OK, I know, my sense of priorities isn’t quite the same as everyone else, but having spent the last couple of weeks thinking about getting my road trip journal together, I thought it was high time that I actually got on and did it.  (It’s ok, I can multi task…the washing machine was going full tilt as I worked.  I don’t need that long to prepare for a journey ;-)

Anyway, this was (sort of) packing…  I wanted to edit my art kit a little because over the last couple of trips, I’ve added things to it but not left anything else out.  So, time to throw out pens which don’t work any more, leave a few pencils behind and lighten the load.

My art kit is in a roll up bag which came free with Marie-Claire magazine years ago – I know that because the whole thing has “marieclaire” printed all over it.  It’s got four zip pockets and rolls up nicely – or rather, opens out flat so I can see what’s what.  It’s a well travelled bag and must have been around the world several times over.  As a result, it’s got lots of holes in it and from time to time things fall through them.  But I haven't found an idea replacement so far and until I do, those inktense watercolour crayons had better stay put.

The next pocket has pens and pencils in, and a small glue stick.  I’ve just weeded out all the blue pens, keeping one black ball point, a couple of drawing pencils and a handful of black waterproof pens in there, with a couple of paintbrushes and a waterbrush.  Oh, and a couple of white pens, for writing on coloured paper.

My Indian hole punch sits in the next pocket (read the story of how I bought that here) together with a small pair of scissors, a tiny stapler and a craft knife.  The little gin bottle is filled with Modpodge and there’s a small reel of sellotape and a small tin of paperclips and brads too.  I’ve got a small container of sewing needles there too, which would have come in useful if only I’d brought a reel of cotton :-)

The last pocket has two small bottles of PVA glue, a few sponges and rubber stamps and some glue dots.

I also have a tin which works as my worktable when we’re driving from one place to another.  I’ve got the smallest of cutting mats (4” square), a mini paper trimmer and  a set of alphabet stamps in here.  Oh and a few more rubber stamps I found in Singapore which are ridiculously large…they are going to have to earn their passage or they’re out!

Having got all that together, I needed to assemble the journal itself.  I’ve chosen paper from Heidi Swapp’s No Limits collection which happens to be in a good colour palette for our road trip, too.

Some is very heavily themed though, and I’ll probably end up cutting those bits up to use in a different way.

I also pulled in a few sheets of some paper left over from another project, which works well with a couple of the pages.  Anyway, if we’re in the USA on the 4th July, of course, I’m going to need some red, white and blue, yes?

I punched the pages with my Cinch but for the time being, will just hold them together with a couple of book rings, which will make it easy to add extra pages and rearrange those that are there already.

Great, neat holes, all well aligned and exactly where I wanted them.  Though I have a Bind-it-all machine too, I prefer the Cinch for this reason. (No, I don’t carry it around in a pink handbag…)

I cut the covers from heavy board which I’d saved for the purpose from our last purchase of bedlinen. 

For the record, Jordi, I threw these offcuts away ;-)

I covered the insides with a bright orangey red map print and the outer cover with the dark blue version of the same.

I sanded the edges and inked them with a turquoise chalk ink.

I took it to the daylight to photograph the finished journal, ready to go.  I attached a little paperclip there on the top, ready to hold any vital bits and pieces.  That little clip’s well travelled too – I bought it in Darwin!

And now, I suppose I’d better get on with the “real” packing?