family every day at sea. My family loved it and I got the entire Disney cruise “scrapped” that same week!

2. Scrapbooking in Paris: This is where I’ll be scrapbooking for two weeks this summer!! I took Amy Tangerine’s Day Book Class at Treasured Memories a few weeks ago and created the “shell” for what will be my Smash meets Day Book of our trip. I’m taking even LESS supplies than I usually do thanks to some great insight from Amy and I’m looking forward to chronically our trip. 

Happy Scrapbooking!

Molly

My two favorite travel scrapbook projects I’ve done so far are an 8×8 album I made about a trip to DC and Myrtle Beach and an Amy Tan daybook I used for a trip to visit family earlier this year.

I thought the 8×8 size worked well — not as overwhelming as a full 12 x 12 album — and I decided to  have one side of each two page spread be an 8×8 picture. I chose papers & color scheme ahead of time, made my own journaling cards using stamps and Ali Edwards photo overlays, and that made it really fast to put together once I got home and ordered the pictures. 
For our trip to NC to see my husband’s parents, I knew it would be a quiet visit without a lot of exciting photo ops. Plus I wanted to try scrapping on the road. So I used a metal tin (about the size of a hardcover book) to hold the daybook, pens, adhesive, washi tape, and stickers. When we had downtime in the hotel room, I happily glued in ephemera, wrote down what we’d been doing, and left places for photos. I edited the photos on the road, uploaded them to Walgreen’s website, and had them in my hands the day we got home. The daybook was done the next day. That was extremely satisfying!

Thanks again for all you do. I love you guys!

I was so excited to be able to make a comment today that I had to pause the show and get it out. Last year my husband had several business trips that took him to India for several weeks at a time.  We (my three year old and I) missed him terribly and I knew there would be times when he wished he could talk to us, but because of time zones and maintaining the sleep pattern of a three year old we knew we would not be able to Skype all of the time.

That said, I purchased a Fancy Pants basic brag book ahead of time and filled every other page with a love note, artwork from our daughter, a few cards, and photos of us as a family.  I left space for him to journal each day he was away his thoughts and what he was seeing/doing as well.  While I didn’t expect him to write each day, he did and later told me that it helped him feel connected to home.  His trip was work related, but he still was able to travel and see the sights of India on the weekends.  When he arrived back home I took a lot of the photos of our family out of the brag book and replaced them with photos he had taken of India.  It is a very simple album with virtually no embellishments, but I think it captures his trip and a look inside who we are as people and our relationship.  It is one of my favorite projects!  

Thanks for this episode!

Non-Schmoe

I have to laugh at Nancy’s pick– I LOVE that album! It’s the album I’m using for my wedding scrapbook. It’s gorgeous and holds a ton of pages.