Anyone who’s into modern memory keeping or scrapbooking will tell you that traveler’s notebooks are looking like the next big thing (apologies to fellow Brits for the single ‘l’, by the way – it’s the Googlisation of grammar…). At the other end of the scale from a traditional 12×12 layout, but far simpler than building mini albums, traveler’s notebooks are a seemingly inflexible format that actually gives you plenty of opportunity to play with everything from minimalism to masses of stamping, small versions of traditional layouts vs bullet journaling. Studio Calico, Clique kits and the 1407 Planners have all started offering traveler’s notebook kits fairly recently to help people who want to start using this format. But what if you really like the collections created by, say Crate Paper, and want to use those supplies in your traveler’s notebook? Here’s a few things you might want to bear in mind when building your own bespoke traveler’s notebook kit, whether from new supplies or out of your stash:

Keep it flat

Yes, we all love puffy stickers and chipboard. But in a traveler’s notebook, 3D embellishments can make pages sit unevenly, or make it difficult to include journalling by disturbing the nice flat surface of the pages. Instead, invest in or dig out flat stickers such as the brilliant sticker books from American Crafts that contain hundreds and hundreds of stickers in each – I have the Heidi Swapp and Maggie Holmes one, and I used the butterflies from the latter to create this TN spread:

Some stickers are more suited to TNs and planners than they are to traditional layouts anyway – I have lots of little tabs that I never seem to be able to use on 12 x 12s, but in a TN they just slot right in.

You can never have too many stamps

My entire memory keeping obsession started with one stamp – an owl bought for me by my husband who needed to spend a couple of pounds in Hobbycraft in order to get his parking validated. It would probably have been cheaper to have just paid for the parking… I’ve now got a box full of stamps, which make regular appearances in my TNs and my planner. Date rollers, stamped phrases (Kelly Purkey’s Travelogue set has been my favourite this summer) and bold geometric shapes are my favourites and generally my TN pages feature at least one stamp. Like stickers, stamps won’t add to the thickness of your page, but the ink will provide contrast and the feeling of texture.

Washi it up

Any excuse to buy more washi, no? Whether it’s used as an embellishment, to layer behind photos, to create a space to write or add a pop of colour, I adore washi. My favourite thing at the moment is to stick a short piece across the top of any photos I put in my TN, to give the impression the picture’s just been casually stuck in.

Project Life journaling cards can be part of a TN too

I started scrapbooking by doing Project Life, because I looked the pocket scrapbooking style that I saw on the A Beautiful Mess blog. I don’t do that much pocket scrapbooking anymore, but I do still have lots of beautiful PL cards, particularly 3×4 size. And happily I still get to use them! There are lots of ways you can use project life (or similar) cards in you Traveler’s Notebooks:

As journaling prompts: I find the Project Life kit cards really useful to prompt my journaling – I can sometimes feel a bit short of inspiration, or even silly (it must be to do with being British not American!) but the cards really help give me a nudge to say something about my photos.

Punch them out: I love the patterns on the 3×4 cards, but sometimes they just won’t work on a page. Often I punch them out into circles or hearts – and because there are so many different deigns in a PL kit, you get lots of lovely co-ordinating but different embellishments.

Turn them into tags: Have I mentioned I recently bought myself a tag maker? Honestly, I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever bought, I don’t know why I didn’t get one sooner. I’ve use it to make gift tags, but also to create tag embellishments for my notebook. Now I want a bigger one so I can make more mini tag albums, too.

Trim them down: At the moment I really like using tags and cards right at the edge of a page, with them trimmed to give a really clean edge.

Here are a couple of example TN kits I made from my stash:

I’ve been hoarding those blue and pink stickers for ages – they’re actually from a very old Pink Paislee collection, Moonstruck. But don’t they match perfectly with those frames, cards and bits of ephemera from Crate Paper Wild Heart which is brand new? I also included a Maggie Holmes tag and a bit of vellum, the clip is from the Creekside collection by One Canoe Two, the journalling cards, stars and stamps are Studio Calico, the washi is from Paperchase, there’s a couple of bits of Simple Stories’ Beautiful collection in there and I have absolutely NO idea where that purple ampersand originated from *eye roll*.

This little collection also coordinates really well with the Becky Higgins Bohemian Adventure project life value kit that I’ve just bought from Hey Little Magpie so I’ll be mix-and-matching the two I think.

While I love those deep, dark colours, I’m not quite ready to let summer go just yet, so I also created this bright and summery kit:

There’s a fair few bits from different Studio Calico kits in here – that little 3×4 card, the acetate shapes, those colourful words you can just see, the flags and stamps, plus some Simple Stories ephemera which came in another kit club, some Dear Lizzy Saturday stickers, the labels are Maggie Holmes and the washi is Paperchase and – honestly – Tesco. Plus you can see on the left two Paige Evans Pick Me Up 2×2 paper pads – I love these as the size makes them so versatile. One has just patterns and the other has words and I kinda hoard them but I need to stop it.

For those who prefer a more neutral palette, I pulled together some paler tones using Heidi Swapp memory planner cards and stamps, A Beautiful Mess messy box word jumble (I miss those boxes!), some Studio Calico stickers and tags, washi from the Crate Paper Good Vibes collection, some random white and gold string I had that I’m going to thread through the tags but might also find another use for, some giant Studio Calico letters and some bits of ephemera and frames that I think may be Becky Higgins, but is so old I couldn’t tell you for sure.

Finally (I didn’t mean to do so many, but once I start I really get into it) I made a really autumnal kit featuring lots of orange-y, rusty, tawny tones:

Again, I used the opportunity to do some stash busting, so most of the the ephemera, including the vellum, is from a Heidi Swapp collection and I think might have been some of the first ephemera I ever bought. There’s some more Dear Lizzy stickers in there, a few Studio Calico cards and letters, washi from Good Vibes and Hobbycraft, and a couple more of those gorgeous Creekside bulldog clips. I think the kraft ephemera maybe from a Pink Paislee kit, but I’m not absolutely sure, and those round cork stickers are ones from A Beautiful Mess that I’ve been hoarding. Must. Stop. Hoarding.

So there we go, and well done for making it all the way through this much-longer-than-usual blog post. What are your favourite traveler’s notebook supplies? Do you keep things flat or do you like to have a really bulky notebook? Tell me all about it in the comments below.