my travel journal

One thing I regreted from when I studied abroad before was not documenting my experience beyond the copious photos, brochures and ticket stubs. This summer I was on the hunt for a travel journal for the semester that would fit my style well. I scowered(is this a real word?) Barnes and Noble and the internet and couldn't find one that was close enough to what I imagined would be best for my trip. So, as I do about most anything I can't find to buy or even afford someone else to hand-make, I decided to create my own version! The week or so before I left home for the semester I sat down to sketch out a few pages that would be the basis for the whole journal and then made a mini version about 1.5" x 2.5" out of scrap paper. I wish I had a picture of this to share too because it is just so cute! A few standard pages include: daily journal entries (one for weekdays typically in Vicenza and another for weekends or trip days where I usually would be seeing and doing more), program info sheets, address pages(for postcard sending) semi-transparent pockets for keepsakes and pictures from my previous time here. The daily journal pages have writing prompts: Date, City, Companions, Sleeping, Eating and Sights.

Once I decided on the format I wanted (I designed it to be the same size as my sketchbook) and had all the types of pages created in Photoshop, I began organizing them all based on what I would be doing week by week. Then I had to search for a cover material and ended up finding a 3-ring binder at the Dollar Store and cut it down. Finally, because there weren't any companies in Jacksonville with the same binding, I had it bound at Renaissance Printing in Gainesville. The total cost came to about $14 which was pretty reasonable and still a little less than any I had seen that had half as much detail.

I had a lot of fun making this journal and I have been pretty good at filling it out every couple days. I'm sure it will be a great thing to treasure and look back through many years from now.

Click on image to enlarge.